Value Adding Improvments

I recieved my Journeyman this week & after setting up & having some trial runs, the following are a few suggestions for you guys to tweak.

Disclaimer: I’m in Australia, so any replacements/repairs/upgrades are likely to take longer than the US conterparts, so please keep that in mind when reading these setup review comments.
I’ll put these in point format, just for ease

  • Consider providing some sort of update for customers, whether it be weekly, fortnightly or whatever. Being in Australia after placing order, I had no contact or update email until product was being shipped. Now that may be ok for land based delivery between Canada & US, but its a long way down under & i’ll admit to some trepidation. However, in saying that, when i ordered some extras (spindel mount & breakout board), late in the process, these were added to my existing order without qualm & that was with 1 days notice, so kudos to 1F there.

  • Everything was packed well & transport updates through DHL were good, so was comforting when getting freight updates.

  • Please consider the following.-
    Add an extra 500mm to the standard cabling. I ordered the extensions & just as well, because the standard cables for the 2 front axis are only JUST long enough, provided the controller is basically right at the point of connection to the X axis. I was conscious of trying to locate the controller away from the “dust zone” but was severely limited due to cable length.

  • Being in Australia i requested the controller be configured for 240v & yes the controller was, however the small monitor wasn’t & had a US plug on, consequently after searching for what i thought was a compatible power supply & connected up, only to find it wasn’t, so subsequently cooked the touch screen monitor. Again if i was US based this may not be an issue, but being so far away it becomes an issue.

  • The controller has the “OneFinity” toolpath already installed, however after some testing & info from this forum, i was informed that the code will not run by the end user & is for 1F staff when testing…Well if the end user cant run it, then delete it from the controller, or make it known that it has specific code for 1F staff

  • One of the videos shows connection to a computer once connected to a network, which i think is great, however there appears to be a serious glitch as (after frying the supplied monitor) using my laptop i had numerous issues trying to run programs/toolpaths, this was overcome by connecting a monitor direct to the controller so there is some obvious glitch in the wireless connection. This should be addressed in the next firmware update as i much prefer to upload gcode via wireless, than the cumbersome method of usb sticks, it is 2022 after all :grinning:

I’ve had the machine for only 4 days & am really pleased with the purchase, but think if you consider some of the points above, it will only enhance an already impeccable reputation.

If in the coming weeks of discovery & utilsation of this equipment I think of some other minor improvements, then i will add them to this thread

Regards
Moggy

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Welcome to the 1F community! I’d guess your post was aimed at the 1F team and not the forum group but let’s hope they read it too. I know in the past they have responded to issues/nigglles posted here and I can attest to the fact that they do a pretty good job of trying to stay on top of problems.

Even being a USA customer, I found it a bit off-putting how little info was being relayed post order. I chalked that up to mine being an early purchase and knowing 1F was swamped with orders in the first place. By the time the order showed up on the carrier’s tracking list, it arrived the following day. It may also have had something to do with the Covid19 pandemic or international shipping (or both for that matter).

Strange that you couldn’t run the “Onefinity” supplied tool path as I used it for my first ever cut on my Woodworker. Did you get the non-usable info from 1F themselves?

The wireless issue has been discussed in various other posts on the forum but it is generally considered to be an issue of the controller’s internal antenna location which attenuates the signal significantly. It seems doubtful that any firmware upgrade will ever be able to solve that issue.

These are great suggestions that I hope Onefinity takes into account. I, too, am about to order the extensions but have made things work for the time being by mounting the controller to the bottom of my table.
Shipping updates (possibly biweekly) are part of the little things that keep customers happy and keep Onefinity competitive when there are “plug-and-play” bundles for other machines. The only way I knew, about, when my journeyman was coming was by staying glued to the “shipping updates” thread.

I also was able to edit my order while waiting for my machine with no problems. Onefinity does well with that.

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On the installed toolpath for “OneFinity” mine ran seamlessly out of the box, tossed in a piece of MDF, zeroed, and hut run… few min later I had a mirror for what Jen had sent with your machine (minus the cute note).

Glad you are enjoying it and sorry you had some difficulties out the gate. I’m sure the OF staff will take all your suggestions into consideration.

Cheers’
-Alex

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This was a reply on another thread

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Does OneFinity no longer have the updated list by order number and when they hope it will ship by on their website anymore? When i ordered mine once a week they would update it. You just found where your order number fit on the list. Each week and a range of number that were expected to ship each week so you had a pretty good idea how close it was to shipping.

Not speaking for the OP but my case only. You are correct the order number list was helpful but somewhat limited to estimating a time frame of when production actually began.

I found the larger disconnect was when the product was in the hands of the common carrier service. Though again, mine took place near the 1st peak of the Covid crisis which I suspect exacerbated the issue.

No. They discontinued that last fall.

I am in Aus too, and have just ordered the Journeyman as well. Thanks very much for the tip on the screen. I will enquire with 1F whether a 240V option is available (or if they have the specs for a 240V power supply for it) and remove this from the order if not. What screen did you end up using connected to the controller (after frying the first one)?.

I would prefer WiFi loads too. I have a mesh router right on My shed roof so hopefully that will be close enough for a decent connection (but its a metal shed, and metal controller box, so perhaps not). If not, might have to get one of those Wifi extenders that has a physical port on it to connect.

Did you stick with the Mikita router, or go for a spindle? I am looking at the spindle, but not yet clear exactly what bits are needed for it to work Down Under.

Welcome to the world of 1F
I ended up just using a monitor & connected a bluetooth mouse & keyboard.
I had seen a post (somewhere) from a guy who used a smart tv, so when 1f was in motion, he could switch over to watch netflix or similar. I thought this was a great idea, but the smallest smart tv i could find was 40", which is to big for a shed monitor (but am thinking it could happen when i’m finished reorganizing my shed.
I also have a mesh extender, but not in the shed, but it will work as i have tested it a number of times, but again, when reorganization is complete will revisit for a better solution.
I have stuck with the Mak router for now, but do have a Hanyoung (sic) spindle, that once the shed is redone will install. If you’re thinking of getting a spindle i would suggest a complete plug & play option. The chinese one will need some wiring work & whilst i have already done some of it, will have to revisit numerous youtube vids & posts here & on FB to complete the installation. I think PWNCNC (the dust boot guys) have a P&P to suit 1F. Might be a bit more expensive, but in hindsight I sorta wish I’d gone that way

The biggest issue for me to get my head around is most guys using these machines work in inches & my metric brain really struggles to understand some of the settings, so i constantly find myself doing conversions on my phone, which tends to slow processes down a bit.

best of luck with the order & hope you enjoy the machine, I am really enjoying mine.

Moggy

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Thanks for the advice, I’ve had a quick look and the PWNCNC one does seem very ready to go for the 1F.

I got the 2.2kw water cooled chinese one, quite a few seem to have them & just looking at the pwncnc site is $899usd, so with exchange rate, youre looking at nearly $1.3k aud + shipping, think i paid around $700aud delivered through amazon

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I noticed that Timbecon in Melbourne have a 2.2kw, 240V, Water cooled, Spindle VFD kit too, that seems “somewhat” plug and play, but I doubt it has cables and adapters ready to suit the 1F. It’s $A1100 plus shipping. I certainly have some more research to do. There are a couple of other .com.au sites that have similar, but its always “what are they not saying” that worries me.

I am very much in the metric mind set too, though old enough to remember the old silly ways…. I still convert everything to metric though. I hope (assume?) the software can work in metric.