I’ve had pretty good results with the CF Pro for about a year with few software related issues. But this past month, jog control will randomly freeze when positioning the head and only a full restart of the program gets it moving again. Additionally, FireControl has been freezing and stopping cuts for no apparent reason.
Is this something others have experienced? I am running what I believe is the latest version. Might I be experiencing some board hardware failure in the Langmuir box? Something else?
Another related question…is there a way to set the model origin at some defined point other than the corners and center? When I have to restart, I totally lose the ability to restart the cut from where the head freezes.
You can start cutting from anywhere on the file by clicking on a spot in the drawing and selecting “run from line”. It will generate a new pierce point at that location and cut from there to the end of the file.
I realize this ability to click on a spot to start the cut, but FireControl will not start there. It will travel from what it thinks is the origin and then start cutting the pattern. The assumed origin is never where the cut stops. I can re-select a new origin, but it only lets you choose the four corners or the center of the pattern. I want to know if I can pick a specific spot where the cut has stopped as the new origin so that there is no travel of the head before the initial cut. Can I only do this by modifying the g-code to solve this issue?
So, you want to try to locate the torch on the design after losing your X/Y zero from shutting down?
There is no way to just position the torch over an existing cut and tell Firecontrol that this is a spot on the design and to start from here.
If you didn’t mark an X/Y zero spot on the metal before starting, you will just have to do some guessing and a lot of jogging the torch over to the existing cuts to figure out where to zero the X/Y.
Set the zero where you think it should be and then jog over to some of the existing cuts to see which way you need to move your zero to get them to line up. It’s not easy to get it right and you will probably never get it perfect.
If the freezing issue happens a lot, you may want to consider marking your zero location before starting the cut. After setting your zero, manually fire the torch to mark the zero location.
I would consider cleaning and re seating all your electronic connects.
does it freeze with all jog directions or just one?
Have you changed any electrical in your shop at all? added a new appliance or new lighting to the garage? Just wondering if maybe a new grounding loop got created somehow.
I think you would need limit switch to relocate. If one had limit switches after a restart you could move to the limits and know where you were by looking at how much it moved on the DRO to reach the limits.
what version of windows are you running? if Windows 10 then i would suggest going back to version 20.6.2 of firecontrol. if windows 11, then you’ll need to manually download and install version 21.1.5 of firecontrol. it’s not an update pushed thru firecontrol yet.
I’ve been running 21.1.4, but have now changed to 21.1.5. This issue is something totally new and there have not been any changes to shop electronics, etc. I will clean and reset all contacts as well and see if the problem repeats. Before I force resets when there is a freeze a screen comes up that does mention "jog freeze’, but I have not captures the whole screen. It does seem to be an error report as I remember.
I’m sensing that nobody else has experienced something like this recently.
I hope this is resolved with the updates. When I searched “jog freeze” I really did not see much, but I do not look on Facebook. Thanks for the feedback.