New to SCP21

Discussion/questions about software used with your CNC Shark and programming issues

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edowney
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:04 pm

New to SCP21

Post by edowney »

Hi Folks,

I just acquired a Shark this afternoon and set it up in my shop. Prior to this I owned one of those Chinese 6040 systems which ended up being a dud after two and a half months of use. I may be able to fix it but I couldn't take that kind of down time for the business and I managed to find a used shark at a great price so I decided to move over to the shark. The problem I have is that I am familiar with Mach3 and am trying to translate what I've learned to SCP21. It seems a lot simpler than Mach3 from what I've seen of it playing with it tonight.

Question #1: As soon as I was able to jog the router around I wanted to make sure I could load a gcode file from vCarve. So I loaded up an existing one that I had cut with the old router. The 2d display didn't show the graphical representation though. All I got was a bunch of red lines emanating out from the lower left corner to where parts of my image should have displayed.

Question #2: On my old router with Mach3 I would position the router where I told vCarve 0,0,0 was and then set that as the home reference point so I could return to it between cuts or if I have to stop mid stream and want to start again. What's the equivalent of that here?

Thanx,

Eric

tonydude
Posts: 1581
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:23 am
Location: Buffalo,NY

Re: New to SCP21

Post by tonydude »

First of all make sure you use the right post processor for your tap files. Have you looked at the tutorials http://support.vectric.com/tutorials/V8 ... Index.html attachments for your info.

Tony
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Buffalo,NY

"What will matter is not what you bought but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave”

Aspire 11.015, photo vcarve, cnc mako shark extended bed with the new upgraded HD 5 gantry with Led pendent.

edowney
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:04 pm

Re: New to SCP21

Post by edowney »

Ah ok got it on the post processor.

I usually set up like u suggested for declaring the start position but how do u tell scp physically where that is? In Mach3 you jog to the position and click on the set home reference button. I don't see anything like that in scp.

rsetina
Posts: 213
Joined: Sat May 04, 2013 5:05 pm

Re: New to SCP21

Post by rsetina »

There should be a Move to 0,0,0 icon on the screen. Is it not there? You might be on the Jog Tab. When I first upgraded to the Contol Panel 2.X I didn't notice there were tabs. One for loading the g-code and another for jogging the router.

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Rick

KevinO
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:25 pm
Location: Long Island, New York

Re: New to SCP21

Post by KevinO »

Eric,

If I understand your question correctly, you want to manually jog the router to what you defined as 0,0,0 in VCarve and then tell the Control Panel software that the present position of the router is the 0,0,0 point. The way you do that is by clicking the "Set" button on the Control Panel after you jog the router. That resets the values of the x, y and z coordinates all to 0,0,0 without actually moving the router (you can also press "z0", "y0" or "z0" to set each coordinate separately). The "Set" button sounds like the "set home reference" button in Mach3 you described.
Don't forget though that you have to set the z coordinate to 0 again after you have jogged the z position down slowly so the bit is just touching the surface of the work piece and then clicking on "Z0". I use the NWA touch plate to set z=0 automatically.
I hope that answered the question you were asking.

Kevin

KevinO
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:25 pm
Location: Long Island, New York

Re: New to SCP21

Post by KevinO »

Sorry Eric, I just reread my post. What I meant to say is that you click on the "XYZ0" button to reset the coordinates to 0,0,0. The "Set" button is if you want to manually enter a numerical value for X, Y or Z.

Kevin

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