Carving backwards

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wwoodworks
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:06 pm
Location: Spokane, Washington USA
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Carving backwards

Post by wwoodworks »

I switched the control box x & y connectors and went to the control panel and took the minus sign out of the "Y step size in mm" statement.
Now the x and y have been mechanically switched, but its carving artwork upside down and text backwards.
Anybody got any ideas?

wwoodworks
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:06 pm
Location: Spokane, Washington USA
Contact:

Re: Carving backwards

Post by wwoodworks »

After doing some searching on the forum I am seeing that possibly unbolting and reversing the gantry may be the answer.
Anybody know if this is true?

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

Re: Carving backwards

Post by rsetina »

I would think the artwork and text would still be upside down and backwards. Just turning the gantry around would mearly turn the artwork and text around with it. Instead of being carved from say left to right it would be right to left but still in the same orientation.
Rick

jeb2cav
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Re: Carving backwards

Post by jeb2cav »

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you 'took the minus sign out'.

When you reversed the cables, you changed the orientation of the movement. In the default configuration, facing the end of the table that has the motor for the axis that is 'under' the table, you are facing the X axis. Positive travel in both X and Y axis originates in the lower left corner if you will.

When you changed the cables, positive travel in both X and Y originates in the lower right corner (again facing the table from the table motor side). Facing the end of the table after switching cables results in you facing the Y axis, but with positive travel from right to left. To account for this you'll have to reverse the gantry. Otherwise you'll end up with this mirrored image outcome in the carving. Given the design of the post processors, and the manufacture of the machine, for X and Y movement, you can think of 'positive travel' as away from the motor.

Several folks have done this for a variety of reasons. Set up in the shop results in the 'side' (rail side of the table) being more accessible and want to think of that as the X axis when placing material on the table - you have an extended bed shark and you want to consider the longer of the 2 sides of the workspace as the X axis as it is easier to think of it that way when designing in VCarve/Aspire.

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

Re: Carving backwards

Post by tonydude »

What I did on mine was I switched the cables and in the control panel software I changed the - x to a plus and left the minus in the y. It works great, I changed to the extended bed so my cutting area is now 25" x 52"

Tony
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.

lsvien
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:37 pm

Re: Carving backwards

Post by lsvien »

I have changed the X and Y cables and have reversed the gantry by unbolting it and rotating 180 degrees. Everything works fine and now the X axis is the long side of the bed and the Y is the short. But I loose some space on the bed because the gantry doesn't extend the whole way now. I am not understanding about where you would make the the changes to the controller software and change the X value to minus. Can you be more explicit?

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

Re: Carving backwards

Post by tonydude »

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.

lsvien
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:37 pm

Re: Carving backwards

Post by lsvien »

Thanks for the link. Are these changes stored in some type of config file or am I editing the program code? What happens during an update the to Control Panel software? Is it necessary to go in and re-do the change?

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

Re: Carving backwards

Post by tonydude »

You're not editing no code and nothing happens with an update, don't worry about it. I had no problems with mine, works great.

Tony
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.

lsvien
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:37 pm

Re: Carving backwards

Post by lsvien »

I upgraded from CNC shark Control panel 1.5.0.23H to CNC Shark Control Panel 1.6. I had reversed my X and Y to make the bed longer. My fix of editing the config file was lost. Everything was back to original. I had reversed my x and y to make everything normal to how I was seeing it. To open the config file under 1.6 is is now CNTL + G, not CNTL + E. the code 787 still opens up the configuration file. I tried to update the X Y values to make it true to my bed but it kept giving me an error message when I tried to save. That values cannot be zero. If you have changed your X and Y do not upgrade to 1.6. It took me at least 4 hours of messing around with restores USB drivers updates, and XP dates to get back to where I was before.

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