CNC probe is acting weird

I had to restart Linux CNC after each tool change tonight. Probing Z worked once, the second time it would probe REALLY slowly and the error out after a second or two. Restarting Linux CNC and rehoming reset the process, giving me one normal probe before going weird again. So there’s the workaround if you see this issue in the last day of operation.

Bypass the probe use the paper method

1 Like

Yah probes are lame !

1 Like

There were a whole bunch of probe oddities cropping up in the last month or so. The most interesting was that the probe operation would stop with a “file not found” error if it couldn’t access the already loaded g-code file because the USB drive had been removed.

That probably makes sense. Probing is itself its own G-code file, so it may need to reload the other one. Plus, you always needed to keep the flash drive in when using the G-code since it does not necessarily load the whole file

Wow, it is really not acceptable for the program to reload a g-code file without being told to. What if I had made changes to it, but wanted to run the already loaded version first? I certainly would have assumed it was fully loaded into memory when opened. (The g-code file is text; it can’t possibly be large enough to cause a memory issue on a modern computer.) And I pull the flash drive all the time when the tool is cutting, so that I can go back to the Vcarve machine to make adjustments (or work on the next file) during the wait time. I’ve never encountered a problem from that, nor should I.

And the error message interrupts the z-probe script with the bit in contact with the probe. Even if it’s doing a horribly ill-advised file operation, why is it doing it in the middle of motion sequence?

(I’d been meaning to report that issue, especially once I verified how repeatable it was, but then I learned about the pending transition and decided not to worry about it. But wow, what you say about LinuxCNC’s behavior is horrifying.)

1 Like

Is this the same method as a 3D printer? You want a .1mm feeler gauge to have a little resistance? Do you then lower 0.1mm and set the zero?

The second macro button sets z to 0.004”, roughly the thickness of a piece of standard paper. The paper is your feeler gauge, I guess.

What Ethan said except I don’t use a macro. I just lower it like you mentioned for a 3d printer till you get resistance. When I used the cnc router a lot at Asmbly. I almost always used the paper method.