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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    0

    How to Calibrate the JCUT machines?

    Does anyone know how to Calibrate the JCUT Machines? We are having real problems and NCSTUDIO manual isnt helpful.

    When we press the Calibrate button, the spindle just goes down the Z-Axis indefinitely, it hits the end of the table and just tries to keep pushing and pushing, so i end up stopping the machine before it causes any damage.

    The other thing is that on the JCUT 1325B on the aluminum is approx a 1/4" of black rubber like substance. I am curious, is this considered to be a spoil board, or should i be placing an additional 1/4" MDF on top of this?

    How do you take into account the black rubber or additional MDF in doing a calibration?

    Also in NCSTUDIO there is something called a Mobile Calibrator, what is this?

    I thought i figured out the solution when you go to the Refrence positiion setting in NCSTUDIO, but when you reset Z axis, it goes all the way up, and then the machine coordinate says something like 50 or -50mm.

    Anyway very confused and just trying to figure out a good method for calibration when i change my bits.

    Any help would be really really appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    61

    Talking

    I just calabrated a Jcut6090A yesterday. There is a video on youtube by sale CNC. Click your manual tab and then the parameter tab. On the left side of the screen choose "manufactory" This will present a box to enter the password which is ncstudio and a list of things to set will appear. Scroll down near the bottom of the list to motor parameters. It will probably be showing .0050 per full step in milimeters. I have the NEMA34 motors so I changed the valuse on all three axis to .00625 and clicked apply. Some machines use a NEMA23 motor with a different ballscrew and use .003125 for the three axis. To check the result look to the right of the manual jog buttons for for a list of incremental move distances. Select 10mm at the bottom of the list. Put a block up against the back of the gantry upright hanging off the edge of the table. Click the 10mm travel 10 times and then measure the gap between the upright and the block. It should be 100mm or if useing inches 3.938"
    If the measurement is off change the motor parameter again. An increase in the number makes a smaller travel and a decrease in the number produces a larger travel.
    wizzardworks

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    61
    cityguru, I think I answered a different question, sorry. If you are setting the top of stock you need to find the thickness of guage block you are useing and enter it in the settings of NCstudio. This is the offset distance from the top of the stock. When you lower the spindle to the guage block stop just as it gets to it then click top of stock. Ideally you will have an unmachined spot somewhere where the material is fastened down or just a small piece of stock to set the guage block on. Since the Gcode is refferenced off the defined stock all depths are relative to this point.
    wizzardworks

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    2134
    Quote Originally Posted by cityguru View Post
    Does anyone know how to Calibrate the JCUT Machines? We are having real problems and NCSTUDIO manual isnt helpful.
    Not helpful is an understatement most definately!

    I too tried the calibrate button, only to see the z axis try to bore down through to China, limit switch or not by the look! I had the further joy of not being able to stop it either so had to end up powering the pc and machine off. The function keys F8-F12 are supposed to pause, stop, etc, but seemed to be ignored during a calibration as they had no effect whatsoever.

    Did you ever get a resolution to your question as i'm also now curious!

    cheers,
    Ian

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    61
    Quote Originally Posted by cityguru View Post
    Does anyone know how to Calibrate the JCUT Machines? We are having real problems and NCSTUDIO manual isnt helpful.

    When we press the Calibrate button, the spindle just goes down the Z-Axis indefinitely, it hits the end of the table and just tries to keep pushing and pushing, so i end up stopping the machine before it causes any damage.

    The other thing is that on the JCUT 1325B on the aluminum is approx a 1/4" of black rubber like substance. I am curious, is this considered to be a spoil board, or should i be placing an additional 1/4" MDF on top of this?

    How do you take into account the black rubber or additional MDF in doing a calibration?

    Also in NCSTUDIO there is something called a Mobile Calibrator, what is this?

    I thought i figured out the solution when you go to the Refrence positiion setting in NCSTUDIO, but when you reset Z axis, it goes all the way up, and then the machine coordinate says something like 50 or -50mm.

    Anyway very confused and just trying to figure out a good method for calibration when i change my bits.

    Any help would be really really appreciated.
    cityguru, Initially you have to "calirate" the travel distance per step of the motors which is outlined in my post above. As for changing bits I use the set workpiece origon to set the position for bit changes and save the result. Both of these are in the operate menu. I have the clear of stock set to 10MM and the tool lifts and goes to the next position to start cutting when I select operateion/advanced start.
    To use a calibration block I think you first select an axis usually the Z so that you are editing the Z position of the origon. If you have machined away your origion as would happen if you are useing the center of stock as the workpiece origon you would need to calibrate the tool Z position on an unmachined waste area. When you get close to the setpoint with the jog button change to an incremental jog such as .05MM to get to the final distance, then choose the set Z origon. If you have made (or bought) an electrical calibration block there is an entry in the preferences to offset for it's thickness.
    wizzardworks
    I downloaded the NC studio manual from salecnc.com which is in english and then clicked around on all the menu items and made notes. If things are grayed out click operation/stop to get into manual mode

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    331

    J-Cut Calibration device





    Sorry I can't help much with NC studios ( the pirated version they give you ). I went right to a legit licensed version of Mach3.

    Mach 3 is a lot better setup to use. And had MAJOR support that can help you out in a hurry usually.

    Todd

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    61
    Quote Originally Posted by g29cc View Post




    Sorry I can't help much with NC studios ( the pirated version they give you ). I went right to a legit licensed version of Mach3.

    Mach 3 is a lot better setup to use. And had MAJOR support that can help you out in a hurry usually.

    Todd
    Todd, I have a Jcut 6090A with 460 hours on the control system. My wentai adapter card for NC-studio failed it's self test last time I started it up so I am broke down. I was wondering if your card might be for sale and how much it would cost. I can be contacted at my yahoo e-mail [email protected] My card has an identification/part number of emc-3D-v91 which is a 3 axis card with the 15 pin D-sub cable connection. The 6090A was bought in 2007 but took three years before I got it running, so the revision number would probably be higher. If anyone else has one of these cards and gave up on trying to get NC-studio working I would be interested in also having a spare card.
    wizzardworks

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    2134
    Quote Originally Posted by wizzardworks View Post
    Todd, I have a Jcut 6090A with 460 hours on the control system. My wentai adapter card for NC-studio failed it's self test last time I started it up so I am broke down. I was wondering if your card might be for sale and how much it would cost. I can be contacted at my yahoo e-mail [email protected] My card has an identification/part number of emc-3D-v91 which is a 3 axis card with the 15 pin D-sub cable connection. The 6090A was bought in 2007 but took three years before I got it running, so the revision number would probably be higher. If anyone else has one of these cards and gave up on trying to get NC-studio working I would be interested in also having a spare card.
    wizzardworks
    Hi,
    I actually ordered an extra card and cable for $100 when I got the machine, as the idea of relying on a PCI card was scary to me! Have you tried contacting JCut to see if they will do a decent deal for you?

    cheers,
    Ian

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    331
    Quote Originally Posted by wizzardworks View Post
    Todd, I have a Jcut 6090A with 460 hours on the control system. My wentai adapter card for NC-studio failed it's self test last time I started it up so I am broke down. I was wondering if your card might be for sale and how much it would cost. I can be contacted at my yahoo e-mail [email protected] My card has an identification/part number of emc-3D-v91 which is a 3 axis card with the 15 pin D-sub cable connection. The 6090A was bought in 2007 but took three years before I got it running, so the revision number would probably be higher. If anyone else has one of these cards and gave up on trying to get NC-studio working I would be interested in also having a spare card.
    wizzardworks
    I ll probably be replacing mine with something from pc4cnc not to long down the road. But the machine is sitting right now. As soon as I get a new card setup for it, I will let you know. I can't promise anything soon though.

    Todd

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    61
    Quote Originally Posted by g29cc View Post
    I ll probably be replacing mine with something from pc4cnc not to long down the road. But the machine is sitting right now. As soon as I get a new card setup for it, I will let you know. I can't promise anything soon though.

    Todd
    Todd, While I was struggling to get my machine to operate I bought Mach3 which runs off a parallel port. I bought a PCI expansion card with a parallel port. The paralel port is a 25 pin and the J-cut cable is a 15 pin. AS best as I could determine it is possible to adapt the 15 pin cable to the 25 pin plug. A "breakout board" with a 25 pin D-sub male connector and a terminal strip on the other edge looks to be the easiest way to do it. I didn't like the idea of the board hanging off the back of the computer so I bought a stepper motor driver board with opto isolaters and 10 amp mosfets, and also a power supply. This set of parts makes an entire control system from off the shelf parts any one of which is available from multiple vendors on e-bay. About the time I got these parts there was some progress on the supplied parts so I decided to use the new parts to convert my 7-1/2 HP cincinatti milling machine to CNC.
    My problem with the machine originally was how to get it wired up. The stepper motors and limit switsh cables were clearly labeled, however the 3 phase inverter , a plug terminal strip and the water circulating pump were not. Everything was furthur complicated by me ordering a 110 volt machine when it is manufactured as a 220 volt machine. A very nice 110 to 220 volt transformer was provided at no charge by J-cut that is connected with plugs like the power plug on a computer. None of the plugs fit a recepticle available in the states. Eventually I ran 220 volt power to the machine, put standard 220 volt plugs on all the cords except the one labeled 110 volt on the driver cabinet. Lacking confidence in the power connections I was concerned about turning it on. Then there was trouble getting the software operating on my computer which I eventually figured out and posted here. Setting up the NC-studio was by watching youtube videos by sale cnc who also had a downloadable manual in english for operating the NC-studio software. Once runing the machine runs very well and is extremely accurate. We are having a heat wave with temperatires from 94 to 102 degrees for the last three weeks so at 460 hours the NC-studio PCI card failed the self test at startup.
    Today as Ian suggested I will e-mail my salesperson at J-cut and see if I can get a card thru them.
    wizzardworks

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Posts
    85
    Wizzardworks,

    Email me at [email protected]. I might be able to help you with the card. I never used mine.
    From Wikipedia - "..butter knife..any table knife designed with a dull edge and rounded point". I've never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    0
    Hi ,
    Did you ever find a solutiuon. I am wondering about the same thing....i.e. how to calibrate for Z after a bit change.

    Cheers
    Mark

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    52
    I just received a used 1200x1200 machine controlled via ncstudio. It doesn't have a touch probe but pin 1 on the NCstudio cable is where one gets connected on mine. If you don't have a "mobile calibrator" or a touch plate/probe then you CAN'T calibrate the z axis as it reads this input to tell if the tool has touched the probe.

    On my mach 3 machines I have a small piece of 1.6mm thick printed circuit board connected to the touch probe input on the breakout boards and it works perfectly every time.

    If I open the IO state tab in NC studio I see a J1-1 indicator. Check your breakout board inside the machine and see if pin 1 is connected to anything. My BOB has pin 1 as the first connector but I've seen pics of other boards where the screw terminals weren't in 1-15 order so double check with a multimeter.

    Theoretically if you ground the pin 1 input you should see the state of the IO indicator change on the ncstudio IO state tab.

    So, it should be as simple as running a long wire from pin 1 soldered to your "touch probe" pcb. BUT make sure everythign is grounded first and that you can see J1 change if you touch the probe to the tip of the tool. Then measure the thickness of the pcb accurately and enter that as the "touch probe" thickness.

    BUT... my machine has 110 volts between the chassis and the PC ground so I'll need to fix that first. Ideally the touch probe would be optoisolated from the PC (on the mach3 boards this is usually done for you).

    Once I get the machine positioned where I can access the BOB (at the moment it's wedged against a wall while I clear some space for the machine) I'll do some more testing.
    --
    Jon

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    52
    I managed to hook up a piece of blank PCB as a touchprobe for zeroing the z axis to my NC-studio controlled router.

    After making sure that the machine was earthed correctly. The power socket earth wasn't connected at all so I grounded the chassis and the power supply and verified that there was no voltage between the PC earth and the chassis of the machine.

    Then I opened up the IO state tab in NC-studio:



    and verified that the calibration input changed state if a wire on pin 1 of the 15 pin cable was grounded - it did:



    Then I soldered a 1" square of blank PCB to a long wire connected to the NC studio breakout board in the machine and verified that the "calibration" input changed state if I touched the copper surface of the PCB to the tool tip - it did.

    In the "manufactory" menu there's a setting for mobile calibrator thickness - I set this to 1.6mm - the thickness of the PCB. The default password for access to the manufactory menu is "ncstudio" BTW.

    Then I placed the PCB under the tool and pressed "mobile calibration". NC-studio lowers the z axis slowly until it contacts the PCB then raises 5mm. The Z reading is now 6.6mm which is the 5mm it raised + the 1.6mm thickness of the PCB.

    here's a really boring video of the tool touching the PCB:

    nc_studio_z_axis.mov - YouTube

    I'd feel happier if the input was optoisolated - but this seems to work.

    If you try this and there's no continuity between the tool tip and ground - then this won't work. I've seen one person rig 2 wires - one to a PCB and the other to an alligator clip which he clipped to the tool when calibrating.

    My plan is to swap the machine over to mach3 but this makes the machine usable until I get around to it.
    --
    Jon

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    5
    Quote Originally Posted by wizzardworks View Post
    I just calabrated a Jcut6090A yesterday. There is a video on youtube by sale CNC. Click your manual tab and then the parameter tab. On the left side of the screen choose "manufactory" This will present a box to enter the password which is ncstudio and a list of things to set will appear. Scroll down near the bottom of the list to motor parameters. It will probably be showing .0050 per full step in milimeters. I have the NEMA34 motors so I changed the valuse on all three axis to .00625 and clicked apply. Some machines use a NEMA23 motor with a different ballscrew and use .003125 for the three axis. To check the result look to the right of the manual jog buttons for for a list of incremental move distances. Select 10mm at the bottom of the list. Put a block up against the back of the gantry upright hanging off the edge of the table. Click the 10mm travel 10 times and then measure the gap between the upright and the block. It should be 100mm or if useing inches 3.938"
    If the measurement is off change the motor parameter again. An increase in the number makes a smaller travel and a decrease in the number produces a larger travel.
    wizzardworks
    Hmm, its a oooold post, but i give it a try.
    Hi, can it, is it possible that a manufacturer has used different type of motors in a machine?
    I wondering because i just received a chinese cnc router along with the NCStudio, and when i try to just engrave a square of 100mm x 100mm
    the actual square become 100mm x 200mm (approx).
    My machine settings in NCStudio is: X=0.003125 Y=0.003125 Z=0.003125
    Should i try to set the Y to 0.00625 and leave the other as is ?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    2134
    Quote Originally Posted by FormX Design View Post
    Hmm, its a oooold post, but i give it a try.
    Hi, can it, is it possible that a manufacturer has used different type of motors in a machine?
    I wondering because i just received a chinese cnc router along with the NCStudio, and when i try to just engrave a square of 100mm x 100mm
    the actual square become 100mm x 200mm (approx).
    My machine settings in NCStudio is: X=0.003125 Y=0.003125 Z=0.003125
    Should i try to set the Y to 0.00625 and leave the other as is ?
    Try jogging the axis first and measure how much it moved, if it's moved correctly the amount you specified on each axis, the CAD/CAM software has a setting issue. If it's out the same as when you engraved a square, then yes, halve the relevant axis setting.

    cheers, Ian
    It's rumoured that everytime someone buys a TB6560 based board, an engineer cries!

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    5
    Hi again
    I just want to inform that i changed my machine setting to X=0.003125 Y=0.00625 Z=0.003125
    and it works great, it does perfect square and circles.
    Just for info if someone else has the same problem in the future.
    (Thanks Ian)

  18. #18

    Re: How to Calibrate the JCUT machines?

    Quote Originally Posted by wizzardworks View Post
    I just calabrated a Jcut6090A yesterday. There is a video on youtube by sale CNC. Click your manual tab and then the parameter tab. On the left side of the screen choose "manufactory" This will present a box to enter the password which is ncstudio and a list of things to set will appear. Scroll down near the bottom of the list to motor parameters. It will probably be showing .0050 per full step in milimeters. I have the NEMA34 motors so I changed the valuse on all three axis to .00625 and clicked apply. Some machines use a NEMA23 motor with a different ballscrew and use .003125 for the three axis. To check the result look to the right of the manual jog buttons for for a list of incremental move distances. Select 10mm at the bottom of the list. Put a block up against the back of the gantry upright hanging off the edge of the table. Click the 10mm travel 10 times and then measure the gap between the upright and the block. It should be 100mm or if useing inches 3.938"
    If the measurement is off change the motor parameter again. An increase in the number makes a smaller travel and a decrease in the number produces a larger travel.
    wizzardworks

    How to calibrate for Z motor

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