New to SB and have a Quick Question

[dbf]

Hello all I am new to Sb and I have a ?.

Is ther a way to stop a project say on line 134, then go back to that same line the next day.

I have looked though the help files and cant find anything and was just woundering if anyone could help

Thank in advance

DBF

[Brady Watson]

Daniel,
Yes...Use the SB Editor to find line 134 and put the following lines before it (hit enter a couple times to insert new lines:

Copy exactly:

'Stopped tool @ line 134. Hit any key to resume.
PAUSE

This will pause the tool until you hit a key. When this line is reached, immediately turn off the router to prevent burning. Leave the control box and computer on overnight. When you want to resume, be sure to turn the router on 1st, then hit any key to resume tool movement.

The other way to do it would be to go into the SB Editor and highlight everything after line 134, cut it and paste into a new SBP. Then just run the 2nd file when you want to start the file up again....Still another way to do it: Use the FG command to open up the file and tell it to 'Run To' line 134. Then just quit the file. The next day come in and run the FG command, and start from line 134.

Hope that helps!
-Brady

[dbf]

Thanks a lot Brady that was very helpfull.

I hate working late to finish the job im on, It just kills me to see everyone else leave but me.

Im sure this woun't be my last question and it's good to know that that there are people out there to help.

Once again thanks for the help.

[scott_smith]

Daniel,
If you’re looking for a way to stop the program at lets say 4:59 PM hit the “S” key and turn off the router. In the morning, if power wasn’t interrupted, turn on the router and hit the “R” key to resume the program. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving the Bot on over night hit the “Q” after the “S” and shut it down for the night. You can re-start the next morning with the FG command but you’ll need to know what line the program stopped at. It can get a little tricky using the FG method because you need to start the program on a line that will move your cutter back into the material at a safe place.
Scott

[dbf]

Thanks alot guys this is all good advice and I have used all the tecniques that you guys gave and they have worked great.

Once again thanks for all the help

Peace and Long Life

[gerald_d]

We use Scott's method. Mostly we use the E-stop button instead of the S key simply because we have a few buttons around the shop and office. If we don't want burning, we wait for a jog while hitting the E-stop or S key.

[mikejohn]

If you hit the E-stop during a jog, will the ShopBot re-start by re-running that line? That is, if the ShopBot starts running line .say. 134 and you hit E-stop. when you restart the next line it runs is 134?
Taking Scotts FG command, you start again on the same line you stopped?
Bit pedantic, but just getting it very clear in my mind.
.............Mike

[gerald_d]

It heads for the (x,y,z) point that it was heading for before the button was pushed, just a continuation of the interrupted motion. I suppose that you could say it is a continuation (not a re-run) of the same line number, but we wouldn't know this since we have never bothered with line numbers.

[knedert]

Hey Guys,

I've been SO busy with my vector wrangling that.....

just this afternoon, my husband John asked me how to change the SB code to make certain routines easier, like tool changing.

~ I told him that was going to be February's challenge.

My eyes have been glazing over during the coding parts of you guys' posts...

my poor brain can only make so many wrinkles per week!

~ He then gently reminded me that February was next week.

Aagh!!!.... where did the month go?!?

I'll be back with questions soon!

Thanks in advance,
Rose

[Brady Watson]

Rose,
If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, you won't need to add code. For instance, if you have one toolpath using a 1/4" bit & a second using a 1/2" bit, they must be saved individually (unless you have an automatic toolchanger). Name each file accordingly, such as Profile14 and Profile12 (14 = 1/4 etc)

Since each file is seperately, there is no need for intermediate code...does this makes sense to you?

-Brady

[knedert]

Hi Brady,

What John was asking was about inserting coding at the end of a toolpath to raise the Z-axis, then jog the machine over to the easy access end of the table, then stop. <we would then turn off power to the spindle and change the bit>
The next code insert into would be to jog the machine to home ( or better: to the starting point of the next file !) and continue running that partfile.

That's what we have discussed so far.... (I just know that as soon as Feb. rolls around, and I start searching the forum, I'll find something to this effect that I can then modify for our table's measurements.)

~~ The little bit that I have looked at the coding, seems simple enough. I used to do page layout using a European program called JustText. It was entirely coding - no WYSIWYG, until you printed out the page. Boy was I ever happy when the Boss upgraded to Adobe Pagemaker! Saved a lot of trees to carve up later! ~~

Well, I can't say that I am looking forward to it almost being February, but I do look forward interacting with this helpful forum and fellow Botters!

warmest wishes,
Rose

[drodda]

Rose,

I add code at the end of every file and even modify the begining of every file that I run on the bot. I don't like leaving in the movement to home or 0,0 at the start of every file so I delete it. 9 times out of 10 I have a very large and ugly clamp on that corner and always fear the shopbot will come in contact with it. I also remove that 0,0 line at the end and add code to raise the bot to 5 inches and move it to my usual spot to change the bits. This has become habit but it also forces me to look at the start of every file and the end of every file. I have caught many mistakes this way and have saved many pieces from becoming scrap. These lines are very easy to figure out once you have used a cutting file on the bot.

[gerald_d]

Hi Rose

Some of the program snippets that you have seen on the Forum are rather fancy - sometimes too fancy!


For example, you asked "inserting coding at the end of a toolpath to raise the Z-axis, then jog the machine over to the easy access end of the table, then stop."....

Well, in this case I could open the .sbp file with Wordpad, look for the "stop" command at the end, and add
J3,6,20,3
just before it, so that the collet jogs to 6"x, 20"y and 3" above the table, or something like that.

Once you get the feel of that you can move onto bigger things, but it certainly isn't as daunting as the our resident rocket scientists may lead you to believe.

(before anyone feels offended, I don't see any of the usual suspects in this thread)

[bill.young]

Rose,

If you only have a few files that you want to add the ending moves to then Gerald's method is the easiest by far...just open up the file and type in the commands. It's also the easiest way to do it if each file needs to do something different...just type in the commands that each file needs.

If you have a lot of different files and want to add the same moves to every file, though, you might think about putting the closing moves in their own footer file. Then you would add the command... "FP, myfooter.sbp"...to call that file at the end of your part file instead of typing in the commands themselves. Your "myfooter.sbp" file might contain lines like...

JZ, 1.0
J2, 0,24,
' Turn off the router to change bits
PAUSE
END

...or whatever you wanted to add.

The advantage to doing it this way comes when you've got a bunch of part files and decide that you really want to move to 24,0 at the end instead of 0,24 or something like that. If the commands are in their own file then you'll only have to change that "J2" line once in your footer file, instead of having to edit every part file manually.

Just another (hopefully not too "daunting") way of doing it,
Bill

[dmdraper]

Rose,

If you are talking about manually changing bits, don't forget you will also have to include code to zero the new bit before starting the next cut (unless your spindle/toolholders are indexed).

Dave

[beacon14]

I have a Custom Cut shortcut that moves the router to my favored position for bit changes, pauses while I change the bit, then invokes keyboard control mode so I can manually position the bit to where I want to zero the Z axis. When I escape out of keyboard mode the shortcut continues by calling the C2 custom cut which zeroes the z axis.

So when I want to change bits during a file, I just insert the command for my bit changing shortcut (C4) and it's all taken care of.

[knedert]

Thanks David & David! You both reminded me what it was that woke me up in the middle of the night after my last post. I had completely forgotten to mention about sending the Bot over to the Z-Zero area of my work-piece after changing the bit. Thanks to Doc Palumbo for the hint about leaving a designated area for just that purpose.
Only one more day until I start implementing everyone's suggestions.
Watch out world!

[knedert]

Well, well... here it is Sept already.... I have learned alot these past months!

I've had a reoccurring problem and this thread seemed the closest place to ask...

In the process of running a file today, I needed to stop the file, so I used the stop button on the control panel. The spindle remained running (good) and a window popped up with the option to Quit, Resume, etc.
I clicked the resume button. A window opened reminding me to make sure the spindle was running (which it was - so I clicked the okay button). The file resumed it's moves and went merrily on it's way.

Then I needed to stop the file once again. (big mistake!) the above actions repeated themselves with one difference:

After I clicked the button about the spindle being on, instead of the file continuing, I got a window that said: "Problem connecting with Port 4" and the radio button for continue in Preview was clicked on with NO way to unclick it. Not only that the Okay button would not work, the normal Stop on the screen would not work.

Pushing the Big Red Panic button was the only way to (slow) stop the spindle. It was pretty much crash and burn after that. I even had to press the Blue reset button on the control box.

Luckily I was almost done with the file, and did not lose anything important - this time... But this is not the first time this scenerio has happened, and it makes me hesitant about stopping the file mid-stream. I've learned to write down the line number, the x,y, and z locations... but really, I should be able to stop the file anytime for any reason, and be able to resume without any problems.... shouldn't I?
BTW, currently running ver. 3.4.26 Alpha

Anybody else have this problem? Thanks in advance!
Rose

[dhunt]

I've noticed there are several silly annoying little glitches in SB 3.4.xx,
you're not alone.

It's not perfect, but I'm sure they're working on it.