Restarting in Mid File- on a PR

[waynec]

I ran into a problem today and I'm hoping an old timer PR user, someone with the older DOS software, can help me.

My machine hiccupped for some reason, and lost both Z height and X and Y location. It moved to its next cutting position without first raising. In plowing thru 3/4" pine, it lost some steps. I caught it before it broke anything and stopped it. But its lost it reference point.

My question is the obvious one. How do I get it back on track to finish the cutting the file from the right point? Can I go back to 0,0,0, the home position that the file started from, and then step to the line number and start cutting again?

This happens every once in a while, not a big problem. It may have been a glitch in the power, it may have been a problem with the Z axis dropping. It happens often enough that I do need to be fluent in recovering.

Thanks in advance.

Wayne from White Salmon


How do I start

[den73160]

Wayne,

I have had to do this on a couple of occassions. First time I did it was a real mess.

What I do is try to find a location that I know is cut correctly and send the BOT to that location. By means of the goto line number (FG) that is kind of tricky. Trying to find the right line number but I get the BOT somewhere in the area. Then I make note of the X, Y, and Z positions as shown. Then I Exit the file and manually move the BOT to the location that I think is where it should be and ZERO X & Y, then I move the BOT minus the X & Y positions shown. This gets me in close to the starting location, with only minor adjustments required to start again. Before doing the FC I will run the BOT through an air cut, watching to see if it is close enough to run for real.

Of course, it would be easlier if I have proximity switches to just send it home to 0,0,0.

[richards]

Before I installed the Shopbot proximity switches on my Alpha, I used to insert a routine to drill a hole in the waste area of every sheet. Then, in the event that I lost position, I would manually send the cutter to the reference hole and use the VA command to set the correct X and Y axis values for the hole. Finally, I would copy the cut file to a junk.sbp file, edit out the lines that had already been cut, and finish the rest of the cuts in the file.