Hello,
I’m trying to use my X-Carve to engrave PCBs. I’m using the same toolchain that was used in the PCB walkthrough on this site: Eagle -> FlatCAM -> Chilipeppr. I have a z-min probe wired up to the X-Carve, and the probe is working correctly. The autoleveller in Chilipeppr runs w/o incident, generating height levels across my PCB blank.
The problem is that after I run the autolevel, and apply it to the PCB gcode, and then engrave the blank, I get consistently poor results: the engraving bit is being lifted off of the surface of the PCB in the same place across many PCBs. I’ve run this test a half-dozen times on different blanks. I’ve tried every 3, 4, 5 and 5 mm.
My blank is well secured to the bottom board. I’ve tried several methods, but the last few times I’ve done this (browser is google chrome on Windows 10):
- Drag the PCB gcode from FlatCAM into Chilipeppr
- Home the machine (using limit switches)
- Move the bit down to 3mm from the PCB surface
- Run the “Test probe” action to bring the bit exactly to the surface
- In the Chilipeppr Axis controls, zero out the Z axis
- Move the bit up 3mm
- Start the autolevel job
- When autoleveler ends, view autolevel results
- (Note that the button to “view autolevel results” brings up a window, but the button to “view autoleveled gcode” does nothing, which I assume is a bug?)
- Load autoleveled gcode into the workspace, scroll through the results to confirm its been applied
- Start the job
I’ve attached images below of two PCBs:
Autoleveling OFF (just zeroed with “run test probe” and started) shows the copper correctly engraved:
Autoleveling ON shows that the copper has not been fully engraved away:
