Hi team - I've been running openbuild control software and I love it. I have it on a cheap-o mini pc, which in general is very slow. I've had a couple of random issues during jobs - one instance, for example, it looked like z was lost (tool gouged the bottom of a pocket for about an inch) but then it recovered and the rest of the pocket was fine at regular depth. Sometimes, the response (seemingly) from the controller to the pc/software lags - so when jogging for instance, the axes/spindle stops, but i have to wait for the control software to 'catch up' before I can jog again. So my question is this: does the control software actually 'send' all of the gcode to the controller at once? Or could this lag be impacting my jobs? here are the specs of the mini pc: Intel Celeron N3350 6GB RAM/64GB eMMC Micro PC, Business Mini Computer 4K HDMI+VGA Dual Display, BT, 2.4/5G WiFi, USB 3.0 Thanks!
We provide a couple performance options under Troubleshooting > Application Diagnostics (Disabling intensive parts of the application to ease CPU usage) Uses the standard Character count buffer explained in Grbl v1.1 Interface Doesn't really sound like CONTROL issue (we just send the gcode) - might have been a CAM issue or - might be tramming related (weird bottom artifacts often are)
Thanks for the insightful responses @Peter Van Der Walt ! I'll look into the buffer, and then check out the troubleshooting section in the app when I get home. As for the artifact issue, that would be my thought too - this is a belt driven xcarve, which is not very rigid (to put it mildly). That said, I do have a really beefy cnc4newbie z axis with a much bigger stepper, so I don't expect to lose that many steps or whatever in Z height. Also, what made me think about the whole lag between command thing in CONTROL is that there's a deeper gouge, then you can almost see it get shallower - and this was in the first 20%-ish of a square pocketing operation - and all of the movements after this little blip were fine. So I would expect that if it's tramming, i'd see similar defects throughout the pocket or something like that. I've linked to a pic but it's kinda hard to see the first gouge (ball nose bit) under the n. imgur.com
