How to program ring light start/stop?

Hello fellow CNC’ers,

I’ve finally got my cnc up and running properly. I’ve installed the ring light and checked that it works properly. I can manually turn it on/off in the open builds control software. I’m normally controlling my CNC via the Blackbox and Interface. I have scoured the interweb to the best of my ability to try to find out how to program the black box to automatically turn on/off the ring light when a project starts/stops. So far it seems I need to put the code (M8 and M9) in to the header and footer? Or am I completely off? If anyone can point me in the right direction, it’d be much appreciated.

Oh, and one more thing on another topic. It happens quite often when I’m done with one tool path and then go to start the next, that the usb drive or interface acts up. The interface says it can’t read it, or something to that effect. I’ve used the wizard multiple times to prepare the usb drive for use with the interface and I’ve tried several different usb drives. All formatted and setup via the wizard in OB’s control software. I doubt it’s the usb drives. I’ve checked that I’ve updated the firmware in the interface. Any ideas?

thanks in advance,


René

 

Thanks for your reply.

Re the Interface I’ll open a new ticket.

Re the ring light activation, I guess I didn’t explain it clearly enough. How do I actually program the M8/M9 commands into header/footer, so the black box knows to automatically turn on/off the ring light (cooler power) with every tool path? I can’t find where to do that. I’m guessing I should do it in the control software and then flash the settings to the black box via usb? If so, where in the Control software do I do that? Am I just being daft?

 

Thanks for both replies. I use Vcarve Pro. I will look for that setting, somewhere in the software. Never thought of looking in the CAM software.

 

I would’ve never thought of looking to activate the light in Vcarve, much less the post processor. You something new every day. Anyway, with a bit of research I found it and it’s working perfectly now. Thanks so much for your help, guys.

SOLUTION:

Just in case someone else has the same problem, here is the solution to the Ring Light question. This is applicable for Vcarve Pro, although I’m guessing the process would be the same for any Vectric software and very similar for other types of cam software.

Find the Gcode file you’re using for your cam software. If you can’t find it, open up Vcarve, Open ANY project, go to Machine Menu, select Machine configuration management, find your specific post processor where it says “Associated Post Processors, Click the “+” sign on the right hand side, find your post processor, right click, customize, open file location, open with Notepad, scroll down to “begin HEADER”, insert “M8” in the header (remember to write the quotation marks), do the same further down where it says “begin FOOTER” but instead of M8 write M9, save the file, select it in Mchine Configuration Management, restart Vcarve. Any toolpaths saved from here on will have your light turn on at the beginning, and light turn off at the end of the tool path.