Hoping to get a slight bit of help here. Short story long.
I am trying to do a 3D carve that I have wanted to do for a long time. Fusion360 is being dumb, no clue why. I cannot get it to calculate the tool paths. It is a rather large STL and I know Fusion doesn’t like a bunch of triangles. I’ve tried the mesh reduce. I’ve tried deleting in blender and converting to quad mesh. Estlcam wont even load the STL. Really been down the rabbit hole here.
At this point I have gotten Easel to do what I want it to do I think. I have to pay for Easel Pro but I can stomach that if I can get it to work. My last hurdle is the starting Gcode from Easel. I have compared almost identical gcode from Easel and Estlcam and its basically the same. The thing its missing is the z probe and I’m not sure I’m knowledgeable enough to add it from Estlcam gcode file to the Easel gcode file.
Can anyone combine the Z Probe starting Gcode to the Easel Gcode so that I have an example and I don’t destroy anything?
Before dealing with probing, you have another potential issue. Your Easel code is in inches but your Estlcam code is in millimeters. Some (all?) V1 maintained firmware does not have inch mode enabled. So, you need to either force Easel to output code in millimeters, or do what is necessary to get the firmware to support inches.
I don’t know what control board you are using, so I’m unsure if you need everything, but here is my best educated guess about your start code assuming millimeters:
G21 ; Sets to millimeter mode
G90 ; Absolute positioning
G94 ; Feedrate to mm/min
G92 X0 Y0 ; Set the current router position as the job origin
; ---Start of probing code
M0 (MSG Attach probe)
G38.2 Z-80 F200 P0.5 ( probe down set thickness )
G1 Z10 F900
M0 (MSG Remove probe)
; ---End of probing code
M62 P0 ( start spindle pin26 )
If you are using the M62 to start your spindle, you will need a matching M63 in the end code to stop the spindle.
I am using the Jackpot on a LR3. I did notice that the Easel code was in inches via the G21 vs G20. But I did not know that V1 firmware only accepts millimeters.
No spindle, just a Makita so no need for the M62 but that makes sense.
Assuming I can fix the mm/in issue. Where would you insert your probe code in the Easel file?
I’m pretty sure he gave you the G codes needed for probing in his answer above. Here’s a quote:
Don’t forget to edit for the thickness of your touch plate in the line that says “probe down set thickness” —
The first part of the command, G38.2, tells it to probe.
The second part, Z, tells it it’s the Z axis.
The third part, -80, tells it that it has a probe to target travel range of 80 mm.
The fourth part, F200, tells it the speed at which to probe.
The final part, P0.5, tells it the plate thickness.
I’m not sure why there’s different information in the parentheses afterwards, but be aware that for some G code commands, what is in parentheses is a comment for your benefit (and could be displayed on a screen if setup for it) and that is ignored by the machine, while in a few certain G code commands, at least in FluidNC, the machine pays attention to what is in the parentheses.
The next two lines of code will move your machine upwards by 10 mm after making contact with the touchplate, and then pause the G code execution to give you time to remove the probe equipment and tell your screen that you want to continue.
But I don’t think I’m explaining my question right. Sorry for the confusion. I understand the probe code and what it does. What I don’t understand is where I add it to the completed Easel gcode, which line do I insert it.
If you can, insert the code in the order I listed above. The problem is that Estlcam may insert some of the commands automatically, and I don’t know how it inserts the “Start Code.” I’m away from my main computer, so I cannot test Estlcam. I suspect the G21 and the G90 are added automatically, and perhaps the G94 as well. Note I picked the order so that the correct environment (units, feedrate) are set before the probe is executed.