Arclight Dynamics saves the day....again.

[Deezl Smoke]

Disclaimer: I have no experience with any other brands, so my contentment with Arclight is bias.

Here's a youtube video of the issue. See if you can notice it before reading on.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Is1H5VsRES8

My thc would turn off once the cut was initiated. I could not figure this out, mostly because I am a beginner at this. The feedrate override was set to 95% instead of the required 100%. How this happened?....unknown, other than the likely culprit is a sticky keyboard from too many sparks and dust infiltrating it.
I sent the video and some pictures with a detailed write up of the going on to support at Arclight, and in no time, they had it resolved. So even though I can not speak to other brands, I am still after 5 years now, 100% satisfied and happy with their support.

[adbuch]

Nice to hear they are taking care of you. I have always liked the Arclight Dynamics brand because they offer the auto tracer upgrade with their tables. Does your table run from Mach3?
Thanks,
David

[tcaudle]

Does your table run from Mach3?

That is LINUX/CommandCNC. That issue happens on that older release because the velocity feedback used for VAD (Velocity anti dive) was not 'scaled" to the FRO . It caused the DTHC to disable when it should not That was fixed several years ago in later releases.

[adbuch]

I figured it had to be either Linux or Mach3. Arclight Dynamics uses the SheetCam Scanything program for their auto trace attachment. I have the Mach3 version setup on one of my AvidCNC router tables - it works great. Here is the Arclight Dynamics demo video.

[tcaudle]

Not sure they slit offer it. They don't sell anything with MACH3 and they have "diversified " their product line and no longer sell the CommadnCNC system . The Scan Anything actually "drives" the table (versus manually moving it using a camera and manually digitizing it , so it takes a specific compile of Scan Anything to work with each release of Linux. Most of the existing Arcllight / CommandCNC are running on Linux 14.04 . They did a few 18.04 and that takes a different Scan Anything. We include the code on our releases to be able to compile Scan Anything for CommandCNC but ownership of SheetCAM has changed .

[Deezl Smoke]

I was lucky they found their old system on the parts shelf. So I bought it. I'm not against updating, I just know that I am getting older and can get along with this system well enough that I'll wait till there is no other option, then update. So I had them dust off the shelf unit and assemble it in the same way that my original 2019 year model is, so I have a complete second control cabinet on hand. Yes, I know that may sound a little dumb, but I know my luck, and it is a sure bet that something will go wrong with the controller if I do not have a back up. Arclight has been very good to me and have taken care of the few issues I've ran into. As well as the membership here being a priceless asset to the community. But my issues always have and likely always will occur after hours and on a weekend cutting a last minute rescue job for someone.

I used the Scanything once. It actually does work pretty well as long as the lines are crisp.

[tcaudle]

You have a backup to your backup. We have spare parts and even complete units of the CommandCNC systems and continue to update the technology.
we continue to do repairs and to offer software upgrades (like in your case of the VAD setting and the Feedrate Override)
If your table is critical to your business having spares is a good idea . We also have a Support Forum that is active evenings and on weekends and an RFS (request for Support) that goes directly to Engineering. All of that is available to you if its one of our controllers and CommandCNC.

We still do support for MACH3 on the Support forum and though the RFS process BUT Tech Support has no experience with it. It was declared obsolete in 2014 and no longer supported and we moved to Linux in 2016 (over 8 years ago) . At some point there wont be any of us left that know a lot about MACH3 .

[weldguy]

That's pretty awesome, I can see why you are so pleased with them.