A quick update of all that we’ve got going on at Carbide 3d…
We Need Help
First and foremost, we’re looking for a technical writer. We have all kinds of docs and tutorials that are half-done because we all wear so many hats around here. We need someone to work part time and help us get some of this writing done.
If you think you’d be a good fit, shoot us an email and show us what you’ve done before. We don’t care where you live, we only care that you’re a clear communicator and that you get stuff done.
GRBL 1.1
As we were testing the final GRBL 1.1 and our latest Carbide Create, we ran into a small problem. The new parking code, which stops the spindle and retracts from a cut when the machine is paused, does exactly the wrong thing for jogging. If you open the door on a machine with a safety switch the cutter will retract away from the workpiece, making it impossible to touch off with a piece of shim stock or paper.
We discussed it with Sonny, the GRBL developer, and he had a fix in record time, a new M code that will enable/disable the parking motion. We just got that build integrated into our builds yesterday and we’re testing it here.
Carbide Motion V4
The latest Carbide Motion is working well in all of our testing. There are still little things to improve but, along with GRBL 1.1, it’s a huge improvement over the current version.
We’re planning on a release to the forum for advanced users next week.
There is going to be one big change in requirements for Carbide Motion 4, we will require homing for all machines. This is no problem for Nomads, Shapeoko XL and XXL’s, since they all came with homing switches from the very start. If you have a Shapeoko 3 without homing switches, you’ll have to add them to run Carbide Motion 4.
Shapeoko Maintenance Kits
A number of users have tried to get replacement parts for their Shapeoko from overseas vendors because they’re under the impression that we don’t supply them. We want to make it very clear that if you need a replacement part for your machine, just shoot us an email and we’ll get it taken care of.
For customers that prefer to have spare parts ready to go, or their machines are out of warranty, we’ve put together a kit that includes all of the wear items on the machine.
https://shop.carbide3d.com/products/shapeoko-maintenance-kit
This kit also provides 9mm belting and pulleys for the X and Y axis. If you have a machine that shipped before limit switches were included with the kit, and want to upgrade to 9mm width belting, the maintenance kit is right up your alley.
Carbide Connect
Finally, we’ve continued work on Carbide Connect, our standalone machine controller. We now have the same Carbide Motion 4 code running on our embedded platform and we’ve been able to walk around the office and run the machine via Wi-Fi, and even on an iPad.
Hopefully we’re be able to show some photos of this system (probably just a bunch of PCB’s hot-glued to a piece of acrylic) in the next couple of weeks.
As always, thanks for your ongoing support.