Help with Gcodetools and spindle control

[Coffee5000]

Hello everyone.

Hoping someone can help me sort out an issue creating gcode using Inkscape.

I've followed numerous tutorials online to create gcode in Inkscape. I have spent several hours searching online for any forum or blog that mentions this issue, and have not had any luck. This makes me believe that I'm not doing something correctly.

The issue I am having with creating gcode in Inkscape is that the CNC machine's spindle does not turn on to cut the material when the machine runs the code. The spindle is just moved around as if it is tracing the design. If I had a marker in place of the cutting bit, the design would be drawn correctly on the material.

Comparing the Inkscape generated code to a sample file that came with the cnc machine, it appears that there is no code/command generated to turn the spindle on to cut each path (and then off at the end of each cutting path).

I have tried selecting different tools in Extensions > Gcodetools > Tools Library... without success. It seems that only the 'Default' tool has a specific Spindle setting for RPMs, but I don't know if I need to enter information under the other options that have <None> when the green tool window opens.

I have tried this on both Windows 10 and MacBook Pro laptops with the same outcome.

Is there a specific tool and settings that need to be entered for a rotary cnc machine?

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

I sure would like to know about the numerous tutorials you're found for using Inkscape to generate gcode.  The problem I've seen is that there aren't any!  (And the authors of those extensions stopped providing support long, long ago, unfortunately.)

I don't have any kind of cutter, but just trying to help other people, I've learned the basic steps.  Call the dialogs in the following order, fill out the needed info and apply them.  Note that the various help info (including tooltips) is quite cryptic, but it's all there, except for this order.

1 - Orientation Points
2 - Tools Library
3 - Your specific need.  If none of the other extensions meets your needs, you should call Path to Gcode.

Since it looks like the machine is tracing the design but not cutting it, I'm guessing you just didn't identify the proper tool.  Or possibly the depth isn't deep enough?  But if you follow those 3 steps, and you still don't get results, I guess you'll need to share the SVG file, and give us any other details we would need to test.

Since you're getting gcode, it seems like you've already discovered another important requirement.  But if you run into trouble where the gcode isn't produced, let us know.  I don't remember which one at the moment, but you need to click Apply when a certain tab is open.  If you're on a different tab, the code file isn't produced   

But anyway, let us know how it goes

[Moini]

brynn, you can enter 'gcode' and 'inkscape' into a search machine of your choice to get thousands of tutorials about this topic. Unfortunately, I don't know much about the OP's question, either....

[brynn]

I sure didn't find any when I searched a couple of years ago!  At least not any decent ones.  There were only a handful then, and they were heavily focussed on what to do after using Inkscape.  The Inkscape part of those that I saw were not detailed enough that I felt ok about adding to our curated listings.  I'm glad to see some people have filled in the gaps by now.  (Although "thousands" might be a bit exaggerated.)

I'll try and review some of them, as soon as I find the time.  Maybe some are good enough to add to the Resources page.

[Coffee5000]

Apologies for the delay in replying.

I probably should have clarified the 'numerous' tutorials are all essentially the same, i.e. prep the vector art, then go through Extensions > Gcodetools > 'Tool Library...' and then 'Orientation Points' and then 'Path to Gcode...', with a note about the bug where you have to be viewing the specif tab, as you mentioned.


The code I was getting was doing everything correctly, except turning on the spindle. The first time I ran it, it was just started dragging the bit across the wood until I pulled the plug.

It seems like the tutorials I found were for laser engravers.

Anyway, I ended up going back to the Gcodetools Default tool and experimenting, since it was the only one that actually mentioned Spindle (although misspelled as Spinlde).

What ended up working for me was the setting options 'gcode before path' and 'gcode after path'.

I entered M03 S6000 for 'gcode before path' and M05 for 'gcode after path'


M03/M3 turns the spindle on in a clockwise direction, and M05/M5 turns the spindle off.

The S6000 tells the spindle to turn at 6000 RPMs.

A big help that saved a lot of time when experimenting was discovering CAMotics and running simulations. Using 'Machine Status' under View > Docks would show me if the spindle turned on or not when it needed to.


Anyway, just wanted to share this to hopefully help others that are looking for the same answer to this. 

Now I'm off to learn how to cut the inside area of a design, rather than just the outline...