Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jwr 604 days ago
I have the Carvera (not Air) and it's a very good machine mechanically, the software leaves a lot to be desired.

It isn't even close to being the Bambu Lab of the CNC world, unfortunately, but I'd say only because of the software. If they open-source their controller, things might improve quickly.
1 comments
syntaxing 604 days ago
Oh bummed to hear that, how’s the ATC? The ATC was always the most fascinating part for me for the original Carvera. The Air does not have this feature but it’s expected given the price difference.
link
jwr 604 days ago
The ATC works really well, better than I expected. Although without software support it is pretty much useless — I have no idea how people can recommend that I renumber my tools to 1-6 in Fusion CAM for every job.

What I did was write a post-post-processor of sorts that takes the .nc output, watches for tool changes, and using the tool library information automatically assigns ATC slots, renumbers tools, and generates pauses if collet changes are required (e.g. changing from a 6mm shank to 4mm or to 3.175mm).

That means I can now look at a list of assigned ATC slots, put in the correct tools, and let the machine rip, only pausing for collet changes. Pretty nice and how it should be.

However, I have to say, while the ATC is nice to have, I would not consider it to be the primary factor when buying a CNC machine. Those tool changes don't take long and are not difficult to do manually. It's much more important to get a rigid machine with limited backlash.

link
syntaxing 604 days ago
Kinda crazy, I know post processors cost money for CAM software like masterCAM but didn’t expect you needed to write one for a hobby CNC too. I know fusion360 had a post processing functionality but I think they moved that into the paid version. I miss the fusion360 of 5 years ago.
link
sottol 604 days ago
I think the Fusion posts are still available in the free version - afaik certain things like overriding the feed speed no longer work though.

And I only briefly looked into it, but most Fusion post-processors are just Javascript! (or at least based on it)

link
jwr 603 days ago
I wrote "post-post-processor". My code comes after the Fusion post-processor.
link