Home Is Off

[Tim Bateson]

Thanks Steve. Any engraving is offset, but not as much as HOME is off (Home is off 1 inch down and about 1/8 inch in - rastering starts 1/2 down and about 1/16 inch in). Even the Rotary's HOME is off. I REALLY wish that setting a home position from the front panel worked, but it doesn't That's why I can't run the ball bats. When I try to set home from the front panel, it just goes back to it's new default Home. I have tried cleaning everything, unplugging and plugging back in every cable in the machine. Nothing, not even adjusting the X/Y from the front panel has made any difference.

[Steve Clarkson]

Tim, that's really strange that Home is down 1, yet rastering starts down 0.5 (which is actually above the Home position). But that's why I was wondering if it had something to do with the encoder strip which tells the head where it should be relative to the table. In any event, I would still order a new encoder strip when you get the MB sent to you and replace that first......it's a lot cheaper than paying for a new MB.

Also, someone else mentioned the magnet on the back that tells the head where home is every time you reset or turn on the machine.....I don't think that would be the problem because if it somehow fell out or moved, I would think that your head would be crashing into the back of the machine......but you should still check to see if you can find it and make sure it's still in there correctly.

Lastly, when "setting the home position from the front panel"........I'm not 100% sure that we're talking about the same thing......I'm not talking about setting the home position like you do for center-center engraving.......I'm talking about punching in the secret code (I can't remember off the top of my head what it is.......but I do know tech support doesn't like giving that info up) to change the X-axis position independently, and then there is a second code for changing the y-axis position. When you do it, let's say the x-axis position is "280"......changing it to something like "380" moves it about 1/64" to the right and changing it to "180" moves it about 1/64" to the left.....they are super small increments, but should be permanent regardless where your home position is. Just make sure you write down the original number where you started from in case you have to move it back. Hopefully, I explained that clearly and I assume this is what you meant when you referred to "adjusting the X/Y from the front panel". Although doing this may fix your problem for the time being....there was something else that caused it to get out of line initially.

[Tim Bateson]

Yes, I have tried setting Home as in Center to Center - No effect - still goes back to where it thinks is Home.
Tried resetting both the X and Y from the front panel too - No effect - still goes back to where it thinks is Home.

Cleaned the X encoder, but where is the Y encoder?

The X motor has a magnet wrapped in wires & zip tied to the motor.
The Y motor has a magnet wrapped in wires & doesn't appear to have ever been up against the motor. The wires don't even look like they would reach that far.

[Martin Boekers]

Tim have you tried a different page size and engrave at the far right end? Sometimes this has worked for me and generally ment it was an encoder issue.


Epilog if you are listening a great help in diagnosing encoder strip issues if you had an "encoder test" where the reader went the length of the encoder strip
and read it. Then see how the readings compare to the way the encoder strip is marked. That way we could find out if the issue was an encoder strip
and where on the strip it lies. This would be a quick test an a short macro for it shouldn't be too difficult to write....

[Tim Bateson]

New MB has been ordered. Total damage: Board, Core, Taxes, Shipping = $1,464.67 I'll need several big orders to offset that cost. My new employee/boss/wife is busy working on targeting past customers and hitting up new sources.

[Walt Langhans]

Ouch! Make sure to ground your self before you take it out of the anti static bag. I'd hate to see it get zapped from static electricity before it goes into the machine.

[Tim Bateson]

Thanks, Great suggestion. I'll try to remember that.

[Kim Vellore]

If the rotary is off too then it has nothing to do with encoders or home switch, it is the MOBO most likely the offset that is programmed is somehow corrupted and changed. Maybe reprogramming the firmware might work.

[Tim Bateson]

Tried that this past weekend - no luck there either.

[Chuck Stone]

if you want, I'll pop a grounding wrist strap in the mail

[Rob Bosworth]

Tim, have you watched the Randy Allen procedure on re-setting your home position on an Epilog? I watched it yesterday on U-Tube. It was pretty informative. You might watch it to make sure you did not miss a step.

[Walt Langhans]

Thanks, Great suggestion. I'll try to remember that.

Most people don't know that all electronics work because of the magic smoke inside of them, and if you let it out they won't work anymore

[Tim Bateson]

Wow!!! Ordered the board around 5:30 pm last night and it was on my door step this morning... Colorado to Ohio in a matter of hours. Hats off to Epilog.

I won't get to swap out the board until this evening, but I can see it's an updated board, a bit different than what I now have.

[Walt Langhans]

Sweet! If you get a chance can you post pics of the old board and the new board? My IT side is curious to see the changes.

[Martin Boekers]

Hope you got the right board.... Yes Epilog is fast!!!!! Both my machines are out of warranty, but thanks to
their contract with UPS, overnight shipping is affordable!