Hi everyone, my name is Sasha and I’m a new member.
I have this http://www.carvewright.com/cx/ machine at home collecting dust, because I don’t know how to use it:)
I can bring it to VHS, does anyone have experience working with it?
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Hi Sasha, that sounds awesome! I don’t personally know anything about this machine but we have quite a few members who are experienced with CNC. I’m sure we can help figure it out.
Are you looking to leave it at VHS for a short period? Or indefinitely? Or just for an evening to get some help with it? Either way… cool.
Hey that’s cool.
A tool like this should be making dust not collecting it! 
If you bring it in to VHS I’m sure we can get you up and running with it.
Looks neat id be happy to have a look and get it setup. Doesn’t seem to hard. Also would like to try it out amd see how well it works.
I’ll bring it tomorrow and will try set it up. Can live it in VHS? Where would be good place for it?
Hey @Yaremko, we’re looking at the machine now. Is no memory card in the machine, and according to the website, it needs it to even power on. The memory card contains the firmware for the device, including any patterns to cut. Did you provide one at VHS? Cursory look around the workshop didn’t reveal anything
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Yes I do have a card, and good news I finally got proper software to work with it. I’ll stop by in the VHS at about 4:30 and will try to carve something.
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Hey! Did we get a card? Was thinking of pulling this out and making it
carve something cool!
I saw the carvewright in action; my biggest concern is they charge a ridiculous amount for the software, super closed source, and even to just bring in a vector path they charge ~$200USD to unlock that part of the software. Not only that, but the software can only ever be installed on 2 machines.
I contacted them to see if they’d give us a concession rate and I got no response. A courteous “no” would have been nice, but instead they put me on their mailing list. Kinda shitty if you ask me.
Not to be a downer, but unless we can get reasonable software (svg/dxf import) for it or can find a non-standard way of controlling it I am personally questioning how useful it is. But if people are using it I’m happy to be wrong on this.
-Mike
Same. I really want to see what I can do with this thing but last I heard we don’t have the controller card yet. If we don’t one soon either give it back to the guy or we hack the thing to make it work. Just Googling now to see if that has been done
The person who donated it has the card, but the software to upload will only work on two computers and its registered to two already.
@Yaremko Pinging you in case you have anything to add.
Could it be modified and just use the hardware, make it work with standard CNC software? Just bypass everything and tie right into the motor controller?
I don’t mind hacking it but don’t know how to. How would it work? And what is the consequences of such bypassing?
Unless there’s someone who has already hacked the machine and posted the information, have to do this disassemble the machine and trace all the electronics first.
Then bypass the controller chip on the Carvewright and replace it with something new. Like an Arduino mega or compatible board. Then have to program the chip to run the the machine. Luckily we can adapt the firmware for 3d printers to use on that board. Finally need to find out how to convert 3d models from say Fusion360 to code for cutting.
Thankfully a lot of the coding is already done. 3D printer firmware has been made very flexible for many different types of machines. And the type of carving it does isn’t unique so something can probably be whipped up with Fusion
@Yaremko : do you have any plans to make this useful? Otherwise can you find a new place for it?
Thanks!
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