This alarm will only occur for one of two reasons:
1: The machine has not been homed after being turned on, or
2: The machine has been asked to travel to a position outside of its maximum travel parameters, either by the user or by the job.
These numbers can be found in the “Peripherals” tab of Commander in the “Maximum Travel Limits” section.
For example in the photo below, I have asked the machine to move 9000mm on X, but the X Max Travel is set to 760mm.
The machine knows it can’t reach the position asked so it will not attempt to move and will cause the alarm.
The most common cause of this alarm that we see is related to Z-Clearance or Z-Retraction, which is the distance that the Z axis moves upwards to pull the cutter out of the material and to a safe distance to move around without cutting into or damaging the stock.
This will cause the alarm even if the rest of the job will fit inside the machine’s travel limits as the Z axis has its own maximum travel setting and will not allow you to go beyond it. This setting is changed or set when you create your job in whichever CAM program you are using.
Another common cause of this alarm is the user not homing the machine after turning it on. When the machine is turned off, it will forget its position and will reset to Zero when turned back on.
In order for the machine to know where it is in relation to the limit switches (XYZ - Zero) it will need to touch off the switches, which is what the homing cycle achieves. You will need to home the machine every time you turn it on.
DO NOT turn off or change your soft limits to stop this alarm from happening! Soft limits are a key safety feature on many machines and turning them off or modifying them can easily cause your machine to crash into itself!
If you have a fully-assembled machine such as a QueenBee, QB2, Metal Storm or YouCarve you will not be able to change your soft limit settings as they will be locked out. Please contact CNC3D if you feel you need to change these settings.