Aligning the steps for the axes. Using Open Control and a Black box. X and Y went fine. Z - using the wizard a 50 mm move was only 12mm. Entered that as the recorded value. Tried again and the Z only moved 7mm. At that point things began to hang up. When trying to jog the Z I get an alarm - seems to be different, so far I have seen 144, 17, and 143. All listed as unidentified alarms (surely someone knows what these mean?) Z moves a little and then the alarm comes up. If I clear the alarm and try again I get a 'Please wait for the machine to be idle before jogging. Could this be due to a too fast attempted travel rate? Could this be due to an overheating stepper motor (motor was hot - not horribly, but hot none the less) What do these alarms mean ? At this point, if I disconnect, kill open controls, relaunch it, re-connect, I can get about a half second of Z before the alarm comes up. Then I'm stuck in 'wait for idle' mode.
EMI? Bad wiring somewhere? Or a failing controller. See docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation]
Was working fine until I started using the wizard to set the steps per mm (admittedly Z scaling was off) Will work with it again today. Where can I find information on these unidentified alarms? They must mean something to someone (surely).
Is there a way to log to a file the communication stream to/from the black box ? (Is there a log already?) Also, can I get to the configuration file outside of using the wizard (sorry - a noob question I know)
Garbled serial data messing with the data stream - Grbl only generates valid alarm numbers. So if you "receive" an invalid number its mangled data Serial Log tab: As explained in docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] Grbl Settings tab (graphical way of entering data) or Serial Console (gnea/grbl )
Thank you. This is very helpful. Is there a way to manually set the steps per mm ? (as opposed to using the wizard)
Yes: See the earlier reply (quoted below). The calibration wizard is a 3rd option. If you question is rather how to calculate the value (versus how to set it): See the formula on gnea/grbl Have a read through the entire Grbl wiki, it has all the information you may need
An interesting behavior. If I start up the Black Box and connect to it with Open Control, if I launch gcode that has an M3 near the start, the motor does not start. If I manually start and stop the motor using the buttons on the Open Control screen and then launch the gcode, the motor starts/stops as expected. Any insights? Thanks to your guidance, I found that the steps per mm for the Z axis was set at some huge (tens of thousands) of steps. Changed this to 500 and Z axis is back to moving nicely and all the alarms went away. (Fine tuned to 1015 for my machine. Also limited Z max rate to 400 which works better for my Z. X and Y work well at 700 max rate.)
Missing S value? Syntax is M3 S1000 1000 is your spindle speed. It can be something other than 1000 but your gcode post processor needs to specify it.
I'll give it a try ! (It's an on off (single speed) device, so speed is meaningless, but if it works, it works.)
My machine is doing almost the exact same thing. I just installed the Arduino Uno and was able to jog freely in all directions until I went to set the parameters in the wizard. I set X, then Y and then Z, After setting z, I tried to jog Z and it moved quickly then alarm came on. I now have to shut everything down and now jogging doesn't work like it did before setting the parameters.
What machine? What controller? Post your grbl settings so we can have a look. In the meantime: Did you see the OPs resolution? "I found that the steps per mm for the Z axis was set at some huge (tens of thousands) of steps. Changed this to 500 and Z axis is back to moving nicely and all the alarms went away. " Change them back to the default value and see if that helps.
The machine I bought at an auction from a company that went out of business. It originally had a unidentifiable breakout board with a parallel port. I replaced the breakout board with the Arduino Uno and downloaded the Open Controls. Like I said, it was jogging nicely before I tried to calibrate it. ALARM 32 UNDEFINED pops up and when I reset the alarm it won't move at all. I disconnect the arduino and when I try to reconnect it says there is no supporting firmware detected.
I had that happen on my test arduino. I shorted one of the inputs. After that I would get random alarm codes that never made sense. I swapped in a new arduino and all the alarms went away.
Luckily, I do have a spare Arduino (ordered two by accident) but I would like to try your other solution first but I'm not sure how to change the z setting back to the default settings? Or, to find out if I have the same problem as where my steps are so big and I need to cut them in half?
Thanks Peter! Settings are as follows: $100 X-axis 56.040 steps/mm $101 Y-axis 50.151 steps/mm $102 Z-axis 15384.620 steps/mm I stopped there because everything else did not seem out of whack.
I just did some playing around and I was able to change the steps/mm to 800 in the grbl settings, then went to the wizard tool to calibrate and it is pretty dead on at 1" of movement. There are limit switches on this machine which I have not wired up yet. Can I set soft limits in the settings so I don't have to wire them or do you think it's best to wire them?
That is crazy high yes Soft limits requires homing (to know where the physical machine envelope is in virtual space) Homing requires switches. So yes, do wire them first.
After doing a little searching on wiring my limit switches, can I wire them directly into my Arduino Uno or should I get a limit switch buffer board?
The controller must be fed the proper diet (-: In this case it thinks 'M3 S0' is the same as 'M5' which is 'spindle off' If you are using the relay to switch the router on and off then the correct commands are M3 S1000 for on and M5 for off. any other S values can destroy the relay by turning it on and off rapidly. BUT this assumes that the controller has the default speed settings of 0 to 1000 in $31 and $30 $30=1000 ;Maximum spindle speed, RPM $31=0 ;Minimum spindle speed, RPM If you have set other speeds then you need to tell you CAM to use those numbers, otherwise it must use these numbers, ie S1000 for spindle on (at any speed).