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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 15:27:56 GMT
Finally got a good meter to set the motor voltages. Got that done, got everything plugged in, downloaded and installed Universal G Code Sender Platform. Set that up, bauds are correct, connection is green. Press the jog buttons and...nothing.
There is a high-pitched noise as soon as the USB is plugged in (with power to the board obviously), sounds like water running in the pipes inside your wall. (You know the sound!)
1) Is this sound normal?
2) What should I attempt to get the machine to.... do something?
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 15:42:10 GMT
Further troubleshooting reveals that only the X and Z motors make this noise when USB is connected. Neither of the motors on the Y axis do it, either when connected independently or together. X and Z both make the noise, whether connected independently or together.
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Post by aforww on Aug 23, 2017 15:44:58 GMT
Finally got a good meter to set the motor voltages. Got that done, got everything plugged in, downloaded and installed Universal G Code Sender Platform. Set that up, bauds are correct, connection is green. Press the jog buttons and...nothing. There is a high-pitched noise as soon as the USB is plugged in (with power to the board obviously), sounds like water running in the pipes inside your wall. (You know the sound!) 1) Is this sound normal? 2) What should I attempt to get the machine to.... do something? Is this sound coming from the motors? I assume so. I'd say start with the easy stuff first. Sounds like either they are torque locked, the pulses are too high, or the micro stepping is set wrong. The latter two shouldn't be an issue if set-up was done per instructions. (We all make mistakes lol). Manually rotate the motor couplers. Do they move freely without binding? Are the backlash nuts overly tight? |
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 16:03:28 GMT
Is this sound coming from the motors? I assume so. I'd say start with the easy stuff first. Sounds like either they are torque locked, the pulses are too high, or the micro stepping is set wrong. The latter two shouldn't be an issue if set-up was done per instructions. (We all make mistakes lol). Manually rotate the motor couplers. Do they move freely without binding? Are the backlash nuts overly tight? It is coming from the motors, but not all of them. I tried swapping plugs on the different motors and... Motor A (right-side Y motor) by itself: slight buzz Motor Y by itself: no noise Motor Z by itself: slight noise and irregular, not like the others Motor X by itself: loud buzz Figuring the X motor might be the problem, I connected it to the Y connection and nothing. One slight click and no noise. As for the motor couplers, I'm really not sure what "freely without binding" feels like since turning them is working against the motor itself and the inherent resistance of the anti-backlash nut. They will turn through their full range of motion, but I don't know how much effort it's supposed to take to make them move. Likewise "overly tight". I've adjusted them all as per the instructions, just until I didn't get any movement or clicking sound when trying to move the associated brackets, but again I don't know how much resistance I'm supposed to be feeling. |
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 16:16:23 GMT
I loosened all of the couplers completely to eliminate binding issues just to see if I could get the motors to turn. Still making the same noise and still won't move at all. ??
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Post by aforww on Aug 23, 2017 16:21:20 GMT
It is coming from the motors, but not all of them. I tried swapping plugs on the different motors and... Motor A (right-side Y motor) by itself: slight buzz Motor Y by itself: no noise Motor Z by itself: slight noise and irregular, not like the others Motor X by itself: loud buzz Figuring the X motor might be the problem, I connected it to the Y connection and nothing. One slight click and no noise. As for the motor couplers, I'm really not sure what "freely without binding" feels like since turning them is working against the motor itself and the inherent resistance of the anti-backlash nut. They will turn through their full range of motion, but I don't know how much effort it's supposed to take to make them move. Likewise "overly tight". I've adjusted them all as per the instructions, just until I didn't get any movement or clicking sound when trying to move the associated brackets, but again I don't know how much resistance I'm supposed to be feeling. Unfortunately, I don't own the CK so I can't comment on "feel" beyond the movement should feel positive if that makes any sense. Like not sloppy but not having to crank on it to get it to move. Just smooth resistance that lets you know all is secure but you can still move easily. With motors powered down lol. Have you connected any other software to it besides UGS? It seems like they are all trying to hold a different pulse signal. Derek will have to chime in on that as my experience with the stepper motors and the electronics and how they interact is limited. I know electric motors and I know PWM. However, how the machines handle microstepping, calculating resistance and driver voltages, etc. Is still on my list of things to know. I've read that it can be a result of high torque loads, improper voltage, to high of a Max travel speed, and inadequate grounds. |
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Post by Derek the Admin on Aug 23, 2017 16:30:24 GMT
We'll get ya going. The noise is actually quite normal. One might describe it as radio static. This noise will often persist into it starts moving.
First, what voltage do you have the drivers set at? This may not be the case here, but I've seen where some have set the multimeter a click too low and were actually setting 0.065 volts instead of 0.65 volts. You may have it set right but I thought I'd mentioned it just to confirm.
What voltage do you have at the + and - screw terminal of the red board?
When you connect to the machine using Universal G Code Sender Platform, what messages does it give, if any?
Can you please screenshot or copy and paste the settings that show whenever you type $$ in the command line and press enter?
Thanks
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 17:04:20 GMT
We'll get ya going. The noise is actually quite normal. One might describe it as radio static. This noise will often persist into it starts moving. First, what voltage do you have the drivers set at? This may not be the case here, but I've seen where some have set the multimeter a click too low and were actually setting 0.065 volts instead of 0.65 volts. You may have it set right but I thought I'd mentioned it just to confirm. What voltage do you have at the + and - screw terminal of the red board? When you connect to the machine using Universal G Code Sender Platform, what messages does it give, if any? Can you please screenshot or copy and paste the settings that show whenever you type $$ in the command line and press enter? Thanks Drivers are set at .650 to .651 24.42 volts at the screw terminals Unsure where exactly to enter the $$ command? |
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 17:07:01 GMT
Found the "command line". When I enter $$ I get the error "GRBL has not finished booting".
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Post by Derek the Admin on Aug 23, 2017 18:27:45 GMT
Worked with retrosmith to solve this. For future reference, his version of Windows 8.1 didn't autoload the drivers so grbl wasn't communicating with the machine. There was a COM port showing in the drop down in UGS Platform that I believe to have been a wireless adapter. UGS Platform was trying to connect to it. We looked in device manager and found that there was an unknown device. Manually pointing to the drivers downloaded from the "drivers" sticky thread at the top of this forum through an unsigned driver error. We pointed retrosmith to the below linked resource to show how to disable unsigned driver enforcement on windows 8.1. Please note for anyone doing this in the future than you need to take pictures of the instructions with your phone because some of the screenshots are of screens that you want see until you are booting windows and therefore won't be able to see the instructions. revryl.com/2013/08/06/install-unsigned-drivers/ |
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Post by retrosmith on Aug 23, 2017 21:18:50 GMT
Thanks again, Derek! Only got to test the stepping before I had to head to work but at least it's moving now!  |
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