I have been favorably impressed by the TinyG, but I'm not sure how to proceed now.
To start, I have attached a couple stepper motors to X and Y. Motors only, so I don't have to worry about crashing past the limit switches. Both spin the way I would expect. The musical sound from the motors was an unexpected surprise.
What is the best way to get started integrating this with my homebrew CNC machine? I kind of expected a "hello world" part of the documentation, or maybe some example configurations. Perhaps some simple geometric shapes or something. The documentation went from simple hooking up of motors to, well, nothing.
Does anyone have any basic first steps they could suggest? Since this part of the documentation seems to be missing, I have added a page to the wiki, and will start to build the page with the suggestions I get.
So have you connected everything and now just want to run some movements?
Or do you still need help connecting everything to your machine.
Did you do the "configuring TinyG" section already?
I would recommend reading the ShapeOko Wiki for a good first-steps introduction.
I've got a ShapeOko with TinyG, and I've finally gotten it to work well. I've made a lot of mistakes, but have learned so much.
The most important lesson is proper shielding of stepper wires and limit signals, proper grounding of the machine, and reducing the noice from the spindle.
Let us know if there's a specific thing you'd like to know more about ;)
I did try the ShapeOko wiki, but it was not helpful. It gives a link to "a pre-compiled hex file with default Shapeoko Values". But I didn't build a ShapeOko. What are the logical steps to configure the TinyG for any random 4 axis mill?
As an example, the ShapeOko wiki gives these calculations, but doesn't explain how to calculate the settings based on the given parameters. So far, I'm stumped. How do I get 43.74 steps/mm?
200 step/rev stepper motors
8x microstepping on the X and Y axis
2x microstepping on the Z axis
MXL belting (.08" pitch)
18 tooth MXL pulleys on the X and Y axis
8mm threaded rod (1.25mm pitch) on the Z axis.
And I am confused.
a. Motor 4 seems mapped to Z axis, not Y, ....?
b. Polarity - seems $4po should be 1 OR there should be an explicit statement that the wiring is physically reversed