alden

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Viewing 15 posts - 646 through 660 (of 702 total)
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  • alden
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    Glad it’s working. Grbl does not echo commands – it only sends “ok” or “error” after each command. It also sends strings to the console for $ config commands. Perhaps this is what you are seeing?

    in reply to: Extra Steps? #1473
    alden
    Member

    Chris – I see where my documentation was messed up and confused you.


    In order to get this thing tuned let’s start with the current settings. I had written this up for grblshield and now it’s also on the TinyG wiki: http://www.synthetos.com/wiki/index.php?title=Wiring_TinyG

    In your case since you only have one pot just crank it one way until you either get the thermal reaction or the motors gradually lose power and shut down. I always then mark with a sharpie. The new boards are a little easier to manage. as clockwise increases current. Run some test moves as G0’s and perhaps some slow G1 with slow F words (that’s the Gcode pun. I had to use it.)


    UPDATE: There’s a bug in the units conversion from inches to mm in verions 0.90 and 0.91. So I’m not doing this correctly in the version of the firmware you are running. This will be revised with the correct conversion soon – hopefully over the weekend. (The originally published value of 2,000,000 was actually correct, but I changed the code in error).

    In the mean time, the following will work: Set your Jm to 3000 and work up or down from there. Or just set the value in mm (e.g. 50,000,000) using a G21. Change back to inches mode using a G20.


    Once you have the current and JM set correctly I’d go back to the seek and feed rates and adjust these values
    http://www.synthetos.com/wiki/index.php?title=TinyG:Configuring#Setting_Feed_and_Seek_Rates


    I have created a profile for DIYLILCNC so when you get the values where you like them let me know and I’ll update the profile. The defaults can them be put in the code alongside the other profiles.

    Lastly, if you haven’t already done so, get the latest code form the github and use that. I posted 0.91 (build 324.15) earlier this week. It fixes a bug in arc generation that you probably had not encountered. yet.

    Let us know how this goes, and thanks for hammering through this. As you can see, we are trying to get our documentation up to par as these issues are encountered.

    – Alden

    in reply to: Extra Steps? #1469
    alden
    Member

    AHA! Riley may have figured this one out.

    It’s quite possible that your board is cycling in and out of thermal shutdown when idle. If you have too much current the chips will get really hot and turn off. Until they cool down. Then they turn on again. Idle (without low-power idle mode) takes more current than moving. Depending on the current setting, this cycling can go from really slow to really fast (almost a stutter).

    You have an older board, and I think it only has one current pot on it. Try adjusting the current pot down and see if the behavior changes. You could also enable power management mode for Z ($3PW1), which is a screw axis – no?

    If this works you might be fine with the current reduction. In most cases the motors still get plenty of power and this does the trick. If you need more current than the board can support in idle mode then you should get some heatsinks and also fan cool the board.

    Let us know if this works. – Alden

    in reply to: Extra Steps? #1468
    alden
    Member

    Chris – I ran the 322.02 version with the settings you provided over the weekend. I couldn’t get it to reproduce the issue. Some notes:

    – Since you have the low-power idle mode disabled on X and Y the green lights may stay lit once things have stopped. This is normal. But they shouldn’t be flashing.

    – The Jerk term you have (2,000,000 inches/min^3) is really really high. The 3rd power makes it hard to compare inches to mm settings – so converting to mm is a really big number. Did you arrive at this experimentally? You might want to drop this somewhat. I should probably have some guidance on setting this in the wiki.

    I uploaded a new version of the code to the github. https://github.com/synthetos/TinyG
    You should see version 0.91 (build 324.15) up there. Can you try this out and see if the issue persists?

    Thanks – Alden

    alden
    Member

    Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Sounds like you are having issues getting the grbl firmware loaded.

    If you have not already read the sticky post please see this: http://www.synthetos.com/forums/topic.php?id=187
    … and will send you here: http://dank.bengler.no/-/page/show/5471_gettinggrbl?ref=mst
    It walks through the steps for getting and loading grbl.

    The branch you want is the 0.6 with the grblshield patch – the first one you listed.
    If grbl is loaded correctly on the arduino hardware you will get a grbl prompt on power up or reset.
    Entering a $<cr> will return the list of parameters you can set.

    Some questions to clarify:
    – What type of arduino are you running? grbl will not run on all arduinos – only those listed the the Dank link. Also, in spite of what the Dank page says the 168-based arduinos are pretty much obsolete at this point as they don’t have enough room for the current 0.6 and later versions of grbl. The grblshield patched version will not work on a 168. If you have a 168 it probably won’t work without some further hacking.

    – Are you using a programmer to program the chip? If you are using an AVRISP mkii or some other programmer you will need to connect to the 2×3 ISP port on the arduino.

    – If you are following the steps in the dank link what does AVRdude come back with? Are there errors? If you are still having problems please post a screencap of the AVRdude commands and responses.

    Once you have that all working there is a more advanced grbl branch here: https://github.com/chamnit/grbl/downloads
    …but I recommend getting the basic branch working first.

    I hope this helps – Alden

    in reply to: Spindle control? #1362
    alden
    Member

    This is pretty straightforward to code in – I just haven’t done it yet. Let’s get it on the list over the next couple of months

    in reply to: Extra Steps? #1463
    alden
    Member

    I’m not seeing this behavior on build 322.02 – which doesn’t mean it’s not happening to your board. Can you please either send me the file you are using or show me the command line that exhibits the behavior? What motor and axis was this happening on – or more than one?

    Also, were there any #### TRAP #### or #### INFO #### messages?

    in reply to: Spindle control? #1360
    alden
    Member

    Thanks for pointing that out. The correct mapping is in the system.h file and is:
    #define DEVICE_PORT_MOTOR_1 PORTA
    #define DEVICE_PORT_MOTOR_2 PORTF
    #define DEVICE_PORT_MOTOR_3 PORTE
    #define DEVICE_PORT_MOTOR_4 PORTD

    I’ll fix the wiki

    in reply to: Extra Steps? #1461
    alden
    Member

    Chris, what firmware revision are you running? I may need to get you an update. The revision is one of the first lines that happens after a reset.

    in reply to: Spindle control? #1358
    alden
    Member

    I’d say that the spindle control is “roughed in” at this point, but it is not functioning. The interpreter reads M3, M4 and M5, but the spindle control functions are stubbed out. What these should probably do is fire 2 output pins, one for ON/OFF, and the other for CW/CCW motion. Also, a full implementation would have a PWM channel and pin to output a motor control speed signal. The pins are there on the board to do this, but the code has not been written. Some form of external power management would also have to be provided for driving the motors – which TinyG does not do as it’s outside the current design.

    That said, most people are using the board without automatic spindle control just by turning the cutter on and off manually. That’s why this function has lagged the others. TinyG is quite hackable and the code is all on the github for anyone to add these functions, I just haven’t gotten to them.

    Hope this helps, and let us know if you have any other questions

    in reply to: Board Reset/Profile Change #1459
    alden
    Member

    Glad it worked. AVRstudio4 is one solution, and I’d really like the native AVRdude to function as well. Additionally, I have ported the xboot project onto the board so there’a a native xmega boot loader over the USB port, but I’m not happy with the way it works yet so I haven’t released it. It functions well once it’s connected, but you have to try multiple times for it to connect – so it’s ultimately not as reliable as it should be. Hopefully this will provide a better solution in time if I can work out the details.

    in reply to: Board Reset/Profile Change #1457
    alden
    Member

    The Arduino and TinyG run 2 different chip families and programming protocols, so the avrdude command lines will be different. The xmega on TinyG runs the PDI protocol, which is why a garden variety atmel programmer won’t cut it and the mkii is needed. If you just bought it it’s unlikely that you need to upgrade your firmware, so you should probably save that as a last resort.

    Riley’s written up the AVRdude settings and instructions for programing from Linux here. Check the settings in the Ubuntu section.
    http://www.synthetos.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_TinyG
    It looks like you have the settings right, though. Did you work from this example? Also, your board may have an xmega 192 instead of a 256. Try changing that setting to the 192 if so.

    I’m not really familiar with these as I always use AVRstudio4 to get my work done. If you haven’t done this already I’d recommend bringing up AVRstudio4 on your windows box and working from there. The IDE is a bit 1999, and it is Windows, but it works very reliably for me. I tried AVRstudio5 when it first came out but it had some bugs – especially in the programming sections. So I stuck with 4. It may be time to try 5 again.

    I hope this helps – let us know how it goes.

    in reply to: Board Reset/Profile Change #1455
    alden
    Member

    Chris, You will need the Atmel AVRISP mkII programmer or some other programmer that supports Atmel’s PDI protocol. The AVRISP programmer is available on Mouser for about $35. I thought we got you one – or you got one back when you were working on the sculpture with Taylor. I know he was able to program the board, so between you two you have one.

    in reply to: E-Stop #1578
    alden
    Member

    Sonny Jeon (Chamnit) is working on connecting an eStop to grbl. The challenge is doing this right with deceleration. I could ping him and find out how he’s done it, and how far along he is. BTW – you should grab his fork for your work. He’s done a really nice job on the cornering algorithm and a few other improvements.

    in reply to: Board Reset/Profile Change #1453
    alden
    Member

    Chris, Glad you are getting things up and running. The best thing to do at this point is to upgrade your firmware to the latest rev. There has been considerable work on various sections of the code. I’m planning on posting an update on the github later today with the latest. This will also restore “factory” settings. Do you do have one of the Atmel AVRISP mkii programmers? I can’t remember.

    At the current time there is no simpler way to restore the default settings, but it sounds like it would be nice to have a way to do this. Also, supporting multiple profiles is on the list, but not started. The data structures were designed for this, but I just haven’t implemented it yet.

    What I’d like to do is generate a set of defaults for the DIYLILCNC and include it in the machine profile .h files with the source code. At the least I could walk through your config and help come up with the right settings.

    I’ll be around today so you can get me on G+ or email and we can arrange a chat/call/hangout to walk through things if you like. – Alden

Viewing 15 posts - 646 through 660 (of 702 total)