Zootalaws

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Viewing 15 posts - 76 through 90 (of 124 total)
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  • in reply to: Bluetooth Serial Dongle? #10704
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Many years down the track…

    I am currently implementing 2.4GHz WiFi connection to enable Chilipeppr / Serial comms via an ESP8266 or ESP32-based wireless serial bridge, if anyone is interested. If it’s already been done, let me know and I’ll cease development.

    The specific product I’m using is a WeMos D1 mini, but I have a bunch of old esp chips of various vintages around that, once I have the solution nailed, will try out in case there are any variances.

    The nice part is that the TinyG provides more than enough power through the 3.3V output at the serial connector to power the thing and it’s easy enough to blob it on to the top of the USB connector with a spot of hot-glue if you are comfortable with bush finish 🙂 Of course I will end up soldering it properly with a protoboard and mounting it with PCB offsets (cough)…

    in reply to: Arcs incorrect #10285
    Zootalaws
    Member

    That looks like one axis is calibrated wrong.

    So, a move +2 x units, for example, is only moving +1.5, while Y is moving +2

    Have you calibrated each axis?

    in reply to: Motors make noise, no movement #10279
    Zootalaws
    Member

    In my experience, if your motors are energising and cannot be turned, but just make a buzzing noise, it’s because your output power is too low.

    Just as an experiment, turn the adjuster to its furthest point. It won’t hurt as your motors aren’t driving a load.

    There is a way of adjusting output power using a multimeter, but I’m on my phone and can’t be arsed to look for it right now

    PS, it could also be incorrect wiring – worth checking the spec sheet for your motors against your wiring.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: Two motors attached to a single stepper output #10173
    Zootalaws
    Member

    You can also add a second driver and motor.

    Just take the signal feeds and get your power from your transformer.

    Same signal, so in lock-step, dual power so no overloading of the Tiny and full power to the steppers rather than half. Still need to reverse the power for one motor manually.

    You can balance the motors quite easily by coupling them (a piece of plastic tubing works). By utilising the brake on one motor, have the other step in 1:1 single step increments, if it’s unable to overcome the braked motor, adjust the power until it can, then reverse your test. It’s crude but reasonably accurate.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: TinyG Motor/LED Cutout #10118
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Can you use a different method than chilipeppr and get the same result?

    If you connect through a serial comma programme (coolterm, etc.) what response do you get when you jog?

    If you connect a different motor to axis 4, does it work ok?

    in reply to: TinyG Fan max current #10112
    Zootalaws
    Member

    What current does the fan you have draw?

    in reply to: Looking for bootloader commands to update FW #10108
    Zootalaws
    Member

    If you issue the command ‘upgrade tinyg firmware’ into google using your web browser, it should return a result pointing to a webpage “TinyG Updating Firmware” – go and have a look at that, it’s quite useful, as is “TinyG Boot Loader”

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: 2nd TinyG and X limit switch input and SpON not working?! #10101
    Zootalaws
    Member

    You could just use a simple contact switch just to get you going – get a length of shielded twisted pair Ethernet cable (cheap as buggery) to run and you should be fine for interference.

    I started with cheap contact switches from a stripped-down 3D printer and never replaced them, because they worked fine and never glitched. I bought a bunch of optical switches – they’re still in their packet, unopened.

    And before you blow up another Tiny, make an opto-electrical isolation board to run all of your external voltages through. 🙂 #hindsightoftheboltedhorse

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Zootalaws.
    • This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: Text Verbosity and other commands #10100
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Plus one on both CoolTerm and Chilipeppr.

    Teraterm is what we use at work, but anyone that can get away with it loads CoolTerm: http://freeware.the-meiers.org

    Maybe one thing to look at is whether you have modified TeraTerm in any way from stock – given that we aren’t seeing the problem you are seeing, it’s much more likely to be your local environment than hard-coded firmware.

    And Chilipeppr is just so cool anyway 🙂 worth it just for the buzz!

    in reply to: Text Verbosity and other commands #10096
    Zootalaws
    Member

    I’m not sure what you mean by ‘two prompts’, can you elaborate?

    This page explains all the commands in some detail, including $tv : https://github.com/synthetos/TinyG/wiki/TinyG-Configuration-for-Firmware-Version-0.97

    Do you require more detail on a specific command, other than $tv – which is simply to turn verbosity on and off, or… how much info is returned from a command: abbreviated or full message.

    Enter a command with it turned off and then turned on and you can see the difference

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: Text Verbosity and other commands #10094
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Have you looked at the documentation on the GitHub pages?

    https://github.com/synthetos/TinyG/wiki/Gcode-Support

    in reply to: TinyG2 pinout diagram questions #10076
    Zootalaws
    Member

    M1vref is motor 1 voltage reference, used for tuning your motor power,

    M2ms0’is motor 2 microstepping pin 0
    M4ms1 is motor 4 microstepping pin 1

    microstepping is set in binary, so pin 0 + pin1:

    00 – 0
    01 – 1
    10 – 2
    11 – 3

    in reply to: 2nd TinyG and X limit switch input and SpON not working?! #10069
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Dr:bs

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Zootalaws.
    • This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Zootalaws.
    in reply to: 2nd TinyG and X limit switch input and SpON not working?! #10068
    Zootalaws
    Member

    Or even more easily/safely with an optical-coupled mosfet, such as in an ssr.

    Small SSRs are wonderful things 🙂

    Oops… edit: I see SSRs were already mentioned. My bad.

    in reply to: tinyG flashing SpDir led #10066
    Zootalaws
    Member

    You can check runout off the machine – it may be that your ‘wobble’ is coming from any or all of a number of places: the bearings in the spindle, a cheap collet or a less-than-straight bit. Wobble isn’t really an artefact of the router gantry, unless the gantry is loose or the spindle mount is loose.

    If the spindle isn’t straight in its mount, or if the gantry isn’t square, there won’t necessarily be any wobble, but the cut won’t be 100% perpendicular. My first build didn’t exhibit unacceptable runout at the tip of the bit, but it was clear that the cut wasn’t 100% perpendicular – easy enough to check, just plunge some holes using a small bit and the hole, viewed from above, will be slightly oval.

    With runout, the hole will be larger than the bit, as the runout will be likely to be equal throughout 360deg. Easily checked by pushing the bit through the hole by hand – it should be a friction fit.

    If the runout is more to one side, that’s more indicative of a problem with accuracy of the mount.

    Does that make sense?

    You don’t mention what spindle you are using.

    I’ve used a few, from a cheap Chinese air-cooled to a more expensive Chinese water-cooled with Japanese bearings to a German air-cooled. They all exhibit ‘some’ runout, but the water-cooled and German spindles were negligible for my application, which was cutting ply and mdf – I got more tear-out from the bit than I got inaccuracy from the runout.

    I make audio devices and have been contracting out the cutting of my faceplates (by laser), but with more practice cutting alloy (to get the rate and feed right), I would be confident that my German spindle, with the right bit, would give me an acceptable result.

    But, I would be wary of cutting precision-fit components down to small fractions of a mm. Within half a mm is well within spec of what I need.

    If your runout is less than the accuracy you need, it’s acceptable.

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Zootalaws.
Viewing 15 posts - 76 through 90 (of 124 total)