Is it possible to operate the Altmill 4x4 without the inductive sensors?
Somewhere in my system there is a gremlin. It’s good too! Running version 1.6.1 gsender on windows 11.
Trying to reconfigure from the vortex rotary back to flat carving. Getting disconnected with Alarm 10. Only way to clear the alarm is holding shift and 2 at the same time.
Installed a fresh slb ext controller and emergency stop button, and same issues.
Once I cl ear Alarm 10 with shift 2 I can see the entire operating pages, configuration settings and other options. Jogging on the screen indicates fine but the motors are not getting power at all. SLB Ext has a white lite. Can run the spindle just fine.
Followed the troubleshooting guide. Used X axis to check control board sensor ports. All ports light up the sensor using the X connector on XY1 Y2 Z A and the door. For sure it’s software/firmware settings I’m missing. Waiting on new sensors but I
Thinking it’s a setting. Any help is great.
@Keithleatherwood Have you tried disabling soft and/or hard limits? But they’re there for a reason, so I wouldn’t recommend it during operation.
What issues are you having exactly? Can you home the machine?
Might be worth a shot reverting gsender settings back to default and giving that a try. I’ve never heard about shift + 2 as a bypass for the alarm, but thats interesting.
Also did you recently update to 1.6.1 along with flashing the new firmware (Build version 20260318)? If you updated the firmware, did you make sure you sent $RST=$ after the reset? my Altmill would throw an Alarm 10 (motor fault / reset E-stop.) after the firmware update until I sent $RST=$.
Also, there isn’t a need to revert the Vortex rotary settings when going back to flat carving. I keep my rotary settings enabled and just remove the Vortex connectors from my controller and cutting area.
Thanks for the help. Tried homing and also tried to disable hard and soft limits. Getting zero response from jogging inputs.
Steppers are not getting power at all. All screws are easily moved in both directions with finger and thumb.
No binding at all. Indications on gsender are absolutely perfect when I reset with shift 2. SLB ext controller has white light and no errors. Alarm 10 will not reset with the emergency stop. However it will reset with shift and 2 pressed simultaneously.
I have tried a new in the box controller, restarted, rebooted gsender. Reinstalled older versions of gsender and that was no help.
This all came from moving from the rotary back to flat carving.
It’s got to be something simple lol
Thanks. I’ve tried reset over and over each time. And I’ve never had an issue going from the vortex back to flat carving in the past. And vice versa. Always a smooth transition.
Flashing is my next move, but I do believe that’s not the fix., but I have nothing left to try. I do love a challenge but this one is whipping me hard.
And the shift 2 was a fluke find on my part. It will clear the Alarm 10 on the screen so you can look through All configurations and settings.
Just not positive it actually clears the Alarm in the trons.
I’m not following why you think the sensors are the problem? I’ve been having similar issues with my altmill after a rotary job. replaced the slb-ext and now seem to have a bad motor on the vortex, waiting on a replacement.
One of your motors might be having an issue also.
Here is also a set of things for you to try directly from Sienci themselves. if you haven’t found this documentation yet.
@Keithleatherwood We shouldn’t assume that you do it so I’ll ask…you disengage the estop (i.e. push and turn) when you get Alarm 10, right?
On startup. Power up the controller and Alarm 10 pops up. Always been the case. Resetting the Estop worked fine in the past. Now upon start up when the Estop is reset, the controller disconnects. Using the Ethernet connection and also tried the USB connection.
Next stop is isolating the motors I guess.
@Keithleatherwood Got it! For the SLB-EXT, it’s normal to reset the estop after a power cycle. It is designed that way.
As to why it is now disconnecting, I don’t know. For your Ethernet connection, is it just a cat5/6 cable from the computer to the SLB-EXT? Or are you connecting to your home network?
@Keithleatherwood I don’t know if this has anything to do with your issue, but are you using the closed-loop stepper in your vortex? If so, and if you are connecting it to the A axis driver on the SLB-ext, you should not be setting the rotary/4th axis slider to rotary. It stays in 4th axis and is not moved for flat work.
I’m connected straight from the computer to the controller.
@Keithleatherwood Do the Tx and Rx (transmit/receive) LEDs on the SLB both flash?
Yes. My vortex is closed loop. I removed the rotary cables and deselected the rotary in the configuration settings. Prior Xyz and A all accepted jogging commands.
@Keithleatherwood Thanks for setting me straight. I didn’t think that these settings had anything to do with your current issue. As I don’t have an Altmill and I don’t have limit switches on my LM, I am on no position to advise. To be clear, though, when you do resolve this, you should not be setting that slider to rotary. Doing so will mess with your eeprom settings.
Oh my my. It’s alive! Swapped the controller and estop with new in the box gear. Reconfigured to default settings with no positive results. Ruled out the controller.
Took the A stepper motor off and began swapping out steppers for fault chasing.
Good thing is I swapped the Z stepper out first. Did a power on and estop reset. And that was it…. Got super lucky on the first motor swap.
Thank you guys for the support and assistance.
Doing backflips lol
@Keithleatherwood thanks for reporting your success. I’ll close the topic.