So just set up my new 4X4 Altmill. Followed instruction carefully and I am getting non-stop alarms⊠Getting very frustrated. can anyone help me out? First time CNCâer if you dont count the Shaper Origin.
Thanks
Hey Paul,
Sorry to hear you are getting stuck.
Can you elaborate a bit on the alarms, the version of gsender, the machine running the gsender software a d the way you connect that machine to the slb?
Maybe a few screenshots?
Non stop alarms isnt much to go on.
its the Altmill 4X4 MK2 with the SLB I am running g-sender 1.5.2
I have the console I bought from Scienci Labs and it is hooked up via provided USB. I checked all the wires and the limit switches are all in the new bump stops properly.
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I hope this answers everything like I said new at thisâŠOh and I also have the correct file type .gcode
Does the mill home correctly? Are the proper travel limits set?
In gSenderâs config section under Homing/Limits enable Homing if itâs not enabled and enter the appropriate maximum travel for the X, Y, and Z axes if you havenât.
When you get homing working you can home and then turn off soft limits while you take accurate measurements of the machines travel with the machine itself. You can do this by jogging all axes to the opposite end of the home position and gSender will be displaying the numbers you need for your maximum travels. Just go slow when your close to the end and stop just before you crash. Then you can turn soft limits back on.
The way soft limits work is by finding the start of an axis is by homing and then staying between 0 and the maximum travel for that axis.
You should be able to test this out without running a file. My sensors, homing and limits are all set up and working. After homing I can do a continuous jog and my LongMill will automatically stop just before it crashes.
Good luck, I hope some of this helps.
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Michael,
I have a question about this procedure that you outline here. My machine was doing the same thing initially. Constant tripping of the stop button and a 10 alarm. After I homed the machine, the issue no longer occurs. Do I need to go in and take these measurements and input them in the config page or should I leave well enough alone? Sorry, dont mean to hijack the thread but it seems to be that same issue that the OP was talking about.
thanks,
Tracy
Iâd check things out just to be safe. The soft limit could be set too far and you wonât have any problems with alarms but it wonât stop you from crashing on the end without the sensor.
You can check the current travel range after you home. Iâd do it one axis at a time, jogging to the other end. If you have soft limits enabled then one of two things will happen youâll either hit the soft limit and the mill wonât let you jog any farther or youâll hit the other end. Use precise mode to go slow at the end until you know itâs working. If your happy with how close it letâs you come to the end your done. If not then you can turn off the soft limits to measure with the mill or just measure and add that to the current maximum travel and test again.
I recently read a post where someone damaged the dust shoe because it hit on the Y rail. You could set the soft limit up with the shoe on and set the travel so it canât hit the rail.
If you use the dust shoe and it can hit itâs probably worth measuring with and without the shoe and storing the numbers somewhere. That way you can change the X Maximum depending on whether you using the shoe.
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Im going to go out and cut the bedâŠthen Ill give this a shotâŠthanks
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Michael,
Thanks for the response. I did this and set the X and Y Max travel and made sure the soft limits were enabled, according to your instructions. I run a program and it crashes into the front right stop fairly aggressively. I am running a Grid program to put a grid on my spoil board, just so you know what I am attempting. This uses the full area of my machine âSupposedlyâ .
Do the limits work when not running a program? And just to make sure, are you homing as the first thing you do after connecting with gSender?
Iâm not sure what else it could be. After you home are the machine coordinates at [0, 0, 0]? Those would be the gray smaller coordinates to the right of the blue workspace coordinates in gSender.
It might be worth checking out the AltMill Troubleshooting section in the docs if you havenât yet. There is also a page to double check your homing related settings here.
Donât be afraid to contact Sienci support if you canât get it figured out. I hear they actually respond and help their customers out!
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