I am still in the process of installing the rotory axis on my Longmill 30x30 Mk2.5. I was hoping to be done yesterday but a loose pin in a stepper motor had me troubleshooting for hours.
I am ready to install the mounting plate for the rotary axis (i.e. the table setup) however when I try and move the machine to the front of the table no movement occurs. I can hear the stepper motors and I can see a very small movement in the screw but I think it is just torsional movement when the motor is energized. I have reviewed all of the install instructions and believe that I did everything right.
My current thought is to restore defaults in the firmware to put it back to its original 3-axis settings but I don’t think that this is right. I am using gSender ver 1.4.11 and followed all of the firmware instructions from the Vortex Installation guide.
Is there something that I am missing? Another loose pin
@gwilki All of the motors seem to be activated - audible humming sound followed by a single more audible clunking sound as if the brakes were put on. I tried the same movement multiple times in a row - the screw makes minute movements and then rotates backwards as if relieving torsional stress.
@DJButcher I’ll be able to look at my settings later this morning and post back. One quick thing. In the rotary tab, be sure to select 4th axis and not rotary.
@gwilki Much appreciated. It is set as “4th axis”. Is this somehow related to switching to metric as called for in the installation instructions? The movements are so small I am wondering if something is not being converted properly.
This seems a bit off to me. 800 steps per mm is a step every 0.00005 thou or 1/20 of 1 thou. The $103 value should be OK though as it is the value from the instructions.
@DJButcher I believe that’s what mine are. I’ll be able to check in about an hour. You may want to look at the slb tech manual to compare all your settings to the default values. Something my jump out at you.
Of interest, when I jog the router in gSender it does the full movement in the visualizer so it seems to think it is doing the right thing. It appears that the motors are receiving something different.
@DJButcher I apologize for the delay. Here are my settings that I believe are relevant to the issue:
$100-102 = 800
$103 = 79.012
$110-112 = 4000
$113 = 8000
$120 - 122 = 750
$123 = 1000
A couple of things to keep in mind. I’m in no hurry so my settings are likely more conservative than necessary. However, if you use these and they work, you will have a base to start from.
Finally, if all else fails you can enter $rst=$ in console. That will set the values to default. You will likely then need to make the changes set out in the instructions to the closed loop rotary hardware.
All my settings are the same.
I ran the $rst=$ script and got full functionality of the X,Y and Z axis.
I then changed the firmware settings as per the Vortex installation instruction.
I am back to square one of none of the axes working again.
When I reset the SLB after the changes I get a ‘homing’ prompt on the visualizer screen. An error briefly flashes up on console but then disappears. Red text starting with "Error 9…
After this there are no messages on the visualizer. However, the visualizer shows the probe moving even through the machine is not moving when I execute X,Y and Z movements.
I am still scratching my head on this. The software believes that the movement is happening but the machine seems to immediately cancel the movement after the signal is received.
I figured out how to see the error codes. This is the error that I get after I turn the SLB on after the vortex firmware changes. Does this mean anything? I do not have limit switches (or at least that I am aware of)
@gwilki here is my calibration page which shows ‘homing enabled’ but I am not aware that I can do this. This may be a completely separate issue but then again…
@DJButcher If you don’t have limit/homing switches, turn them off in firmware. As I recall, the rotary instructions may presume that we have switches. I do not either, so I have turned off all the firmware values that relate to them.
One thing, once you get this running as it should, be sure to export your firmware file someplace safe.
Edit. I think we are typing at the same time. I believe that there are more homing-related values.
Edit again: If all was well after entering $rst=$, what did you change when you changed the “firmware settings as per vortex instructions”?
I originally turned off X, Y and Z to match the image. I just turned them all on and can now move in all four axes. Yeah. I still get homing issues so I will still need to troubleshoot that.
Before I posted I tried disabling $22 (homing). I now get no start up errors and can move in all four axes.
I should now be able to proceed with mounting the unit to the table.
What is the best way to give feedback to Sienci Labs?
The image for ‘$4’ in the ‘Electronics - Closed Loop Motor’ section may be inaccurate or at least need some accompanying text (i.e. do not turn off X, Y and Z).
The instruction for ‘$22’ needs a note for users that do not have homing.
Thank you so much for your kindness and patience through this. I have certainly learned a lot more about the Longmill through our engagement.
@DJButcher You’re very welcome. I’m glad that you fought through the frustration and got things working.
As far as notifying Sienci, your best best is likely to open a support ticket. Even though you resolved your issue, it can’t hurt to bring your observations to their attention.
