3018 pro Z carves 1/3 of distance

X and Y work fine. Measurements that I input in easel.
Z I had set it to carve 10mm but it’s only gone down 3mm (approx).
Rest of it all perfect bar the depth of the carving.
Newly built cnc but been reading for a while so should be able to trouble shoot with some help.

You can either play with your stepper drivers microstepping values or adjust the GRBL $102 parameter which define steps/mm.

ok, i should be able to adjust the $102, but not sure about adjusting the microstepping values. Any link or description on how to do that? Thanks

Before you adjust anything, when you use the jogging controls to move the Z up and down, does it move the expected amount? How did you home the Z to start the carve? 3mm movement from a 10mm expected depth sounds like other than just a calibration issue.

Did the 3018Pro come with a user-manual?
Microstep setting is usually set by arranging a set of microswitches on the driver itself.

1 Like

If you were to measure I am reasonably sure you’d measure 2,5mm.
=> any scaling by factors of half/double or increments there of => microstep would be my first point of focus.

The purpose of microstep is not to increase resolution, but to smooth out axis motion.
Ideally you would want fullstep (1/1 microstep) but it will sound rough, so add the amount of sub-step required to smooth it out. For instance 1/4 - 1/8step.
Holding torque also drop at increased microstep settings.

Once you have found your “minimum microstep setting” you fine-calibrate by recalculating each axis step/mm value ($100=X, $101=Y and $102=Z)

1 Like

thanks everybody for the suggestions.
I adjusted the value of $102 to be the same as 100 and 101 and it started measuring properly.
Thanks