Dan and Allen's X-Controller Experiences

And got it! Sorry about the delay.

    Grbl 1.0b ['$' for help]
$$
$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=255 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=3 (dir port invert mask:00000011)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=3 (status report mask:00000011)
$11=0.020 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$20=1 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=3 (homing dir invert mask:00000011)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=750.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$30=1. (rpm max)
$31=0. (rpm min)
$100=40.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=40.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=188.976 (z, step/mm)
$110=8000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=8000.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=500.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=500.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=500.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=50.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=500.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=500.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=100.000 (z max travel, mm)

I realize that my soft limits here are a lot smaller than my working area, I have them reset for the programs I’m running now that take only about 13" square in the lower-left corner.

Thank you, Dan.

This is interesting. These are the same as in the gShield!

gShield uses TI DRV8818 drivers rated at 2.5A peak (theoretical max, with lots of cooling). Stock gShield has none.
X-Controller uses TB6600 drivers rated at 5A peak and carries a brick of a heatsink.

And still GRBL restricts X-Controller’s rapids at gShield levels. This is a blasphemy. A Fiat’s settings were copied inside a Ferrari :slight_smile:

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It is more like they put a Ferrari engine in a Fiat and had to keep the Fiat settings because it would break the drive shaft of the Fiat to use the Ferrari settings. :wink:

All in all this is still a controller that will most likely retro fit on a lot of machines that have a 24v spindle and no stiffening mods, so it makes sense to ship it defaulted to the max of what the gShield does.

Yeah, I suspect if they ran much faster than that, they’d start skipping belt teeth or something else odd. :laughing:

I actually don’t even run them that fast most of the time, not because of the X-Carve, but because throwing the gantry around that fast causes the crappy table I have mine sitting on to start wobbling rather alarmingly!

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Your analogy was better :smiley:

Oh, I do plan to stiffen this thing up. As I wrote to a fellow forum member who offered to cut V-Slot compatible Y plates for me, I may have done zero cuts so far as my X-Carve is waiting for its X-Controller, but I have done almost a year’s worth of homework. Yesterday I was looking for local 6061 and 7075 outlets and designing in my head plates that are MakerSlide & V-Slot & C-Beam compatible and capable to be driven by either belt or leadscrew.

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Speaking of… I just posted about my quick 30min stiffening mod that I did today. Nothing as elaborate as your plans, but it gets the job done for now and it keeps me carving. :wink:

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The 30 minute mode is absolutely the way to go, it’s cheap and simple (and fast), and you can always go with the “beefier” one later if you need to.
I did the 30 minute mod as soon as I read the post, not sure I had even cut anything with my machine yet.

-Kelly

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It doesn’t appear that the X-contoller has a provision for hooking the shield wires to anything.

Do you just ignore the shielding with the X-controller and if so how is that working out?

I do not have the 4 wire shield connected to anything (just stripped it back). So far I have not seen any evidence of electrical noise.

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I have not bothered grounding the shielding either, I also just stripped it back. I have had no noise trouble at all. If I understand correctly, they added quite a lot of filtering to the X-Controller than the standard G-Shield does not have to compensate for the noise issues.

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What they said. Still running super smooth here as well.

I have made a custom X-Controller and all shields are now connected to the AC ground. 3 shields for the motors and 3 shields for home switches.

Do you have photos of this device?

Photos coming soon. At the moment there is caos in the box. Working on soldering all the internal contacts. Using Aviator XLR panel mounting connectors.

Haven’t seen anything on the A.C. relay box since the October unveiling.

Please feed us some info.

The AC relay box is great!

You get two relay controlled 110V outlets. The removable connector on the back of the box has a three screw down connectors one for the each of the 5V DC control signals and a common ground. There are also two green LED’s that turn on when the relay is energized.

I have relay1 connected to the spindle control, since I am using the Dewalt 611 all the controller can do is turn it on and off. So a gcode command of S100 M3 will cause the X-Controller to raise the spindle output to 5V which activates the relay and sends 110V to the 611. An M5 or M30 will turn the spindle off.

I have relay 2 connected to my dust collector. At first I was just letting the X-Controller turn it on at the start of a job and then turn it off when the job completed (like the spindle). I am using the Aux 1 output from the X-Controller to control the Dust Collector so a Gcode command of M07 will turn it on and M09 will turn it off. I edited the Vcarve postprocessor to add M07 to the initial block and M09 to the final block.

This worked pretty well, expect there were many times when I just wanted to turn the suction to clean up after the job was done. Or turn the DC on for other tools in the shop.

So I added a separate 5V power supply and a double pole/double throw toggle switch.so I can put the DC in “Auto” mode where the X-Controller turns it on and off or I can flip the toggle switch to “ON” and the 5V supply is connected to the relay input and the DC will turn on. Or I can set the switch to the middle position and the DC is “OFF” and the X-Controller cannot turn it on.

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Awesome!

Any chance that there is a release date/window? :smiley:

I’ve been using mine with no changes since I first installed it, still using it to operate the router with the X-Controller spindle input set up to trip the relay. Works exactly like you would expect and hope, which is to say that it’s completely ignorable. Set it up, plug everything in, and you no longer have to worry about powering up your spindle at all. I consider an accessory like that - where I can simply ignore it entirely - to be ideal!

I still need to add the manual-on switch to mine, that would be REALLY handy and I could then re-connect my dust collector! I had it on the relay initially, using flood coolant to cycle it. Ended up pulling it back to wall power, though, so I could use it for clean-up tasks as well. Adding the manual control switch neatly fixes that, just need to get around to actually DOING it. :smiley:

If one of the advantages of the higher amps on the X controller is using the higher amp rated 260 oz NEMA 23s, does the height limitation on the z axis steppers (not to mention the extra weight) mean you can only take advantage of the higher end steppers on the X and Y?

The Z axis does not really benefit from a larger more powerful motor. So I would not try to mount anything larger than the NEMA 23 on the Z axis.