[FIXED] Cannot connect to X-Carve (Mac or Windows)

Actually, you said that you tried to run blink. Does that mean that you have the Arduino IDE loaded on your PC? It has a serial monitor we could use.

Just as a guess, some people have had issues with the USB connection. If you have a powered USB hub try plugging your Arduino into the powered hub and that might solve the problem.

Yes, I have the app from the Arduino website installed on my Mac and Win10 machines

I don’t have any powered USB hubs. Just the USB plugged straight into the computer

Ok, try to bring up the Arduino IDE and look at the top right corner there should be a magnifying glass icon. That is the serial monitor.

Check under the Tools menu item to make sure that you have the Arduino Uno selected and the COM port for the Arudino selected.

Press the magnifying glass and the serial monitor should come up.

If everything is Ok and the USB cable is plugged into the Arduino you should get a message from grbl telling you the version number. If you don’t, unplugged the USB cable and plug it back in.

Enter the command $$ in the serial monitor window and grbl should list out its parameters. Copy that output and post it here.

  • Plugged in USB and turned on X-Carve power supply
  • Opened Arduino on Mac
  • Clicked Magnifying icon
  • Nothing listed, tried plugging USB into other ports. (when I plug the USB into the Mac, the green LEDs flicker once and I hear the stepper motors make a “click” noise

Still just shows:

The green LEDs should be on. Where did you get the grbl hex file to load into the Arduino?

Make sure that the gShield is plugged into the Arduino with the mounting pins lined up. It’s very easy to plug it in with the pins mis-aligned.

At the bottom of the serial monitor window change the “No line ending” to “Newline”.

It appears that you are having com port issues. Is there a way on the Mac that you can check the health and properties of the COM port?

When you changed ports, did you update the IDE?

The values in this output are not correct for the X-carve, but just show the type of display you should get.

followed this: https://inventables.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/2069033-grbl

for getting Grbl back on

After changing “No line ending” to “Newline” it still does nothing in Arduino app.

When I tried to use that .hex file it would not work for me.

What I did was follow the link to the source files;

When I did this it worked.

Just came home for lunch break in an attempt to call Inventables, but the nice receptionist said all techs were busy so I had to leave a callback number.

@LarryM I just followed your steps (from my slow PC) and was able to do those steps to get Grbl uploaded. I then quit the Arduino app, opened Firefox and went to Easel Setup, and I got one step further!

After clicking Confirm Settings, putting in the port number (doing this from the PC for now) it now says “Configuring Z axis for ACME…”

But now it’s been sitting on this screen for a while. I also heard of people with Firefox problems, so I opened the setup in Chrome and had the same results

Also, as previously requested, I now could do the $$ command in the Arduino app and got the below code:

Grbl 0.9j ['$
Grbl 0.9j ['$' for help]
['$H'|'$X' to unlock]
$0=255 (step pulse, usec)
$1=255 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=255 (step port invert mask:11111111)
$3=255 (dir port invert mask:11111111)
$4=1 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=1 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=1 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=255 (status report mask:11111111)
$11=2147483.648 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=2147483.648 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=1 (report inches, bool)
$20=1 (soft limits, bool)
$21=1 (hard limits, bool)
$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=255 (homing dir invert mask:11111111)
$24=2147483.648 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=2147483.648 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=255 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=2147483.648 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=2147483.648 (x, step/mm)
$101=0.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=0.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=2147483.648 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=0.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=0.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=2147483.648 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=0.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=0.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=2147483.648 (x max travel, mm)
$131=0.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=0.000 (z max travel, mm)
ok

Edit: Just tried on Mac. Get the same results. Can now do $$ in Arduino and get a response, and Easel Setup now gets to the Configuring Z axis for ACME… step

Still no green LEDs on, though

Good. We’re talking to the Arduino now. The parameters are all garbage.

Enter the command $RST=$

This will reset the values in EEPROM to the settings that Inventables uses for the X-carve.

Re-post the $$ settings after this is done so we can see if it worked.

Grbl 0.9j ['$' for help]
['$H'|'$X' to unlock]
$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=0 (dir port invert mask:00000000)
$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=0.010 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=0 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=500.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=250.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=250.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=250.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=500.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=500.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=500.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=10.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=10.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=10.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=200.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=200.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=200.000 (z max travel, mm)
ok

Ok, these are not exactly correct, but should be close enough to see if you can now get the three green LEDs on.

And try Easel setup again.

I don’t have the 3 green LEDs on solid. but… was able to do Easel Setup! that’s a nice feeling to finally see the machine moving!

So are there settings in that need changing (already online that I can read?) for it to work right?

Give me the $$ readout one more time and I’ll see if Easel corrected the values.

My test carve isn’t going too well, but at least the computer is communicating with the machine:

$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=0 (dir port invert mask:00000000)
$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=0.010 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=500.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=250.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=250.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=188.976 (z, step/mm)
$110=500.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=500.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=500.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=10.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=10.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=10.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=790.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=790.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=200.000 (z max travel, mm)
ok

I would make these changes to the grbl settings. You can do it in the Arduino IDE serial monitor.

This assumes that you have the ACME threaded rod for your Z axis.
Also, assumes that you HOME your machine and that the home position is X left, Y front, Z top.

$20 is soft limits - I recommend it, but you can run without it. It keeps your machine from breaking the homing switches and keeps the spindle from going outside the work area as long as your Arduino is working right.

$1=255
$11=0.050
$20=1
$100=40.000
$101=40.000
$110=5000.000
$111=5000.000
$120=250.000
$121=250.000
$122=50.000
$132=100.000

Read this information when you get a chance.

Thanks so much @LarryM, you’ve been an amazing help!

I’m going to wrap this post up as the main issue is now resolved, so will start a new thread with my next issues, since already having them! haha.

Can’t wait for it to be all dialed in!

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The short answer is that he had a corrupt version of the grbl firmware on the Arduino complicated by bad information in the Arduino EEPROM, complicated by a bad .hex file and/or Xloader on the Inventables website.

Solution was to re-flash the Arduino, re-load the grbl parameters, and make corrections to the grbl parameters for his machine.

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Thanks @LarryM for running with this.

Glad you are up and running @michaywood

Happy carving!

@michaywood

Just curious. Now that we have the grbl software setup, are the three green LEDs on most of the time now?

most the time, yes! @LarryM

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