I put in a request to Inventables support yesterday—no word back yet.
I do not see green lights on the GShield. Just a blue one.
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Have you tried using UGS to see if you can move the machine? I was having issues connecting to Easel (couldn’t get the machine to connect via COM3), but then I used UGS to verify my machine was able to be operated correctly. It turned out that my computer was too old (running Windows XP) and I couldn’t update Firefox enough to get it to work with Easel. After I upgraded to Windows 7, I was able to download Chrome to run Easel.
Hi Mark, Do you hear any noise at all when you are trying to jog the motors? The reason I ask is that I am having almost the same issue as you but my X and Y motors make a slight humming sound when I click the approprate jog arrow but the gantry doesn’t move at all. I’ve tried adjusting the pots also - no luck. Also, my Z axis motor seems to be getting more power but it seems to be making more of a grinding noise whereas the other motors just give a faint hum.
Ok. No green lights means:
the gShield is not plugged in properly, or
the Arduino is not talking to the gShield, or
the stepper motors have wiring problems, or
you have a bad gShield.
Since you can flash the Arduino with grbl and grbl responds to commands then it appears that the Arduino is working properly.
Try this test: with Putty (doesn’t work with UGS because UGS will not send the ? command)
Change the status report mask to 19 ( $10=19 )
Issue the ? command to get a status report
This should cause grbl to give you the Machine Position, the Work Position and the status of the homing switches ( LIM=000).
Press one of the homing switches by hand and then do the ? command again. You should see a change, I think the order is ZYX so if you press the Z homing switch you should see LIM=100. Try the other axis switches.
This will tell us if the gShield is passing the homing switch setting to the Arduino and whether or not the Arduino can read them.
Because you have not homed or zeroed your machine the Machine Position and Work Position values will be meaningless.
Thanks for all the help. I had to move the machine and finally found the time to try to get it working. But I’m backpedaling—now I can’t even connect to the Arduino via Putty. Windows’ “Devices and Printers” shows the Arduino at COM3, but even with identical settings (for baud rate, etc…), Putty doesn’t connect. I’m at a loss. This is a useless machine, and now I don’t even know which parts are busted.
OK, I couldn’t use Putty for this test (checking the limit switches), but I got it to work in the Arduino IDE’s “Tools->Serial Monitor” feature. Here’s what the “Lim” code is for each of my limit switches:
x: 000
y: 001
z: 010
Since this seemed wrong, I checked the continuity of each of the wires of the limit switches, and they are all fine (<1 ohm). X is left-most pin, correct?
Maybe not coincidentally, when I try to upload the eeprom_clear program, all I get is the “avrdude: ser_open(): can’t open device “\.\COM3”: Access is denied.” error.
So, really, what is wrong here?
I believe that the LIM report order is ZYX. Since the Z axis moves to the switch first in the homing sequence, the X and Y won’t move until Z trips the switch. If you didn’t “trip” any switch then the LIM value should be “000” with normally open switches. So, with Z tripped LIM should be “100”. With Y tripped you should see “010”, and X would be “001”. With all switches tripped LIM is “111”.
Do the status request (?) to get the resting value. Then press one of the switches, hold it, and do the ? command again to see if it changes the LIM value. If not then the Arduino is not seeing that switch.
There have been many reports of intermittent USB connections. Some people have solved this problem by using a powered USB hub.
That’s what I did earlier, and those are the reported LIM flags. I suspect I may have burned out one of my limit switches while soldering, though the instructions aren’t very clear (or correct) about which pins on the gShield correspond with which limit switches.
But I’m not concerned about the limit switches now. I just want to be able to jog the gantry or otherwise show that either the Arduino or gShield is bad, or to determine what other part of my assembly is failing.
I’ll report back with whatever conclusion I can get with Inventables.
The problem has been resolved by a replacement gShield board from Inventables. I’m ready to carve now. Thanks for all of your help, folks!
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I’m sorry for the stupid question here, but being a brand new user I’m having the same issue - power light won’t come on & none of the motors respond (I got a little twitch from the Y and Z but then it stopped). (using Mac)
What is the Arduino & G-shield?
What lights are you talking about that should light up if you manually move the axes?
Thanks
I just realized this is for a different build than mine, I have an X-Controller.
Apologies