Hey, guys. I just assembled my new X-Carve, however I seem to have hit a problem. I can’t get the stepper motors to respond. When I turn on the power, the fan whirls to life, the gShield and Arduino light up, and Easel on my Mac automatically recognizes that an X-Carve is attached. But when I test the motors through the Easel software, nothing happens. There’s no sound or motion indicating that they even received a signal from the motion controller. I checked all the wiring to make sure that no wires were crossed or touching. The gShield seems firmly attached to the Arduino.
Any suggestions? I’m not sure exactly how to isolate and test each component, such as checking if the motors work individually or if the gShield burned out somehow. I’d appreciate any ideas of how to trouble shoot. Thanks!
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If you move the x or y axis by hand does the corresponding light on the G Shield flicker?
Note that needs to be with the power off. 
Hi, Allen. Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, the green gShield lights turn on when I move the axes by hand.
Sounds like the motor wiring is connected correctly, Do you have power (2 wires) connected from the power supply to the G shield?
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I feel silly. The gShield was connected to the Arduino, but not all the way. Since the Arduino sat low in its plastic enclosure, I couldn’t visually confirm that the two were completely connected. I removed the Arduino from the enclosure and inserted the gShield pins about twice as deep as before. Everything works now. (I wonder if I was inserting the limit-switch pins instead of the normal, longer pins. Because of the enclosure blocking my view, I couldn’t see to know for sure.)
Let this be a reminder to others: Double-, triple-, quadruple-check that the gShield and Arduino are 100 percent connected.
Thanks to Allen and Tony for their responses.
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Morning - - - I had the same issue and unplugged and replugged in the components and everything is working now. Thank you for this post!
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Pinned and locking this topic because it seems to be a common problem.
Credit to @ChrisMcleod for the solution:
Make sure your gShield is connected all the way into your arduino! It can be a bit tricky when the arduino is in the enclosure. Just make sure that it it aligned correctly and pushed all the way down.
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