Hi I have set up a black box controller on an old lasersaur. It has been working for over a year now, but occasionally it stops burning in the middle of a fill job with an x$ error. It is very very annoying I have installed the open builds end stops, earthed the shielded wires going to the end stops, added snap on graphite blocks but it still fails randomly. Can anyone suggest a solution please. Aaron
Specifically, which error (code and text) , or even better a screenshot - would allow us to help you locate the cause. Without it, there are too many possibilities
The $X message you selected and highlighted? That's not an "$ error" as you referenced earlier, Grbl enters "locked" mode when it resets/reboots/exits an alarm - it locks it to ensure you as an operator remembers to rehome, or - if you accept the risks - unlocks the machine without homing. That is what that message tells you: See Grbl v1.1 Commands · gnea/grbl Wiki - have a read through the whole Grbl wiki to understand the messages Higher up, we can see a Hard Limits alarm, which means either your machine ran into a Limit switch, or you are experiencing a false Limits trigger caused by EMI docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] or a faulty limit switch - that is the actual error - always refer to history leading up to any errors you don't understand - logs help you trace the stack of events that lead up to it.
Thanks for the explanation, but what more can I do to supress EMI? It is really effecting the jobs I can do.
Have you worked through the FAQ page linked above: EMI is quite easy to address - spacing limits wiring away from EMI sources, using filtered switches (Are you using ours, or the old Lasersaur magnetic switches with no filtering) and all the other tips in the FAQ page linked above What have you tried? Hard to tell you what more, without knowing what's already been tried
Thanks for replies. I am using the open builds end stops. I have installed one graphite block on each wire of the endstops. I have earthed the sheilding on the end stop cables. I have rerouted the cables so signal and power cables are as far apart as possible, and every thing else is earthed individually. What more can a person do? Cheers Aaron
Are you using smoke extraction? If so, is the hose earthed (Same as the Dust Extraction section of docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] ) Is the laser's High Voltage PSU, High voltage wiring, return wire, milliamp meter (if used) etc well clear of low voltage electronics? Should be Ferrite. Is it installed near the switch (wrong) or near the controller (right)? have you seperated Stepper Motor wiring too - also a big source of EMI (See docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] )
