If someone could toss a bone and tell me what I can do I have a c-beam type of machine using Grbl Panel arduino uno M335 drivers as soon as I try to run any program x,y,z run and max out in all directions {have not installed limit switches} yet all I can do is shut down power If someone could point me in the right direction I almost know nothing about cnc at this point it's scary to turn on...don't want to mess things up Thank to all that have any advice
Post your Grbl settings and a picture of your wire connections. If all directions run at once whenever you try a move, some setting is probably inverted or you're wired wrong.
Have you calibrated the steps per mm? Search CNC calibration. It sounds like your settings are wrong. Have you read the gnea/grbl ? It will tell you everything you need to know and when you run into a problem, It is a great reference
Thanks for pointing at gnea/grbl just didn't know where to look for a manual or any advice I built this and understand the workings now I have to school myself and get it going thanks for your reply
Jogging step by step each axis moves about an inch but when I try to test a nc file everything goes max z up, max y out and max x right looking into calibration settings just learning
Is there chance your gcode sender (Grbl panel) is set for inches rather than metric, but the file is in mm?
Giarc I believe you were right. I changed to mm and also changed my drivers to 1/16 and the machine slowed way down I really am finding my way through this in the dark Again I have arduino uno, m335 drivers and am using grbl panel everything seems to be running each drive jogs fine ... I have just finished installing and wiring limit switches Configuring the switches now If I could bother you with some questions I have no one to talk about this to -Hard limits / Soft limits Hard is where your drive hits the frame and Soft is backing it off just before the limit switch... Yes / No -Offsets / I believe it's off to the side of your work area to change bits... Yes / No -Can you point me to someplace to help me lock in a homing postion and explain how to lock in limits Been reading up on all this on github but having a hard time understanding it Many thanks to you guys who help out us beginners Thank you
no hard is when you use switches soft: you tell the software how far it may travel from the home position. hope this is correct
I would refer to this for hard and soft limits gnea/grbl. I do not currently use limit switches. I always start cutting in roughly the same location. I set my X0,Y0, and Z0 at that location, or on a work piece of known size. I have never had the need to worry about crashing because I do not push the boundaries of my machine since it is 665mm x 1270mm. I always put my gcode into a simulator (I use this web based one because I am too lazy to download one) to make sure things look right before starting. That being said, I just milled out a circuit board near the bottom of this page gnea/grbl, which uses optocouplers. I plan to finally wire up my limt/homing switches. They are installed, I just have never hooked them up because that seems to be a source of problems for many people. I wanted to make sure I knew how to use the machine really well before putting in an addition with a potential for problems. Also, I figure homing will be much more useful to me with my new laser build since you can't really use a touch plate with a laser.
