I need help!!!
My Setup:
1 x CNC xPRO V2 Controller Stepper Driver
1 x C-Beam Machine Mechanical Bundle
(Option: With (3) Nema 23 Stepper Motors)
24v 15a P/S
Grbl Panel V1.0.9.15

Link to video with test run to show that jogging the machine seems fine and the axis' sound good but running a test with gcode produces odd sounds that I assume are not good.


Pics of GRBL settings included


Gcode I am running
G17 G20 G90 G94 G54
G0 Z0.25
X-0.5 Y0.
Z0.1
G01 Z0. F5.
G02 X0. Y0.5 I0.5 J0. F2.5
X0.5 Y0. I0. J-0.5
X0. Y-0.5 I-0.5 J0.
X-0.5 Y0. I0. J0.5
G01 Z0.1 F5.
G00 X0. Y0. Z0.25

 

How do I do that?

 

Does anyone have a Guided Build Sheet for the Plate Maker? It's a tad difficult when computer is in one part of the house and build in process is in another.

 

Have been doing some milling or lets say huge amount of milling yay and now i see my Z gantry plate is wobbly... anyone else who has this frequently? Do you completely disassemble the z gantry or just screw it tighter without disassembly? And is there a way to prevent this?

 

I had noticed this as well. In my case it turned out that the eccentric spacers had slipped a bit. For now I've reset them and made sure that the nuts are tight, but am considering, the next time it occurs, putting some threadlocker blue in the hole in the plate that the eccentric spacer shafts go into... what I am hoping is that it provides enough friction that the spacers don't rotate. I'm using the XL configuration, so I may also put some into the threaded holes that hold the Z gantry plate to the X gantry plate.

Has anyone tried using threadlocker to keep the eccentrics from spinning?

 

Hey guys, i got some serious problems with my c-beam. So i made plenty of good cuts, no problems at all. Untill recently... i made a file from a svg (as all my files are) and made it in easel (easy to use) exported the gcode to use it with my c-beam. When i start cutting, i noticed that the size of my cut is not at all the same is i've drawn it. it's bigger? Checked my drawing file and it's 23cm x 23cm yet tries to cut at 28cm? Also when i went to restart the job, it starts and then just stops mid cut...? could it be my mobo thingy? I'm using the xpro V3 controller stepper driver. i need some help cause it's been some baaaad juju...

 

I’m doing my first build and all is going well, but I do have a couple of questions.

First, not sure I know how to adjust the Anti-Backlash Nut Block. How far in does the set screw go? Is this something I will need to adjust later? Also, the screw rod is very tight, I’m assuming that will loosen with time and use.

In building the Z actuator, the instructional video calls for sanding the ends of the screw rod to allow for the bearing to slide on easily. However, the bearings seem to go on easy without resistance and there is already a little play which has me concerned. It doesn’t seem that I need to sand the ends. Was their another reason for doing it that I missed?

 

Some of Leadscrews are very tight and won't slide into the bearings and this is to alleviate the issue. As far as being sloppy, you might want to try a different bearing if you have one available. If not I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you have the 8mm washer with the 8mm Endstop adjusted properly. The Anti-Backlash Nut should fit snuggly to start with the Adjustment Screw just touching the inside face and is there to tighten up later on when slop is introduced into the systems axis. I actually had a Leadscrew that no matter what I did wouldn't slide into a bearing and I bought a dozen of them at once. I eventually had to press the bearing on and my system works perfectly.

 

Great! Thanks for the quick turnaround.

 

Well, I'm glad your day is going well. I blew up my controller yesterday when I tried to unplug it. Do yourself a favour, when you make your control box. Make sure you encase all of the connections with a protective coating so that you don't have the same issue. Also, the Inputs for your wall power supply should have a fastening system that actually screws into the box instead of relying on a compression fit along with everything else that passes through the housing.

 

The play that exists will cause some "clicking" at times. I took care of this by wrapping the end of the lead screw (where it fits in the bearing) with teflon tape. It shouldn't hurt anything to leave it, but the clicking was annoying so I disassembled and added the teflon tape.

 

Good to know; I think I will do that. Assuming nothing unforeseen I should have it working this weekend.

 

One important thing to remember is to make sure all of your structural connections are square. I used a Framing Square to ensure they were.

 

Thank you for all the details of this magnificent looking build.
I have a couple of questions in relation to upsizing this platform just a little bit.

I have a few meters of C-Beam and 2 1605 Ball screws that I want to use. The ball screws are at 500mm each long. Do you foresee any issue on increasing the size of this platform to go to 450x450 and still have the single ball screw for the Y axis under the build plate?

 

You might take a look at Metalguru's Improved CBM

He added some "outrunners" for the y-axis. He also used c-beam for the X-axis supports (instead of 20x60) which might work well for the parts you have on hand.

 

Anything over stock will need support on the Y axis as the deflection while cutting can cause issues

450x450 table maybe a problem on a 500mm C Beam actuator unless you raise the bed 10-20mm so it misses the stepper at the back and position the spindle further back

320mm is about the max bed on a 500mm actuator

My double wide CBeam

 

Thank you for that. I have looked at this and would prefer to keep closer to the size of the C-Beam Plate, but somehow use the 1605 ball screws. I am soon coming to realise that the 1605 ball screw is just way too big for a small CNC machine. The Ball assembly is too large to fit in the 4080 profile. Am wondering now what I can put these 1605 ball screws for now.

 

Hi - just finished my build and although I am using a different controller I found the information contained in the video to this link to be very helpful: GrblAIO – 3DTek l have unusual noises to start with and adjusting the current limit and tightening the parts solved it to a degree.

I note in the video that you are using possibly a 55mm motor in the open builds 72mm spindle mount. How did you make your shim?

 

I just got the C-Beam and its all assembled. I'm using a smoothie board. When I did the Hello World gcode from the examples the size is off. Its not even close to 250mm wide or 130mm tall. I set the step/mm to 199.1 per the build page grbl file.
Also I just realized my smoothie board is only rated at 2A for the steppers and the NEMA 23s that came with it are 2.8A. Would running the motors at 2A cause the odd sizing?

Any pointers as to what to look at for the travel issue?

 

It's possible you are getting missed steps though you should hear something that indicates the motors aren't running correctly.More likely it's microstepping or gearing ratios - config issues.

 

The controller is set to mm. I don't have any gears. I didn't calculate the steps/mm value, I used the open from Open Builds (199.1). When I calculate the value from something like RepRap Calculator - Prusa Printers I get 1600 or 3200 depending on the microstepping value (1/16 or 1/32). That seems a far different value than the one provided. Does that seem right?

 

By gearing, I meant exactly that - starts/pitch. I'd work through the math myself rather than use a calculator just to understand it 100%. A simple experiment - jog 100 mm and measure it. That will give you a clue about what's wrong.

 

Motor on the back says its step angle is 1.8 degrees (360/1.8=200 steps per rev). Smoothie docs says the microsteps is 1/32. The pitch according to OpenBuilds Part Store is 2mm. (200*32)/2 = 3200 steps/mm.
So I put in 3200 as the steps/mm then said move 10mm and it moved about 40. (3200*10)/40 = 800 step/mm. (side note the y axis had no issue, but on a longer move the x made loud noise).
So I put in 800 as the steps/mm then said move 100mm and it moved about 112. (800*100)/112 = 712.3 step/mm. (no odd noises)
So I put in 712.3 as the steps/mm then said move 100mm and it moved about 100mm. Based on this my microstep is about 1/7 which seems really odd to me.

Does this make sense to anyone that the microstepping would be so far off of the documentation? I'm wondering if my microseconds_per_step_pulse value could be off.

UPDATE: microseconds_per_step_pulse was set to 10, smoothie docs say the default is 1 so I reset it to 1. Repeated the steps/mm and get 396steps/mm (~1/4).

 

The lead is 8 on the 8 mm screws - you used pitch. I'd guess both that and microsteps are off. Still the 712.3 vs 800 is troubling - some lead screws have been slightly off but not that much. Missed steps, maybe.

 

That will teach me to use the wrong formula. I think I must have the "old" smoothie board that is set to 1/16 so mine being close to 400 (396) isn't too bad.

 

Stepper driver ratings question. My smoothie board is only rated to 2A per driver. The NEMA 23 motors from my C-Beam are 2.8A peak. The xPro board looks to only be rated to 2.5A per driver and they didn't use external drivers in the example that I could tell. How close to the motor's peak amperage does the driver need to be to work properly and not damage things?