Is there anywhere that I can download a copy of the C-Beam XL basic GRBL settings to work with.

 

Thanks

 

So, after an exchange in another thread, I decided to pull the trigger and get an new BlackBox. I have an XCarve converted to lead screws so the Y axis motors now turn in the same direction and I have a different Z axis than the stock one. I scoured the last 27 pages and found one brief post about XCarve compatibility. Two questions:

1-I'd think my current GRBL settings is as good a starting point as any. I use Openbuilds Control as an interface. I think I've learned that there is no way to save my current GRBL settings other than to copy and paste to a text file. Are those two statements reasonably accurate?

2-For anyone who has replaced their XCarve controller with a BlackBox, any pitfalls, common issues, words of wisdom, or any difficulty figuring out motor wiring?

Thanks. I hope I'm not in over my head.

 

Has anyone made a fusion360 model of the blackbox? Trying to design a control box to stuff everything in.

 

@Peter Van Der Walt

Peter - I know if using Fusion 360 or Vectric there is a post processor that needs to be used for using BlackBox.

Is there one for MeshCAM ? or just selecting a standard machine that using GRBL enough, i.e. Shapeoko

 

If I do this (remove the transistor from the BB ala the instructions for the interface) docs:interface:prepare-blackbox-v2.3-2.6 [OpenBuilds Documentation] the BB brains board will not powerup without the 24v? No side effects?

 

Thanks!

I'm putting everything in an enclosure and I have a switch in front of the BB so I'm trying to make it not light up the led when it should be powered down.

 

Hello, Sean (or anyone else watching this?) - this diagram is really informative, except I am not confident how I might proceed with my wiring situation, because we have a different VFD.... I have downloaded your diagram, stripped all the existing wires, and made a new diagram version using my equipment: it would be really helpful if you could assist me (or point me in the right direction) as far as getting the wiring completed? This comes from a used Laguna Swift CNC, and have already purchased an OpenBuilds Blackbox.

 

In my initial BB setup, I had my power supply close to the BB. The power supply was causing some EMI interference to the BB and my jobs were stopping frequently. After moving the power supply away from the BB all problems disappeared. If you ever encounter similar problems, this might be because your power supply is too close to the BB. Just trying to point you in the right direction if this happens.

 

This cable solved all my EMI Problems..... They aren't all the same....
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VOPCGY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I had one similar to that one and it didn't work. Like you said they aren't all the same, so mine didn't work.

 

It also depends on where your system is picking up the EMI. Mine was coming in (as I'm sure I mentioned a time or three somewhere in this thread) through the LED ring around the spindle, then following the apparently unfiltered pathway through the shared PSU into the BlackBox's power port. Before I finally narrowed that down I'd tried all sorts of shielded cables and ferrites with absolutely no success.

Unfortunately I never did find a good solution to the problem - although one thing I didn't try was using a dedicated power supply for the LED ring - and eventually I ended up moving back to my Gecko G540 with LinuxCNC (which has other problems, but solved all the noise issues) and more or less forgot about it.


-Bats
(who also has other problems and makes a lot of noise)

 

Prior to my BB, I also had a Gecko 540 running on windows. The PS was also enclosed with the Gecko and my jobs were also stopping randomly and sometimes very often. I never figured out it was probably also caused by EMI. This is one of the reason I switched for the BB thinking it would solve all my problems. My steppers were 48V and I had plenty of torque and I could run my steppers as fast as I wanted. The BB is 24V max and for some reason I can't run my steppers as fast, they stall when accelerating. I tried all the calibrating on the forum and couldn't fix the problem. I didn't have time yet to try to figure out what the problem is, but I suspect because I have a very heavy gantry that 24V is not enough to drive them. They certainly run much cooler, but they don't seem to be powerful enough for my heavy gantry.

 

Entirely possible, but Mach3 is also very temperamental when it comes to what hardware it's running on. I had a lot of trouble with random stops too, and I was dead certain it was a noise issue, since my system was far too powerful to possibly have any trouble running Mach3... but it turned out that was exactly what was happening - even overly-vigorous mouse movements at the wrong time could kill a job.

Me too! And then I thought my problems had carried right over, until I eventually figured out that, no, I had an entirely new problem that just looked, acted, and smelled the same. Oops.

One other thing is to keep an eye on the serial console. I found that when I was picking up a lot of noise it would often manifest as garbage coming through in the logs. If you don't see anything weird it doesn't mean noise isn't the problem, but if you do see a lot of incoherent crap (not that GCode doesn't look pretty incoherent itself, sometimes), that's a pretty clear indicator.

I really missed the 48V PSU on my Gecko when I was running the BB, and the speedy rapids I could get away with... but now that I'm back on the Gecko, I find I barely ever have the machine running faster than a brisk walk. Although it certainly doesn't help that $%#^&$ing Autodesk disabled $%#^&$ing rapids in Fusion.

What sort of gantry are you trying to push? I'm running a big chunky 80mm spindle on mine, but the gantry itself is stock (well, I guess technically it's only half of stock, seeing as I've got half a LEAD).


-Bats
(Half a LEAD, philosophically, must ipso facto half not be. But half the LEAD has got to be, vis-a-vis its entity, you see?)

 

I've noticed the same thing going from the G540 and its 48V compared to the Blackbox and its 24V . I have noticed that the acceleration seems to be the biggest headache and have even tried using only 80% of the optimum Acceleration. My system does still stall on occasion but I have run into a newer problem that I have never seen before and that is that the OpenBuilds Controller Lags in its response running on a Windows 7 Professional Laptop. I've seen it stop responding for upwards of 3 seconds on occasion. I've tried setting it to a Higher dominance with no luck. I think I'm going to give the CNC3D Commander( formerly SharpCNC Commander ) a go by transferring my GRBL Settings over to it. Because it is a Windows based program, I can set it to a Higher Value within Windows 7. Unlike the rest of you, I'm not having issues with Noise as I am using Shielded Cable for both my Motors and My Home Switches. I have seen various videos on running a higher Voltage on Arduino Based systems but haven't figured out if it is possible with the Blackbox and at present I'm not about to play around with the Magic Smoke and my Controller. The reason why I'm not still using the G540.

 

I tried all of the suggestions that you listed and there was no improvement. And after checking for conflicts, I could find only one and I was able to get around it by disabling windows Update.

 

Is there any hope of having something added to the Diagnostic Tab that shows the actual Voltage Draw by the Steppers. I realize that Marlin and GRBL are different beasts with and not compatible each other, but at least with my 32 Bit Marlin I can see what the voltage draw is on my 3D Printer and adjust accordingly so as to not overdrive my steppers. This would make life a lot easier that it is now where it seems to be a hit or miss proposition by turning 4 potentiometers until the motors overheat or lose steps. It would make it so much easier without having to remove the blackboxws cover and adjust the VREF.

 

• Step Angle: 1.8°
• Holding Torque: 3.0Nm(425oz.in)
• Rated Current/phase: 4.2A
• Phase Resistance: 0.9ohms
• Recommended Voltage: 24-48V
• Inductance: 3.8mH±20%(1KHz)

I got these motors, but once in a while they will stall on me, are they too much for the bb? I can never really go over 2500mm or 2000mm/min, but i'm also using ball screws which seem to limit my speed. I would think those motors would have the torque not to stall

 

i think i went overboard and got 16mm ballscrews

 

Yes 1605s