estlcam/mpcnc/ramps1.4/dual steppers for X and Y must be invertable

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Troubleshooting
1

Hi,

 

I built a MPCNC with arduino mega 2560, Ramps 1.4 and five stepper drivers. Two of the stepper drivers are used for dual stepper driver support for the X and Y axis and are therefore plugged in the RAMPS1.4 location for Extruder 0 and 1.

I modified marlin successfully to support dual stepper drivers and had to invert the direction of the two additional drivers on the X and Y axis.

BUT: Where can I invert the additional driver directions for X and Y axis in ESTLCAM? I haven’t found something like this in the UI. The firmware in ESTLCAM is not accessible so I assume it must be made available through the UI (christian?).

The effect is, that both the X and Y axis try to “rotate” because both steppers for each axis always rotate in the same direction leading to a rotation effect on each axis instead of a linear transformation :smiley:

 

Can someone help me, please?

 

Best regards,

 

Josef

 

2

Just flip the plug over and that stepper will rotate the other way.

I am working on the instructions for the dual endstop firmware that we just got pushed it includes using the e0 and e1 drivers on all the supported boards we use.

3

Wow. That was quick :slight_smile: Thanks a lot.

 

Next (small) problem: If I press “CNC program start” in the CNC controller window I get a message “Limit switch 1 triggered” even if I press and hold F11 key.

 

Is it connected with my first problem?

 

Thanks,

 

Josef

4

I’m not sure what f11 is.

turn off your endstops in the firmware

 

5

Are you trying to use the EstlCAM firmware instead of Marlin? If so, why? Also, does it support dual X/Y drivers?

6

ESTLCAM does support dual drivers. I only had to turn the cable on the RAMPS 1.4 board to invert the direction of the second stepper on each axis.

 

I have no CNC controller instead of ESTLCAM. In my opinion Repetier is counter intuitive at least for me.

 

What’s the preferred way to send the G Code created with ESTLCAM to the mpcnc ? (Freeware or low cost is welcome :slight_smile: )

7

I short circuited the endstops (all endstop signal pins connected to ground pins). Now I can use ESTLCAM as cnc controller.

 

8

You do know estlcam is not just there for creating the code, right?

So for me, the preffered way is… Estlcam!

9

There are several ways. No preferred, do what works for you:

a) SD card in an LCD screen. Works great to keep your computers clean, and is very reliable. Very big gcode files, with lots of small moves, can overload the UART.

  1. repetier-host. There were some reports of bugs for doing fast, small gcode commands, but I haven’t seen any in a while. It has a nice GUI preview to give you a sense of the gcode before you cut.

i) pronterface. It’s similar to repetier host. IIRC, it doesn’t like the () comment. It also has a command line version, which is neat, if you like that sort of thing.

AA) Octoprint. Attach a raspberry pi, and start sending gcode through the web interface. I haven’t tried this myself, and there’s not much talk about it, but the posts I’ve seen here are, “It works”.

That’s all assuming Marlin firmware. There’s also grbl firmwares and EstlCAM firmware. They support different tools. EstlCAM firmware only supports EstlCAM.

10

Thanks for your assistance and advice.

 

Best regards,

 

Josef

11

Hey guys! im struggling with the fact that i want to use Estlcam as a controller but this doesnt work. im using a skr 1.4 board and i want to use 5 stepper motors 2X 2Y 1*z and i want to use dual endstops, is this possible or am i forced to buy another board, and if yes, wich one. plsss help. kind regards.

12

That will not work. You can use estlcam to generate the gcode, but then use repetier host or cncjs to play the gcode back.