Yep I that helps me Remember Now Been a wile since I worked on the Machine giving it complete Overhaul did the Burly Upgrade I am about to throw in the towl with ESTLCAM I have tried 3 different Uno’s 2 Different Shields with 1 Motor only hooked to the Shield Directly and Cant get any Movement I have Been at this for Hours in the Freezing Cold
How about connecting the power supply directly to the expansion board, instead of relying on the feed through the UNO board. Mine works, actually its never not worked if supplied direct, though never tried it from the UNO.
Thats A Great Idea, It Seems Lie a Power Issue.
Even If I hook New Stepper hooked to nothing Bunt the CNC Shield I get Nothing no Stepper Movement and after Going thru trying 3 different UNO Boards and 2 Shields It Was getting to Definition of Insanity Especially at like 31 Degrees in all Glass Green House Thats About Imposable to Heat 
Will Update you Tomorrow When the Suns Heating up the Green House 
I have Dedicated PC to run it some of the Trochoidal Milling seems to Bring Marlin to its knees running of SD Card and I love Using the Touch Plate but My Laser Software seems to Run Better off the SD…
Thanks for the Suggestion
GOD Bless
Night
Marvin
I recall the volt regulator on the UNO board steps the power down to 5 volts, to allow the UNO to run independent from the usb cable. I do not think it powers the drivers on the shield.
Its summer here!
Yeah, you have that 12-36V connector on the shield with no power to it. That’s the power that drives the motors.
Ryan
thanks for your help in the past months, for my laser, works great. but my original request, still has not been answered.
Ok Guys have many questions as old farts have, first is; GRBL vs MARLIN, or other??
have Marlin on the CNC and Grbl on Laser and 3d Printer. and which is compatible with Estlcam? next Q tomorrow. am trying Estlcam, like the simplicity of it.
Lloyd
Not a simple answer. Both GRBL and Marlin work and work great. It depends on what you’re comfortable with and how many of the unique features one has vs. the other that you use (or want to use). You’ll have to do some research to figure those aspects out. I can refer you to www.marlinfw.org for Marlin (that’s what I use), but I have no experience with GRBL. Estlcam (the CAM software) can install Estlcam (the firmware), which IIRC won’t work on an arduino/Ramps setup but will work on an Uno/CNC shield. Again, I’ve got no experience with anything beyond Marlin. There are also other options about which I know less than nothing.
Estlcam (the CAM software) can produce gcode which is compatible for Marlin or GRBL, just select the desired output type in Setup/CNC Programs. I can recommend Estlcam because it is very straightforward to use and that’s what I use for my CAM.
Hello,
I’ve found some time to add Ramps hardware support to Version 11.228 again.
It should work with traditional Ramps boards with Atmega2560 processor. I’ve tested it with a bare Ramps board but not a complete machine and not for very long - so it is still a bit experimental.
(Getting the board back to factory settings should work with the “restore controller” button - but please don’t be mad in case the controller needs to be re-flashed or something else goes wrong)
- It supports X/Y/Z Motors + Extruder 1 and Extruder 2 as secondary X and Y axes.
- 6 Limit switches (that can also be configured to be something else like e.g. a touch plate)
- Spindle signal on terminal 8 / Heat bed
- PWM signal on terminal 9 / Heat 2
- All other connectors are unused / no LCD support or other features.
Christian
5 Likes
That is great news!!!
I don’t have any ramps to test with anymore but I am sure we will get some brave souls to debug it for you.
1 Like
, I have the cnc shield, might be ported similar, the first time I used it , got hot hot hot. Had to switch back to the GRBL. Is there a pinout guide to see comparability ?
Go to Estlcam web site or open estlcam under setup to see the pins and explanation. Hot should not have anything to do with that it should be the driver adjustment that determines that
2 Likes
Hello,
Estlcam keeps the stepper driver enable signal on the whole time the program is running even if the machine itself does not move. This is to avoid accidential movements which can quite easily happen especially on machines with belts instead of screws. Also some stepper drivers tend to skip steps during power up which then adds up over time.
The downside to this is that the stepper drivers get hot even during standstill.
My opinion is that they must be able to handle this. And in the end it does not make much of a difference anyways - if they can overheat they will eventually overheat - it just happens a little later if they are powered down during standstill.
Christian
1 Like
I will have to try it I have it all ramps CNC shield uno mega mini rambo that won’t work here but with GRBL I think it will but I have work for my machine waiting 
monie for the pit.
Yeah. Keeping them always on is helpful.
I think the current setting needs to be adjusted so the motors don’t stay too warm. A good rule of thumb we’ve been using is 50C with the printed mounts.
1 Like
Yes that is preferable so any tool change does not cause problems always on till sender is shut down
I just dry-fitted some steppers to a ramps board and connected it to estlcam, flashed the estlcam firmware “einwandfrei” to the ramps board.
Tried a .nc program i earlier did on my mpcnc and the steppers move!
For Christian this won’t be a surprise I think, but I am very pleased. I hope I will be able to change the arduino mega on my mpcnc tonight, so i can try it in real life!
A quick video on my messy workbench The contraption is battery fed by a 24V battery.
To be continued
3 Likes
Is it possible to use auto squaring with estlcam? I have a sort of working system now. All axis move the way I want, I can autohome, just not all steppers independently.
Freundliche Grüße aus den Niederlanden 
I sent an email to Christian Knüll, he answered that autosquaring is not supported by estlcam. Pity…
1 Like
I have just installed the ESTLCAM firmware. I like it so far, but just have a few questions, prob followed by many more down the line 
Can I switch a relay on D9 of ramps? And if so what gcode does estlcam use?
When testing the surface scan feature on a drasticly exagerated surface, it works, but the movements are very jerky. Is there a way to smooth them out?
Thanks,
Damien.