Hi, I have completed my MPCNC last year and am busy adapting a mill for cnc control. What I want to do is use Estlcam, the mega2560/ramps/Ramps/LCD Vicious’s Marlin plus parralleling an Arduino Uno with protoneer shield. Seperate TB6560 stepper drivers operate the Nema23 57mm length motors.
I like the LCD controlled Ramps, which permits stand alone control for repetitive jobs (sd card), and to slave a laptop or PC to operate the cnc is a waste.
The use of the Uno is to be able to use estlcam to operate the machine without having the need to reload the necessary firmware all the time. (estlcam and ramps setup does not allow use of the lcd controller).
Questions are - should I use diodes or suitable OR gate chip (7HC32 or similar) to isolate the non used controller;
should the other controller be unpowered while the other is in use (the UNO using USB power and the megaramps mainly from the psu system).
At present, I have got the x axis moving, broken a brand new 3mm cutter, cut metal, the system electronics almost complete except for the UNO addition ( put it all in an old VHS video player box). I am sure Estlcam will deal with backlash sometime in the future, what with uneven surface detection and all that in gcode software today!
I have set up my settings using Vicious1’s picture on the first page, has anyone got any radically different settings that they have seen improve things?
I have a lot of false Endswitch messages within Estlcam. I have the endswitches connected normaly open. Tried a 1kOhm resistor, but this leads to a activated endswitch on the Ramps. What do you mean with +12V Ground? Are all GND’s not the same potential? I thought NO endswitches are not sensitive to noise, so I dont understand the false triggering.
Regards,
Franz
Estlcam is very sensitive to electrical noise. The most reliable option to avoid this is to solder 100nF ceramic capacitors to the inputs (one lead to the input, the other to “GND”)
Thanks for all the information in this forum, I have learned many things.
I just reprogrammed my adruino mega2560 via the Estlcam 9.023 version, and used the values in Vicious post. I have everything hooked back up and Estlcam recognizes the board and gives me “CNC controller active” prompt, but I am unable to manually move the machine with the CNC controller window. I switched out the jumpers under “Z driver” and then replaced the driver back in place. I had full control manually with repetier host before, but thought I would support Christian and his project, as I’m excited about being able to control everything from one program.
I know it’s probably something very simple that I’m missing, thanks for everyone’s help in advance.
I just re flashed with Marlin_16_32_090615_therm from Vicious, and I am back up and running off of Repetier Host. Therefore, I know that my boards and drivers are active and working. I will try and re flash with Estlcam and see if I can regain manual control over the board again.
If there is anything simple I’m missing, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Hello gents,
Has anyone connected & tested to use Estlcams integrated USB CNC controller (Joystick) with an Mega2560 as shown here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y4g8zBoOV0 for Uno
yes I have connected and tested the integrated CNC joistick controller. I’ve tested several options and found out, that this solution works best for me… But you need to run the 32bit version, as the 64bit version of Estlcam doesn’t support the XBox controller.
I am also having movement issues after installing 9.025 had to revert back to 9.023 shows updating OK Z axis works but but makes weird noise and gets hot and no X or Y movement
Had a big issue with the previous beta, no g-code generation was possible, switched back to last stable version. Will test the latest beta when i reprinted a broken part of my cnc.
so i am a little confused. Vicious one, in your reply post #17892 you show the settings you use in ESTLCAM and how you set up your Z stepper in 1/4. did you leave the other steppers in the stock configuration for 1/32 stepping like the 3d printing side, or did you change them as well. if so, what did you set them to? i tried setting mine to 1/8th on the xy steppers, and 1/4 on the z, but for some reason the movement between points on the XY axis is way off. (what im trying to say is that the cut on the XY axis is correct, but the travel distance is not. say for instance i wanted to cut two squares side by side, i cuts the first one the correct size, but then overlaps the 2nd square on top of the first at a slight off set) hope this makes sense, ill upload a pic as well.
Loving ESTL cam so far. Quick question. When I set the F(XY) speed this also seems to dictate the speed the machine moves above the material between toolpaths. Is there a way to make the machine move at faster speed when it is above the work piece/not cutting ? I know this from 3d printing as travel speed.
I’ve also been trying to make the steppers lock at the end of the program so I can change the tool without losing the origin I’m working with. I’ve tried adding M17 at the end of the gcode in the ‘program end’ tab which didnt work and also M84 S300 at the begining to set the steppers to disengage 5mins after the end of the program but that didnt work either. Any suggestions welcome.
I don’t have much experience with the tool changes. Sorry about that. Soon though.
Estlcam uses the standard Rapids gcode G0, Marlin doesn’t recognize it. There are some workarounds but unfortunately it also uses the same speed for the z axis…No good.
So now we have all spent a little time on the fusion 360 post processor and have fixed all the speed issues. It is working flawlessly (even tool changes if I am not mistaken). You can set rapid speeds for XY and Z independently. It is a bit more of a learning curve but so worth it. I hope to get some tutorial up soon, although it isn’t really needed there are so many youtube videos it is amazing.
If you are using the Estlcam Firmware I am not sure about the rapids issue other than it is probably still linked XY to the Z axis. Which does not work for us very well.
Jamie,
I have not used ESTLCAM but in Fusion 360 I changed the "Post"processor script to add M84 S1800 at the beginning and it works great. It will not disable the steppers for 30 minutes. Make sure there isn’t an M84 with no argument at the end of your gcode. https://www.v1engineering.com/forum/topic/fusion-360/page/2/#post-4102
That said, the Fusion 360 post processor recognizes tool changes and creates one gcode file out of all cuts. It sounds like for ESTLCAM your are creating separate gcode files for each tool pass. Perhaps the Marlin firmware always disables steppers after a each file completes. It would take a lot of digging to figure out if and where this happens. I would guess that someone using ESTLCAM would have already solved this problem.
As Steve said, Marlin disables the steppers when a gcode file ends.
I’ve tested tool change with estlcam, and it works great. It uses M0 to put in pause the job and does not disable the steppers (you have to set the timeout with M84 as you did).
