Hi. I’m struggling to understand how Estlcam works with a touch plate. On the Estlcam web site, there is a neat little video (you’ve all seen it, I guess) about how to set up the touch plate being demonstrated. I have checked the touch plate box, and have set up the offsets as per the instructions. Now what? Do I just save the CNC file and open this with Repetier Host?
I don’t understand how having set up the edge finder in Estlcam translates into action in Repetier.
I find it’s easier to manually use the touch plate and run the setup through the LCD on the CNC. Once I have Z touched off, then I’ll run my gcode to make all my cuts.
For me, there’s just too many moving parts to try to include the Z touch as a part of the gcode.
You definitely need to add some gcode to the startup. Once you do that I’d suggest setting up a quick trial run program, no cutting required just to see how it moves for the plate and starts etc.
I use the lcd so working from a tethered connection may be different.
It’s really neat and useful once you get it so good luck.
It won’t hurt if you leave them in. It is for turning the spindle on and off, not just speed control. But if you don’t have a spindle set up, it will just complain and move on.
If you don’t have any digital control over the spindle, you don’t need the M3/M5 commands, you’ll just turn the spindle on manually, but there’s no downside to leaving them in place.
You can use the M3/M5 with a simple relay without variable speed control. It will depend on your setup, and whether the relay is attached to a PWM pin (variable speed) or digital (on/off) pin. For relay control you just need a digital pin. If you don’t want to wade into the firmware settings to sort out how things are configured, you can use your gcode sender to test.
When I’m first setting a machine up, I connect a lamp to the relay output rather than the actual spindle. At times I’ve inadvertently wired to the NC side (default on) of a relay when I meant to wire to the NO side (default off) side. It’s a lot less scary for a light to come on unexpectedly when you power up the controller than for the spindle to kick on at full blast.
Use your gcode sender to send the M3 command by itself (no S parameter supplied) and see if that turns the relay on. If M3 works to turn it on M5 will almost certainly work to turn it off. If M3 alone doesn’t work, I’d try (in order) M3 S1 (or any low non-zero value), then M3 S128 (assuming 256 possible speed levels this would be just over half), then M3 S255.