I recently built the MPCNC Primo and have tried to cut some stuff out on it and I am having some trouble with the machine. When I move the CNC by myself on the ESTLCAM controller software to the endstop it says it only moves about 4 inches when the span is 18 inches. This problem is the same for the all the axis. I have the newest version of Marlin running on a ramps 1.4 board I got off of amazon called (3D Printer MKS GenL V1.0 Controller Board, MKS Integrated Mainboard Motherboard Compatible with Ramps1.4, Supports TMC2100 A4988 8825 Driver). I am using estlcam to create the Gcode as well as send it to the machine because I don’t have a screen or SD card reader. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Some background info to be sure we’re talking on the same page will be helpful… firmware loaded on the RAMPs? The stepper drivers you are using? Stepper jumper configuration?
It does appear there’s something amiss with your stepping config, but it probably isn’t in estlcam. If you start off with the correct v1 firmware it should work. If you’re setting up marlin from scratch… there’s a lot of ‘buttons’ to look out for, that could result in this issue if not setup correctly.
Don’t forget the ever-popular imperial/metric impedance mismatch! It doesn’t look like that’s the only cause of the error, but by gum, it’ll throw things off mightily. And easy to get wrong if you’re configuring firmware from scratch.
I loaded the V1CNC_Ramps-2.0.9.2 onto the board using visual studio code. I am using these for my stepper motor drivers- A4988 StepStick Stepper Motor Driver Module. I am not sure about the stepper jumper configuration, how would I find that? I used the marlin software from the V1 Engineering github.
On estlcam I am using all imperial no metric. I can cut stuff out if I scale the drawings down to about 4x3. When I export it like that the machine cuts it out but the toolpaths are all wrong because of the bit sizing on that small of a piece.
Estlcam flashes its firmware onto the board. So you probably lost your Marlin config.
Under the drivers, there are three places for jumpers. Install all three. For the a4498, you will then get 1/16th microstepping. The MarlinBuilder releases ramps code assumes 1/32, so you need to adjust the defaults to 100,100,400 instead of 200,200,800.
You can configure estlcam to use imperial in the interfaces, but the gcode/machine interface needs to be mm. You don’t have to look at it, but Marlin doesn’t easily support imperial.
Most people that use estlcam general gcode files and save those off. Then they use something else to control the marlin firmware. The LCD, repetier host, cncjs, octoprint… There are some of them listed in the software workflow doc