Freezes while jogging after homing

CNC Machines Shapeoko
1

Legitimate and repeated problem:

I somehow managed to get the XXL to Home reliably with a 5mm offset afterwards. In both CM and UGS, I’ll press to jog it in any direction and it will either move Z+ for one second until it disconnects (Carbide Motion) or jog once and not respond, showing an “Active State: Queue” message (Universal Gcode Sender).

In either case, I can re-home it with $h but it just happens again.

I used to easily jog and not be able to home but now it seems like I’ve got the opposite problem.

What is going on with this thing?!

2

I had similar behavior in CM… I turned off the CM setting “Shapeoko Has Homing” and was working thereafter. I did have one occasion after homing where the jogging moved one-time in a different direction than expected, but corrected thereafter.

3

Any idea about Universal Gcode Sender? I like the interface more than Carbide Motion, it has that bland yet straightforward “Windows” feel to it.

Know any place to get help on using UGS?

4

@jimidi

I sincerely appreciate that you seem to be the only one willing to help me out with this problem but I’ve had “Shapeoko has Homing” turned off the whole time. It homes, I click to jog in any direction, the Z carriage moves +Z for a second and then drops, giving a Limit Switch Hit message. After that, no movement.

I’m at a total loss. How long does it take for support to respond to emails? It’s been 5 days and still not even the most preliminary reply from anyone

5

Support should respond w/ a ticket number at least w/in a business day — check your spam folder, and resend the e-mail from a different account. Be sure to whitelist support@carbide3d.com

6

@WillAdams

I sent an email on friday and another yesterday morning and the only thing in my spam folder is some very nice invitations to “get more discount”. Nothing from the Carbide folks either time. Are they on vacation this week?

7

@Chomper

I’m using CM and UGS and I will likely transition to UGS exclusively going forward… I’ve not had a lick of issue using UGS, but CM has exhibited intermittent flakiness and occasional misbehavior.

Who knows, you might have a noisy power supply, intermittent connection, or some other environmental interaction that’s at fault.

Ping Edward again via email, or just call over to the CA facility and try getting a hold of Apollo or whomever else is there. As @WillAdams said, they usually reply next day (that’s the response I received).

8

@jimidi

Looks like I’ve got some serious electrical gremlins to hunt down if that’s the case. Would putting the individual wires in their own metal tube help? I have no idea about electrical problems or EMF interference but if burying the wires under something will help, I’m all for it.

The funny thing is I’ll be in LA next week, If the machine wasn’t so huge, I’d slap it down on their front desk with a hearty “What the hell?!”. I suppose a call might help more, though. Not nearly as satisfying…

9

Do you have the v2.3 controller board? It is the one with the giant capacitor hanging off of it. I had the random disconnect and USB issues until I contacted support and requested the new board. Once installed, no more electrical issues.

Another thing that helped prior to getting the new board was the leave the DW611 switch in the ON position and turning the spindle on and off using a power strip, or just plugging it in to an extension cord, preferably on a separate circuit than the controller. But the only thing that solved the issue completely was the new controller board.

10

@dtilton71

I’m looking at the board and seeing “CarbideMotion v2.3” on the bottom left and a big ol’ capacitor hanging on the top right, so it would seem that’s a resounding “YES” unfortunately. Is there some kind of a recall on these boards? I’m only a few error messages away from frisbee-tossing the board through a window, so if that’s the issue then how do I get a new one?

About the router, I haven’t even turned it on yet!! Without the ability to reliably control the gantry, I’m not about to up the stakes by bringing spinning steel into the mix. I’ll keep that in mind if/when this problem gets solved though.

11

Put your settings up. Type $$ in the command line window and post the results. We should confirm how everything is set.

12

@dtilton71 Here you go!

$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=255 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=6 (dir port invert mask:00000110)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=255 (status report mask:11111111)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$14=0 (auto start, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=0 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$26=25 (homing debounce, msec)

13

Additionally, though no movement is happening in any part of the machine. The red flashing light that seems to signal communication between the computer and the board has not stopped flashing since I started up UGS. Possibly another bad sign?

14

You seem to be missing a few settings. Here are mine (also an XXL)
$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=255 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=6 (dir port invert mask:00000110)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=255 (status report mask:11111111)
$11=0.020 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.010 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=1 (report inches, bool)
$14=1 (auto start, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$24=100.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=1000.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=25 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=5.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=40.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=40.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=40.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=5000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$102=40.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=5000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=5000.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=5000.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=400.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=400.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=400.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=800.100 (x max travel, mm)
$131=838.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=80.000 (z max travel, mm)
You definitely need to enter the following:

$22=1 (to enable homing)
$130=800.100 (x max travel, mm)
$131=838.000 (y max travel, mm)

For max travel for X and Y, I’ve seen people recommend 850 mm (33.46 inches). To get my settings, I homed my machine, then jogged to the left and forward to where I wanted my max travel to be, then used those measurements. If you do not set the max travel properly the machine may freeze after homing, depending on here the machine was on the table when you initiated homing since the default X and Y max travel settings are 450 mm.

1 Like
15

There have been some instances of boards going out w/ the wrong Grbl version / settings for the wrong machine — this can be fixed by reflashing. http://docs.carbide3d.com has an article on that.

A more distant possibility is there have been instances of the EEPROM settings storage getting corrupted — use an Arduino Sketch to clear that — there’s a link on that on the wiki.

16

@WillAdams

I tried flashing the arduino with xloader and it didn’t work. I got everything all sorted out, loaded the .hex code, and set it running. It just sat there with an “Updating…” message on the bottom left of the window. Had it run all night and it was right were I left it in the morning 8-9 hours later. Hopefully it doesn’t take 9+ hours to flash the board, right?

17

No, it should be quite quick.

I believe there’s a button on the board which needs to be pressed in order to flash it.

18

Not sure what bootloader the CM board utilizes, but it sounds like it’s all via USB vs. some other more traditional ICSP/BDM/SBW/JTAG interface that’s more of what I’m used too for reflash purposes (I have zero Arduino experience). The fact you can’t reflash may be indicative of comm/connection issues in general which might be a root cause of your woes, Sorry you are having so much consternation with your system.