Trying to limit X and Y travel range

Software Carbide Motion
1

I’ve got a Shapeoko Pro XL with a new control board. Successfully have make the necessary GRBL tweaks via MDI to $100 and $101 so that a supposed 10" x 15" rectangle actually comes out that way.

Now I’m trying to limit the Y axis travel so that the machine doesn’t bump into the Front Endplates. Also want to do similar thing for X travels. It appears to me that those limits are covered by $131 and $130 respectively. The original values were 850 and 845. I think those numbers probably work with the XXL, but the 850 can’t be right for the XL. A good starting Y value is around 440. I’ve gradually changed the $131 down to 400 but when jogging, I can still ram into the Endplates.

What am I doing wrong and how do I make the desired changes?

2

I don’t these GRBL values are used for anything in C3D machines. I think they are for ‘Soft Limits’ when that is enabled.

To limit the travel, you need to edit the settings file for CM. It used to be a setting, but C3D in their infinite wisdom removed it from the UI.

3

I should have added that I do all the C2d design and file creation on desktop PC in office. The CNC runs on a totally separate, dedicated laptop in shop. Not networked, so I save the .nc files to thumb drive and then open them in CM in shop. Don’t know if that muddies the waters, but for the time being, that’s the way I’m running.

4

The .c2d and/or .nc file is just gcode. So it does not matter the source or the output computer the Shapeoko just executes what is presented via the file.

To be clear a Shapeoko is limited in the “Jog” mode by what was setup in setup. When you run setup and pick a particular machine those parameters are stored in a shapeoko.json file. The only limitation of travel is in jog mode. When you made a design file there is no limit in how far the machine wants to travel but obviously is limited by the physical size of the machine. If you write gcode that tells a Shapeoko to go a half a mile in X or Y direction it will try but will run into the physical stops. Nothing in gcode will limit the Shapeoko to try and go where the gcode tells it to go.

To edit your shapeoko.json file directly open CC, yes CC, and go to Help then About and then Open Data Directory. There will be a CM folder and inside that is your shapeoko.json file. You can directly the X and Y travel limits in jog. After editing and saving the file you must restart your Shapeko (power cycle) and restart CM on your computer. The shapeoko.json file just gets read at the startup of CM. So any changes are ignored until CM starts.

You can continue to change via MDI but not sure that writes to the shapeoko.json file. I just edit my file directly.

5

Thanks for the help. I did the direct JSON route. Success.

2 Likes