It's alive! But

Finally got things moving, however…
Set up has dual endstops but one motor will stop and the other tries to keep going when it hits them. If I try to adjust the stop bocks I get the same thing but with the opposite motor.
This is on both axis.
Also How do I set the limit so it doesn’t crash into the rail at the opposite end to the stops.
I tried the crown but it drew it in mid air about 100mm above the paper.
Ideas?

With Z being in the air I think you might have plugged the cable in the wrong way.

I had turned it because the up arrow in Repetier was moving it down.

I don’t know the software, I do everything with Estlcam. Might be another problem then. Sorry I couldn’t help. :frowning: Just started with my Primo a week ago. :smiley:

  1. Before sending the home command, you should test the endstop function with M119. Is it possible you have the endstops reversed (X1 endstop is on the side of the X2 stepper?)?

  2. Start with the test crown, not your own gcode. That has a G92 at the top, and you start it with the pen touching the paper. My guess is that you started the machine at 100mm, and that was it’s Z=0, and then your gcode didn’t reset the Z.

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I’m not using dual endstops, so take this comment as a guess. Are you sure the endstops are matched to the right motor?

The bed size can be set in the firmware. I don’t know whether there are g-codes that can also be used.

To solve the air-draw problem, you need to set the Z work coordinate before starting the job. Jog to the desired origin location with the pen touching the paper and execute a G92 X0 Y0 Z0. If you’ve got your machine set to use a Z probe, try out Jason Dentler’s pen mount with built-in probe contacts.

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Can you tell me how to test with M119?

You can put M119 in the “Send Gcode” part of repetier host. The result will print out in the console. Each switch should show “triggered” or “open”. You should see X, X2, Y, Y2, and Z. They should all be open with the gantry in the middle, and they should be triggered if you move the gantry into the switches. If you have the dexterity, or a clamp, you can hold one switch down at a time and test them all. The motor plugged into X should match the endstop labelled X and the one plugged into E0 should match the endstop for X2, etc.

So my z max and y max are both to bottom left corner motors. Hard to describe which is which really.

The output of M119 should show things like x2_min, not zmax. Can you paste the output here so I can check it?

Ok found the section, but doesn’t seem to do anything when I type in M119 and hit send

There is a console output on the bottom of RH. Sorry, I don’t use it myself, so I don’t remember if you have to enable it, or it is just there. It will print in that log the output from the command. Mine (from a 3D printer, so not Dual endstops) looks like this:

Reporting endstop status
x_min: open
y_max: open
z_min: TRIGGERED
ok

cant get that test code to run.
Fresh eyes tomorrow might help

Sorted, endstop plugs were in the wrong place.
Still can’t send gcode commands.

Looking to set my limits so I dont crash into the rails at the opposite end to the endstops.
Is there an easy way to do this?
Eg, move manually to limit then “set Max”?

You need to set the bed size in the firmware, and then reflash it. You also need to enable max soft stops for X and Y.

The machine isn’t hurting itself by hitting that limit though, so it isn’t worth it. Tht crunchy noise is the steppers skipping, which is completely electronic. There aren’t any gears or belts slipping.

Keeping the min soft stops on is a good idea though, because the gantry can smash switches.

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Ok, I drew the crown ok but i can not get it to engrave!

Drew a .dxf logo and opened it in Estlcam. There seems to be no way of telling how big or small it is. Turned our it was huge, resized it to 30%, save etc, no difference. Also I set the cutter on the mdf, hit print and it picks up about 50mm and tries to do it in mid air.

Also need to set bed size, anyone got a walkthru for dummies?

You have to scale the dxf in Estlcam. For it to actually scale you have to select scale and klick on it aftewards. Then it will have an outline and show you how big it is.
You could also try to open it in cm/inches, not in mm. If it was designed for cm and you open it im mm, it’s 10x the size.

Ok, so I set Work area size so I could visualise it. Managed to scale it by selecting and dragging and did a carve.
Looks like I have tweaking to do some of the paths were not lined up well.
I think i need to work on squaring and setting the bed size.

DXF is “unitless” meaning, it doesn’t write down what units it was made in. In onshape, when I export a DXF, I tell it which units to use (I usually use mm) and it converts every length into mm, and saves it in the unitless file. So if there is a 100 in the DXF, it is because onshape thought that was 100mm.

In estlcam, it needs to know the units again. It asks me when I open a .DXF what units to use. I think there is a setting to “always use mm”, “always use in”, or “ask every time”. If I select mm in onshape, I select mm in estlcam.

Occasionally, I’ll get a drawing from thingiverse, and it will be saved from their cad program in inches. I’m sure you’ve had this problem. When I open it in estlcam, I choose inches, or I can choose mm, and then scale to 2560% (an inch is defined as 25.4mm).