Lowrider V2 build in S.E. Michigan

Those holes look too big the screw should thread in just a bit. The good news is they do not do much. Try a drop of superglue or thread locker and let the screws dry in place. The screws only hold the nut from spinning, Gravity does the rest.

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Thanks Ryan :+1:

I’ve made some good build progress and tonight tried to wire and power up. I downloaded V1CNC_SkrPro_2209-2.0.7.2-src.zip, pulled out the .bin file and put it on the microSD as FIRMWARE.bin and deleted the file FIRMWARE.CUR. I also loaded the SD card for the display as per the instructions. When powered up, the board did the flashy led thing pretty quickly and the display took longer to load. After it all finished, I’m getting “No printer attached” on the display.

I checked the microSD and the file had been renamed to FIRMWARE.CUR so I assume it flashed ok. I tried reflashing anyway just to be sure. Still no joy after reflashing though, still No printer attached message.

Could you please look at my images and see if you can spot anything wrong at all?

Looks good. The tft is probably just set on 115.2k. You can change it to 250k in the tft menu.

You can also try holding the knob down for 10 seconds and switch to marlin mode to try that out.

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Thanks a lot Jeff, that got me further. I now remember reading that somewhere in the forum but it didn’t click last night.

I was able to set the baud rate to 250k and it appeared to connect. What I’m seeing now is that when it connects the screen switches to the page that allows choice between touch and marlin mode. Once that happens, I can’t seem to get any response from the touch screen or the knob.

I found if I switch screens to ‘move’ before it connects, I can see and hear the servo motors power up and wiggle a bit just as the screen changes. I’ve attached a video of this behavior. Any thoughts on getting past this would be much appreciated.
https://youtu.be/4O6U_Cpy9SI

The gray cables are causing this. They are probably just plugged in wrong. You can just remove them if you only care about tft mode.

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Well you nailed that one too. I had them connected properly, I think, but maybe a bad connection. I took them off and touch screen worked great, then reconnected the same way and both modes work great. Thanks again Jeff, you are so very helpful and I really appreciate it.

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Crown Test!! I used a spring pen mount I found on thingiverse that clips into the xy plate in the router hole. It worked pretty well, but is a bit flexy. Maybe I had z too low and it was doing a bend and drag type movement, that’s what it looked like. But it works! Thanks for the help so far, I’m sure I’ll be needing more when I start trying to get it dirty. :+1:

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Awesome. Feels good to get this far doesn’t it. Congrats.

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Hi Brent, thanks, and it sure does! Now I jump in the rabbit hole of learning about tool paths :slight_smile:

Is there a way to set home to the current position on the TFT other than using the terminal and typing G92 X0 Y0 Z0?

I can’t answer the tft part but you can set the g92 as part of your program start which is what I do to do this step. Just add a line of gcode.

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Thanks Brent. In this case I was just running the pre-built crown test gcode. I guess in the future I’ll be using tools to create gcode so I can do as you suggest. :+1:

A simple piece of foam cut to fit inside of the router base holds the pen vertical and eliminates the XY flexibility that I was experiencing, while still allowing the pen to move up and down in the z direction. I printed a few more crowns and it looks much better now.

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Fun with dual endstops and the M666 command.
Over the weekend I installed dual endstop firmware on my SKR pro V1.2 and 5 switches for limits. Began playing with M666 command to square things up based on some posts here and took some notes along the way. They may be of use to someone so posting here. Started logging things after making first adjustment to the Z axis because it was off.

Editing this post on 12-Jan-2021 to make it easier to read and follow.

M666 can be used to set and read axis offsets. A lowrider with dual endstop firmware is configured for dual Y and dual Z, so M666 only manages those two axes. From https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M666-dual.html:
# M666 - Set dual endstop offsets

calibration Set dual endstop offsets (X|Y|Z)_DUAL_ENDSTOPS
### Description
Use the M666 command to adjust the offsets for dual (or multiple) endstops.
### Usage
M666 [X<adj>] [Y<adj>] [Z<adj>]

I began with the Z axis. I used a flat bar across the X tubes and a combination square to measure depth from the tubes to the table at the left and right of the X axis. Left measurement is Z1 and right is Z2.

– Z AXIS –

Enter M666 into console to read the current Y and Z offsets. Response shows that Y2 is 0.0 and Z2 is 1.0 (Not sure why Z offset is 1.0, apparently I began taking notes after making the first adjustment?)

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:0.00 Z2:1.00

  • Home the Z axis and measure with my combo square on left and right. Z2 slightly lower than Z1. Not sure which direction to adjust so going to try increasing Z offset to 2 and measure again.
    Adjustment command to set Z offset to 2:

M666 Z2

Read it back from the controller, verifies the setting took:

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:0.00 Z2:2.00

  • Rezero Z, measure and find that Z2 more lower than Z1 – Wrong direction

Adjusting Z to 0.8

M666 Z0.8

Read it back

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:0.00 Z2:0.80

Rezero Z and Z2 now measures a tiny bit higher than Z1
Conclusion:
If Z2 is lower than Z1, lower the offset
If Z2 is higher than Z1, increase the offset

Adjusting to M666 Z0.9

M666 Z0.9

Read it back

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:0.00 Z2:0.90

Rezero Z and now Z1 and Z2 are the same, as close as I can measure with my tools.
Save settings with M500

– Y AXIS –
Ran gcode to draw x’s at an 825mm square. Measure across X, dead on at at 825. Diag from top left to bottom right is 1164.5mm, should be 1166.73 mm. So, Y2 is positive by, hmm, somewhere around 2mm? Could do math, but will just take a stab.

X0 Y825 -------------X825 Y825

X0 Y0 -----------------X825 Y0

Try to adjust Y offset to 2 to see if that helps or hurts

M666 Y2

Read it back

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:2.00 Z2:0.90

Rezero Y, run the gcode again and now diag measures 1165.5, right direction, but only moved 1mm on diag when needed 2. Try 2 more mm offset

M666 Y4

Read it back

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:4.00 Z2:0.90

Rezero Y and run gcode again, now diag measures 1167mm, should be 1166.73. Pretty darn good. Going to try one more adjust for grins

M666 Y3.7

Read it back

M666
Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:3.70 Z2:0.90

Save settings with M500

Rezero Y and run gcode again. Now diag measures 1166.5 mm, should be 1166.73. Enough for now, I’ll call that a win, being about 0.02% off on expected diagonal measurement. :slight_smile:

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More work done, I have a proper spoil board now, 3/4 MDF. I tell ya, wrestling a sheet of that around single handed used to be easier in my youth! Notice I did the magic tape trick for my x servo wiring. Dust collection and router power will hang from above.

I took two 1.5" strips off the sheet and made cheater rails for the inside of my wheels ala @jeffeb3. I took one side and made sure it was straight by clamping it to a long level then air nailed it down, then butted the wheels up against it and went to the other side and worked my way down the table fastening the second strip as I rolled the gantry down the table. Easy peasy and no more wandering, but now I have to raise my belt mounts by 3/4" and redo my endstops and the squaring. That should be much easier the second time.

I also printed the 4" duct collector fitting system designed by @tailslide and shown in this thread. That is one fine piece of design work Greg! It was a 25 hour print and I wasn’t sure I was going to get the supports off it but managed eventually, only cutting myself once. :slight_smile:

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After adding my spoilboard, etc, it was time to level my gantry side to side, and also tram according to some new info learned in this post. Notes taken during process:

Tramming x rails front to rear and leveling side to side, part deux.
After running Z home, use zprobe and level, wires to two tubes and level as described at How do I tram the LowRider. Check under tubes with a piece of paper (or better, feeler gauges). If one tube is too high, lower it by tightening top two nuts and loosening bottom two nuts on z/x connector. Not much, just a small tweak. Zprobe again and check. Eventually both will be touching, then raise by 0.1mm and see if front and rear have the same friction. Zprobe one last time and note the Z setting. Move level to other side of tram and check again. If Z after probing is different, make adjustments to offset.
Z0 side, 136.46, Z far side, 136.72, diff = 0.2mm. Need to increase offset.
M666 to check current offsets, Dual Endstop Adjustment (mm): Y2:3.70 Z2:0.90
M666 Z1.1, then M500 to save. Running Z home and Z probe again. Z136.96 on far side. Wrong way??? Now check far side tramming. Y0 side high, tighten top screws and loosen bottom screws, probe again. Still high, repeat. Both touching, raise 0.1. Both feel the same when sliding paper between rail and level.
Home Z again, then probe, record Z setting after probe. Z = 136.620
Move level to Z0 side and probe. Z = 136.53. Increase Z offset another 0.1mm
M666 Z1.2 and M500. Home Z, probe Z0 side, Z = 136.46
Move level to far side, probe again, Z = 136.66. wtf, wrong way??
M666 Z1.0 and M500. Home Z, probe Z far side, Z = 136.49
Move level to Z0 side and probe. Z = 136.46
Check far side again, Z = 136.51 diff = 0.05mm. Done with Z tramming and side to side leveling

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Glad the duct worked for you! If it wiggles my fall back plan was to bolt on a strap of velcro to the ‘wings’ but so far mine seems to stay stuck just with friction.

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Mine wiggles a tiny but but no danger at all of it coming loose. There’s enough air volume with the dust collector that the small gaps at the edge of the router opening are no big deal. I didn’t want to disassemble anything to mount it and could only get the two front screws/nuts installed. Couldn’t figure out how to get the two closest to the router in there, but I don’t see an issue with that either. :slight_smile:

Great! Mine tightened up after I put in some weather stripping to seal the gaps.