Hello, I have recently hooked up my SKR Pro 1.2 to the stepper motors and I am hoping to see that everything is correctly connected. I hope to test the steppers to ensure that they are working and I am also trying to figure out what exactly I need to do in order to get to some CNC carving. Currently, I have everything (including the TFT 35-E3 display) connected. I am seeing the message of “no printer connected”. After reading through some of the boards, I am becoming more and more confused as to what exactly my next steps are. Here are my questions:
Please be aware that I am a complete newb to all of this, any explanations may need to be put into layman’s terms as I am not versed in any sort of programming, software, hardware, etc.
Is there any further flashing/installing of software onto the SKR Pro 1.2 besides what came already flashed as I had purchased through the V1 website? From what I gather, I cannot simply hook up the board, motors, display, etc., and get to carving even with having Marlin pre-installed.
How would I go about testing the stepper motors to ensure that everything is setup correctly? Once everything is hooked up correctly and the firmware/software installed, is there a simple way I can test the motors to ensure that they are working properly?
What would be a recommended software to use for creating and editing designs that will eventually be sent to the MPCNC to be carved on a budget? I am looking for a simple carving program that will allow me to carve on the MPCNC without a steep learning curve.
Should I consider purchasing a PC? I currently have a MacBook Air and I am running into many issues with certain softwares not working with Mac. I would prefer to do things without constantly looking for a Mac work-around that further complicates the process.
Go into the settings on the tft screen.under connection is baud rate. Go in there and change it to 250000.
After that you will be able to test the motors in the movement area on the screen. Shut down before you plug or unplug motors though
Also, check out some of the software lingo on the software workflow page in the docs.
I think you could try using onshape and kiri moto for the cad/cam. Then you would need a gcode sender. The lcd should work for that, or you can set up a v1pi.
Update- I have flashed the SKR bin file to the board along with the TFT firmware to the display (please see attached pictures showing which files were used). Good news is that upon startup,I can hear the stepper motors receive power, and a couple of them move slightly. The message of “no printer attached” disappears shortly after. Unfortunately, soon after this message clears, the screen goes to the selection mode as if you had held the button down for 3 seconds and were trying to select which mode you would like to use. Once this happens, I am unable to select either the Marlin Mode or the Touch Mode from the display. I am at a loss as to what could be causing the issues.
Another Update, I am able to test the connections of the steppers through Repetier Host, and all steppers are working!!! Still have the issue of the frozen TFT screen on the mode selection though…
Disconnect the gray cables from the screen and board. A few people have mentioned this as a solution. I need to test my board with these versions of the software and see if I can reproduce this.
I am still having issues, but thanks for your help @jeffeb3 and @redneckmudrat !!! Ok, removing the 2 gray cables from the board and display does not bring up the selection screen (between Marlin and Touch mode) but now I am unable to control the motors from either the TFT display, or through Repetier Host with these two cables removed or re-connected.
