I ran into this as well… if fluidnc experiences an error on loading it’s config file it loads a “virtual” machine instead which appears to work but doesn’t actually do anything.
If you hook it up via usb and run their terminal app you should see the load errors displayed there.
Personally I really like the board I got from Bart especially the built in wifi as raspberry pi’s aren’t available right now but the learning curve is steeper and the community to support it smaller.
W.r.t the alarm state, if you have homing enabled, then grbl requires you to home before you move it. I believe you can send a reset to clear the alarm and move it without homing.
I would recommend removing the homing sequence and the homing switches from the config first. Just to make sure the mechanics are working. I still haven’t wired in my homing switches (oops). I just manually move the machine to the 0,0 corner, start it up, and sometimes I have to hit the zero x and zero y buttons, but it draws just fine. After you have it working as well as mine, you can spend “extra cycles” getting the homing switches recognized and running.
I’m sorry you feel like so much time has been dumped into this part of the project. You’re clearly very smart and have the relative experience and motivation. No one is questioning that.
Often in the diy projects, we can’t write the docs for everyone because people know different things. Stuff falls through the cracks.
You can post specific problems here and you will mostly either get good advice (like the comments about the alarm state) or get people trying to problem solve with you. Bart’s discord is also pretty good. Although I prefer the forum format, there are regulars there (including Bart himself) that could immediately help you understand the alarm state, which config file is loading, and how to wire the endstops. They would also be getting feedback that some basic docs are missing and they have the power to add them to the fluidnc docs.
We also have the power to add docs to the zenxy pages. And if we had a good wiring diagram and a known good config.yaml, we could add those (they would be very helpful). But you do have to remember there are maybe a few dozen users of the zxy. So it is less work to actually answer questions than create documentation. It is also hard for me to write docs when I don’t have that board (so I can’t confirm the docs are right). The docs are a community project (but Ryan/V1 is the main contributor). So you can also submit changes and make them part of the docs. We have more than a dozen contributors so far.
I have run into similar problems with another board and firmware. I have an skr 1.4 turbo and compiled grb-hal for it. It was in a permanent alarm state.
It turns out i didn’t wired yet the homing switches and that made the alarm pop out. I could invert the homing switches in the firmware and the motors started moving!
Look if the firmware expects a high or a low signal when the homing switches are triggered and check the ones you have work the same way. 
Now that we have a new board that seems to be available, it would be worth the time to spend the valuable time on the instructions.
While working on that project the boards became nonexistent so there was no reason to do anymore work for a board that would no longer be available.
I am sorry it was so frustrating for you, please, come here for help sooner. Before the super frustration sets in. We can and will help. From my end it was very frustrating to finish a such an attention getting project and find I had no obvious controller choices.
Right there with you guys, it’s been a large source of frustration for the past two weeks… currently working on a config file for his 2130 board. Once I get it working properly I’m happy to share/document.
Got it working! Very glad I started on the motion control before building the table itself, that would’ve been frustrating.
I’m sure that is going to help some people. I changed the topic title to make it clear it was for the zenxy.
I went through the EXACT SAME FRUSTRATIONS!!!
But I now have a working sand table that I took to Burning Man last month, and am now tweaking to work even better.
I’m using one of Bart’s newer boards. GRBL is a big learning curve, but the hardest part of all of this is getting a working config file. I have one and I’ve seen a couple more on the forums in the past month or two.
Bart’s boards are recommended because they are cheap, work well, and have a built-in wifi connection and WebUI. Those were major selling points for how I’m using mine.
Is the newer FluidNC board recommended or would it be advisable to not get it? I am a newb to the ZenXY and the programming will/may be my downfall. (I have not started a ZenXY build, nor have I started to accumulate parts for it.) I am also not in a rush because I am about to build a Lowrider 3. (I have all parts, except half of printed parts.)
Edit: I guess I am impatient. I went ahead and ordered the board. My first part for the ZenXY. Hopefully I can get it all working (at some point).
You will have to learn a bit to get it going. But it isn’t programming, exactly. FluidNC just uses a config file, in yaml format. There are some examples here: #software:fluidnc.
Grbl_esp32 is not being developed anymore and FluidNC is where it is going. So I would get the newer FluidNC board.
Well, I went ahead and bought the newer board from FluidNC and it arrived a couple days ago. I don’t know when I’ll build the ZenXY. Hopefully within the next couple of months. I guess I’ll deal with the frustrations then. I have a lot of unknowns with the programming,etc aspect. So, I’m sure I will be bugging this forum and Bart’s discord.
I think I need to order one to test a sample config. They are more than willing to include a sample config for us, I just need to build and test it.
I should offer up my old boards and swap to the new ones…all these boards and firmware changes seem to hit at the same time and it gets a bit overwhelming.
They’re pretty helpful if you run into issues. I wouldn’t have gotten a working config without them troubleshooting with me.
The boards are definitely not plug and play unless you’re copying someone’s build; there’s a bit of a learning curve.
I ordered the one listed above, the FluidNC Pen/Laser CNC Controller TMC2209 and it was the last one in stock. You may need to contact Bart to see when he is planning on getting more.
This is the first part to my ZenXY build that will eventually happen. First, I’m about to build my Lowrider 3. (My 3D printing ends tomorrow and assembly will begin when I can find some free time.)
Out of curiousity, can I connect a power supply to the FluidNC board and connect it to the computer (via wifi?) to update it without anything else (motors, other wires) connected? Or would that fry the board? (I just want to see it connect to my computer and run in play mode with a virtual machine (per the GitHub page).
If so, can I use any power supply, like the one Ryan supplies?
I could try to run fluidnc on my zxy. I wonder if I could also use webui 3.0.
It wouldn’t be a drop in config file for the new boards, but it would make me better able to help. And maybe some new features would help me.
Did you purchase the esp32 from bart? If so, wifi is waiting to be setup using a hotspot. From there you can use OTA for updates. If it’s unflashed, then just use a usb cord and the install-wifi.bat and install-fs.bat scripts to flash and set it up. That should get you to the point of using the hotspot to configure wifi.
Otherwise, connecting Vmot and usb at the same time is generally fine with Bart’s boards. If it has a switching 5V supply onboard, it’ll have the diodes needed to keep the USB supply from causing issues. So no need to hack off the red usb wire for safety.
Also, I haven’t loaded up the diptrace files and the photos of the laser board are too blurry to read the IC he used, but I’m guessing the switcher can take inputs ranging 12VDC - 36VDC like his other boards.
Yes, I did purchase the wifi esp32 and its installed.
(I was wondering how I get it connected.)
I don’t think it has a USB connection on this board. Just a microSD and wifi, I believe.
I’m not sure what vmot is, but am about to learn. Time to research.
Eew, OK I see that Bart and the gang have done away with the ‘traditional’ method shown here under Setup/startup:
…this excerpt is quoted from that link:
“At startup the ESP32 will try to connect to the WiFi network it was connected to last. If it cannot connect to that network, it will enter AP (Access Point) mode, thus creating a WiFi network named GRBL_ESP, with password 12345678. Connect to that network with a PC, tablet or phone and use a web browser to load the WebUI to access the URL http://192.168.0.1 (on some systems you can also use http://grblesp.local, but that alternative name doesn’t work on Windows without a lot of extra effort to setup mDNS).”
I bet by default the firmware is still launching the AP, but maybe named something else like fluidnc.local (ip is likely unchanged as well). When I do this from my iphone, the esp3d page automatically pops up in safari so I don’t even have to know the hostname or ip. Once your router creds are entered in that AP page, you reboot the esp (power cycle), and now wifi should connect to your router. From there you can get to it from your lan using the same fluidnc.local, or IP address.
That should get you to the point where you can play with configuration. If not, you may have to use fluidterm to upload files. I’m not a fan of fluidterm (yet?), so I haven’t learned much about using it for initial setup like the wiki suggests. Luckily, as you’d guess from the quote above, once you’ve entered your router creds once future OTA upgrades will remember and use it. So it’s a one and done deal, unless you change router creds. Also wifi creds aren’t stored in the config file, so you don’t have to worry about messing that up playing around with configs.
edit: Also, it should have a micro usb port… on the edge of the esp32 board itself.
…and Vmot is just the stepper motor power supply… for a zen 12VDC is plenty.
Once this becomes available, I’ll want to switch, I’m sure.