If the machine is not attempting to home I suspect the limit switches are being detected on. However, your status report doesn’t indicate that. That could be an issue with the status report so won’t assume that. If you unplug the limit switches from the controller and power cycle, does the machine attempt to home? Get ready to cut power.
Please provide the Console output from the power-on cycle with the limit switches connected when you get a chance.e
You have this configured so that your steppers are always energized. This could be necessary in situations where there is risk of unwanted movement during idle periods but otherwise not done. Typical value for this would be 25. This would not cause the current issues you’re seeing, however, but it explains the immediate stepper motor sound you described.
Suggest you change this to 1 so the machine reports machine position.
Both @berainlb and I suggested you unplug the limit switches. When you do so, the configuration will attempt to home with $20 though $22 set to true (1). Grbl will attempt to home when it’s powered up and will show as busy in Lightburn until it homes properly OR it times out. It should time out when it can’t home within a short while. It can take 20 seconds or more to time out, so be patient.
The console will help you and us on what’s going on. When I connect to my grbl machine I get
It’s ‘busy’ while it’s attempting to home. When it times out it shows that homing failed. I don’t have to reset or power off/on the controller. It fails on mine because there is no power to the motors…
This would help us understand what the controller is doing.
Then you confuse me with…
What we’d like to know is if the head moves in the proper direction when it’s homing. Sounds like it just sits there.?
What I said was the steppers move in the right direction when using the arrow keys in the move window. When I press Home…nothing moves but it makes a sound like the steppers engaging the timing belt. Back in the conversation aways…I changed to limit switched to NO.
In your last reply with the error message, you didn’t mention if the motors moved.
We’re pretty confident it’s not homing.
Did you set $20 - $22 to zero and see if it boots without an error.? This should be back to where you where before you installed limit switches.
Before reconnecting the limit switches, set the laser to the center of the work area. Set $20 - $22 to 1 (enable) and attempt a homing cycle. Don’t let it go out of bounds, the head should move towards the limit switches.
Let us know the results…
If everything ‘looks’ good, you should be able to plug the limit switches back.
If it fails to home, then we need to look closer at the hardware… Make sure $5 is set for NO switches…
Try it with the all the homing switches on and limits connected. If it gets an error, double check the limits are in the right connectors. On my board, it was labeled X, Y & Z but, in true Chinese craftsmanship it was really Z, Y & X… right to left…
I am going to try this one more time.I was told once to move the laser head to the middle of the table then see if they move towards home after switching on the controller. Neither axis moves at all after turning the controller on. In the move window either axis will move towards (the real) home when I use the arrow keys. Caveat: neither will move away from “home” when using the arrow keys unless I have already moved one or both towards (the real) home…then I can jog the laser head back to “home” but no further… The machine reads “home” as the laser heads location when the controller is turned on. If I click Home the progress bar goes to 100% and stays there until it times out. Lightburn is set to Absolute Coords. I have tried everything you have told me…I think…but this issue remains. I may could get somewhere if I could home the machine. There is no manual for the controller…and since I bought it the price has decreased from near $40 to $25. I hooked Lightburn to my K40 without any issue at all…Lightburn even locates my plotter but I haven’t tried to configure it. Something is wrong that seemingly nothing will fix. I appreciate your help. I hope I have explained this well enough for you to understand.
Thanks for hanging in there…I just don’t want to be a bother. When it is set to home on startup
…the progress bar moves to 100% and stays there until it times out. I hear a single noise which I think are the steppers engaging the timing belts…but beyond that neither axis moves at all.
With the laser head in the middle of the work space and auto home on startup turned off…the same thing happens…no movement in either axis…BUT…I can move either axis by using the arrow keys in the move window…but they will move only towards where home is supposed to be…front left. Lightburn reads wherever the laser head was when I turned it on as “home”. As I said I can move, using the arrows, toward where home is supposed to be…front left…but neither axis will move away from “home”…the location where I turned the machine on. When I move the axes towards the front-left home it shows as moving into negative space…as if…I moved the X axis it goes from 0 to -10 -20 etc…same for the Y axis. After making sure the axes move in the correct directions…toward front left Home…I then click the Home button and the progress bar goes to 100% and stays there until it times out. Neither axis will move away from the location of the laser head when I turn the machine on “home”…or towards rear right…into positive space. I get an out of bounds error…I am not at the machine right now to give you the exact message…but it says I am exceeding the limits of the axis…something like that. I hope this is clear and not too redundant. Thanks again.
