I’m new to laser machines but have been running cnc machines for 20 years and a 3d printer for about 5. I recently picked up a Sculpfun S10, with the limit switches upgrade. When setting up the machine, the only way I could get the limit awitches to work was by switching the x/y plug locations on the board. When aligning my honeycomb - by using the move tab, I see that the x and y are opposite, i.e., the up and down arrows move the X, and left and right arrows move the Y. I made a rectangle test, ran frame, and confirmed that yes, they are opposite. The rectangle was turned 90 degrees. My origin is set to the left front, as are my homing switches.
I’ve done a lot of searching and haven’t found a solution to this. I did see one video that showed a button in the setup that would invert XandY, but I don’t see that option in 1.4. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Can you take a photo of the laser from the front-side? Want to make sure we’re aligned on the current orientation.
What was the reason for this? What was the symptom when oriented correctly? And to confirm, this was only for the limit switches or is the connector shared with the stepper motors as well?
Steve’s been here almost a whole hour…
Gotta cut the new guy a break.
I’m thinking that it’s something else anyway.
If you want to swap X-Axis motor behavior with Y-Axis motor behavior, that can be done when you’re compiling firmware. It’s pretty deep in the controller and I don’t see another way to do it in software. Swapping the controller-end of the motor cables may be the best approach.
If the rails have been extended and the cables don’t work ‘swapped’ then it’s possible that something is missing or wrong.
No offense taken at all. Most of my cnc experience is with industrial machines and, while my cheapo 3d printer runs grbl, I have never needed to dig into it. I proudly wear a grbl badge of ignorance, lol.
Here’s the board setup with the limit switch plugs swapped and the x/y where they should be. When the switches were installed, the x/y were running opposite, so that’s why I swapped them. Just for grins, I swapped the main x/y (blue and red) and, while the machine movement now operates correctly, the limit switch/home operation did not. I put the switch plugs back in their “correct” location and now they work fine. It’s like I can have one or the other, but not both in the correct location on the board. I think I’ll try unplugging the switches and see if that affects the main x/y.
I unplugged the switch plugs and that made no difference in the main x/y operation. I really don’t want to dig into the firmware, so I guess I’ll just keep the plugs in opposite and see how it runs. I may reach out to Sculpfun and see what they say.
To confirm, is your laser oriented such that the controller that you’re showing is considered the front of the machine?
Also, can you double check that the cable plugged into the X port on the controller is indeed going to the X stepper? Same with the Y. Not sure if the motor side is color coded but perhaps the connectors were swapped.
Yes, the controller is oriented correctly. One of the first things I did was trace the wires to make sure that the wires from the board were going to the correct motors.
I don’t mean to be obtuse about this. I just want to make sure I’m absolutely certain I understand what you’re saying. Is the controller located on the side of the machine that you consider the front of the laser?
And to make sure I understand the current state of the machine. Can you confirm that you’re saying that with the cables connected correctly that X control request from LightBurn will affect Y movement, and Y control request from LightBurn will affect X movement?
And this is happening irrespective of limit switches being installed?
If so, this would be an extremely unusual issue without a typical explanation.
You are not being obtuse at all. It is an unusual, perplexing issue.
Yes, the controller is located on the right front of the machine, as per the Sculpfun instructions, and the home location / limit switches are at the left front.
Your description of what is occurring is spot on, and worded in a much clearer way than what I described. Limit switches being installed has no affect on this.
Yes, it is extremely unusual. That’s why I’m wondering if I should address this with the manufacturer.
Okay. Thank you for confirming. I felt it important to verify because the most common reason for appearances of X/Y swapping is due to people using their machines rotated by 90 degrees.
I think that’s probably the right way to go.
I just don’t understand how this could be unless your controller was somehow manufactured incorrectly. But I’ve not seen any other mention of this behavior so that mostly rules out a production run issue.
That leaves a potential firmware fault but I assume this is standard firmware.
You may want to try reflashing the firmware to see if you get different behavior. There’s a slim chance that the firmware was corrupted.
In any case, I don’t think you really want to be working around the issue given that you’d now have a one-of-a-kind machine that may not work predictably and who knows what other gremlins would be lurking underneath.
Since my english is far from to maintain a technical discussion, I believe that keeping quiet is doing everyone a favor.
I certainly misunderstood the problem.
Sorry.
I have written some documentation on the various Sculpfun models and had quite some users struggling with orientation and movement.
First, here are two articles for reference, that explain most issues around movement and limit switches:
The limit switch guide also explains the firmware settings required to make homing work.
But maybe first, let’s check your firmware settings. Post the output of the $$ command from the console window. You can also compare those with the standard settings I listed here: Firmware Update & Settings - Diode Laser Wiki (table at the end).
It seems that sometimes those settings get corrupted and movement is affected. Do the arrow buttons move the laser as expected?
Melvin, to be clear, have you ever heard of a case where X and Y movements were swapped when the cables were not reversed and the orientation of the laser correct?
added a wrong extension cable (Sculpfun has different add-on cables for the extension kits etc.)
And after that hardware part, I had hundreds of users with wrong firmware settings. Those cheap lasers use all kinds of firmware versions, some have stock grbl defaults (not suitable for Sculpfun lasers), some had Sculpfun defaults but for a different laser. I have to admit that I also still suspect that LightBurn has a Bug that alters some firmware settings randomly (I came across that multiple times, it was the best fitting explanation).
That’s why I expect incorrect firmware settings first, usually.
I have S9 with S10 module after connected go into edit/machine settings see if switches are set right for axis control. I have 42 years CNC experience and programming and still get screwed up because we look to hard into the simplest of things.
Thank you all for the insights and suggestions!
I contacted Sculpfun last night, and they actually got back to me today. After a few back and forths, I have a new board headed my way. They said it would be expedidted, but I’m not holding my breath on that one. Once it gets here, I’ll let you guys know if it fixes the issue.
Thanks for taking the time to try and straighten this out for me!
Sculpfun has a great user support, they replace most parts instantly.
But I still doubt that it’s a hardware problem. You didn’t show the firmware settings, so I still think you configured it wrong. No offense, but movement directions can be changed within an instant. No need to replace a board…
Ok, I just read the initial post again and got it wrong about the swapped axes. I got swapped limit switches but inverted axis. But still, this doesn’t matter.
It actually IS a configuration thing because both axes work fine. It’s just a different pin on the controller. If you change the pin, the motor changes. Software setting. IF this would really be the case, I think there might be a wrong firmware version flashed. Try the S10 firmware from this page: Firmware Update & Settings - Diode Laser Wiki Maybe there was the S30 firmware flashed which is similar, but might have switched motor control pins.
What I think is much more likely is he swapped the cables. The cables are very close together and maybe have been labeled wrong. Just swap them and you are fine. You could use a measurement tool to check if the cables have been labeled wrong, or just swap them without measuring. And you are done. No mainboard exchange required. See the picture how close the motors are, the cables are nearly identical.
