All, I have no idea what I am doing. 1st I plugged in the Arduino and the on light glowed then a flashing yellow light started. then I do not know if the activation of drivers loaded, do not know how to check. I am building a laser engraver from scratch. 500mw blue laser, Nema steppers, Arduino Uno R3 and CNC Shield. I guess I need help in getting the right drivers, software loaded onto the Arduino etc. to make the laser engraver work properly. I have not built the unit yet, still waiting parts.
ANY help will be Greatly Appreciated.
Thanks
ctbruce
ctbruce:
All, I have no idea what I am doing.
If that means you are completely new to Arduinos I suggest you put the CNC shield away for a few days and learn the basics of uploading programs to the Arduino.
Building any sort of CNC control system is complex. Do you plan to write your own program or use a ready-made program such as GRBL?
Post a link to the datasheet for your stepper motors.
What stepper motor drivers are you using?
Give details of your stepper motor power supply (volts and amps).
you have to code the program, its not like a computer program where you press install and then the program is ready to use.
something ie this web browser you are looking at is written in code which makes it work.
that is what a microprocessor (arduino) needs to run. CODE that you will have to write into the arduino.
good idea to have a plan of what you want to make, but you will have to start small and build up to it.
that is essentially what a computer program is lots of small things that work together.
start by looking through the examples in the ide.
you will need to know a bit about coding, a bit about electricity/electronics
start with trying to control 1 led, 1 motor and slowly put them altogether.
if you have zero experience it may take you a year to put together your engraver, but once you can do that there wont be much you cant do with an arduino.
issue with arduino/ cnc shield: my clone Y motor does not run when I activate it on the machine console. The Y motor moves not the clone, my X motor moves fine. I have checked the wires, the continuity of the motor and all is good. I even swapped other motors and they still don't move.
Please Help
Thank You
Bruce
Which CNC shield? What firmware?
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=491515.msg3353763#msg3353763
Don't cross post. It confuses the conversation on both threads.
Ask a moderator to close one.
Other thread removed.
You really need to work out what moves and what doesn't move. If you cannot get the description correct, I'm not surprised you have problems with any code.
bluejets:
You really need to work out what moves and what doesn't move. If you cannot get the description correct, I'm not surprised you have problems with any code.
why are you so negative, I asked a simple question about how to clone two steppers and you flip out.
I guess this isn't the place to get help. Sorry I was a burr in you ass......I'm gone
Sadly, there are a lot of negative comments here, it's been a problem with Arduino forums for a while. If you can ignore those people, you can still get some useful help.
Robin2:
If that means you are completely new to Arduinos I suggest you put the CNC shield away for a few days and learn the basics of uploading programs to the Arduino.Building any sort of CNC control system is complex. Do you plan to write your own program or use a ready-made program such as GRBL?
Post a link to the datasheet for your stepper motors.
What stepper motor drivers are you using?
Give details of your stepper motor power supply (volts and amps).
Thank You for all the info. I am very new but learning.
So, with all that said-can you explain how to get two steppers to move together using the jumpers? thanks
Is this the same problem as in this post? You were asked questions in that post that you did not answer. Why start yet another thread?
Threads merged.
I got to this point and can not figure out what is wrong. I have two stepper motors I want to move together to control my Y axis. I have inserted the jumpers at the clone Y axis pins, plugged the clone motor into the A driver, my drivers are set at 0.40 via the pots on the boards. When I activate a movement for Y it does not move either motor, is there something I did not do or do incorrectly, I don't know where to go from here. Thanks for the help to get to this point. I have the Arduino Uno R3 with CNC Shield. my X axis works and Y axis works but Y with clone motor hooked up neither work.
You need to provide a wiring diagram. It is very difficult to make sense of verbal descriptions of wiring. A photo of a simple pencil drawing will probably be the best. Please do not use Fritzing.
...R
There may be configuration items in firmware that need to be set as well as the hardware jumpers.
Why start another thread? There are at least 2 already.