Motors not responding on test after assembly

Hi, in the last step after assembly the motors are not responding. To troubleshoot a forum entry mentioned powering off and moving axis by hand, which did make each led flicker on gshield. Does this eliminate wiring to the motors as the problem? I have reseated gshield on arduino, and arduino drivers appear ok in windows as easel detects it. The power supply unit is of course powering on, and I made sure the power leads don’t seem loose. Any suggestions? Thanks!

When you first power up the machine you should see the blue LED and three green LEDs lit on the gShield. Do you see that?

yes I do

Is easel seeing your machine?

That indicates that the wiring is probably ok and that the Arduino is talking to the gShield and that the 24 volt power supply is producing power.

If you have a voltmeter measure the voltage from the power supply to see if it is actually 24 volts.

What operating system are you using?

Hi, I believe so. When I reached the step in assembly instructions to download easel it detected the x carve, and arduino is installed correctly in device manager.

Windows 8.

Some people have had problems with version 0.2.3 of Easel Local recognizing their X-carve. Can you check to see which version of Easel Local you have installed?

It’s working now, though honestly I’m unsure why! Perhaps it was reseating the gshield again. On the next step it asks if I want manual or automatic spindle control. It doesn’t turn on. I have the logic switch enabled on psu. I can of course turn it on manually but is that OK to run like that? Is there wiring running from the spindle somehow? I don’t see that step?

What spindle do you have?

dewalt 611. I have assumed from the instructions there is no wiring, just manually powering it on? The setup wizard confused me because it asked me to choose automatic or manual. I assume manual then?

The homing test I am also unsure of. I expected the carriage to go all the way to switches. They only moved a bit and stopped, is that not correct?

My other remaining issue I believe before my first carve is setting the z? Does it matter how deep I insert the bit in the router? Once it’s in I haven’t yet see how I calibrate it’s distance from the waste board?
Also for safety is there anything to consider about the bit other than torking it down with the nut on the router?

I appreciate the help, it’s so cool other people who own there are helping, once I understand I will also try to contribute to the forums, thanks again :slight_smile:

When working correctly, it should move all the way to the switches, stop, back off a bit, then ease back to the switch. Yes, choose manual on your spindle control.
Your machine does not know where it is on your workspace. So when you home the machine it tells your program where it is. When you do your first carve, you will tell your xcarve where to start from in the x and y. Then, lastly, you will lower the bit to the top of your workpiece and (in easel) click on the bottom of screen saying set this as home position for this piece.

I believe you can get the xcarve to control the on/off of your spindle, which is why it is asking. For this you would most likely be just leaving the spindle on, and plugged into a relay similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WV7GMA2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=QZ2PNQF6Q5PM&coliid=I153F8C5FHIFZX

Then you could wire the xcarve to the relay and let it control when it turns on/off.

Not really a big deal, it is fairly easy to just switch on the router when you start a job and switch if off when done. I could see it being nice for times when you will not be around for the end of a job so you don’t leave the router spinning in air.

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