Xcarve stepper motors just stopped responding

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

I just finished assembling my xcarve, went through the testing program with Easel, and all the steppers worked fine, the homing worked, life was beautiful. I did this test a few times, mostly because I was just impressed with the XCarve, but also just to test it to make sure it seemed reliable - no immediately loose connections, etc.

I then installed an IoT relay, plugging in the DeWalt 611, and went through the setup program again, this time enabling auto spindle control. (The relay is wired to the Spindle 0-10V & Gnd connections). It, too, worked swimmingly.

Then five minutes later, the Xcontroller just turned off, and I couldn’t turn it back on. I unplugged everything - router, IoT relay, Xcontroller, gave it ~10 minutes, and plugged just the Xcontroller back in, after removing the IoT relay wiring.

The Xcontroller turns back on and, when I go through the setup procedure on it again, it seems to receive the initialization instructions. I double checked that all the wires are still completely seated. But the motors no longer respond to the manual controls in the Easel setup routine. It does seem that the steppers are getting power because, compared to when the Xcontroller is off, the steppers all seem “locked”, very resistant to movement.

Is it possible I somehow fried the Xcontroller with the IoT relay connection? Or is that totally unrelated. Welcome any suggestions - please help! Thank you.

2

Whoops - found the problem. In between setting up / testing the Xcarve initially, and installing the IoT relay, I also was testing the Universal Gcode Sender, and sent some incorrect commands ($20=1 & $21=1); was able to reverse that out and now the motors respond again.

Now the IoT relay won’t turn on the spindle, though that seems to be a totally different problem since the Xcontroller is correctly sending 10v on the Spindle contact, and the relay works when I independently test it with a 9v battery… will brainstorm on that one a while!

3

Either Spindle turn On/Off/Manual toggle switch is off.(If X-Box have it. I have older Controller)
Or you may want to switch spindle output cable on Xbox swap it negative to positive/Positive to negative.
One last thing, go back to machine control and check if you turned spindle auto again.

4

Ha! You hit it right on the head: reversed the polarity of the inputs into the relay - all resolved.

Thanks much for the help!

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