A friend of mine gave me a tip some time ago to take a closer look at the Arduino Mega 2560.
Now that I’ve gotten to work with this controller and especially with the Mega-5X software available on it, I’m very impressed. In combination with a RAMPS driver card developed for the 2560, you can get a complete 5-axis CNC system (3 linear and 2 rotary axes) for just 25 Euros.
In the new GrblGru version V3.42 an interface for Mega-5X is now available. The attached video shows all necessary steps from flashing the Mega 2560 to moving the axes with GrblGru.
In order to test the whole thing at my desk, I built myself a little test environment with 5 stepper motors.
Since I don’t have a RAMPS board yet, I simply used 2 CNC-Shield Boards as drivers.
Hi, I have built cnc and I’m using grblgru for cnc control every thing is running but when I turn on soft limit switch $20=1 and $22=1, it shows a msg alarm 2 (reset to continue).
Can anyone help me with this?
If you have wired limit switches and want to use homing, you can switch on the parameter ‘Check Limits’ in the GrblGru settings. Then the limit values from the machine manager are used when the jogging buttons are pressed.
It is often useful to shorten the working range a little (e.g. 1mm), because otherwise the limit switches often react in the end positions.
Can you suggest how to connect grbl mega5x to grblgru 3.42version. I have tried with grblgru new version 4.2 but there im finding problems and grblgru3.42version is easy where there’sno required of hex. file.
Previously I have connected grblgru 3.42 with grbl mega5x but when I switched to new laptop I’m facing issues connecting please can anyone help with this.
I have connected grblgru with arduino and it was successful. Now I have to connect end stops to cnc but when mention limits and settings as per @cprezzi and @GrblGru it showing an alarm 9 and this type of alarm as shown in attached picture
Sorry, I can’t follow what all you have done so far.
I recommend that you calmly proceed step by step.
The machine also works without homing and limit switch.
Therefore switch off the homing and the limit switch monitoring first.
Flash your Arduino Mega with the file grbl-Mega-5X-v1.1h.20180712.hex, which is copied to the directory C:\program files (x86)\toe\GrblGru during the GrblGru installation.
If you can then carefully move the axes in jog mode, you have a good basis for the next steps,
ok, first I would like to ask to install my latest beta version V4.2.20. In it there are some changes to the jog operation.
I don’t know your machine, but your settings $100-104 and especially the accelerations $120-124 seem quite high to me. Then please activate in the settings ‘Show macro toolbar’ and have a look at the macros ‘SetSettings4Milly@Mega’ in the marco file ‘grbl’.
With this macro you can set all parameters. Make a copy of your settings before.
Then go to the machine manager and enter your driving ranges under ‘4. limit’. Reduce the range a little bit so that you don’t reach the limit switches.
With the settings from SetSettings4Milly@Mega the homing is switched off for now. Now try to move the axes carefully.
This way you can check if Mega-5X can move the axes with your settings. If the axes jump or errors occur, reduce the acceleration ramps and feeds further.
Only when you can move the axes without errors, you can activate the homing switch again and start homing.
