Problem with 3 Independent Z-axis motors and Endstops

[deckingman]

@b3d Does the Z axis move correctly without / before homing? i.e. after power up but with axes not homed, does a small (say 5mm) Z move work as expected? You might need to enter M564 H0 to allow un-homed axis movement.

[B3D]

Yes all 3 z-axis motors move together before homing. Tested with this sequence:
M564 H0
G91
G1 Z-5 F200 S2

[deckingman]

@b3d That's really strange. I was just comparing my CoreXYUV homing file with your 3 lead screw file as there are similarities due to us both using U and V axes. One thing I do differently to you is that when I re-combine the axes, I explicitly assign all drives, not just those that were temporarily changed. I'm just wondering if putting P3 at the end of M584 Z2:3:4 is buggering something up. It's a long shot but at the end of your homing file and your config.g try M584 X0 Y1 Z2:34 E5 P3 instead of just M584 Z2:3:4 P3.

Alternatively, maybe there is a hidden character crept in to that last M584 line that you have. Try deleting it and re-typing it. I confess that I'm clutching at straws here but I can't see anything else obviously amiss.

[B3D]

Thanks @deckingman for comparing to your configuration and homing files. I changed the second M584 to a freshly typed M584 X0 Y1 Z2:3:4 E5 P3 in both config.g and homez.g to recombine the axes. Added a test move G1 Z-5 U-5 V-5 F200 S2 after homing each axes individually and before combining the Z, U and V axes, and that works fine. The test move G1 Z-5 F200 immediately after combining the axes still does not work. During this move the Z2 axis rotates in the correct direction to raise the platform while at the same time the drive 3 (U) and drive 4 (V) axes are going the wrong way.

homez.g
; Home 3 Independent Z-Axis Drives

M117 Homing Z axis...

M400 ; Wait for movement to stop
G91 ; relative positioning

;M584 Z2 U3 V4 P5 ; separate z axis motors
M584 X0 Y1 Z2 U3 V4 E5 P5 ; separate Z axis motors. P5 to display/drive 5 axis.

G1 Z400 U400 V400 F500 S1 ; lower all z motors until each corresponding z-stop reached
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 V10 F200 S1 ; lower Z3 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 U10 F200 S1 ; lower Z2 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 Z10 F200 S1 ; lower Z1 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

; This test move before combining axis works
G1 Z-5 U-5 V-5 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)

M584 X0 Y1 Z2:3:4 E5 P3 ; Combine Z, U and V. P3 to display/drive 3 axis.

; This test move after combining axis does NOT work (drives 3 and 4 are rotating in the wrong direction)
G1 Z-5 F200 ; test raise all axis slowly

G90 ; absolute positioning

M117 Homing Z axis done

[Phaedrux]

Just on a lark, try commenting out your M117 message commands.

[Phaedrux]

Also, what firmware version?

[B3D]

No change with commenting out M117 messages.
RepRapFirmware for Duet 2 WiFi/Ethernet version 2.0(RTOS) running on Duet WiFi 1.02 or later + DueX5

[Phaedrux]

One last ditch try, upgrade to 2.01 full release, and if that doesn't work, 2.02 RC2.

[Phaedrux]

Also, have you tried sending each command from the macro individually through the console? Does the recombine axis command work then?

[B3D]

@phaedrux Thanks for your suggestions. I commented out the last M584 in homez.g and sent the following commands from the console:
M584 Z2:3:4 P3
G91
G1 Z-5 F200
Same thing. Drive 2 (Z) rotates in the correct direction, while drive 3 (U) and drive 4 (V) axes rotate the wrong way.

[JoergS5]

@b3d I would try to remove the separated movement commands and check whether the combined movement works as intended. Or whether the wrong movements remain.

This is to isolate the problem (reason a) something wrong with changing from separate to combined b) backwards rotation handled differently for Z and U/V).

[B3D]

Its starting to look like a firmware bug. Upgraded to Firmware Version 2.01(RTOS) (2018-07-26b2). Now the 3 z-axis rotate in the correct direction after recombining Z, U and V. However, this only works the first time after firmware reset. If Home Z is run a second time, at the first G1 command, only the Z axis moves (U and V do not move).

homez.g
; Home 3 Independent Z-Axis Drives

M117 Homing Z axis...

M400 ; Wait for movement to stop
G91 ; relative positioning

M584 Z2 U3 V4 P5 ; separate Z axis motors. P5 to display/drive 5 axis.

; This only works the fist time after firmware reset.
; The second time Homez is run, only the Z axis moves (U and V do not move).
G1 Z400 U400 V400 F500 S1 ; lower all z motors until each corresponding z-stop reached
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 V10 F200 S1 ; lower Z3 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 U10 F200 S1 ; lower Z2 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 Z10 F200 S1 ; lower Z1 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

; This test move before combining axis works
G1 Z-5 U-5 V-5 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)

M584 Z2:3:4 P3 ; Combine Z, U and V. P3 to display/drive 3 axis.

; This test move after combining axis also works now
G1 Z-5 F200 ; test raise all axis slowly

G90 ; absolute positioning

M117 Homing Z axis done

[deckingman]

@b3d Well it sounds like some sort of progress. Now that you have upgraded the firmware, can you try assigning all drives in each M584 command as detailed in my earlier post. So always assigne X,Y and E as well as Z (and U and V). If you take a look at this https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/GCode#Section_M584_Set_drive_mapping and especially the warning paragraph underneath the example which states:

Quote...........
"Assigning a drive using M584 does not remove its old assignment. Therefore, if you assign a drive that defaults to being an extruder drive, you should also assign the extruder drives explicitly as in the above example. Failure to do so may result in unexpected behaviour."
..end of quote.

So I'm just wondering if it's something along those lines that is screwing things up and drives 3 and 4 are resorting to being extruders.

It is possible that you have unearthed a hitherto unknown bug in the firmware but what makes me doubt that is that there are other users who do what you are trying to do and AFAIK, yours is the only case where it isn't working. On the other hand, maybe everyone else with 3 independent screws home to Z min so you might be the only user using 3 independent screws homing to Z max.

Hopefully now that the TCT show is over, David (DC42) might find time to take a look at this thread.

Edit. One other thing. If you send M584 with no parameters through the gcode console, it will report the current state of the drive mapping. So if you entered each command in your homeZ file one at a time, then entered M584 after each command, it might show at what point things get screwed up.

[B3D]

Thanks @deckingman, appreciate your help and gave your suggestions a try this morning. Good to know that M584 returns the drive mapping. I changed the M584 to define all drives every time in config.g and homez.g.
After config.g M584 -> Driver assignments: X0 Y1 Z2:3:4 U3 V4 E5, 3 axes visible
After homez.g M584 -> Driver assignments: X0 Y1 Z2:3:4 U3 V4 E5, 3 axes visible

Behavior is still the same. Running Homez.g the first time after firmware reset and everything works as expected, with the Z, U and V axes rotating the same direction. But when Homez is run a second time, the first G1 Z400 U400 V400 F500 S1 command causes the Z axis to rotate in different direction from U and V. Homez then hangs for a couple of minutes before continuing on with the G1 V-3 F200 S2, and subsequent commands.

Also tried @phaedrux suggestion to enter commands individually from console. Did this after running homez once after reset. Same behavior. Checked drive mapping after the G1 Z400 U400 V400 F500 S1 and it returned Driver assignments: X0 Y1 Z2 U3 V4 E5, 5 axes visible

[dc42]

Make sure that in your homez.g sequence, you switch into relative movement mode using G91 before you make the G1 S1 ZUV move.

[B3D]

Thanks for the suggestion @dc42, G91 is already there before the first M584 splitting the drives and before the G1 ZUV move in Homez.g, and the G90 is at the end.

[dc42]

Try adding M400 after the M584 command, before the G1 S1 command.

[B3D]

@dc42 Adding M400 after M584 did not resolve the issue. In fact, adding M400 after the second M584 caused homez.g to hang.

homez.g
; Home 3 Independent Z-Axis Drives

M117 Homing Z axis...
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G91 ; relative positioning

M584 X0 Y1 Z2 U3 V4 E5 P5 ; separate Z axis motors. P5 to display/drive 5 axis.
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

; The second time Homez is run, only the Z axis moves with this command (U and V do not move).
; Homez then hangs here for a couple of minutes, before continuing ...
G1 Z400 U400 V400 F500 S1 ; lower all z motors until each corresponding z-stop reached

G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 V10 F200 S1 ; lower Z3 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 V-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z3 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 U10 F200 S1 ; lower Z2 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 U-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z2 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
G1 Z10 F200 S1 ; lower Z1 motor slowly until its endstop reached
G1 Z-3 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

; This test move before combining axis works
G1 Z-5 U-5 V-5 F200 S2 ; raise Z1 axis slowly (S2 Ignore endstops and ignore axis not homed)
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

M584 X0 Y1 Z2:3:4 E5 P3 ; Combine Z, U and V. P3 to display/drive 3 axis.

; Adding M400 here caused the homez.g to hang
;M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

; This test move after combining axis also works now
G1 Z-5 F200 ; test raise all axis slowly
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

G90 ; absolute positioning
M400 ; Wait for movement to stop

M117 Homing Z axis done

[B3D]

HI @dc42. Wondering if you had any further insight into this issue. Is it a firmware bug, or something with the configurations/gcode? Thanks.

[dc42]

I'll need to replicate your configuration and test it - that's on my list to do.