I could use some help

fcwilt

@fcwilt your suggestions are essential, my friend. So tell me which wire goes where and I'll get right to it (on the switch, and on the connector?).

Only on the micro-switches themselves.

Based on past discussions the white wires are connected to the switch terminals labeled NO.

IF, I repeat, IF that is the situation you would need to unsolder the wire from the NO terminal and solder it to the NC terminal.

Do that for each switch.

Once that is done the M574 statements for the endstops would need to have the ! character removed, which changes them from NO "mode" to NC "mode".

Frederick

rexx

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A Former User

@rexx thanks Rex! Appreciate it.

A Former User

@fcwilt okay, sounds more than easy. I’m expecting this printer to fly after I make this change!

A Former User

@fcwilt the switch for the Z endstop has the white wire on O. The green wire is on NO, and the NC post is vacant.

The switch for the X endstop has the white wire in the O. The green wire is on the NO, and the NC post is vacant

The switch for the Y endstop has the white wire on the O. The green wire is on the NO, and the NC post is vacant.

I guess we miscommunicated somehow.

Mark

deckingman

@mac In case Frederick has got his head down somewhere, I'll jump in. The "O" will be common so leave that where it is. All need do is move the green wire from the NO to the NC.

A Former User

@deckingman so there is work to do, but there was a mix-up about what it is; that’s cool. And doing this NO to NC move will remove some noise from the system, correct?

A Former User

@fcwilt Got it done (with a bump), and the !'s are gone!

; Endstops
M574 X1 S1 P"io5.in"                     ; configure switch-type (e.g. microswitch) endstop for high end on X via pin io5.in
M574 Y1 S1 P"io6.in"			; configure switch-type (e.g. microswitch) endstop for high end on Y via pin io6.in
M574 Z1 S1 P"io2.in"			; configure switch-type (e.g. microswitch) endstop for high end on Z via pin io2.in

A Former User

@deckingman Thanks also to Mr. Deckingman for diving in and getting the boat back on course!

deckingman

@mac said in I could use some help:

@deckingman ................. And doing this NO to NC move will remove some noise from the system, correct?

Not exactly. Here is the thing..........The end stop status is always ignored except when you do a homing move (use the H1 parameter). If you use normally open switches, when you do a homing move, the firmware is looking for a change at the switch from (normally) open to closed. Now if there is a bad connection or a wire falls off completely, the firmware will never see that the switch has closed so it'll continue to try and move the gantry which could potentially do some damage.

So, it is generally best practice to use normally closed switches. That way, if there is bad connection or a wire falls off, the firmware will "think" that the switch is open so it'll stop the carriage.

But there is a catch. Because if you use normally open switches and have a wire fall off, as soon as you start a homing move, the carriage will stop (because the firmware "thinks" that the switch has immediately gone open). But it'll also set that as the homing position - even if it';s half way along an axis. If you didn't spot what happened, and started a print, strange things are going to happen because the origin isn't 0,0 but somewhere else. Now there is a way to catch that but it involves conditional gcode and I really don't think it would be a good idea to go down that road at this stage of the game - you have enough on your plate just getting the thing doing basic stuff.

So for now, wire the switches normally closed (NC) because it'll be safer. Once you get everything sorted and moving as it should, remind me and I'll explain what you can do to catch the unlikely event of a wire falling off.

A Former User

@deckingman excellent clarification, thank you!

deckingman

@mac said in I could use some help:

@deckingman excellent clarification, thank you!

No worries. I've got my hands fairly full of other stuff so if you don't here from me, it's not because I'm ignoring you - it's just that I'm busy trying to sort out a major upgrade to my own (6 extruder, 7 axis, 4 Duet board) machine. I'll pop in from time to time when I can, but Frederick and the other Ian will get you sorted.

fcwilt

@mac said in I could use some help:

@fcwilt the switch for the Z endstop has the white wire on O. The green wire is on NO, and the NC post is vacant.

The switch for the X endstop has the white wire in the O. The green wire is on the NO, and the NC post is vacant

The switch for the Y endstop has the white wire on the O. The green wire is on the NO, and the NC post is vacant.

I guess we miscommunicated somehow.

Mark

Hi Mark (here I thought it was Mac)

Just a little confusion with wire color. But deckingman was spot on and gave you good advice.

Just FYI, I bet if you look real close at the switch terminals you describe as having an O, it will turn out to be a C for COMMON. On some of my switches the C is almost closed and can look like an O.

Just a little fun fact, nothing important.

Frederick

fcwilt

@deckingman said in I could use some help:

it's just that I'm busy trying to sort out a major upgrade to my own (6 extruder, 7 axis, 4 Duet board) machine.

Now that I am looking forward to hearing about.

Frederick

alankilian

@deckingman said in I could use some help:

But there is a catch. Because if you use normally open switches and have a wire fall off, as soon as you start a homing move, the carriage will stop (because the firmware "thinks" that the switch has immediately gone open). But it'll also set that as the homing position - even if it';s half way along an axis. If you didn't spot what happened, and started a print, strange things are going to happen because the origin isn't 0,0 but somewhere else. Now there is a way to catch that but it involves conditional gcode and I really don't think it would be a good idea to go down that road at this stage of the game - you have enough on your plate just getting the thing doing basic stuff.

One correction here, otherwise it's a good description of NC vs NO.

Because if you use normally open switches and have a wire fall off, as soon as you start a homing move, the carriage will stop

Should say:

Because if you use normally CLOSED switches and have a wire fall off, as soon as you start a homing move, the carriage will stop

deckingman

@fcwilt Oh it's nothing to get excited about. You may recal that I have a failed expansion board and the Duet guys have kindly donated a 6HC main board to replace the two 3HC expansion boards. The deal is that using a 6HC as an expansion board has never been tried in anger, so I'll test it out and we'll work together to resolve any issues that may arise.

But grafting this board onto my machine such that it can connect to the 6 extruders which move on the UV gantry is a major operation. It involves doing away with the AB load balancing gantry (which has no effect on print quality) and removing some frame members which have various cables running though them, as well as extending and re-routing all the wiring that is associated with the two expansion boards. I'm making progress but it's a substantial undertaking.

deckingman

@alankilian Thanks for spotting and correcting that.

A Former User

@fcwilt could you post a picture or two of the monster you're working on?

A Former User

@fcwilt that explains it, when I look at them, with a magnifying glass no less, I have this weird feeling that if I could only see a little bit better, that would be a C!

So here's a mystery: 6-30-22, 4:53:37 PM Event: G28 Y, Error: Go/G1: insufficient axes homed. I was trying to Home Y (after I M119'd the end stops to see if they were present, then M119'd each of them while activating one endstop at a time to see if they were working.

Silly me, I assumed that since they were present and working, I could try to USE THEM!

Mac

fcwilt

@mac said in I could use some help:

@fcwilt that explains it, when I look at them, with a magnifying glass no less, I have this weird feeling that if I could only see a little bit better, that would be a C!

So here's a mystery: 6-30-22, 4:53:37 PM Event: G28 Y, Error: Go/G1: insufficient axes homed. I was trying to Home Y (after I M119'd the end stops to see if they were present, then M119'd each of them while activating one endstop at a time to see if they were working.

Silly me, I assumed that since they were present and working, I could try to USE THEM!

Mac

But it was your video that showed your Y axis movement was very erratic leading us to conclude that you needed better steppers.

I have two printers using the board you have and they both work fine. I should make a short video. I will do that tomorrow.

Frederick