Limit Switches

[Administrator]

@Zax,

To compare, do you have a link to an L6 board for sale somewhere? I may want to pick up an L6 spare.

Thanks...

[Zax]

http://us.banggood.com/Wholesale-Warehouse-3-Axis-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Board-Controller-Laser-board-For-DIY-Laser-Engraver-wp-Usa-1015947.html

It's cheaper from their US warehouse, currently $22.99 and comes with 3 x motor drivers and the voltage regulator - as well as the Nano and all the cables.

[Administrator]

Thanks @Zax...I just order one...$22.99 to Los Angeles...

[dindunuffin]

I have the L5 board, but now sure what you mean by "plug-n-play"?  Are you saying there is the ability to plug limit switches into the L5 board?

[Zax]

I haven't seen the L5, but the L6 has a header to connect limit/home switches. This is just an easier way to connect them, you could do the same on an L1/L2 by soldering to the board.

[n1te]

Hello, I know it's just a shield I have some arduinos around and a dozen of pololu drivers too.
my question is if is possible to run our laser engravers with this hardware because i don't feel really safe with eleks boards.


Thanks friends

n1te

[ROSS]

Not safe??  Why???

[n1te]

Hi Ross,
because from what I know the eleks boards are only available from China while these boards are available on Ebay and from many other websites, I'm also convinced that the quality is little over eleks boards. 
These protoner shields have jumpers to set microstepping up to 32 (i use polulu drivers), easy limit switches placement, run on more powerful arduino.

I may buy one and give a try.


n1te

[ROSS]

Ah...I see...if they are good then give us a review sometime.

[Zax]

As I said, nothing really to fail on the Eleks board but if you prefer the shields then they will work just the same (a little more work with the wiring but the same result).

[n1te]

Thanks for all the answers, i just orded a couple of these shield.
Will update as soon they arrive.


n1te

[Lob0426]

Me and my brother have been looking at home switches for the 17X22 2500mw he bought from Banggood. I know it can be done on GRBL can it be done with the stock firmware. Is there someplace to get the stock firmware, files to compile, from GIT or another place.

GRBL has homing built in. I would suppose that the stock Benbox firmware does not have a homing function built in.

We intend on soldering into D9 on the Nano riser (under the board) on a L2 Eleks Maker board (Does not have the adjustable laser module)

[Zax]

Most laser branch Grbl firmware does not supports home switches, there isn't enough capacity in the Nano. I think the exception may be an older version of LaserInk.

[Lob0426]

He just took a good look at the board. It says that it is a L7. It looks like the picture for the L2. kinda confusing.

[beikeland]

Appologies if this is not the "main thread" for limit switches, was the closest I could find.

I added limit switches to my L7 board. Recompiled Grbl 1.0c (after replacing bootloader on my Nano, and and telling Arduino IDE to treat it as an Uno. Arduino IDE sets max 30kB for the Nano due to old bootloader).

I just checked if the default Grbl pins were connected to anything else on the PCB, and solder on wires which I ran to a breadboard next to the L7. So I added probe, coolant, x,y,z limits and also step/dir for Z axis to my breadboard. Only wired up hardware for two limit switches for homing for now though, more will follow.

So the before mentioned limited capacity in the Nano I think could be an artifiact from outdated boards.txt in the Arduino Ide imposing a 30kB instead of 31.5kB firmware limit on a Nano. Instead of changing my boards.txt I just flashed the optiboot bootloader to the Nano with the settigns for a Uno as it solves the "problem" across all versions of the IDE.

I see most are talking about using a single pin for both axis, but this requires homing to be sequential instead of simultaneous. Using two pins makes much faster homing as both axes travel at the same time.

So I used (note i changed the optional HOMING_CYCLE_1 to HOMING_CYCLE_0, and left the other cycles commented out.

Code: [Select]

#define HOMING_CYCLE_0 ((1<<X_AXIS)|(1<<Y_AXIS))  // OPTIONAL: Then move X,Y at the same time.instead of

Code: [Select]

#define HOMING_CYCLE_0 ((1<<X_AXIS))
#define HOMING_CYCLE_1 ((1<<Y_AXIS))