New and trying to get set up with no luck

I’ve just received all the parts and have put everything together up to the point of calibration. I have gone through the calibration steps and realized that nothing is happening. The motors don’t move at all. This is all so new to me that I feel like I’m missing something. Is there anything anyone can suggest to get me going to the next step of cutting out the sled?

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Welcome to the Team.
Is your power supply plugged in to the motor shield (up) and not in the arduino mega?
Edit: This happened to all of us and that’s why I have to ask.

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It is plugged into the motor shield (green board with Maslow and the heat sinks). I’m pumped to get this up an running and just got the wind taken out of my sails when nothing moved. Thanks for your help!

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No help yet, but can stay with you for a while.
Kindly give me a moment

If you klick ->Actions in Ground Control and then -> Test Motors/Encoders, does anything move?

Are you able to connect in Ground Control? Does it show “connected” in the lower right of the screen?

Edit: Here

image

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How did the upload of the Firmware go?
It is always helpfull for support to know:

  • Your Operating System with version (Windows, Mac, Linux)
  • Firmware and GroundControl version number you are using
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Nothing moves and it just exits out of Ground control/Actions and goes back to the home screen.

It actually says “Not Connected”

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It seemed to go fine. I am operating on a Mac. I have no experience with Arduino, but the firmware and Ground Control versions are 1.09)

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Make sure you don’t have the Arduino IDE open when you are trying to run Ground Control. If you do GC will not connect.

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That’s great news!

Were you able to select the same COM port that you used to upload the firmware?

Mac, was that something with permissions on the port?
That helps me go to bed. (on linux here :slight_smile: )
I’m happy that you have good company, trust me, they will find it.

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I just changed the port setting and the motors moved. They have tightened up so much that the sled is all the way up and the chains are really tight now.

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Fantastic!!!

I wouldn’t start out with the sled attached. With the chains removed, click Actions -> Test Motors/Encoders to check that everything is working properly.

If everything looks good, then click Actions->Calibrate to start the calibration process:

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Stick with it @bobmerge!

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It might also be worth upgrading to Ground Control and firmware versions 1.10 which feature some fixes for issues that others ran into when setting their machines up this week

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This has been fantastic! I’ve got movement and calibration and everything looks good! I’ve gone through the motions of cutting the SLED, but I get an alert every few seconds about the Z-code. I purchased the Z-addition, but did not see any instructions during the whole process on how or what to do with that extra motor and cable. Any suggestions? since everyone has been incredible so far!

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Glad to hear you are on your way. Here is the wiki page on the Z-axis; it should get you started.

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