if i do the z-axis calibration all movements and zero-ing works. When i then auto-continue to the test-cut the z-axis motor tries to lift up the clamp-sled/router beyond the height of the z-axis. (very nasty noises, probably damaged spindle). I tried a couple of different aproaches but i always end up with this problem. The z-axis is probably already damaged.
Which parameter limits z-axis movement? I couldnt find it anywhere. Then, is there a documentation for groundcontrol.ini expcept reading the source-code?!
thank you for your help: Metal Maslow support did just mail me i need to change the pitch value in groundcontrol settings to -22. As soon as i am back on location i will report back here. I wonder where i did overlook this information. I double checked and its not in the metal maslow assembly instructions. There should also be a list of parameters which need to be changed in groundcontrol which are specific to metal maslow on their website.
Would had been great to know this before possibly damaging something.
Or you can measure it. Tell it to move 10 mm and see how far it actually goes, then adjust. I found that mine was 24. It has an 8mm shaft with a 3x gear multiplier with the belt pulleys.
Maybe not weird. I did change to -22 and used “lower” in the z-axis menu. The clamp-sled did again hit the upper end of the Z-Axis. So, “-” seems to be very wrong for my motor.
I changed it to 8 which looks like 1mm movement when i use raise / lower in the z-axis and z-axis calibration menu. Raise/Lower works. Go to zero works.
BUT when i finish the z-axis calibration and start the test-cut the clam-sled hits the top again. Its becoming frustrating…groundcontrol.ini (1.5 KB)
Do i need to completely re-calibrate after rewriting the firmware? I get a “chain-length” not found (0.0) please use actions set-chain length. But its still in groundcontrol,ini?!
what is your "safe travel height set to?’ What is your gcode telling the machine to go to when it moves? I use a z travel height of 5 mm, but if you are cutting in inches, then it is going for 5 inches. You may want to verify your gcode and your system units are all in mm or all in inches.
I did reduce z-travel to 4mm. The strange thing is that, if i manually move the z-axis via the calibration or z-axis menu it seems to move correctly. I can set zero, raise and go back to zero. But as soon as i try to make the test-cuts the software runs the router-clamp-sled into the head of the z-axis.
Is there a way to switch off the actual execcution of the code and only display it? I am getting tired of hearing the router-clamp chrrrchrrrchrrr"ing" against the top of the z-axis.
I also had been thinking that there might be a “selective mix up” of inches and mm. I am using a german laptop configured with english language and german keyboard. This sometimes gives problems with delimiters like “.” and “,”. Somtimes software uses “.” as delimiter (like 0.5 cm) sometimes “,” (0,5 cm).
But software should do this consistently. So either “.” or “,”. Guess i have to debug this.
Unable to find valid machine position for chain lengths -0.38, -2.72 . Please set the chains to a known length (Actions -> Set Chain Lengths)
Using "Actions->Set Chain Lenghts didnt get rid of the message though.
Then, i did put the firmware back to 1.28. I did accidently downgrade to 1.26 once, after this run i did re-upgrade to 1.28. No difference in bahaviour anyway. Are there any values lost because of an firmware change?!
