The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • CNC-3018XL: Reversing the Axes

    The CNC-3018XL fit into its new home with the Run/Hold buttons toward the front:

    3018CNC - new orientation
    3018CNC – new orientation

    Which is rotated 180° from its previous orientation, putting Quadrant I and the most-positive coordinates in the left-front corner. Rather than stand on my head while trying to use the jog keypad upside-down, I reversed the axis directions by changing the GRBL Direction port invert mask value from its previous 4:

    $3=7

    Because the home switch positions haven’t changed, reverse the Homing dir invert mask from 0:

    $23=3

    The XY origin remains in the center of the platform, so the G54 XY offset didn’t change. The Z offset puts the Pilot pen tip 10 mm above the platform, which will change as you (well, I) touch it off on the paper:

    G10 L2 P1 X-169.0 Y-149.5 Z-44.0

    Jog to the left rear corner (with Z at the home position) and set the G28 park position:

    G28.1

    Jog to the right front corner (also Z homed) where (manual) tool changes take place:

    G30.1

    Configure bCNC for manual tool changes without probing at the G30 position:

    bCNC probe config
    bCNC probe config

    The machine will move to the tool change position at each Tn M6, the operator (that would be me) inserts tool pen n as needed, pokes the Run button, and watches it draw pretty pictures in a resolutely techie manner:

    3018CNC - Spirograph test pattern
    3018CNC – Spirograph test pattern

    For completeness, the current GRBL settings:

    $$
    $0=10
    $1=100
    $2=0
    $3=7
    $4=0
    $5=0
    $6=0
    $10=1
    $11=0.010
    $12=0.020
    $13=0
    $20=1
    $21=0
    $22=1
    $23=3
    $24=100.000
    $25=2000.000
    $26=25
    $27=1.250
    $30=1000
    $31=0
    $32=0
    $100=401.284
    $101=400.000
    $102=400.000
    $110=3000.000
    $111=3000.000
    $112=3000.000
    $120=1000.000
    $121=1000.000
    $122=1000.000
    $130=338.000
    $131=299.000
    $132=44.000
    $#
    [G54:-169.000,-149.500,-34.450]
    [G55:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [G56:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [G57:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [G58:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [G59:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [G28:-335.000,-3.310,-3.450]
    [G30:-1.000,-297.000,-1.000]
    [G92:0.000,0.000,0.000]
    [TLO:0.000]
    [PRB:0.000,0.000,0.000:0]
    

    The weird $100 X axis step/mm value is correct, because QC escapes are a thing.