Long time Mach3 user. New to Centroid Acorn. Converting my CNC from Mach3/Gecko 540 to Centroid Acorn/EX controller. Hardware and wiring all done. Testing the Y1 and Y2 proximity sensors. Keyboard jogged the Y gantry where both proximity sensors lit up and stopped the Y movement. Hit the reset on the screen. Fault cleared. No movement. Could not get any axis to move. Unplugged all sensor wires. Restart. Can move again. Plugged back the sensors. Jogged until the sensors are tripped. Full stop. Hit reset on the screen. Fault cleared. Could not jog in any direction. Any idea? Thanks in advance.
Are you not able jog when you’re stuck on a sensor? If that’s the case that is by design. Press the “limit over” on the screen to allow yourself to jog off of the sensors.
That worked. No idea what “limit over” button does. I do now. Thanks.
Awesome!
A related question. If I move the gantry slowly, the proximity sensors trigger and stop the movement just fine. But, if I move the gantry somewhat faster, the sensors trigger but could not stop the movement fast enough. For testing, the sensor mounts are 3D printed. So, the sensor mounts break but can be easily replaced. Is there a setting to trigger and stop faster?
Your machine travel limits should always stop the machine short of the sensors. The sensors are only there for homing and situations where the machine loses position.
In the wizard when you set it to your machine size these travel limits are set for you
Is this not a stock machine?
No, I am converting from the Grunblau’s Gecko 540 over to the EX controller. To my knowledge, it does not have the homing function. I also have a StepCraft 840. It homes by hitting the stop sensors.
What do you mean by “your machine travel limits”? Are they soft limits set using the Centroid wizard or hardwired stop (not proximity) sensors?
Thanks.
Ok, so you’re in custom territory. Are you using our version of Centroid software or the “stock” centroid software?
On our version we have an “Avid” setup wizard that you pick your standard Avid machine type. When you do we set the proximity sensors to be used for homing. We also set the travel limits of the machine to match your machine frame size.
Once that’s set you cannot (under normal circumstances) jog into the proximity sensors. The software will stop the machine before it gets there. On the off chance that you lose position when cutting and you were able to hit one of those sensors then that would signal the Acorn to stop the machine.
Since you’re doing a custom setup you have a couple of choices:
Use our software and set custom limits. If you use ours you’re going to have to set it up just like it was one of our Pro machiens. That means the same sensor layout, same inputs etc. If you can do that you have the advantage of us solving a lot of setup issues for you in software.
If you choose to go a more custom route (which you can totally do with our hardware) you might want to use “stock” centroid instead. You’ll have full control over the setup, but you’ll have to confugre (And figure out) this stuff on your own. We can help here, and the Centroid forum is great too.
Yes, I am in the custom category. Using the Avid Centroid software for the benchtop model but with modified table size custom limits.
You can do that, depending on how you set it up you might be fighting against some of our customizations. Check the technical manual for schematics and you can see how we have it wired. If you wire it the same way, and the motors are going the same way you can probably get it all to work