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Hello. I hope someone can help me. I've made 3 RCNC 32 for use in our lock down SHAREDWORKS community.
Mechanically all looks good but we can't get the firmware to work properly. On power up we get buttons on the touch screen which seem to drive the steppers but very slowly X and Y axis steppers rotate in both directions but Z axis will only run on Z- and is dead on X+
The panel always shows ?? And won't change to Idle.
The numchuck doesn't work and we can't get a connection to the PC at any UART speed.
I need help and advice OR if there's someone in this community who is willing for a fee, to set up our firmware on our boards and send them back. It would be great.
Im a living fossil and no longer have the brain for techie answers.
Thanks in anticipation

As long as you have "??" on the TFT, it could not work properly.

"??" means that the TFT board does not get answer from the other board.
First check the following points:
- did you connect the TX pin from one board to the RX from the other board (so do not connect TX to TX)
- when CNC is not powered, check with an ohmmeter that you have conductivity between
- pin 16 (=RX) from ESP32 and pin A9 from STM32 (TX)
- pin 17 (=TX) from ESP32 and pin A10 from STM32 (RX)

Thank you . Well I checked that and sure enough. There was a connection issue. Right pins but a bad connection. I now get the idle message and have better speeds. Also the numchuck now works. However I still have these problems

No Z+ rotation. I have swapped the steppers around and eliminated any stepper fault.

No connection to the PC... when I use the USB button the board goes from Idle to ??
Could this be a firmware issue
Thanks

UPDATE
I can now connect t to the pc but the stepper movement remains a mystery

jodougie2812 a écrit : ↑09 févr. 2021 17:06 Thank you . Well I checked that and sure enough. There was a connection issue. Right pins but a bad connection. I now get the idle message and have better speeds. Also the numchuck now works. However I still have these problems

No Z+ rotation. I have swapped the steppers around and eliminated any stepper fault.

No connection to the PC... when I use the USB button the board goes from Idle to ??
Could this be a firmware issue
Thanks

If your Z motor move only in one direction, you have a bad connection (or bad soldering) between the Z DIR pin from STM32 (PA5) and the DIR - on the driver.Please note that there is no direct connection between those 2 points because the signal goes via one ULN2803.
So check:
- the soldering on PA5 from STM32
- check the wire between Z DIR on board and your Z DIR- driver
- check that Z DIR + on your driver is connected to 5V Vcc
If this is correct, try to check continuity from
- STM32 up to ULN2803 (IN) from one side
- UNL2803 (OUT) and Z DIR pin on board.

Having ?? when you connect in USB mode is normal.
In such case, the TFT does not send any request to GRBL.
It is the PC that must send the request to know the GRBL status and positions.
When GRBL replies, then TFT captures the data and displays them.
So you must use a GRBL controller on PC side (like bcnc, candle, ....)
You can also send manually command to grbl using a simple terminal emulator (like the one included in arduino IDE). If you send e.g. "?" then GRBL should reply with a status and a position.

Thank you. I will try all those things
Your help is appreciated

Yes it was a dry joint on the board
Thanks for solving my problem