Help to choose motors and drivers

[Auarhau]

So far so good..I hope . Managed to solder on most components, with variable degree of skill, and only burned the board and myself slightly! I'm having fun anyways, and I think it should work even if all of my joints doesn't look perfect. This is my first real soldering project except for joining the odd wire here and there in the past.

I've soldered everything but the step 8 headers at this point. I still don't understand how to do this step with future linuxcnc/mach3 usage in mind. I'm having a hard time imagining what you are aiming for with this modification. Are you going to connect something to the top of the board on those pins? Then why not just stick male pins down the top of the original headers? I'm most likely talking nonsense here, since I have no clue how this board works or how one would connect it to a breakout board->PC parallel port.

I wish to connect GAUPS to the Arduino to begin with, then possibly breakout board->PC parallel port. And I wish for both options to be as easy as possible to swap between. As you suggested, I tried dry fitting the regular headers that came with the drivers on the board, but I cant see how this would work either. The GAUPS board crashes with the Arduino USB port when I try this. And I would have to solder on top of the GAUPS board? If you could show me with a picture what you mean, that would probably help most. If not you can try to knock it into my thick scull (good luck)

Some feedback on your build instructions:
1.Very nice, I followed it with ease. And I have 0 experience with this stuff.
2.Step 2 : "The 1, 2 and 3 labels will match the 1, 2 and 3 silkscreen labels for the A axis. " I Think this should read Y axis, not A axis?
3.Step 5: You could add "These capacitors have no polarity, you can put them in whichever way you want".I did not know this and since the other kind had a positive and a negative lead, I had to check this before I soldered them on. Might be common knowledge to many, but I learned it today!
4.Step 7: The long ends go up, right? This was pretty obvious once I tried to fit a jumper on them. But It wont hurt to mention it in the text.

[cvoinescu]

If you want to use it with the Arduino and with the parallel port (not at the same time!), then solder the headers at step 8 too -- they're needed for the Arduino. We can work with them when the time comes to connect it to the parallel port. I'll try to post the instructions soon. (I thought you only planned to use it with the parallel port, no Arduino, that's why I suggested male headers soldered on top of the board -- they're a little more convenient than female headers, and it's convenient not to have the long pins on the bottom of the board.)

Some feedback on your build instructions:
1.Very nice, I followed it with ease. And I have 0 experience with this stuff.
2.Step 2 : "The 1, 2 and 3 labels will match the 1, 2 and 3 silkscreen labels for the A axis. " I Think this should read Y axis, not A axis?
3.Step 5: You could add "These capacitors have no polarity, you can put them in whichever way you want".I did not know this and since the other kind had a positive and a negative lead, I had to check this before I soldered them on. Might be common knowledge to many, but I learned it today!
4.Step 7: The long ends go up, right? This was pretty obvious once I tried to fit a jumper on them. But It wont hurt to mention it in the text.

1. Thank you.
2. A axis is correct: the first three switches are for the A axis. They're labelled 1, 2, 3 on the left, and have a bracket and short line connecting them to the A driver on the right. The 1, 2, 3 on the board line up with the 1, 2, 3 on the DIP switch. The switches for the Y axis are the next three (4, 5 and 6).
3. Good point, that may not be obvious. Fixed.
4. Right. It's kinda obvious, though, so I haven't changed the instructions.

[Auarhau]

Ok, I'll solder everything as per the instructions then.

Regarding the 123 labels and axis; I understand it now and see that you are right. What I saw yesterday was the 123 dip switch lining up with the 123 silk screen closest to Y. I missed the bracket and line pointing to A. The pictures are impossible to misread though, so no problem:)

[Auarhau]

Everything hooked up and ready for testing. But before I turn on the power I need to know if my grbl settings should be like in the http://docs.shapeoko.com/software.html or if GAUPS has other settings?
Mine was different by default, did you set them correct Catalin? I changed everything to match the settings in the wiki, but now I'm unsure if I should have done that!

[cvoinescu]

The defaults are useless, you're supposed to change them. GAUPS isn't different from the gShield, except that it supports drivers that can do 16x or even 32x microstepping. To keep things simple, set your X and Y to 8x microstepping and the Z to 2x (there's a table on the A/S/L wiki), and then the GAUPS behaves exactly as a gShield -- the settings from the Shapeoko wiki will work as they are.

[Auarhau]

Ok.
So far I set the microstepping as you suggest, and the grbl setting as per shapeoko wiki. JP1 is in dual Y position.
When jogging the Z and X axis they seem to work fine. I had to adjust the trimpot's way down because initially the drivers got really varm. I just turned them all the way down and then increased them until the motors sounded "happy". I understand there is a way to measure this, but I haven't tried this yet.

The not so good news is that when trying to move the Y axis in the positive direction only the Y motor turns. The A motor does nothing. And when trying to move in the the Y negative direction none of the motors move.

Code: Select all

$0=40.020 (x, step/mm)
$1=40.020 (y, step/mm)
$2=320.000 (z, step/mm)
$3=30 (step pulse, usec)
$4=500.000 (default feed, mm/min)
$5=500.000 (default seek, mm/min)
$6=28 (step port invert mask, int:00011100)
$7=225 (step idle delay, msec)
$8=25.000 (acceleration, mm/sec^2)
$9=0.050 (junction deviation, mm)
$10=0.100 (arc, mm/segment)
$11=25 (n-arc correction, int)
$12=3 (n-decimals, int)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$14=1 (auto start, bool)
$15=0 (invert step enable, bool)
$16=0 (hard limits, bool)
$17=0 (homing cycle, bool)
$18=0 (homing dir invert mask, int:00000000)
$19=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$20=250.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$21=100 (homing debounce, msec)
$22=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)

[cvoinescu]

That can happen if your jumpers are placed sideways instead of how they're supposed to be. Look at the image from assembly step 10, they should be exactly like that.

Edit (after you posted the image): Yes, that's exactly it. Turn your jumpers 90 degrees. Guessed from first try!

[Auarhau]

Doh!!!!
Everything seems to be working now! I'm glad it was nothing worse then this. I guess this means everything works, and that I made my first pcb without killing it. I'm going to sit here and spin these pieces of tape and grin all night now

I think the discussion from now on is going to be quite outside of my original topic/question, so I think I will start my own build thread to document my progress and ask for help (or ask specific questions in the appropriate sub forums).

[cvoinescu]

Congratulations! You have completed the GAUPS quest, and levelled up. You have acquired a new skill: Soldering 1.

Now on to Soldering 2: large SMD components.

[Auarhau]

Hehe, thanks. I think level 1 is good for now Soldering the drivers had me sweating because they are rater small. Luckily it was the last pieces, so I was pretty comfortable by then. My worst pieces by far was the dip switch, since it came early and had lots of tiny pins. Everything after that went smoother. And by the time I got to the headers and screw terminals I think it looked good.