All, I have another problem with my setup.

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1

All,

I have another problem with my setup. I believe this new problem was due again to Chilipeppr leading to a crash (physical) and now I have a physical drive problem. Initially when loaded, chillipeppr would not connect (json issue i thought, so I did multiple reboots (software and hardware).

Long story short, my R7 plunged deeper than it should have on the dry run (no spindle speed) before I could E-stop it. After this problem I noticed chilipeppr was not showing the standard gcode in the left bar, and the interface was overlapping (not showing the entire screen). I did multiple computer re-sets, powered down the Tiny-G, reloaded the g-code and known good gcode. Nothing fixed this issue.

Disgruntled with the garbage Chillipeppr was displaying, I figured I’d just run the code and see if it was displaying incorrectly. When I tried to travel the axis, I noticed Y (right) moved correctly, but Y (Left) was stationary. X traveled reverse from what it was supposed to and had been. When I moved the Z, the Y (Left) would move correctly, but not both L/R sides. It also “sounded” like the motors were moving faster than before. I’m not sure if the crash ruined the Tiny-G.

I haven’t done any troubleshooting as I was about to grab a hammer and start smashing anything connected to Chilipeppr.

Suggestions? I’m leaning HEAVILY towards Mach4 and Smoothstepper due to nearly every problem I’ve had with this machine was chillipeppr driven. This was being run on a Windows 7 laptop that had been dependably running code previously. I hadn’t touched the R7 in about 4 months prior to this and had a successful run previously.

Corey

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Sounds to me like chilipeppr is not correctly loading the config to the tinyg. Before investing in more hardware download cncjs and give that a go instead. Or bcnc. Either works great. It also sounds like your tinyg config is now messed up so I would go through that with a fine toothed comb and check all the values before making any moves. I believe if you get cncjs installed and connected you can then issue the $ prefixed commands to inspect and modify the config of your tinyg.

3

Just saw your screenshot. Looks like you are connected at the wrong baud rate. Usual setting is 115200.

4

I agree with Ben, Check that your tinyG Config is still good. I had a malformed gcode (or SPJS JSON sending) issue once from chilipeppr to the tingG board. It sent things it shouldn’t have and corrupted my tinyG bootloader, and you need a special piece of hardware to reflash the bootloader which I do not have. After that I steared away from chilipeppr. I just send my gcode from pronterface now (I run an azteeg x5 GT smoothieware setup now as my controller because I already had it when my tinyG was corrupted). Pronterface is not really designed for CNC, but I setup a few macros and it does the task. Plus it is native windows code so doesn’t have any memory issues for large gcodes. I have also played with CNCjs and I think that is another good option. I am not knocking chilipeppr, it is an amazing software. But it caused me an issue I did not want to repeat… so I found something else I was comfortable with.

5

All,

I recently was notified I may be retiring a little earlier than I expected (Military Disability), and may not be running out to replace everything Chilipeppr tainted. I have been looking at the Atmel bootloaders, and see that in the TinyG paperwork they reference the following link: https://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&itemSeq=248957974&uq=636515297822338419

There are two options:
ATATMEL-ICE-BASIC-ND
and
ATATMEL-ICE-BASIC

While the TinyG information only references “Basic”, and a $50 price point (both are $90) I’m not sure which one would be the correct version. I have looked on line, but nothing directly answers the question.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Corey

6

If you really have a corrupted bootloader I’d first give @Riley_Porter_ril3y a ping and see if he can help you figure out exactly whats wrong with your TinyG before you go buying new hardware. He’s super helpful, and you may just be able to update the firmware to recover.

7

Frankly, at this point I have no idea what is wrong. I was just getting to the point of being un-annoyed enough to dig the opening of the crawlspace door open (Snow) so I could go under the house and look at it.

I really have no idea what the issue is. I’ve re-looked at all the build instructions (electronics) and was going to go back to look at the instructions and see if it was something simple enough to not warrant yanking everything not R7 and starting over. Not that eliminating the TinyG and Chillipeppr would actually fix anything, but I had looked at other recommendations as they had came out and was equally unimpressed with the options.

That being said, I’m trying to get my head cold under control so I’m not leaking all over electronics while troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Corey

8

My recommendation would be to first install CNCjs, that’ll give you a reliable interface to the tinyg. From there you need to dig into config.

Garbage when you connect to the TinyG is usually an indication of either incorrectly set baud rate in the connection configuration (default should be 115200) or, less likely, a firmware issue. I’d first walk through all the different baud rate settings just in case it somehow got set to a non-standard value.

After you get the connection to open without spitting out garbage you should just then need to set new config values, which shouldn’t be hard since we have some good defaults floating around in this group for the TinyG on R7.

9

Well, a couple hours in my 5deg crawlspace and I’ve made some progress.

Initially I did all the windows 7 updates, researched the CNCJS, and frankly, I couldn’t figure out how to even find the beginning of the instructions to attempt to try and load that. I felt like I needed a PHD to even decipher that stuff!

So, back to chilipeppr I was forced. I opened chrome and everything seemed just as I had previously left it. All the “smashed gibberish” on the left remained. I attempted to drive the motors, and the same problem was there. Y’s drove individually, Z was backwards. I remembered on initial setup I needed to configure what the output of the TinyG was, so I found that in the instructions and located it on Chilipeppr. Those were wrong, somehow! I reconfigured them as the instructions said. I noticed a few motors were turning in the wrong direction, fixed those. I loaded a completely old, but known good project and that fixed the gibberish in the code. (The code I had been using HAD been good before the crash!!!) Also, the settings had been good.

So, I had everything moving in the correct direction, and loading good code, but on Chrome, chilipeppr was all smashed together on the left side. I realized before, that the center (visualization control) was overlaying where you can “drop and drag” code. I tried figuring out how to get this to go back to its original location. There were no options (I could find) to customize the layout, not that I changed it initially. I tried numerous things, finally I re-sized the (drop/drag) area and I was able to drop code in and press the “Play” button. At this point, everything was working correctly, just the layout was kaddywhompus. I stumbled on a setting to “force reset” chilipeppr. After about 30seconds of chrome freaking out, everything was right with the world again. Well, as right as Chilipeppr fumbles it into.

After this experience, I’m going to church on Sundays, donating time at animal shelters and carrying lil’-old ladies across streets… Geez…

Now onto posting/asking about the possibility of SMW3D fabbing up Jigs for drilling out pre-defined holes for homing switches! I’ll be prodding some of the offers for help with CNCJS and Chilipeppr problem resolution. Its days like this I’d prefer to be sitting across from a standards pilot getting grilled about aerodynamics and FAR/AIM questions…

Corey

10

@Corey_Perez are you running a windows box or a linux box attached to your TinyG? If its linux then its pretty easy to get up and running. If its a windows PC, and its the same PC you are using to actually control the machine, then it can be a little trickier.

On windows do this:

In theory that should be all you need to do, though I have to say I’ve never installed it via Windows because frankly using Windows to control a CNC machine is not a great idea (way too prone to failure mid way through a long job).

I always put a Raspberry Pi on any of my machines and have it run linux, not only is this more reliable, but if you attach it to your home network/wifi you can then do fun stuff like setup a webcam pointed at your machines and view it remotely anywhere in your house (handy for those 12+hr 3d printer jobs).

11

For cncjs, you can always run the desktop app version. It works well without all the installation hassle if you are not used to http://node.js stuff

Just download the exe, and run it. It does the rest for you.

12

Oh I didn’t even know they had that. Nice one Eric.

13

SEE! I totally should not be trusted with sharp instruments!

Thanks Eric!!

I’ll give CNCJS a try. Hopefully it squashes the frustrations of Chilipeppr. For what its worth, I’ve spent 4hrs trying to find the beginning of CNCJS, to download it!

I was almost narrowed in on the solution, but then got diverted off into another direction with my time.

Thanks for the quick-click solution!

Corey

14

@Corey_Perez

Ben,

I just seen you had replied as well. Thanks for the streamlined process. I’m just sitting back down to install CNCJS via Eric’s link.

With any luck, I may be cutting again shortly!

Corey

15

Is this the normal welcome screen upon initial install/boot?

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Not a screen I have ever seen but his the restore defaults button and see what you get maybe?