Gerbil Controller Issue I recently installed the Gerbil controller from Awesome.tech.

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Gerbil Controller Issue

I recently installed the Gerbil controller from Awesome.tech. Almost everything is working fine though with one major issue. For some reason my machine will not travel in the -X direction.

When using either LightBurn or LaserWeb, when I control the machine I can get it to move in + and - Y directions as well as +X. Whenever I send a signal to move in the -X direction the machine moves but +X rather than -

I have tried using the software controls as well as sending gcode. the code sends properly but the movement is wrong. This is NOT a reverse software or wiring issue as it moves in the positive direction whenever I send +X and -X commands.

I am having a hard time searching for for this issue, though I have been able to fine folks having similar problems with other CNC machines, in all of those cases it appears the Arduino itself is the culprit.

I would like to try a different Arduino on it (I have an UNO available), but I have no idea how to compile the Arduino properly to allow it to work with the Gerbil shield.

Could anyone offer some help here? I posted this in the Awesome.Tech forum as well though I feel this group has more traffic.

Thanks!

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Same board - same problem - but on the y axis
X- ans X + work fine
Y- and Y+ both move in same direction
which is past the home poition on my machine
Home works - IF - the carriage is manually moved to a few inches of the correct spot - Top Left - other than that - just a lot of grinding.

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Try checking your stepper motor wiring. You might have a loose or disconnected wire.

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@greg_greene interesting… Has this been like this since you installed it, or did this occur after at some point? Mine has been wrong from the get go, I just did the install the other day.

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@Dan_Stuettgen Unfortunately it does not appear to be the wiring. I have gone through every wire and it is all well connected and secure. The old controller works just fine with them, it is only when I connect it to the Gerbil does this happen.

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@Corey_Mousseau
From the get go with this board -worked better with the cohesion board

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I still have this problem and cannot figure it out! Is it possible to use a normal Arduino Uno with this shield? If so how do I compile it?

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Normal Uno will not give you the enhanced engraving, but it would work like a standard uno with grbl.

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any luck fixing this?

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@greg_greene no, not at all, I’m surprised too, Paul seems to be very active helpful usually. I’ll try to contact him directly if I can. I’ll get back to you if I figure it out.

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Paul is great, but he lives on the other side of the world with a 15 hour time difference from me

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@greg_greene I ended up contacting Paul via email, which was likely the better option to begin with. He got back to me quickly. There is a fix! For me it was a bad stepper driver. I had an extra one I tested it with and works! You can test that yourself even if you don’t have an extra one available, swap the two drivers (x and y) to see if your problem switches to the other axis, if so then you know it’s a bad stepper driver.