Error alarm lock

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   All, First of all, Love Open Builds. Thank you for putting this ‘out there’ enabling so many to produce great machines! Ok, to the point.

   I’ve built a 4’x4′ cut-able area OX CNC. Build went great until I tried getting this baby to move. My first attempts to jog the machine around went great. had one stepper reverse polarity, fixed quickly. then moved to take some G-code from Sketchup — Phlatboyz combo (love it). Simple 2d cut pattern (4″x6″ approx). Loaded it to Grble 3.0, and it worked, but not to scale. The step scale for x,y,z were obviously off (OX CNC seemed to follow about a 4 foot by 6 foot pattern!). I was just excited to see it follow the pattern! So, I started tinkering with the grble settings, and in the process, had to do an emergency stop (it already hit a limit switch — which was wired up). This is where the fun ended. Now, I cannot move any axis. I get the «error: Alarm lock». This seems to be a common issue and I’ve seen a few other threads with same experience, however the remedy of:
   Clear the error by command «$21=0», did not work, so I took the next step from the thread which was to issue «G01 F200» setting the feed rate, then clear «$21=0», and still nothing. Note, I removed all limit switches and have them floating (they are at +5V).

   I’ve also tried to ‘unlock grble controller’ in the advanced tab, and it seems to allow one to go to the manual jog buttons, but my poor ox still does not respond (I can hear the slightest little ‘sound’ coming from the steppers, like they are ‘trying to move’, but no go. I’ve also since removed the belt from the steppers, just to see if they were somehow overloaded, still no go. I hope I did not kill my steppers or controller some how..?

   Any help/insight would be very much appreciated. PS. If anyone has suggestions of a better controller / software, I’m all ears. Thanks in advance! -Eric (Wisconsin)

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   I had a lot of problems with GRBL Controller. Moved to either Universal Gcode Sender or Chilipeppr. I’m also running xPro Controller, upgraded to 0.9i GRBL.

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   Hi John, thanks for the reply! do you have a link to show how to upgrade to 0.9i GRBL?

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   Thanks John, this helped alot! By just moving from GRBL Controller to Universal Gcode Sender, I was able to easily clear the alarm and jog/test each motor. Unfortunately, only 1 port from my Xpro controller seems to be working, the X. I was able to move jog the other steppers by moving the wires to the X port on Xpro board, and they all work, however my Z motor sounds bad. Big step forward in diagnosing the problem(s).

   My next step is to upgrade to 0.9i GRBL, but not sure if that will do anything for me (seems all ports are bad other than the X port, in addition, I’ll buy a new steper for my Z as it sounds bad..). Still, an option I need to execute on before buying new controller.

   I followed the link, and looked at the instruction breifly, and it seems somewhat complex (for me). I’ve downloaded the ‘software package’ which is a zip file containing drivers, libs, applications for what seems to be Arduino products. I may need to look closer, but it doesn’t seem straightforward as to what to do to upgrade my Xpro to 0.9i GRBL on my Xpro. Does it seem like I’m missing anything? I’m such a rookie at this.. I really hope I don’t need to buy a new Xpro, as I’m not sure exactly what happened to make it bad, worries me that it will just happen again..

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   I wouldn’t worry about upgrading at this point, until things are actually working. Reach out to @Michael from Spark-Concepts. He recently updated the xPro Build, and indicated that GRBL Controller has been suspected of damaging (bricking?) xPro controllers. He may have some ideas on how to test.

   — John

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   Hi John, I’m in touch with Mike at Spark, and I just sent him my ‘settings’. Mike commented it could be something in my settings. For the record in this forumn, my settings are below. I’ll continue to update this thread until resolution for reference to others with same problem. Thx again John for your help on this. -Eric

   Grbl 0.9g [‘$’ for help]
   [‘$H’|’$X’ to unlock]
   >>> $$
   $0=10 (step pulse, usec)
   $1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
   $2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
   $3=6 (dir port invert mask:00000110)
   $4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
   $5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
   $6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
   $10=3 (status report mask:00000011)
   $11=0.020 (junction deviation, mm)
   $12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
   $13=0 (report inches, bool)
   $14=1 (auto start, bool)
   $20=1 (soft limits, bool)
   $21=0 (hard limits, bool)
   $22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
   $23=232 (homing dir invert mask:11101000)
   $24=1000.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
   $25=500.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
   $26=50 (homing debounce, msec)
   $27=50.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
   $100=250.000 (x, step/mm)
   $101=250.000 (y, step/mm)
   $102=250.000 (z, step/mm)
   $110=500.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
   $111=500.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
   $112=500.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
   $120=10.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
   $121=10.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
   $122=10.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
   $130=200.000 (x max travel, mm)
   $131=200.000 (y max travel, mm)
   $132=200.000 (z max travel, mm)

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   Hi John, sorry it’s been a while. Life got in the way. I’ve been in touch with Michael at Spark-Concepts, and he is a big help as you are. I decided to buy another Xpro controller and never try grbl controller with it. Now using Universal G-Code Sender. I also put heat sinks on all chips (Easy, cheap, safeguard), and made sure to load the settings you have provided (which are spot on, for the distance travel, etc.).

   With those changes, things are working great. I do believe their is something to Grbl Controller ‘Bricking’ the Xpro’s. For instance, I was connected up, done running, but Xpro was ‘powered’, and what looks like a FET, simply went up in spoke. Again, nothing was moving. Big reason why I added the heat sinks. The settings are key, and for a rookie like me, figuring out those from scratch, would have taken a good amount of time. Thank you for providing those.

   So far, I’ve been able to drill out a vacuum hold table (4×4), and also made a dust boot using Sketch ucam and universal g-code sender. I have a few project I have brewing in my skull, but am working out the details on the ‘design side’. looking to use adobe illustrator to create some signs, etc.. Thanks again John. Hope I can return a favor some day. -Eric

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