Hi all,As I found that there is very little information about these machines, I thought that a thread detailinh my path through installing and using it will be helpful.First, the machine. It is a generic machine from aliexpress. It is very cheap, about 300 NZD (just over 200 USD) including fast shipping.Assembly was not very difficult, although the instructions sometimes have measurements from smaller machines. Its is a lot of machine for very little money. Some of the parts are 3d printed but they are pretty stiff.the quality of the part machining is nothing to write home about but if you are careful with your 90 degrees you end up with a reasonably sturdy frame.The controller is woodpecker with 0.9j grblThe machine comes with a somewhat dated version of grblcontrol (now named candle).
USER MANUAL GENMITSU CNC ROUTER 3018. Part 1: Package List 1 Name Size Picture Qty Aluminum Slide nut Axis support base Linear axis Lead screw 220mm 360mm 330mm Mesa 2028 20M5 30M5 SK10 325mm.10mm 395mm.10mm 320mm 395mm 2 5 2 1 16 60 10 8 2 2 1 1 Corner connector. 2 Name Size Picture Qty Copper nut Stepper motor mounting plate Coupling.
I tried using the newest version of candle but for some reason the 'jog' buttons do not work so resorted to the last version of grblcontrol, which works ok.Linuxcnc does not work with this machine, as it is usb and not parallel port machine.I have so far used f-engrave. Some very important notes about using f-engrave with this machine:. The header sequence in the default settings is 'G17 G64 P0.001 M3 S3000'. The P word is not supported by this machine so the whole sequence gets rejected, meaning the spindle will not power up.
This is really bad as it will try to plunge and move without removing material. Change it to 'g17 m3 s700'.
Trying to set spindle speed to 1000 will cause the board to reboot, causing the machine to halt with spindle running. as this machine has no end stops (i will try to add them, the controller seems to support it), I added 'g28.1' to the header and 'g28 ' to the footer' so the machine will go back to its home.That's all so far. I'll add details as I find them out.Similar Threads:.
Need Help!-. More progress:1. Z-probe goes to a5 on the board - it works well! You need to adjust the probe command to compensate for the thickness of your probe plate2. I have upgraded the machine to grbl 1.1. As this was a heart attack level experience, i will detail the sequence here.
After the upgrade the machine works well with candle (instead of grblcontrol which is the older version).Upgrading 3018 with woodpecker controller to grbl 1.1 using linux machine:1. Download the hex file from (to find the most recent version go to )2. Install avrdude: sudo apt-get install avrdude3. Flash the hex onto your machine: avrdude -v -patmega328p -Uflash:w:grblv1.1f.20170801.hex:i -carduino -b57600 -P /dev/ttyUSB0note that without the correct -b you will get all sort of ominous messages! Your USB port might be different.THIS PROCEDURE MIGHT BRICK YOUR MACHINE!
![Cnc 3018 Manual Cnc 3018 Manual](https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/machine-back.png)
It worked on mine, that's the only warranty I give.After flashing, all the variables will be overwritten. I'm tempted to try to upgrade my Woodpecker to v1.1 as well.With v0.9, did you have issues with the spindle speed? I find that a value of S850 is about the fastest I can use - anything higher causes the spindle to pulse, as if it were in laser mode.I have same problems with 1.1 - my limit seems to be around 700. I think it is either the power supply or noise from spindle. When working continuously under load the controller will reset. I have ordered cnc shield for uno and will test it and will post here my findings.
I concur with most of your findings about this machine. I actually ruined the first spindle / er11 because I tried to install it without the whole freezing / heating dance (read about it too late). It went in about half way and I couldn't push it further or take it out. I convinced the seller to send me a replacement spindle with the ER11 already mounted (the original one seemed to have a lot of runout anyway - either from my bashing of it or it was defective to begin with).Flashing of GRBL 1.1f was easy using HexUploader (on a Mac) and a hex file of the firmware, direct through USB. Had some issues because I didn't note down the original settings and defaults weren't setup for microstepping.Spindle runs at max (1000) which should be roughly 9000rpm if I'm not mistaken correctly. Maybe it's a power supply issue in your case.
I'm running it of a 24V/6A brick.Microstepping is something which people should be aware of too. It looks like it's setup for 8X, but you can't change it (easily anyway) as the woodpecker board lacks pins for this. I'm considering an upgrade to a Protoneer board, but I'm curious about mosheliv's experience. I have same problems with 1.1 - my limit seems to be around 700. I think it is either the power supply or noise from spindle. When working continuously under load the controller will reset.
I have ordered cnc shield for uno and will test it and will post here my findings.Hey guys. Just in case this saves someone else some hassle with their CNC3018.I found that the grbl controller would reset itself when I attempted setting the spindle speed higher than S400.Turns out it is back EMF from the spindle changing speeds that causes the woodpecker grl 1.1f controller to reset (thus dropping the USB connection).I looped the spindle supply wires through a large ferrite EMF filter I had lying around the lab. Works great!I can now do cold-starts, S0 straight to S1000, without resets. I went even further and attached a 36V 10A supply - still no troubles with resets.Hope this helps someone else.A similar ferrite:The 36V supply. Just in case this saves someone else some hassle with their CNC3018.I found that the grbl controller would reset itself when I attempted setting the spindle speed higher than S400.Turns out it is back EMF from the spindle changing speeds that causes the woodpecker grl 1.1f controller to reset (thus dropping the USB connection).I looped the spindle supply wires through a large ferrite EMF filter I had lying around the lab. Works great!I can now do cold-starts, S0 straight to S1000, without resets. I went even further and attached a 36V 10A supply - still no troubles with resets.Hope this helps someone else.A similar ferrite:The 36V supply: After some more use I found that more than the ferrite was required to suppress the back EMF coming from motor brush arcs.I put a 1uf 250v cap across the motor leads (right at the motor) and an additional 0.1uf 100v cap in parallel (again across the leads).Digikey: 478-11022-1-ND and 490-9241-1-ND.Works like a charm.
![3018 3018](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1978/9859/products/lADPDgQ9qUwBOtzNBdzNBdw_1500_1500_c632b8f6-fe6d-42c9-8d43-2ae0f12bf6ea_1024x1024.jpg?v=1557222522)
I just finished chewing some square connector holes through 4mm aluminium (it took awhile but no resets of the grbl controller occured! Yeah!)Hope this helps.
After some more use I found that more than the ferrite was required to suppress the back EMF coming from motor brush arcs.I put a 1uf 250v cap across the motor leads (right at the motor) and an additional 0.1uf 100v cap in parallel (again across the leads).Digikey: 478-11022-1-ND and 490-9241-1-ND.Works like a charm. I just finished chewing some square connector holes through 4mm aluminium (it took awhile but no resets of the grbl controller occured! Yeah!)Hope this helps.The guy also sent me a replacement Z-axis assembly as my original had some cracked ball bearings. He seems to be a good guy (its easy to spot a good seller when things go wrong).He did pretty-good by me.J. Quick Navigation. Site Areas.
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