End Stop Help Needed

I just finished building and configuring a new HICTOP Purusa i3 all with metal frame and I could use some help/advice. I am a complete newbie with 3D printers and need some help.

The printer ships with the Cura software and for the time being that is what I am using. I have made a few successful prints but I have a lot of work to do to get quality prints from the machine.

It does not seem like the endstops are working correctly/at all. When I print in Cura the printer does some initial movements of the extruder and I hear motors grinding left and right. It is trying to force the axis' to their end position which they are already at. If I move the printer using the control panel knob it will also try and move down the axis even if it has already hit the endstop switch.

Is there a way to test these endstops and see if they are working? Or is there something in Cura that I need to configure to get the endstops working?


Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2015 10:37PM by Pole04.

My Migbot replica has been doing this. I noticed that the wires to one endstop weren't even soldered. That is going to be my first attempt at fixing the issue, check the soldering of the terminals. Otherwise, I wish I could help more but I am currently dealing with this problem as well.

You can use a digital volt meter to measure resistance, if it's open, it should not change the current display (mine shows a 1 aligned to the left, meaning infinity), if you close the switch it should be close to 0. Next see if the end stops are detected using the M119 command. First check if it detects the end stops while open, then check if the end stops are triggered.

Check if the endstops are in the correct connector. Some boards have end stops for both minimum and maximum position. You'll need at least one: either min or max. The firmware needs to know which ones you're using and what direction is negative or positive. Sometimes it's easier to place the min endstops where you want the minimum to be and leave out the max end stops, this can be done in firmware/software (I think it's called soft end stop).

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

Thank you both!

I believe that the endstops are soldered well, but I will double check them.

I will will check the resistance on the end stops tonight. The board has slots for both min and max end stops (I didn't know what the + slots were for until you said that ), but not enough end stops for both, and I have tried both slots when experimenting. There was no change in behavior when using the max slots.

Pardon my ignorance, but how would I use the M119 command on the printer? Is this something I can put in the start gcode for Cura, or is there another program that I should be working with?

Thank you so much for the help!

The M119 code is sent to the printer from a program like Pronterface or Repetier Host on a PC/Mac/Linux

Excellent! I will look into while I am wasting time at work. Thanks!