XY Plotter switches not working

#1

Hi,
I recently completed building a XY Plotter and have followed this Tutorial step by step, . At this point I am trying to write a program to control the machine through Arduino, one of the issues is that I cannot upload anything to the XY Plotter. Although, the main issue I am having with the plotter is that the micro switches do not appear to be working. I have removed the belts and manually pressed the switches to see if anything happens, but nothing does, I have also done the same with the belts on. Does anyone have any solutions to either of the problems I am facing with this plotter? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

#2

Hi SHANKULAH60,

The Tutorial you followed is for the older version XY Plotter which has the Baseboard as the mainboard.
May I know what is the mainboard on your XY Plotter? Is it Me Orion board or Baseboard?

If it is Orion board, you need connect the wires according to the following pictures:

blob.jpg1021x656 204 KB

blob.jpg861x739 185 KB

Also, here is our learn website where provides up to date instructions for our robot kits.

Besides, normally, there is no need to upload program for XY with Arduino software. You can just upgrade firmware for the XY plotter with mDraw software or Benbox software (both software can control the XY potter).

Here is a picture to show the steps to upgrade firmware for XY (make sure you choose the correct serial port ):

blob.jpg795x622 64.2 KB

#3

Thanks, I got the switches to be detected, but they do not stop the plotter from continuing to run into the boundaries, any ideas on how to fix that?
-Thanks.

#4

Actually, the limit switches will only stops the plotter when you press Home button on the mDraw software. Please kindly refer to the following steps to test if the XY plotter works:

  1. power off the XY plotter and disconnect the USB cable between PC and XY.
  2. Move the carriage to the position (x=0, y=0)
  3. Power on the XY Plotter and connect to PC, then connect the Serial port of XY plotter on mDraw. (Now the software will remember the position x=0, y=0 as the Original position).
  4. You can click on the other position on mDraw, the carriage will move the other position, then click on Home button, it will go back to Original position (x=0, y=0).

The limit switch won’t stop the plotter which arriving at the edge if you just click on drawing area on mDraw or drawing.

#5

Thank you for all your help!

#6