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Cannot produce anything - please help

I finally had time to work logically through the decision tree today, trying to figure out why nothing I do will produce any image of any kind. Please help me troubleshoot this if you can:

First - Load inkscape and picture on windows 10 tablet and turn laser on.

Connect laser to PC with brand new USB cable

Laser fires three short pulses, waits, then repeats. 7 bursts of 3 short pulses, then it stops.

This happens with or without inkscape loaded, as long as the laser and computer are both on when they are connected. If the laser is connected and then turned on nothing happens.

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From K40 Raster in Inkscape, set output to stream - click apply

Popup apears - blank white, after a minute or two laser pulses three times, waits then pulses three more times.

After ten seconds, motors activate to move laser head, but laser head is already at top left so nothing happens but grinding and straining.

After two more minutes of nothing, I close the locked up inkscape with Control/Alt/Delt

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Try to stream output again after rebooting inkscape - all preconditions as above, but this time result is different - no fire from laser, no attempt to move, inkscape does not lock up, instead Error A is produced: (I'd normally updload the picture here, but after ten minutes with my dedicated tech support person I couldn't figure out how to upload picture - this despite having flawlessly uploaded the entire K40 user manual a couple days ago...)

Anyway, I repeated this test again and got the same error, so I moved on to trying to print from a Universal GCode sender...

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Load Universal G code sender

Select Com 3 and hit open

Error B - Port busy - laser on vs off has no effect

Reset PC, Laser off

Reload Universal G cod sender

Select Com 3, Open - system conects

Turn laser on

Load File: Rasterfile.gcode_0001_BWfix_128_gcode.txt

open firle click send

Error C - Gerbil has not finished booting.

Try this same sequence every ten minutes for an hour, with multiple reboots of program and tablet - no change. Error of 'Gerbil not finished booting' obstructs progress every time.

So that's where I am now - I've go no way to produce anything and I don't know what's wrong. Can someone please suggest a next course of action that leads to a working output?

 

 

 

 

 

Uploaded files:
  • 2018_01_21-Error-B.jpg
  • 2018_01_21-Error-C.jpg
  • 2018_01_21-Error-A.jpg

I had the same issue at the start of my adventure.  To keep it easy, I would ignore Inkscape till you at least have a moving gantry.  Try downloading CNCJS, or Lightburn to get connected to the Girbl.  Once setup, drive the gantry through all X, Y axis, if you can move the gantry, go to step 2, and load an image to run.  This is a very  -non detail- description, but best to step through slowly so you know what to troubleshoot.  To be honest, my Inkscape still does not launch, but have not looked into that deep yet.

Com3 shows up on my machine as well, and connects..  however, there is nothing on "com3"  My Girbl is on com11.  COM3 may just be a placeholder, or some other device on your machine.  however since your getting "the laser chirps at the start"  your device may very well be on COM3.  Give Lightburn a try, at least for a communication confirmation standpoint.

-derek

I tried downloading and installing light burn - it can't get Gerbil to do anything - no movement, no laser action, and it says "waiting for connection", kind of like the errors Inkscape and Universal G code sender are giving.

Is it possible something is wrong with the Gerbil board that's causing it to initialize forever without ever making a successful boot? If yes, can I fix it here somehow? Send instructions please??

Uploaded files:
  • Light-Burn-error.jpg

Hi Mike, can you pm me on pauljacobdegroot at gmail com? I might be able to walk you through to find out what’s happening.

if the board is defect, i will replace it at no cost of course,

cheers Paul

Cheers, Paul awesome.tech

Paul,

Thank you for sending a second copy of Gerbil - it arrived this evening and I did a one to one swap of each cable to avoid any issues. I fired it up annnnd... nothing. I worked through the trouble shooting tree above, but got the same results. No ability to control it through light burn, the same jamming and errors from inkscape and a failure to produce any effects from universal G code sender.

The odds that I got Two bad boards aren't even worth considering, especially when the failure rate is only around one percent.

So...

That only leaves PEBKAC errors (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair).

Somehow the way I'm doing this is different from the way everyone else it doing it. Once we find out what's different, the laser will work, and anyone else with similar problems will find a way forward.

I'd suggest writing a very detailed, step by step set of instructions with pictures of what should be seen at each step. This manual needs to be idiot proof, because based on the objective evidence, this idiot can apparently read the existing manuals wrong. It's getting late to start this problem tonight, but tomorrow I'll see about writing said manual myself and posting it here as I get done with each step. Hopefully the experts will read it and be able to point out where my path diverges from the one that leads to success, and once we get this fixed we'll have a nice quality manual to link to with future boards.

Thank you for your continued support!

Michael Arndt

Industrial Engineer

 

 

Hi Mike,

I did test your board extensively to avoid a second errored board although all send Gerbil were tested by Skyzer. So I must conclude that it is another problem. I have another customer in Australia who ran in similar problems. I suggest that you check whether the board and PC can communicate. Try a gcode sender for that i.e. CNCjs.

Next step after establishing connectivity is ofcourse to test the jog moments. You can even write a simple gcode test file or use one of my example gcode files. If that works try to figure out which cutting/rastering program is causing the errors (Inkscape, Laserweb, LightBurn). I have send a Gerbil to the creators from LightBurn so I probably get some news from him as well.

The instructions I wrote has been rewritten by Dan to dumb it down. We even made a video with his daughter to show the installation. I will make a video for the software bit when I get a chance.

Most of the encountered issues were related to privileges on the PC. The plugins did not had the appropriate rights to execute or write a file or people did enter an non existent directory in the dir field. I have solved this in the plugin to allow the directory folder to be created by the plugin.

So can you provide some more details of the issue: PC, version, OS, used programs?

Thanks, Paul

Cheers, Paul awesome.tech

Hi Mike,

in your screenshot, your device is set to 'auto' connection in the lower right corner. I had the same issue with my Lightburn software. After manually choosing the correct serial port (in my case COM6), my computer connects to GERBIL, and everything is ok (Status changes from 'Disconnected' to 'Ready' above the start button .

I have to do this every time after starting LightBurn.

Uploaded files:
  • 20180330_152934.jpg

Hey guys I also feel your pain as I have just installed my gerbil and want to use light burn as it looks to be very straight forward for us less tech savvy people . But on that note I had to manually select the comm port as auto did sweet jack . But now I have ran into a problem with my engraving stopping mid way through the job. So any other ideas from light burn users would be greatly appreciated

regards

nathan

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