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TinyG Start

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Alden Hart edited this page Aug 18, 2014 · 115 revisions

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If you have a TinyG v8 this is the place to start. The board revision is printed on the silkscreen at the edge of the board. If you do not have a v8 board you may want one of these links instead:

Here's some background if you want to know about TinyG
Here's some additional information about Initial Setup
Here is a list of differences between the v7 and v8 boards

Getting Started with TinyG - Cheat Sheet

Here are the steps to get started. We recommend following them in order. (Note: This section is still under development)

  • What You Need
    • Board
    • Power supply
    • Motors
    • Fans
  • Connecting and Testing TinyG
    • Connecting power
    • Connecting USB
    • Testing Connection
    • Wiring your motors
    • Setting motor current
    • Test Drive
  • Configuring TinyG
    • About your CNC
      • Shapeoko2 section
    • Configuring motors
    • Configuring axes
    • Configuring system and communication parameters

##What You Need The getting started page is your first place to go to figure out what you need to get to get your TinyG up and running quickly. However before we dive into hooking up wires, configuring, and running Gcode files the image below is a "diagram" of the important sections / parts of you TinyG board.

TinyG diagram version 8

To highlight a few things in the above diagram:

  • The MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is to wire your power input correctly. The input will take up to 30 volts, but most people use 24, 19 or 12 volt power supplies. Double check that the polarity for the GND and Vmot are correct BEFORE plugging in your TinyG board. If you have ANY doubt about the power supply output please check it with a volt meter first.
  • Power output for the PC fan is an important to make sure you have right! Failure to set your fan jumper may result in providing 24v to a 12v fan and maybe blowing it up. See more about this below.
  • All logic input voltages are limited to 3.3v MAX!
  • Start with the current setting trim pots in the middle, 6:00, straight-up-and-down position, and DO NOT over torque the trim pots!

Parts You Will Need

Here is what you are going to need in order to use TinyG:

  • A TinyG board
  • Power supply - Anything between 12VDC and 30VDC, typically 24 volts DC at 4 to 15 amps.
  • 1 - 4 stepper motors - typically NEMA17 or NEMA23 up to 3 amps per winding (See Notes)
  • Fan - A 12VDC or 24VDC fan is recommended, especially if the board is in an enclosure
  • Programmer (Optional... You can use TinyG's Bootloader for firmware updates, See Notes)
  • Case (Optional)

NOTES:

  • We have never found a NEMA17 that would not work with TinyG, and almost every NEMA23 we have tried will work if rated up to about 3 amps per winding. We also routinely run NEMA34's, but not in high mechanical load situations. The motor's rated voltage is irrelevant and can be ignored. When running NEMA23's or any motor that draws more than 2 amps we recommend fan cooling. Note that most of the heat comes off the bottom copper, so be sure to provide air circulation for the bottom of the board as well as the top.

  • If you want to use an external programmer the Xmega on TinyG requires a PDI capable programmer such as the Atmel AVRISP MKII programmer or the newer ATMEL-ICE-BASIC programmer. Older AVR ICSP programmers will not work. Also note that while AVRdude will program using the AVRISP MKii, it will not program using the ATMEL-ICE (who's advantage is that it offers real-time debugging via Atmel Studio of Open OCD).

TinyG Board

You can get the TinyG controller board fully assembled from the Synthetos Store

TinyG v8's are "blue" boards labeled as TinyGv8. These use the DRV8818 driver chips. TI also makes other driver chips in this same family, but the 8818's have the lowest ON resistance therefore the best current handling.

Power Supply

The drivers on the TinyG v8 are rated to 2.5A per winding per motor, but will actually do up to 3 amps with proper cooling. FOr anything over 2 amps we really recommend a 24v-30v motor power input. While 12 volt operation is possible and entirely fine, running with a 24v power supply will allow the motors to be more responsive and actually run cooler (ironically).

You might think that 4 motors at 2 amps per winding (about the top-end of NEMA17's) would require 4 motors X 2 windings X 2 amps = 16 amps to drive, but you'd be wrong. 4 to 4.5 amps or above will handle this as not all motors + phases are ever maxed out at the same time. At 24 volts we like to have at least 4.5 amps for NEMA17's and 6 or more is recommended for NEMA23s.

Here are a couple power supplies we like: Meanwell NES-150-24, Meanwell NES-350-24
You can usually hunt around and find this for < $50. They also make lower amperage supplies that are cheaper.

PS Caveat: Be sure to switch the AC input from 240v to 120v if you are in the US or a 120v mains country. Most PSs will still work, but will audibly "click" and lose power if you don't set this correctly. Also, we've gotten Meanwell clones ordering from eBay - like Meigwei. Sheesh - they said I was ordering a Meanwell.

Stepper Motors

TinyG will work with bipolar and unipolar stepper motors. This covers most NEMA17 and NEMA23 motors you are likely to encounter. It will not work with motors wired as 5 wire "star configurations", so avoid these. Some of out favorite sources for stepper motors are:

Heat Sinks

The TI drivers on the TinyG are incredibly robust and will shut down in case of over-current instead of blowing up (unlike some other brands that shall remain nameless). But you don't want to go into thermal shutdown as it will will ruin your job even though the board is still OK. Thermal shutdown is evidenced by anything from a slow on-off cycling of the motor power, getting shorter as the current raises, to a stutter in extreme cases. The chips will be quite hot to the touch.

The main heatsinking provided for TinyG is the expanse of 2 oz. copper on the bottom and top of the board. You can see this by inspection. This is usually sufficient for NEMA17 installations and many NEMA23 applications. If you experience thermal shutdown or if you feel the chips are running too hot we recommend fan cooling. Fan cooling is the most effective way to cool and far more effective than heatsinking (see below). Just putting little heatsinks on the top doesn't do much good. We used to sell TinyG with these but don;t any more.

Cooling Fan

The TinyGv8's come equipped with a 3-pin fan connector that can be used to power a standard 12vdc PC fan, or a 24vdc fan - depending on a jumper setting and your board voltage (Vmot). Please read the silkscreen designators as below:

  • The "+12v" jumper position connects the fan header to the on-board 12 volt regulator (LM7812). This should be used if you are running a 12 volt fan and your board power (Vmot) is greater than 12 volts. This is the default jumper position and your v8 should have been shipped with the jumper in this position.
  • The "+Vmot" jumper position connects the fan header directly to the board power (Vmot). In this case your fan voltage needs to be the same as your Motor voltage, be it 12 volts, 24 volts, or anything else.
    Use this side with caution as applying 24 volts to some 12 volt fans will burn them out.

Connecting TinyG

At this point you can move on to Connecting TinyG

###Changes in v8 from v7

  • LEDs moved to a single edge for better mounting / readout
  • USB changed to USB-B (from mini) for better mechanical integrity
  • IO connections changed from 0.100 headers to screw terminal blocks
  • step/direction/enable signals broken out on headers for external stepper drivers
  • logic power supply is now a switcher (as opposed to a linear) on the v7 for better thermal characteristics
  • FTDI USB chip changed to FT230X from FT232R
  • switch inputs have RC circuit built in for better noise rejection
  • RS-485 removed and replaced with SPI connection
  • transient voltage suppressors added to Vmotor and USB lines
  • mounting hole pattern is slightly different to accommodate about 1/4" growth in the board

Getting Started Pages

  1. Home
  2. What is TinyG?
  3. Getting Started
  4. Connecting TinyG
  5. Configuring TinyG
  6. Sending Gcode Files
  7. Flashing TinyG
  8. Chilipeppr

Reference Pages

  1. TinyG Help Page
  2. TinyG Tuning
  3. TinyG Command Line
  4. TinyG JSON
  5. Gcode Support
  6. Homing and Limits
  7. Inch and MM Units
  8. Alarms and Exceptions
  9. Coordinate Systems
  10. Status Codes
  11. Status Reports
  12. Power Management
  13. Feedhold and Resume
  14. Licensing
  15. TinyG v8 Data Sheet

Discussion Topics

  1. Test-Drive-TinyG
  2. Jerk Controlled Motion
  3. Gcode Parsing
  4. Shapeoko Setup
  5. OX CNC TinyG Guide
  6. Creating Gcode Files
  7. Milling With Noisy Spindles
  8. Stepper Motors and Power Supplies
  9. Text Wrappers and Transaction IDs
  10. Using External Drivers
  11. TinyG Projects

Chilipeppr

  1. Chilipeppr
  2. Chilipeppr Advanced Usage
  3. Chilipeppr Archive and Restore Parameters
  4. ChiliPeppr PCB Auto Level
  5. Automatic Z Homing When Milling PCBs

Troubleshooting

  1. Troubleshooting
  2. SpDir Continues To Flash Error

Developer Pages

  1. Introduction to the TinyG Code Base
  2. TinyG-Developer-Notes
  3. Project-Setup-For-Atmel-Studio6.2
  4. Continuous-Delivery-Process
  5. Git Notes
  6. TinyG-State-Model
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