Alarms and Errors
Alarm 3 or Alarm 10 takes some tries to unlock
In the newer versions of gSender (1.4.6 onward) this should be fixed where unlocking just takes some time.
Alarm 10 during startup
Make sure the E-stop is released, by pressing it in then turning it clockwise. Then you should be able to clear the alarm by pressing ‘Click to Unlock Machine’ in gSender.
If that does not work, you can try to:
1. Take off the acrylic cover with the thumbscrew
2. Turn ON the power switch at the side of the controller. The red LED near the power switch and the LED next to ‘HALT’ should be ON.
Red ‘HALT’ light ON during startup
Red LED near power switch ON
3. Rotate clockwise to release the E-stop, this should turn the ‘HALT’ light OFF.
‘HALT’ light turning OFF after releasing E-stop
4. Press the “Click to Unlock Machine” button in gSender.
5. Check that the machine status has changed to ‘Idle.’ If not, turn OFF the power switch and repeat this process until you see this status.
‘Idle’ state on gSender
Alarm 10 when E-stop is released
Normally, once you release the E-stop by pressing and rotating the button clockwise, this alarm should be cleared. So in this scenario, there is something that is causing the E-stop signal to trigger unexpectedly. The E-stop signal is designed to be very sensitive, so check if you have any loose wires or have conductive material contacting the underside circuitry of the E-stop unit.
Alarm 10 when motor alarms are also triggered
This means that the closed loop stepper motors are experiencing mechanical resistance, like if the machine bumped into something. Verify this by looking at the console on gSender, or by the controller’s lights, as outlined in the graphic below. Yellow LEDs indicate which motors are affected. If the motor is affected, you should be able to rotate the motor shaft with your hands.
To clear the alarm, you can power cycle the controller.
Bottom right corner of the SLB-EXT
Error 8 or 9 after hitting E-stop
The typical routine after hitting the E-stop will be to first ‘reset’ the board and then ‘unlock’ it, Therefore you’ll get either of these errors if a step in this process is missed.
Error 24
Check that you are not loading up a regular g-code file while in Laser mode.
Error 33
Export your toolpath using the mm post-processor, instead of the inch post-processor. Exporting toolpaths in inches can cause this error due to how the CAM software rounds numbers, so there is a higher chance there will be two lines with identical data in the g-code (which the controller does not like).
Is your alarm/error not described here?
Check out this comprehensive list of alarms and errors at our SLB/SLB-EXT documentation site, with examples to show how you might encounter them.
Preview of the alarms list, full list here
Other
Pressing to ‘Zero’ axes isn’t working
Ensure $10 = 511 to enable “work coordinate offset.” On gSender, you can do this by clicking the ‘Firmware Tool’, then setting the toggles as shown for $10 Status report options.
Firmware tool showing correct $10 settings for AltMill
When the motors lose position, the machine does not stop
By default, the motor alarms are not enabled to trigger a full stop of the machine – to enable this functionality, go into ‘Firmware’ on gSender and enable these for the X, Y, Z axis using setting $744.
Ensure $744 is enabled for the XYZ axes using the toggles
Overriding speed, spindle, or laser does not work on shorter files
This is an outlying grblHAL issue which should only occur on shorter files. If you want to still override, you should still have the option to set the override before starting the job.
Changing a firmware setting but it isn’t taking effect
Check if the setting description mentions that you need to ‘hard reset’ your board. Some settings need this, which just means you’ll need to turn your board off and back on again before the change takes effect.
Machine disconnections while running your job
Try switching from USB over to Ethernet.
Issues when importing settings from an older gSender version
This is expected. Different versions of the SLB-EXT have different EEPROM outputs that are not compatible with each other, so for the duration of beta testing you will need to note down your firmware settings and revert them manually on new firmware versions.
Hearing ‘clicking’ when you change firmware settings
This is normal!