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First Run
To make sure all parts function as they should, we need to go through a
pre-flight checklist.

The most important things:

1. Double check the power input polarity (+ and -)

2. The orientation of stepper drivers. Please note the pot on
A4988 and DRV8825 are at the opposite side.

To start:

1. Do a visual check of all soldered points on the new board.

2. Plug the shield into an Arduino board and load the GRBL Firmware
following the steps bellow:
A. Download the Grbl source code (grbl-master, version 0.9j).
Please note: there are problems reported for the new v1.1,
the older version is recommended.

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.
B. Launch the Arduino IDE
Make sure you are using the most recent version of
the Arduino IDE!
C. Load Grbl into the Arduino IDE as a Library.
Click the

Sketch

drop-down menu, navigate to

Include Library

and select

Add .ZIP Library

.
IMPORTANT: Select the

Grbl

folder inside the

grbl-master

folder, which only contains the source files and an

example directory.
If you accidentally select the

.zip

file or the wrong folder, you will need to navigate to

your Arduino library, delete the mistake, and re-do
Step 3.
D. Open the

GrblUpload

Arduino example.
Click the

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Examples->Grbl

, and select

GrblUpload

.
E. Compile and upload Grbl to your Arduino.
Connect your Arduino Uno to your computer.
Make sure your board is set to the Arduino Uno in the

Tool->Board

menu and the serial port is selected correctly in

Tool->Serial Port

.
Click the

Upload

, and Grbl should compile and flash to your Arduino!

(Flashing with a programmer also works by using the

Upload Using Programmer

menu command.)

You may also get official instructions and files here

3. Open up a serial connection to the Arduino board and check

if GRBL is running.(I use Universal G-code sender to connect to
GRBL)
4. A4988 stepper drivers need adjustment for reference voltage. I will
cover that in detail later.
5. Testing each stepper controller socket individually is critical.
A. Make sure the external high voltage power is not power-up
or connected
B. Connect a stepper motor to the stepper controller socket
you want to test. This is very important because the Pololu
Stepper drivers are designed to ramp up the current till it
reaches the needed current to run. Without a stepper motor

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the shield.
D. Connect the external power to the shield, making sure you
connect the power up the right way. If not connected the
right way you can cause damage to the shield, stepper
motor drivers and Arduino board.
E. Send a g-Code to the Axis you are testing. The stepper
motor should move if everything is working. (GCode
Example : G1 X5? or G1 X0? or G1 Y5?)
F. Repeat the above process with each axis using the same
stepper driver.(Testing with one driver reduces the risk of
damaging multiple stepper drivers at the same time.)
6. After all the above have been checked connect all the drivers and
power up the system.

Adjust current limit (reference voltage) for stepper

driver

A4988 sold by Zyltech, Rs=0.1 ohm. Thus the max current is Vref/0.4

Vref could be measured as shown below

Drv 8825 sold by Zyltech. Max current = Vref x 2

For starting point, you may set the max current to 1A. If the motor over
heats, reduce the Vref. If the motor does not move or miss steps, increase
the Vref.

Jumper Settings
Jumpers are used to configure the 4th Axis, Micro stepping and endstop
configuration.

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axis. It can also run as an individual axis by using Digital Pin 12 for Stepping
signal and Digital Pin 13 as direction signal. (GRBL only supports 3 axiss at
the moment)

Clone X-Axis to the 4th stepper driver(Marked as A)

Clone Y-Axis to the 4th stepper driver(Marked as A)

Clone Z-Axis to the 4th stepper driver(Marked as A)

Use D12 and D13 to drive the 4th stepper driver(Marked as A)

End Stop Configuration

The end stop switches coming with the kit have three wire. Such end stops
are easy to use, monitor and install, especially comparing to the bare
mechanical switches. However, the CNC shield only provides 2 PIN headers
in contrast to RAMPS shield. There are two ways to install the end stops.

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2 . Add a +5V power to the red wire and take advantage of LED indicator on
board

By default GRBL is configured to trigger an alert if an end-stop goes

low(Gets grounded). On the forums this has been much debated and some
people requested to have active High end-stops. The jumpers in the picture
provides the option to do both. (To run with default setting on GRBL the
jumper need to be connected like the left shield in the image below)(This
Jumper was only introduced in Version 3.02)

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End-stop switches are standard always open switches. An End-stop gets

activated when the end-stop pin connects to ground(When setup with default
GRBL settings).

Configuring Micro Stepping for Each Axis

Each axis has 3 jumpers that can be set to configure the micro stepping for
the axis.

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In the tables below High indicates that a Jumper is insert and Low indicates
that no jumper is inserted.

Pololu A4988 Stepper Driver configuration:

MS0 MS1 MS2 Microstep Resolution

Low Low Low Full step

High Low Low Half step

Low High Low Quarter step

High High Low Eighth step

High High High Sixteenth step

Pololu DRV8825 Stepper Driver configuration:

MODE0 MODE1 MODE2 Microstep Resolution

Low Low Low Full step

High Low Low Half step

Low High Low 1/4 step

High High Low 1/8 step

Low Low High 1/16 step

High Low High 1/32 step

Low High High 1/32 step

High High High 1/32 step

Example of full micro stepping (All 3 jumpers inserted for all axes )

Wiring of motors
With our Zyltech Nema 17 steppers, wiring of motors is very simple. Just
plug in the connectors to the headers for each axis. If a motor turns in the
opposite direction, simply rotate the plug by 180 degrees and plug back.

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