After a few factory resets and power cycles I’m still running into a problem with the bottom left encoder.
It will retract normally but it won’t extend properly. Instead of the motor engaging and releasing the belt like usual, it will still hold on but with a lot of force I can pull it out very slowly.
I’ve tried using Test to see if there are any continuity errors or the encoders haven’t been connected properly but nothing there. I tried changing over the ethernet cables too but that’s not done anything either.
it sounds like a problem with the encoder (either with the electronics or with
the magnet)
we have had problems where people have not glued the magnet in well enough, or
where they assembled the magnet in the wrong place on the arm, and it sorta
works, but with problems like you are describing being among the problems that
result.
I’ve tried the above suggestion from dlang and everything looked fine. I tried to jiggle the magnet in it’s spot but no movement, so I didn’t attempt to glue it further.
I tried pushing the belt and retracting the belt spool manually to no avail either. I also tried editing the retraction force to lower values but that gave no results.
Going to try a full install and firmware update to see if that does anything.
I know this is a bit old, but I want to chime in in case anyone else needs to check their magnets.
Rather than disassembling immediately, I’d recommend first try shining a light through the bearings. Flip the arm so the motor side is down and the belts are pointed toward you. Shine a light into the left bearing. You should see the magnet towards the bottom of the hole if it is correctly in position.
If you see metal close to the top, then the roller has been flipped upside down. If you see down to the chip, then the magnet is missing. If the magnet is missing, try shining the light down the right bearing to see if the magnet is there and the two rollers were swapped in assembly. In any of these cases, the arm will need to be disassembled.
I have just tried changing over the cables between the top left and bottom left arms.
When I changed only the motor cables over the issue affected both the top and bottom left motors - the drive did not engage when extending.
After changing the motor cables and the ethernet cables it went back to the original issue - only the bottom left arm not extending and the top left arm doing what it’s supposed to.
I feel like that might’ve been confusing so permit me to do this (I’m a visual learner if you can’t tell):
BL Motor Jack → BL Motor
BL Ethernet → BL Encoder
TL Motor Jack → TL Motor
TL Ethernet → TL Encoder
(BL belt doesn’t extend, TL extends)
BL Motor Jack → TL Motor
BL Ethernet → BL Encoder
TL Motor Jack → BL Motor
TL Ethernet → TL Encoder
(TL and BL belts don’t extend)
BL Motor Jack → TL Motor
BL Ethernet → TL Encoder
TL Motor Jack → BL Motor
TL Ethernet → BL Encoder
(BL belt doesn’t extend, TL extends)
I feel like this information may be the smoking gun but, alas, I have no idea and just wanted to be clear so that the techno whizzes have the best shot at figuring this business out.
@dlang is right, that sounds to me like there is something funky going on with that arm. I’m not sure that it’s the encoder board but I’m going to DM you a code to get a free one so it’s in the mail today and you have one if you need one
Just finished disassembling and reassembling the BL arm. The only thing I could see that might have been a problem was the amount of belt on the spool - enough to pinch quite tight up against the nearest drive gear. (I couldn’t push the belt back in but the image shows how much there was and the proximity). I removed enough of the belt to stop this happening and put everything back together.
it’s normal for the belt to hit the idler like that. that will affect how much
force it takes to retract the last foot or so, but should not affect extending.
