Call for beta testers: Chain stretch compensation improvement

Hi @dlang
Thanks for pointing this out :slight_smile:
I design the firmware improvement step exactly as a subset of the holey triangular calibration improvements. It is intended to be kept and built upon. And I can say it improves the results for me (and for others?). Not perfect yet, but better.

It follows this post.

I would like to say that I do work it out with @Joshua to not take months to make it happen. And all contributors are welcome to make it better faster :slight_smile:
The complete GC with easy holey triangular calibtation is not yet ready.
Actually @Joshua calls for contribution to improve GC for an easy Holey Triangular calibration.

This could be included in Holey Calibration. However, I found that a mis-measurement of 0.5 mm can result in a sled-weight that is way off from what a scale can measure. I concluded it was best to just leave the scale-measured weight as-is. The difficult part is: chain-sag has a small effect. If the model is 5% off, it is not too bad, because it is 5% off on a phenomenon that has an absolute magnitude of 5 mm of displacement. It is is very small, 0.05*5=.25 mm. We can calibrate it; however, I think we’re going to get better results if we don’t.

Yeah. My development pace may be the bottleneck here. Don’t hold your breath.

I would like to point out the required accuracy for each parameter. I listed my findings here as a summary. And I conclude that mainly the chain tolerances are really worth an optimisation.

What is also pretty interesting in the optimisaton tool is when the optimisation result presents some sanity check by confirming some known values. Let’s say: motor (sprocket) distances or the motor (sprocket) height above the workspace.

And that is where we are heading :tada:

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Any feedback?

There a several pulls in the to do list to implement stepwisein the official MalsowCNC repository all those features that will be used for the Holley Triangular calibration…

Should we go forward with a pull request?

@c0depr1sm, i still plan on testing your firmware. But, I think I am working backward. :dizzy_face: I loaded .with Holey Calibration first and ran a test cut with improved dimensions.

I have your firmware loaded now and see how far I can get tonight and tomorrow. with a sacrificial sheet of OSB on deck and will report back.

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@c0depr1sm, I ran into a problem, when trying to set auto chain calibration. both sprokets went out of alignment and when I try to set the 12 O’clock position on my left sprocket, it spins about a 180 degrees when I choose 1 or 5 degrees.
I am also getting the sled is not keeping up with expected position alarm pop up when doing this. Using 1.26 GroundConrol.

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Please post the Groundcontrol.ini file.
Did you complete the steps from How to test the Firmware beta version down to And that is it. ?

Then you were at step 2 of From here you can try and report, that is “Does Ground Control calibration propose values that are close to you current settings” Right?

So when you say

when trying to set auto chain calibration, both sprokets went out of alignment

and

when I try to set the 12 O’clock position on my left sprocket, it spins about a 180 degrees

You said you tried The holey calibration fimware just before right?
Please also execute a macro with command $$ and get a copy of the Groundcontrol output on the console listing all firmware parameters.

On linux $$ sadly only writes to the log.txt. Is that different on Win$?

@c0depr1sm, yes to all your questions. I already wiped the eeprom and reloaded the stock firmware and re-entered all my calibration settings and reset the chains.

So, I don’t have a console dump to show you. However i did have a backup of the groundcontrol.inigroundcontrol.bak2 (1.5 KB)

The Maslow seems back to its original state. I will five it a quick test cut and then re-try with your firmware.

Automatic has never worked for me… Always does what you have reported (Fw 1.25)

@c0depr1sm I ran a test cut with the stock firmware 1.25 with following results.

Circle 18" ht., 17 13/16 width
Square 12 1/16" ht., 11 15/16 width.

I know have your firmware loaded and running stock GC 1.26. This time the sprockets set to 12 o’clock without issue. But when I hit center sled, it rolled out all the left chain and I had to hit stop. I was able to run through the calibration routine and reset the chains and center the sled.

I ran the $$ macro and have attached the log output. and my current ini.
log.txt (1.1 MB)groundcontrol.bak3 (1.5 KB)

Can you give it a sanity check, before I try to cut the test file with it?
currently chainsagcorrection = 0 Im guessing I need to enter the value in lbs?

I’m checking it…
But be carefull! In this firmware improvement step, the sag correction IS really the sag correction factor. Don’t enter a sled weight there :slight_smile: Use the same sag correction you used to have.

Just following your progress until I get the chance to test it myself. Not to digress too much from the topic but …

I’ve had issues like this as well and it may be related to the “not keeping up” error. You might want to check all your cables to make sure nothing wiggled loose, maybe even disconnect and reconnect. Check the female ends of the motor cable connections to make sure the pins are making good contact. Also, one of the shield designs out there (don’t remember the name) has a pin on the underside of the board that touches the usb housing when pressed all the way down on the arduino. If yours is like that you might want to put electrical tape on the usb housing.

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GroundControl.ini looks ok.

So, having the left chain rolling all out, it looks like possibly the chains position was not preserved during the firmware update. In that case the right thing to do was to recalibrate.

Also @WoodCutter4 's point might be something to check, but I did not have that issue, so I don’t know about that.

Recalibration, I can see in log.txt, here is what you did:

line 18076: you finish moving the right sprocket to have 12 OClock fine. (B09 R-0.12)
line 18733: you set these sprocket as 0 chain length.
line 18739: the chain over top is restated to the firmware
line 18753: A message that the firmware cannot figure a valid sled position… we could expect that since nor the left nor the right chain were extended.
line 18755: The position error alarm limit ($42) is set to 2000 mm in the firmware.
line 18810: the chain over top is restated to the firmware
line 18819: A message that the firmware cannot figure a valid sled position… we could expect that since nor the left nor the right chain were extended.
line 18821: the macro $$ is called to print parameter values. Everything seems fine. (sag correction value is 0 but that is not a problem)
line 18870: The position error alarm limit ($42) is set to 2 mm in the firmware (effectively restoring the position error check).
line 19727: command to extend left chain
line 21040: left chain extended to 1648.86mm
line 21288: command to extend right chain
line 22601: right chain extended to 1648.83mm
line 24043: command to move sled to center
line 24277: firmware reports a request to comppute the xy position of the sled from the chains current positions and reports x=0.75, y=0.87
line 24385: $16=1 (Z axis is motorized)
line 24572: $16=1 (Z axis is motorized)
line 24682: $16=1 (Z axis is motorized)
line 25174: some Z moves…
line 26353: a message stating that exiting clibration process early may cause problems
line26477: Ground Control reports reconnecting to firmware
line 26483: firmware reports a request to comppute the xy position of the sled from the chains current positions and reports x=0.73, y=0.79
line 26482 $$ macro followed by parameters lists
repeating a few time $$ then list… then end of file.

Now, You can put the normal chain sag correction for you machine. And give it a go.

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Test cut with chain stretch comp firmware loaded, was done a little bit left of center and about 22.5 in down from center. I set chainsagcorrection = 25

Circle 18" ht., 17 7/8" width
Square 12 1/32" ht., 11 15/16 width.

@WoodCutter4, my cables are all secure and have strain relieve where needed, but its always good to give it the look over my pcb is the older 2 chip version any does not have the issue shorting out.

Its getting late, going to shut down for the night.

So it worked.
Thanks Jamtek :smiley:.

True, the difference is not much looking better in that area of the workspace. ( lower part of the workspace). The vertical squash is more important in the workspace upper center.

So the change is working fine / not breaking for Jamtek and me. Jamtek has chain over, I got chain under sprocket. So we have two cases covered.

One week gone. If someone is coming up we could widen the trust. If not, then it is time to close the beta test period and call for a pull request.

I ran into an issue that sounds exactly like this. I had this issue with one motor, but not the other. I wiggled the connections to the motors, and disconnected/reconnected the shield on the Arduino. This fixed the issue. Unfortunately I don’t have any information on which connection was faulty. After this, I haven’t had any problems (yet).

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Hi all,
I placed the pull request on Github.
Note that the automatic build checker fails, but the Arduino IDE works! So that is a checker issue, not a Firmware issue :slight_smile:

Please vote to make sure it gets approved :slight_smile:

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how do we vote

You need a Github account. Then click on the link above then punch the thumb-up icon in the post begining with “Congratulations on the pull request c0depr1sm” :slight_smile: