Cant update to Holey Firmware, and cant get the software to run outside of Docker

WebControl Troubleshooting
1

So I was just given a V1 Maslow, built my standard sized frame, got it all up and running…

And I cant seem to get my firmware updated to holey. I can flash the standard firmware and hook it all up, and it moves around, I can set the chains all that…

But when I flash the most recent holey firmware from here it doesnt connect/move.

When I try to flash the prebuilt image of webcontrol, its not compatible with a pi 5 so I cant boot, I followed the steps from the github here and it throws a 203 exec error when I try to start webcontrol using “sudo systemctl start webcontrol.service”… So I finally did it via the docker, but the docker appears to be on 0.94 which according to This thread I need to use a firmware from eastbaysource which doesnt seem to be hosted online currently…

Ive also read that I need to use a prerelease 0.95 version to update the firmware?

Im a little confused can anyone point me in the right direction?

Edit: Found this thread so im gonna try to flash with 32 bit --edit2: ended up trying .957 first instead

Edit2: Releases · Orob-Maslow/WebControl · GitHub Found the prerelease versions gonna flash back to 64 bit and then try .957

Edit3: For time travelers I installed raspbian 64 bit latest fresh install

Then

cd ~
mkdir webcontrol
cd webcontrol
wget https://github.com/Orob-Maslow/WebControl/releases/download/0.95-beta/webcontrol-0.95-pre-release-beta-rpi-singlefolder.tar.gz
tar -zxvf webcontrol-0.95-pre-release-beta-rpi-singlefolder.tar.gz

This downloads the 0.95 beta, then follow the steps from the github GitHub - Orob-Maslow/WebControl: Web-based Ground Control

Before you go to start the program, you must, go into

/home/pi/webcontrol and move the contents of the webcontrol folder inside there and move them back out.

So the contents of /home/pi/webcontrol/webcontrol get moved into /home/pi/webcontrol

Make sure to take a copy of your webcontrol file, and that its permissions are 0755

This doesnt get you avrdude, but it does get you closer…

Final edit: After spending a day, just install 32 bit and then follow GitHub - WebControlCNC/WebControl: Web-based Ground Control

2

You can flash the firmware directly from webcontrol, no need to do it manually. Webcontrol .94. I don’t use raspi so I can’t help there.

3

It looks like .95b is the newest version to work, which it seems to work fine.

Except the maslow is now throwing errors of not keeping up every time I try to move. I know this thing works because I got one holey calibration out of it. Honestly though im starting to get frustrated to the point that want to I salvage what parts I can (router, chain) and throw the rest in the trash.

Power supply is putting out 12v, input voltage is regulated with a line interactive UPS. Tried another power supply, the power supply is connected to the control board…

When I tell it to move 5mm down, it moves .5 inch up and says it cant keep up.
Test the motors? All 3 test fine.
set the sprockets? Can spin each motor forever 1 at a time, no issues.

Try to just move the z axis some? Moves up half an inch without moving Z, and says it cant keep up.

Changed Position Error Limit to 20 from 2…

4

girrrrrrr2 wrote:

It looks like .95b is the newest version to work, which it seems to work fine.

Except the maslow is now throwing errors of not keeping up every time I try to
move. I know this thing works because I got one holey calibration out of it.
Honestly though im starting to get frustrated to the point that want to I
salvage what parts I can (router, chain) and throw the rest in the trash.

the can’t keep up error is common, you need to either slow down the feed rate
you are trying to cut at, or go into the settings and change the limit that
triggers this.

Unfortunantly, this machine never got acceleration planning implemented in any
firmware, so it assumes that it goes from a dead stop to full speed instantly,
and throws an error if the planned position differs from the actual position by
more than 2mm (by default)

most people change this value in the settings to 20 or something huge to disable
it.

Power supply is putting out 12v, input voltage is regulated with a line
interactive UPS. Tried another power supply, the power supply is connected to
the control board…

When I tell it to move 5mm down, it moves .5 inch up and says it cant keep up.
Test the motors? All 3 test fine.
set the sprockets? Can spin each motor forever 1 at a time, no issues.

if it’s moving up when you tell it to move down, then you probably have the
chain over/chain under value set incorrectly for how you have the chain
positioned. a picture of your setup and settins would help (is the slack on the
outside or inside of the sprocket?

Try to just move the z axis some? Moves up half an inch without moving Z, and says it cant keep up.

Changed Position Error Limit to 20 from 2…

ok, that should have addressed the ‘can’t keep up’ error, but the fact that you
are moving in the wrong direction is a big problem.

David Lang

1 Like
5

the can’t keep up error is common, you need to either slow down the feed rate
you are trying to cut at, or go into the settings and change the limit that
triggers this.

Unfortunantly, this machine never got acceleration planning implemented in any
firmware, so it assumes that it goes from a dead stop to full speed instantly,
and throws an error if the planned position differs from the actual position by
more than 2mm (by default)

How do I slow down the jog buttons on the website? Because thats what ive been using to test motion (outside of the motor test)

most people change this value in the settings to 20 or something huge to disable
it.

I ended up changing it to 2000 and that still didnt fully help, but good to know that mostly disables it

if it’s moving up when you tell it to move down, then you probably have the
chain over/chain under value set incorrectly for how you have the chain
positioned. a picture of your setup and settins would help (is the slack on the
outside or inside of the sprocket?

I would agree with this, but I can assure that you that I have that part setup right because when it does move it moves in the right direction. The issue appears to be something like “when youre supposed to move, just go up” Angles, down, right… all does it, just jumps up.

the chains go over the top of the sprockets to the sled, and is setup as top in the advanced settings, and I set the chains by 12ing the sprocket zeroing and then telling webcontrol to move the motors 1651 mm using the set sprockets menu, and then connecting the slack to the sled.

I found another thread… somewhere that said that someone soldered their z axis connector, and I was just out there and wiggled that connector and it started to work, I think it might be the z axis connector failing, at least thats the only thing thats made sense so far.

I think the most frustrating part so far is that I ran through a full holey calibration 2x. So I know it moves and works, but it hasnt worked/moved fully in 3 days other than the one time after i wiggled the Z connector.

I think im gonna see if I have the stuff to remake/terminate the Z connector and if I dont im gonna solder it

6

Update: Tried soldering it, and remaking crimps… Didnt work

so I just bought a new motor and cable. I think im getting close but who knows.

7

Okay it now moves properly, sorta, it seems to think that the sled is off the bottom of the board at all times even when its in the center.

Sled: X:-227.28 Y:-804.25 Z:0.00

This is after I set sprockets and used web control to set chains to 1651mm

Edit: Okay after updating everything trying to chase that down… I run into two issues, there is a controller message on startup that says that its failing to read eeprom, and ive swapped the mega to a known good mega so I dont think its the mega.

AVRDude is missing from the tools folder and its unable to flash firmware itself. It calls out this error only in systemctl status webcontrol.service. I think its also the eeprom issues im having also. I am also now stuck with an error message that says

Message: Unable to find valid machine position for chain lengths 1650.99, 1650.99 . Please set the chains to a known length (Actions → Set Chain Lengths)

I am not sure what that means, ive set chain positions several times, if I set them to 0 it has no issue, if I sett them to 1651 as defaulted in webcontrol 0.95b it throws the error again.

Good news, motor tests all pass first try now.

Edit 2: Reflashed everything, I am still getting an out of date stock firmware warning, but its no longer kicking out a position error. - edit 3 it came back…

The thing that confuses me is that im running holey 51.30 and its saying my controller version is 1.2 and defaulting to triangular calibration as if I was running stock.
And when I go into the firmware folder on the pi, it only has a holey firmware in there labeled 1.30.hex not holey-51.30.hex like I was finding as the latest. No maslowcnc folder is included.

Edit 3: Honestly I am kinda stuck, does anyone know what I can do?
Webcontrol seems to be stuck thinking that my arduino mega is programmed with stock firmware instead of holey, and it wont update because avrdude doesnt exist in the folder its looking for. Im afraid to try other webcontrol versions because it just doesnt run on my pi other than 0.95b with an eastbay shield.

8

The flash button in webcontrol flashes what ever file is in that folder location, ensure its the right hex file for your firmware.

Do you have the original shield? I’ve tried Orobs forks and they worked but there was some bugs, don’t know if they got sorted. I went back to .94, the link can be found in the wiki below. (I’m not sure if .94 will support the Eastbay board)

Here is this wiki, it might help.

9

I dont, this is the only shield that I have and I dont seem to be able to find an original shield anywhere.

10

Alright I got it working

Roy over at EastBaySource replied to me on Facebook and then the site came back up so I was able to download the firmware and the ground control files. Let me know where I can send them so that they can be uploaded for future people.

From there once I had the mega flashed with their firmware, I flashed my raspberry pi 5 with 32 bit Raspbian (There is absolutely no reason to get anything but the cheapest pi you can, 32 bit only supports 4 gigs of ram max so anything more than that is wasted)

SSHed into it and installed official webcontrol just as the github page says to and its worked fine since. I was able to flash it with the holey firmware, it just works.

I will be trying the other versions later as some of the QOL adjustments were quite nice and ill update if I remember to after but yeah, working Maslow.

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