Connection to browser is extremely frustrating

Software
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( First post, er rant… venting a little. I don’t mean to come off as combative… sorry in advance )

Why does the the Maslow seem so temperamental based it’s active connection to the current browser? I don’t have ( or want ) a hard-wired, always-on computer dedicated solely to this CNC. I have a laptop. Sometimes I walk away and my laptop falls asleep for a few minutes. Sometimes I change to a different tab for a little bit. Sometimes I want to switch over to Fusion and work on some designs while I keep an eye on the router.

When I come back to the Maslow tab, more often than not, I have to completely start over.

Maslow does not know belt lengths. Please retract and extend before continuing.
error:152 - Configuration is invalid. Maslow.yaml file may be corrupt. Turning off and back on again can often fix this issue.

( This was the most recent error, but there are seem to be a variety of different error messages when reconnecting. Often it’s that it was disconnected for 30 seconds )

Unplug and replug the power, disconnect the belt ends, hard-refresh the browser, retract all, extend all, re-attach the belt ends, apply tension, jog the machine back to the starting point. God forbid my laptop falls asleep again while all that is happening… sometimes you get to start over again! Ask me how I know!

I literally have a WiFi access point within 10 feet of both my laptop and router, both with direct line of sight.

Why is this a thing? Why can’t the browser re-establish a connection with the Maslow without it completely freaking out? There are a few things that are pretty frustrating about this thing that I’m willing to accept for now and chalk up to growing pains as the firmware continues to improve, but this is by far the biggest pain.

Is it just me? Am I missing something?

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I can understand wanting that workflow and not tying up a machine while the maslow is running, but I would caution against running the maslow without having easy access to an e-stop.

I also keep seeing people have issues with having the machine on their home networks, and I also had issues, but all of those have gone away after switching back to a direct connection and setting my shop laptop to not go to sleep.

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Fair point, though I might prefer a physical button for this reason. If the browser disconnects, a software e-stop isn’t gonna help much.

I wonder if fluid attempts to leverage this screen wake lock JavaScript API at all. Seems like it has pretty decent browser support.

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Anecdotally, I just tested the Screen Wake Lock demo from MDN ( Wake Lock Demo ) on both my laptop and phone and it seems to work just fine. They both sat idle with the screen on for far longer than usual without falling asleep.

I may play around with adding this feature to the UI and if I can get it to work well, I’ll submit a PR to the webui repo

This doesn’t really solve any of the core issues I’ve outlined, but it seems like this would be a nice addition to the UI. As long as the tab is active, it should help to keep the connection alive and avoid needing to manually override power / sleep settings.

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5

If you have an extra display lying around, you could maybe try doing an extended display with the Maslow tab active on that display. If you don’t have an extra display, you may be able to find one for free locally on Craigslist, Nextdoor, Facebook Market, or whatever. People are often getting rid of them.

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