Hello all . i want to share my thoughts with you about web control.
I am using maslow commercially for more over two years. in the beginning i was a little bit frustrated because my knowledge about cnc was only on big commercial machines. after a couple of months playing and tweaking with maslow i understood that if i follow the basic guidelines of a big cnc machine
(a very steady leveled metal frame, a very accurate calibration, and a well balanced plexi glass sled using counter weights on both motors, high quality bits and correct feed and speed on cuts the results will be excellent. After 2 years i can proudly tell you that i have 0,1 accuracy on my cuts and the results that i have in very detailed and ādifficultā cuts are even better than a Homag 3515 (150.000 euros machine)
so Why am i writing this post?
I am following this forum from the first day i made the order for the maslow. after the release of web control with holey calibration the machine transformed from āa toy in the garageā to a fully working cnc machine with a lot of capabilities. yes it is slow but for me this is the only āproblemā. after the holey calibration i am capable of cutting full width and height of a ply wood sheet.
The web control with the holey calibration was a big step forward for me. i bought the new kit (M2) but never used the new board because i really dont need it, WC works perfectly and flawlessly every time.
I dont have the knowledge to help on the software r&d but allot of other users here can. dont abandon WC because a new and very complex software came up . WC works and it works well.
That are my thoughts and i just wanted to share with you. !!
Agreed. Web control with holey calibration was a game changer for me. I had resigned my Maslow to a life as a large format plotter for making furniture templates. I tried webcontrol with holey on a whim just to see if it made any improvement. Yeah, major understatement. The machine is still slow but holey hell is it better. For me, its night and day different. Its not a toy anymore.
we have to choose what is better for us to use. please express your opinion because i have a feeling that the whole project is slowing down, consumed by the millions little details that take all the time of the developers away from the development of the project and just try to solve every āpersonalā problem we experience (including me on this). my opinion is that we have to set a standard set up for every one and try to follow this as a base and try to have common solutions and upgrades for every one. Maslow works well it can be better if the developers have the time to make improvements, not personalized support. my opinion once more.
I get the feeling the project isnāt slowing down as much as itās suffering from a kind of scope creep, which is probably inevitable for a project like this. There is still a central core idea and philosophy but its outdated and been made obsolete by advancements in design and process. When a group of people are left to find their own way you will eventually be left with factions that coalesce around their own ideas. With this project, Bar pretty effectively crowdsourced the R&D for Maslow. Most of the improvements wouldnt have happened without the level of community involvement it had.
From my perspective, itās now a project management problem. Unless there is a concerted effort to start bringing together the vaairous factions, this scope creep will continue and we will individualy have to choose which faction we are going to join. The ones with the greatest gravitational pull (hardware availability, software development, customer base) will gaarner the greatest base. I would like this project to continue as an opensource but eventualy someone is going come up with a workable business model that eventualy goes closed. Iām looking at you Makerbot Industries ā¦
Existing users and new users are going to just want the machines to work when they need them to. In my case after four years of on again off again flirtation with Maslow, I finaly have a machine that can reliably do what I want, when I want it to. For me that took Webcontrol and Holey calibration. Itās going to be hard to move on from this because I have a machine that works pretty well. Iāve ironed out all of the problems I need to iron out. Now itās about maintenance, long term reliability, and process/workflow improvements. For me the delta between functionality and development is decreasing at an exponential rate. Iām simply not having to hack / test / try my way to a functional and reliable machine anymore.
I could not agree more with the awesomeness of WebControl. I was using GC and was not happy with the calibration. I tried MakerVerse and that was a disaster (too many issues and could not get it working). When I was able to get WebControl working on my Windows 7 laptop, I have been a happy camper.
The Holey calibration, as stated by other, the game changer.
I run webcontrol as a webserver on a raspberr pi. This arrangement has worked the most reliably for me (with no real problems to speak of) but admittedly, its not the easiest to execute for a non-linux/RPI user. That being said, it is my hope that whoeve is continuing the efforts with webcontrol contnues to do so because it is very much appreciated. The hardwware development I can help with. The software and coding I am completly reliant on others for, sadly.
Me too. However, I am getting the feeling that Makerverse is going to supplant both Ground Control and Web Control at some point. Itās no matter since WebControl is functional and completly usable as is. Iām going to stick with it for a while.
TBH, I donāt use webcontrol so thereās little driving me to improve upon itā¦ Iāve got a lot of other things going on in my life (work and other hobbies) and not even having a Maslow anymore makes it real hard for me to devote time to software I donāt use.
If thereās some earth-shattering bug, with no reasonable workaround, that needs fixing, Iāll try to correct it and make a release. At this point, it seems unlikely as it seems to be pretty stable. As I donāt want that to change, Iām not [personally] going to build new releases with new features/etc. I would be happy to hand the reigns completely over to someone that will build releases and Iāll support them greatly in their efforts to get started building releases, improve upon, and maintain webcontrol. I just need someone else to lead.
@madgrizzle Thanks for your response on this. I understand real life getting in the way, and I would like to personally thank you for the efforts you put into getting WC up and running. I like it a lot, and no offense to @bar and the other creators of the Maslow and GC, I think WC is much more user friendly and getting the setup of a Maslow super easy, particularly for a newbie that is looking to get into CNC in an affordable way. Unfortunately, Iām just a simple user and donāt have any skills in programming or anything, so I canāt help in that department, but as @jonatpridesleap said, WC is pretty stable,
functional and completely usable as is
so like him, Iām going to be sticking with it as well. Good luck to you in your other hobbies, and thanks again!
My goal was to make it āaccessibleā to people starting off. I modelled it on GC (to ease transition for existing users) but tried to add some features that would help people get going with it. Having the ability to flash the arduino right from the program I think was a big help.
You never know what will happenā¦ as Iāve been off building my mid-life crisis robot Iāve learned a lotā¦ designed my own smart single-motor controller board (arduino+DRV8876), learned a lot about 3D printing partsā¦ machine learning, etc. I might go back to trying my hand at designing a 4-motor maslow now that I know that 3D printing would solve MANY of the mechanical issues I hadā¦ if (big if) I do, then Iād likely use webcontrol for itā¦ so you never know.
Noice!!! I have always wanted to venture into this arena, but have been very intimidated on the programming side and what not. I LOVE Star Wars, and would love to build my own R2D2, but that right now is just a dream, but as you said, you never know. I have ventured into the RPi foray, and I know there are a lot of things that you can do with that (robots included), but aside from my own adventures in 3D printing, getting my Maslow back up and running (and trying to improve on my setup - hence the RPi foray), and just other woodworking projects (and the stuff my better half throws into my plans) I probably have work to last me the next 5 years, so learning the robotics side will most likely be a far off dreamā¦oh yeahā¦I have to WORK tooā¦uuuggghhhhā¦but I guess I have to pay for all these hobbies somehow, right!!
Again, good luck to you, and Iāll be interested in your progress if you get back to designing that 4-motor maslow.
I built one of those once, itās called a daughter. Itās currently having some coordination and motor control issues but the machine learning is top notch kit. Lost a lot of sleep over trying to get it to understand the nocturnal regeneration routines but itās coming a long. Was a highly rewarding project but 10/10 would NOT recommend as a mid life endeavor.
Well, this is my second mid-life crisis I guess because I had identical twins about 10 years ago. That was (and still is) a very rewarding projectā¦ but fortunately for me, my twins are boysā¦ I donāt know what my life would be like if I had a daughter (or two). Good luck to you!
Like the Borg, resistance is futile. I have let go all of all hope and have resigned myself to letting fate wash over me like the tide. Until then, Imma gonna hide in the basement.