Bought my Maslow a year ago and I’m finally getting it to move. I followed the stock frame instructions and ran into a few issues where I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how things went together. Scouring the forums for pictures of other people’s setup solved most issues.
The first issue I ran into was the bungee cords for tensioning the chain easily walked off their tracks. To remedy this, I added a cap wherever I could to hold the bungees in place.
The other issue I’m having now is keeping the motor cables securely plugged into both the motors and the motor shield. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to hold these in place?
The first issue I ran into was the bungee cords for tensioning the chain easily walked off their tracks. To remedy this, I added a cap wherever I could to hold the bungees in place.
weights are much more stable.
The other issue I’m having now is keeping the motor cables securely plugged into both the motors and the motor shield. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to hold these in place?
the connectors are pretty secure, I haven’t heard of anyone having problems with
them pulling out.
They should be static/not moving, if you have movement in them, there must be a reason. With mounted motors and the shield and cables away from chains and sled, there is no reason to secure them (z-motor cable should be secured). Anyhow, a drop of (not too hot) hotglue would hold them and allow to be pealed off in case a change is required.
Again, there should be no reason to glue them. Eliminate the reson why they come loose is better then gluing and a glue-gun can damage the connection. It’s a extreme measure that should not be needed.
If you do it, do not touch the connectors with the tip. Rather let a small drop a drop from above.
I’ve checked, I don’t have any photos on hand of my setup, but I can try to get some later tonight.
In a nutshell, I have the Arduino/Shield mounted in the center of the upper front cross member of the default frame and the motor cables are running out to their respective motors.There’s a bit of a drop from the top beam to the upper cross member, but I cannot imagine its enough to be pulling a cable loose.
Looking through the default frame build instructions again, it’s clear my black and white printout didn’t correctly illustrate the pulleys were being used to guide the bungees. I’m not sure what the plastic pieces I’m using were intended for, but they’re serving the same purpose. Now that I know, I’ll likely swap out for the the pulleys.
It is one of the first things you check for (all connections, power, motor, etc) when trouble shooting for a reason.
I have also shortened the diagnostic process drastically by just pushing motor connectors fully back into place. Mine have also come out. I suspected more than just vibration or said “movement” but more likeley an unwelcomed tug here or there.
Yeah, that’s the first troubleshooting step we learned 15 years ago in a Cisco Networking course. It was really hammered into us. Probably saved me 30 minutes the other day with the Maslow because I checked it just about right away. In short, I’m glad I’m not the only one that seems to have this issue.
For those that requested photos of the setup to help diagnose:
I’m going to take @dlang 's suggestion and put some cable clamps on the cables a few inches from the motors, leaving a bit of slack between the clamp and the motor. I’ll be damned if I don’t have a stash of those in my basement to use on a project just like this.
On similar things I have had good results with hot melt glue. It is nice because you can crack it off later on if you need to but it sticks pretty well.
I handled my cables a little different. I put hooks and cables ties for the XY motors near the controller board in case they got snagged, they would not cause damage.
The Z cape is hooked over those hooks so I could unplugged, so if I had to remover the sled for any reason. I hooked a weight on the cable and over the 2x4 to get to the router. The weight keeps it out on the way when the Maslow Is running. On the router I used more cable ties to keep to out of the way and from becoming unplugged.
Where it comes over the top 2x4 I need put some kind of guide to keep it from tangled is the buggy cords. This is still a work in process.
The weight of the portion of the cable that is draped over the waste board itself seems to take care of removal of slack.
Zip ties seem to anchor it nicely to the ring supports.
