I worked with @bar tonight trying to get the calibration working. I do all the steps and when i would click return to center it would feed out all the left chain till it would about hit floor and i would stop it to keep from running out of chain, so i don’t hit center and just hit ok. We kinda got that going but when i do the five cuts and enter values it gives me the can’t calibrate error. I even tried entering a higher value for 1,2 measurements with still no luck. So i just skippes it. We couldn’t figure it out so bar asked me to make a topic to see what everyone else has done to remedy this?
Thanks for any assistance on this. I added pics of my values i enter.
Scott —
Sorry to hear you are having issues, I originally had quite a few myself and bar and everyone else was amazing. My only comment would be to check your units, I believe every time I have done the calibration I have had to use MM instead of inches on every point of the calibration. Hope this helps!
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If this is repeatable, then it is a bug and should be but up as an issue on github to get it fixed in the next release. Sadly my machine is dissembled so I can’t test.
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Is this a stock frame design? If so, I’d recommend doing a “Reset settings to defaults” and a “Wipe EEPROM” to clear any bad calibration values and, as suggested, check your units and double check all your measurements. Perhaps post what your current values are for distance between motors, vertical height of motors and rotational radius were prior to trying to go to center.
Great suggestion! Maybe it’s a bug with inches, I always work in mm so that could go undetected. Let’s see if doing the measurements in mm fixes the issue and if it does then we know it’s a bug and I can fix it right away
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@madgrizzle I’ve done that several times with deleting. I’m thinking it was a bad Arduino. It finally died last night in the middle of a project. It will power up but not connect and laptop doesn’t even see it in usb connections or in gc. I will do the mm in calibration. So hoping the new arduino is the ticket!! Thanks all for your replies guys!! 
I will let everyone know how it goes. Reading up on the auto z as well.
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I am sorry to hear about the arduino however I hope the new one will fix the problem!
I have also been doing my own Z axis tests and I love mine, I used an openbuilds gantry essentially and then welded an angle bracket that holds it to the sled but now since that has very little friction I am looking at the increased Z axis speed by using a less geared motor combo. I am just lucky that I have 2 so 1 I am keeping stock and the second I am able to play with and do all kinds of fun ideas. I just need a good dust control for my Z axis haha. The little things.
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My z axis worked on the 5 test cuz but when I went to cut the sled… No inny outy! I’ve also realized that I should have recorded all numbers during calibration. I thought the software was doing that but I also realized that when it says " looks good! " it doesn’t mean that it actually looks good. It means that if I think it looks good I should choose this button. Am I wrong about this? Then later I discovered numbers that would be ideal in gc Settings. This is when I realized. Also someone on a tutorial said that the 5 cuts should be within certain tolerances and I had previously thought we were recording measurements to inform the calibration process. Which is it?
You don’t need to remember or write down the numbers it shows you, it will store them automatically. The calibration process just shows them to you to you as a sanity check to make sure the numbers look reasonable.
Could the z-axis have come unplugged? What happens when you run the Test Motors/Encoders?
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Thank you. I saw this but it didn’t match up to what I remembered so I thought my calibration was just that far off. Oh yeah my z is working great now.
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Ok. So i hooked the new Arduino up and did a full calibration. The 5 cut test worked the first time on mm, I started a project and it got 8 hours into it and again usb lost connection. Grrrrrrr so i tried the automatic chain length and it wouldn’t work. Kept dropping sled to floor again when i hit center. So i erased the eeprom and cleared everything and started all over AGAIN. Now when I get to the 5 point measurements it cuts like this in picture on the left lower corner, i did it three times and cuts in the exact same spot in the same zig zag shape. I entered the measurements again in mm each time and it’s back to telling me “the machine could not be calibrated, to check measurements.” I’m so friggin sick of this dang thing. I’ve wasted seven sheets of $60 plywood when trying and even trying on both sides of sheets. 14 times it’s lost usb connection. I have 6 different usb cables all with the noise deadener on them and have usb cable run up and over to laptop mounted on top of maslow to stay away from power cords. I’ve used different lengths also. Each power cord is on a different breaker for arduino, router and vac. I have extension cord run all over the place to get everything on separate breakers. I can’t believe all six of my brand new usb cords which are all different brands are all bad and keep losing connection. They are all tight in connections and not loose at the slightest. I just don’t get it. I’m so ready to give up on this thing. It’s cost me so much money and I’ve got one completed project that took me three tries to get that. And didn’t even get any recognition in the news letter or anything, but some simple cat cutouts did! Thanks… I don’t know what to do with this dang thing. I’ve been cutting on my X-Carve CNC with out any issues what so ever using same usb cables and laptop and cords. I don’t get it. Totally lost!!
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I’m really sorry. I don’t get it either. It sounds like you have tried everything I would recommend and done so thoroughly and carefully. Let us know if there is anything we can do or send you. I’m at a loss about what could be causing the USB connection to drop so regularly.
Did you see this video?
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@Gero, yes I’ve watched it, and every other video I can to try and figure it out! I’m so frustrated I could scream! 
I want it to work so badly. That’s why I put the noise deadener on everything as he did. I don’t have the meters he has unfortunately. I wish the guys that have theirs working good would reveal their secrets to get it working properly. But i guess that’s not gonna happen. I’m just gonna tear it down and put the maslow parts in a box put in shed and forget about it!! Sucks, but it is what it is. It’s not fun anymore, it’s actually stressful. Thanks to everyone that did try and help!
Sad to hear that. I’ve broken all the rules by using the original usb cable, everything, including vac, laptop and router runs form 1 wall socket with extension cable, tied the z-axis to the router power cable and can’t get the connection lost 
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Have those cuts been 8 hours long? What operating system are you using? Is the laptop going into power-saving mode?
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@Gero, lucky you buddy!! I wish I could just complete a cut. Even small projects do it. I thought it was fixed this time because i got so far into it. Even did two bit changes. Right about and hour prolly before finishing it “usb lost connection” 
@blurfl yes the last carve I did was 17 hors with 3 bit changes. No it’s not sleeping or hibernating or updating, I’ve shut all that off and even screen saver, everything. It a Samsung laptop running windows 10 fully updated. I have did a complete reinstall and have nothing else on it but the programs to run maslow and X-Carve. I do all my other programs on my desktop and use a memory stick to transfer gcodes to laptop .
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@scottscnc, quick question… how is the arduino mounted? Is it directly up against a piece of wood? I don’t know if it caused me to have issues, but I had zip-tied my arduino to the frame and was having connection issues. I “rotated” it so that not all of it was touching the wood and the problem went away. Maybe it was a cable problem that got corrected by moving the controller, but I’m going to put it in a case (well, hopefully I’ll be using @bee’s controller with case) anyway. Perhaps putting a piece of insulating material under the arduino might work … depending upon how you have it mounted.
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@madgrizzle it is screwed up under the top 2 by of frame with the little white spacers that came with it. I was kinda thinking the same way you’re thinking, but then thought why would it take so long for it to cause it to usb lost. I guess it would be worth a shot to mount it to wall behind my maslow frame. I really do appreciate everyone’s input on this. I just so badly want it to be right. Sorry to everyone I get so frustrated with it.
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