Interstitial Firmware Releases

Software Maslow Firmware
544

Here is another version that I would love feedback on.

We need to keep moving in the direction of simplifying the process of getting setup and running so there are less steps.

This automates the detection of horizontal vs vertical orientation by extending the top two belts for 1.5 seconds and measuring how much belt extends. This happens automatically at the beginning of the anchor point locating process. In vertical orientation more belt will extend because the machine is hanging from those belts, while in horizontal orientation it won’t extend as much

The key is making sure that we have the detection threshold right.

You should see something like this in the log:

[MSG:INFO: Calibration starting in HORIZONTAL orientation mode]
[MSG:INFO: Frame dimensions from kinematics: TR_X4308.900 TL_X: 139.200 TL_Y: 3230.600 BL_Y: 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Frame size: 4169.700 x 3230.600 mm]
[MSG:INFO: Computed grid size: 2084.850 x 646.120 mm]
[MSG:INFO: Automatically selected grid size: 9x9]
[MSG:INFO: Setting z-stop position]
[MSG:INFO: Center coordinates updated in MaslowKinematics: X=2197.631 Y=1647.726]
[MSG:INFO: Unable to determine machine position]
[MSG:INFO: Succeeded]
[MSG:INFO: Orientation detection results:]
[MSG:INFO: TL extension: 49.837 mm]
[MSG:INFO: TR extension: 50.406 mm]
[MSG:INFO: Average extension: 50.121 mm]
[MSG:INFO: Detected VERTICAL orientation (extension > 35.000 mm)]
[MSG:INFO: Orientation set to: VERTICAL (Maslow_vertical=true)]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]

Here we can see that the machine was set to horizontal orientation by default, but it detected that it was actually in vertical mode and switched.

If you are testing this for sure keep a hand on a hardware E-Stop button because if the test gets it wrong it will go off the rails.

firmware.bin (1.9 MB)

545

Stayed on track, best result ever! Serial file for your perusal.

Maslow-serial - 2025-11-07T144007.833.log (35.0 KB)

2 Likes
546

Ran the Find Anchors again, this time with a 9x9 instead of 7x7 (still 2000x1000 Calibration grid). Serial log below

Maslow-serial - 2025-11-07T174150.336.log (57.5 KB)

Incidentally, haven’t had the maslow.yaml read failure again, touch wood.

1 Like
547

Bar wrote:

I can’t give firmware versions names like 1.13.1 anymore so we’ll have to come
up with a new way to distinguish them

you should be able to, git tag v1.13.1 should work just as good as any other
tag.

I was planning to work on the build system in the next couple of days to figure
out why build-release goesn’t produce a clean tagged version.

David Lang

1 Like
548

That is a great call, I have no idea why that didn’t occur to me :joy:

549

Problems with this version:

  1. Setting XY home not working correctly
  2. If I jog 100mm, while the Maslow moves as expected, the XY position is not reflected accurately. I.e The software does not know where the maslow is.
  3. After jogging, the new position is not save to NVS.

Video demonstrates

HomeNotWorking - YouTube

1 Like
550

Woah, that is great feedback. Thanks for calling that out!

551

This is super strange. I wasn’t able to replicate that behavior, are you seeing that every time or was it a one off thing?

Does refreshing the page change anything?

552

It seems to be worse after powering off then resuming (apply tension) and I first noticed it when testing after testing the calibration, but thought I was imagining it, so I decided to try to duplicate it. Now it pretty consistent. I will try starting from a clean start with a retract, extend etc and see if I can identify where it is failing.

1 Like
553

I’ll try to do the same thing and see if I can get it to not work

554

Now I can’t get it to fail. I hate this type of fault.

1 Like
555

Right!? They this kind of issue is the worst. They can be so hard to track down.

I’m not seeing all of the behavior that you were seeing, but I am seeing the purple dot not moving as the machine moves

556

After you run a job, the purple dot moves as expected.
I ran another Configuration to see if that had somehow caused the problem I was seeing - No not that, works as expected still. I guess we can just leave it and see if anyone else has a similar issue or if I get it again I will try to make it replicable.

1 Like
557

I did fix the issue of the purple dot not moving until you open a gcode file so it was still a win!

1 Like
558

If you do find a way to make it replicatable we can fix it …but sometimes finding a way to replicate the issue is 90% of the work.

1 Like
559

It would be nice if the purple dot moved when doing a configuration, nice but not needed.

1 Like
560

Like while finding anchor point locations?

561

yes exactly

1 Like
562

I was just thinking about that too. I think it also might be neat to visualize the points that are on the grid

1 Like
563

Ian Abbott wrote:

Now I can’t get it to fail. I hate this type of fault.

you should see log events every time it is saving your position.

that should happen when it is in state ready to cut and goes idle.

David Lang