Is the “Stop” button supposed to do something more than show “stop maslow and gcode” in the log?
After pressing play; the stop button doesn’t seem to stop anything… only the pause button seemed to work.
Is there a help file somewhere that explains more about each button and feature?
It is supposed to stop the Maslow from moving but is not reliable. Even when it works it still completes any commands in the system before quitting. The only reliable way of stopping the Maslow if it is not doing what you expect is to power it off, which means you have to do the Retract, Extend, Apply Tension. If you were cutting it will also need you to reset the Z home value as this will be lost. I use a power cutoff switch similar to the one available on table saws.
@ian_ab is there a way to cancel an in-progress cut without losing all these values? For my case I’d be ok if it kept running the existing G-code command before stopping, I just need it to save belt lengths so I can restart the cut with a new Z-home or otherwise adjust small stuff.
Thank you.
I don’t know how to cancel a job once it has started without powering off. If you need to cancel a job, it’s usually because something has gone wrong. Having said that, the Maslow retains your XY Home settings across restarts (as well as the Z home if shutdown sanely), so you can restart a job and it should follow the same path. It is also possible to manually edit the cutting file to skip parts which have been completed (edit file externally with a text editor and reload into Maslow with a new name). Some of the initial commands are essential and must be retained in the modified file. A simulator program such as CAMotics is useful for this.
Open-Source Simulation & Computer Aided Machining
Version 1.2.0
Copyright © 2011-2019, Joseph Coffland
I like the simulator idea. What qualifies as a sane shutdown? I’ve just been unplug/replugging it to restart it.
That’s what the stop button should do.
FluidNC has an internal buffer of gcode commands which is used for acceleration planning and so after you press stop the machine will continue executing the commands in the buffer before stopping.
Once it stops the machine should be back to the same state as before the file was run so you can move it around with the jog buttons and start the file again with the play button if you want
Seems like the stop button should delete plans in the buffer and stop. Is the whole gcode job in the buffer or just the first path? Maybe relabel “Stop after finishing jobs currently in buffer” 
Just when it’s in the ready to cut state and not running a job, it will record current values to non-volatile memory, allowing it to re-establish position when power is restored.
Appreciate the replies! Sounds to me like in my impatience I likely pressed stop, didn’t wait, pressed some combination of stop and pause while the machine was finishing up buffered commands, and somehow crashed things in the process.
I was able to get a cut done once I set the Z-home properly! Board ended up sliding so got some setup work to do, but should be in business!
From the FluidNC Wiki perhaps you could implement “Feed Hold” functionality instead of stop.
E Stop Buttons | Wiki.js .
Dano
We do use feed hold, but that is what the pause button does 
Does it actually pause/stop faster than the stop button? If so maybe swap gui location of pause to be more prominent.
Dano
The pause button should be pretty much instant but it doesn’t power down the motors so it’s not ideal for leaving for a long time.
Could / should the STOP button do a pause (feed hold), then a stop?
Would this generate a behaviour more like an average user would expect?
A
