I’ve using a 4’x8’ frame, and can’t get it to calibrate even for small work areas (like 2’x3’)
When I first got it I could at least run calibration if I babysat the cables all the time to make sure they didn’t get spunout too much and then chewed up. But the calibration values would never actually run well, no matter the fitness.
I gave up and waited a few versions for a more reliable calibration process. It’s even worse now. It’ll randomly spit out a ton of belt. I need to set the initial measurements to within 1 cm to get it to run. It often errors out in the middle of calibration, and if calibration does finish, the fitness is very low.
It seems like anyone trying to get calibration to work on a smaller frame is in for a world of frustration right now? If it’ll only calibrate successfully on 10’ x 8’ frames, I’ll get the stuff and build a larger frame in my garage. Or If it’s a known issue that’s preventing smaller frames from working, I’ll just hold off trying until that’s fixed.
we don’t have a lot of knowledge about how badly things are hurt when you go
outside of the green area, your milage may vary.
When I first got it I could at least run calibration if I babysat the cables all the time to make sure they didn’t get spunout too much and then chewed up. But the calibration values would never actually run well, no matter the fitness.
I gave up and waited a few versions for a more reliable calibration process. It’s even worse now. It’ll randomly spit out a ton of belt. I need to set the initial measurements to within 1 cm to get it to run. It often errors out in the middle of calibration, and if calibration does finish, the fitness is very low.
are you set to horizontal or vertial? (it should be horizontal if you are flat
on the floor, vertical if you have angled against a wall)
if you have it hanging, but set it to horizontal, it will feed out a lot of
cable and drop down.
try setting your calibration to remain in to remain in the green area
I tried both vertical and horizontal, and was getting errors with it quitting midway in vertical. Horizontal didn’t fix it, but also caused the “too much cabal” problems too.
I’ll try a smaller calibration area and vertical and see what happens.
When “babysitting” the belts to avoid having too much slack in the first few moves, is it possible to pull the cables too quickly?
It’s tracking the position of everything with the spinning magnetic encoders, is it possible to pull out the slack too quickly and mess up the position? I feel like maybe that was an issue when horizontal because there were a lot of times when I was surprised by some sudden slack and pulled it out quickly.
When “babysitting” the belts to avoid having too much slack in the first few moves, is it possible to pull the cables too quickly?
It’s tracking the position of everything with the spinning magnetic encoders,
is it possible to pull out the slack too quickly and mess up the position? I
feel like maybe that was an issue when horizontal because there were a lot of
times when I was surprised by some sudden slack and pulled it out quickly.
In theory, as long as the belt doesn’t tangle, it shouldn’t matter. before every
measurement it pulls every belt tight. just make sure that when it does so, the
belt isn’t catching on something that keeps it from being straight.
I wonder if your issues are similar to mine. I’m using a 5’x10’ utility trailer as my frame, I initially spaced my anchor points as far away as I could, then realized that made my usable area really “short” near the center. I adjusted my anchors, my “frame” is now roughly 1900mmx1420mm, which should give me a roughly 1000mmx600mm working area, so I set my calibration area to 800mmx400mm. I’ve run multiple calibrations that were seemingly successful, but if I try to jog around the work area after calibration, I end up with multiple slack belts. If I jog too far, I end up with tangled belts that require disassembly to respool.
Can you try running it vertical or is there not space to do that? I just lifted my frame and leaves leaned it against a wall.
Also, I used less calibration points because that gives less times when something can get tangled, and with a smaller work area it seems like it should be fine.
Also, are you taking up slack at all while babysitting? The only time I got a successful calibration I didn’t touch anything, and was just ready to stop it if it was about to get tangled.
I haven’t done much testing with a smaller size frame, but it is something that we want to support so I can put it on my todo list to investigate. It’s entirely possible that the current system doesn’t work well on a smaller frame
i have a 4 x 8 top that I added removable ears on the corners which gives me 6 inches more on each corner for a total of 5 x 9 and calibration with ver 70 went well. I used a grid of 6’ (1828mm) by 3’ (914mm) in the config. this whole worktable folds up against the wall and takes up about 12".
For the most part, I haven’t had trouble calibrating, it’s just that after calibration I can’t move around without it spooling out excess belt and getting tangled. Were you able to jog the M4 around after your successful calibration?
I haven’t really had to babysit it at all while calibrating, the first set of points it tends to spool out more than needed, but not enough that I’m concerned about it getting tangled. After the first 3x3 calculation, it seems much better at managing the slack, at that point I usually just let it run unattended while I watch it on camera from the shop. When I get a chance I’ll upload a video of the 3x3 calibration.
I’ve considered trying a vertical orientation, but it would be a bit of work…my “frame” is a 5x10 utility trailer. I have anchors attached to the floor of the trailer in a 75x56" rectangle, that seemed to give me the best working area. I could test vertical portrait fairly easily just by lifting the front end of the trailer, but I saw some threads where people had issues with portrait orientation frames. Landscape vertical would be more difficult, I’d have to block one side of the trailer and lift the other.
I had the issue with it spooling out to much slack, even after a successful calibration. But that was a couple versions back.
I haven’t had that issue this week, but I changed a bunch of stuff at the same time. I suspected it had to do with my anchor points flexing or the angle of the belts? I switched to the 3d printed anchors with pins. I don’t know if that did anything, but at least it’s a standard setup others have used.
Hi all! I haven’t had this particular issue before but do have a smaller (similar to those discussed in this post) work area set up for my Maslow4 and saw some issues jogging with lots of unspooling and/or slack in the belts. This lead to no movement or big jumps of movement while jogging around.
To recap what I saw today:
First attempt (shape is a squiggly edged rectangle about 12" long and 5" tall to be cut in about 4 or 5 passes) completed 1.25 passes then lost connection w my laptop. Turned off and back on.
Second attempt made it to the 3rd pass but then the wood slipped under the sled because up until then it hadn’t been an issue with the little bit I’ve been able to use it and didn’t have the wood secured in any way. I had to shut off power to the system to prevent it from spoiling the board where I’d started the cut.
After this I was never able to continue cutting today because of the initially mentioned issue where this time and for the next two or three power cycles (which I had attempted to see if it would fix things) I couldn’t jog accurately and saw a lot of unspooling and slack in the cables.
Note: every power cycle, the retract all, extend all, and ally tension steps went smoothly and my calibration was always determined valid.
So my question is if there has been any chance to test on a smaller frame yet and/or if there is forum chatter to suggest this is indeed an issue at a smaller frame size only? I’m curious if I should wait for my Maslow4.1 kit to arrive or if I should focus on a bigger frame or if maybe there is something else I’m missing because the forms are proof it’s definitely working well for some folks!!
Here’s my older post re: my setup
Image attached, with computer moved closer to get the screen in the same image, to show a slack belt while jogging around.
I got a good calibration after trying a few things. Switching to a larger “standard sized” frame helped, but it took a couple more software updates after this until it was calibrating reliably.
I didn’t save it when it happened, but is there a way to look it up/ is it printed to the text field during startup? If not I can do a new calibration and send the details later tonight probably.
