Issues while Calibration today - F70.2

Troubleshooting
1

Running into 2 issues today while trying to calibrate on latest firmware 70.2. Vertical Setup

  1. When retract cables during calibration consistently when one of the lower cables are more loose it will stop before becoming fully tensioned. Then the other lower cable will tension and then the first lower cable tensions fully before measurement. Maybe not an issue as all cables are tensioned when measurement is taken but wanted to identify this observation. Always the same cable so I might need to go rebuild that motor arm…

  2. Much Bigger Issue. I am running into an emergency stop condition while calibrating. Red Blinking light as well. Had to reset machine and it happened twice now. Never ran into this issue in previous calibration attempts on earlier firmware versions. See Log below but doesn’t say much on the why.

Also it was really hard to copy logs as it just kept generating the error even when I clicked the Stop Button. Not sure how to make this stop.

Serial Messages
[MSG:INFO: Channel auto report interval set to 50 ms]
[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]
[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]
[MSG:INFO: Caution: Unlocked]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1329.728]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1383.731]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1718.525]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1765.893]
[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]
[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]
[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.226 TR: 0.076 BL: -55.680 BR: 43.082]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 1]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 2]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 3]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 4]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 5]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 6]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 7]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]
[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]

2

Running into 2 issues today while trying to calibrate on latest firmware 70.2. Vertical Setup

  1. When retract cables during calibration consistently when one of the lower cables are more loose it will stop before becoming fully tensioned. Then the other lower cable will tension and then the first lower cable tensions fully before measurement. Maybe not an issue as all cables are tensioned when measurement is taken but wanted to identify this observation. Always the same cable so I might need to go rebuild that motor arm…

did you increase the retraction current? if you did, there is also a setting for
calibration current that needs to be increased to match.

  1. Much Bigger Issue. I am running into an emergency stop condition while calibrating. Red Blinking light as well. Had to reset machine and it happened twice now. Never ran into this issue in previous calibration attempts on earlier firmware versions. See Log below but doesn’t say much on the why.

I think this is probably related to the cable stopping during calibration before
getting tight.

The error is saying that the combination of ‘known’ anchor locations and belt
lengths does not compute (and does not compute significantly), so rather than
trying to move when it knows that things aren’t correct, it’s stopping.

David Lang

3

Yes I upped the retraction current threshold to 1700. I can increase the calibration current as well and see what happens.

Thanks for the insight!

4

Well that didn’t solve the issue unfortunately. Hitting the Emergency Stop error even quicker now. Normally at 1st or 2nd measurement point in calibration even though the tension issue stopped. Hard to get get many observations when it locks up so quickly and requiring a hard reset.

Appreciate any help I can get to solve this. I don’t know where to go from here.

5

This error message comes up when the frame dimensions are off in such a way that the machine would have to “push” a belt instead of pulling for the next move which ends up leading to way too much belt getting spoiled out. I would try measuring the anchor points again and see if new starting values fixes it

1 Like
6

Hey @bar. Not having any luck still. Since last post I have tried the following:

  1. Rebuilt the Motor Arms to loosen that connection on the gears that was highlighted in the newsletter. Improved the current error issues I was previously experiencing while set at 1300.
  2. Upgraded to Firmware 71.1
  3. Remeasured my anchors. There is 2 mm of variation for both height (Left bolts: 1667 mm vs Right bolts: 1665 mm) and for width (top: 2948 mm vs bottom: 2950 mm)
  4. Used the middle value for each in the config: Height: 1666, Width: 2949 mm. Ran the calibration and right after tensing for the first measurement it stops and produces the same Error message: [MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration
  5. Tried again with a smaller grid size then default as I have a shorter frame then the standard one to see if this helped but same result.

I doubt it is related but a question I have is should I be fighting the wing nuts so that the anchor points can’t rotate?

Below are the logs from each attempt.

Serial Messages

[MSG:INFO: Channel auto report interval set to 50 ms]

[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]

[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]

[MSG:INFO: Caution: Unlocked]

[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1497.834]

[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1544.729]

[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1541.369]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1602.285]

[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]

[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -0.032]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -0.054]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -0.075]

[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset 0.000]

[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]

[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]

[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]

[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.140 TR: 0.118 BL: -60.134 BR: 38.183]

[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]

[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]

[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]

[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]

No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.

No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.

Serial Messages

[MSG:INFO: Channel auto report interval set to 50 ms]

[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]

[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]

[MSG:INFO: Caution: Unlocked]

[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1496.664]

[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1545.084]

[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1541.766]

[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1599.719]

[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]

[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]

[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]

[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.105 TR: 0.099 BL: -57.538 BR: 41.208]

[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]

[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]

[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]

[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]

No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.

No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.

7

can you post your maslow.yaml file?

Also, can you measure your diagonal anchor distances?

David Lang

8

Here you go @dlang

Diagonal top left to bottom right: 3435 mm
Diagonal top right to bottom left: 3335 mm
Was not expecting to see a 10 mm difference here. Do I need to modify my frame?

maslow.yaml (5.2 KB)

9

I plugged your measurements into my manual calibration calculator Onshape

image
and get this as the result
image

currently your maslow.yaml has

Maslow_brX: 2949.000000
Maslow_brY: 0.000000
Maslow_tlX: 0.000000
Maslow_tlY: 1666.000000
Maslow_trX: 2949.000000
Maslow_trY: 1666.000000
Maslow_blX: 0.000000
Maslow_blY: 0.000000

I think it’s possible that being off by ~2.5 inches ~60mm) for your tlx location could be an issue.

squaring your frame so your diagonals are closer than the current 100mm from each other (assuming no typo in the numbers you gave me) seems like a good idea

(note, I don’t know if more careful measurements would eliminate the 3mm difference between calculated and measured top left/bottom right diagonals)

If you don’t mind, I’d also like to see what happens if you put the numbers from the manual calibration into your maslow.yaml file (then power cycle the maslow) and see if that lets you move without generating errors (in theory, this replaces the calibration routine, so if it works well, you should not have to calibrate, but it would also be interesting to see what happens if you run calibration after entering these values)

This is all theory work, I don’t know if these numbers mean anything or are showing enough error to matter. This is a chance to test them against a real-world problem :slight_smile:

10

Thanks for the insight and help! I will definitely plug in those values and see what happens before going through the hassle of modifying the frame.

Likely won’t be able to do this until next weekend as this is located at a friend’s place who has graciously let me borrow some shed space.

11

no rush, getting feedback of if this manual process works will be worth a lot,
so THANK YOU for giving it a try.

David Lang

12

None of these things sound like issues and everything that you did is 100% correct.

Absolutely not, your frame doesn’t need to be square at all, the calibration process will take care of that for you.

This is the real issue. This error message happens when the machine is expecting to retract it’s belts but the math is telling it to extend them.

Think for example if the machine is moving from right to left. We would expect to retract the top left and bottom left belts and extend the top right and bottom right belts. If the math is telling us that we need to extend the belts on the left what can end up happening is that the machine spits out way too much belt which can cause issues.

The solution is to tweak the initial guess for the frame size. I would try going a little wider or narrower on the width and height at the start and that should fix it.

13

I have the same issue. Gone through calibration 3 times now and it stops after measuring waypoint 2. and reporting the same thing [MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration].
I’ve also checked my frame size 3000x2040 good to about 5mm. My diagonals are good to about 5mm with them both pretty much 3630mm, pythagoras was right again.
I also had one instance of the belts not fully retracting in the first step, I just naively clicked retract a second time, I think that was my second go, I only realised it might be relevant reading the above.

Update: should also say I’m running the 0.71 firmware

14

So I tried what @bar said and put in slightly oversized/undersized dimensions. The 3x3 calibration completed for the undersized ones (-10mm vert and horiz). unfortunately I got a message at the end to say not to use it ‘FITNESS TOO LOW’ I think that’s me done for the evening :cry:
I’m left wondering if my frame is not rigid enough, or my anchor points have too much wiggle. any tips welcome. I don’t know what to do next.
@NickyD let me know if you make any progress.

[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 8]
CLBM:[{bl:1818.55, br:1823.31, tr:1810.02, tl:1813.01},{bl:1741.47, br:1743.75, tr:1910.92, tl:1921.68},{bl:1563.65, br:1967.85, tr:2048.85, tl:1694.47},{bl:1617.75, br:2035.92, tr:2021.41, tl:1613.06},{bl:1699.11, br:2101.88, tr:1961.62, tl:1537.55},{bl:1887.48, br:1880.90, tr:1742.94, tl:1890.28},{bl:2097.48, br:1692.12, tr:1533.79, tl:1994.79},{bl:2020.10, br:1615.27, tr:1721.20, tl:2007.70},{bl:1960.29, br:1567.13, tr:1769.40, tl:2061.69},]
Computing… This may take several minutesFitness: 0.0479461 in 100
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 200
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 300
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 400
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 500
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 600
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 700
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 800
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 900
Fitness: 0.0479461 in 1000

WARNING FITNESS TOO LOW. DO NOT USE THESE CALIBRATION VALUES!

1 Like
15

This is 100% OK to do, you can click it as many times as you want and nothing bad will happen

Normally I would say just run it again it will improve on the results from last time, but 0.04 is really really low. I still think that running it again is the way to go, I’m just not entirely sure what went wrong. It could be something like you mentioned with the anchor points moving, but I would run it again to be sure it’s a reoccurring thing before worrying about that

16

thanks for getting back to me. when you say run it again do you mean retract the belts and everything or run calibrate again from the current position? I tried ‘calibrate’ from where it was and it did a 5x5 fairly neatly, but nothing came up in the dialog in terms of positions or calibration values. only new thing printed was another ‘warning the fitness too low’

17

I think that you might have to start fully fresh with restarting it and retracting everything. That’s on my todo list, but I think that there might be a bug still with starting a new calibration right after finishing an old one

18

Matthew,

I just put your CLBM values in an Excel spreadsheet and used Solver to find a solution. It usually does a really good job in finding a solution but this time the results were similar to the ones the Maslow gave you:

Start Excel
Maslow_tlX 0 -51.50
Maslow_tlY 1666 2,219.32
Maslow_trX 2949 2,628.37
Maslow_trY 1666 2,504.25
Maslow_blX 0 0
Maslow_blY 0 0
Maslow_brX 2949 2,846.34
Maslow_brY 0 0
SSE = 1,741,348.1 25,852.1
Avg. Dist = 322.05 30.52
Max Dist = 573.38 119.43
‘Fitness’ = 0.0031 0.0328

It may be that Excel Solver failed to find a solution, but I think there is a good chance that there is a problem with your frame setup or the Maslow itself. The errors I’m getting are huge, though, on the order of an average of 30mm from the centroid of each set of points, so maybe there is an issue with the Maslow.

When you retract the belts all the way, what kind of error do you get? The only results I saw in what you posted was I think the first retraction with huge offsets.

1 Like
19

Bar wrote:

Absolutely not, your frame doesn’t need to be square at all, the calibration process will take care of that for you.

This is the real issue. This error message happens when the machine is expecting to retract it’s belts but the math is telling it to extend them.

Think for example if the machine is moving from right to left. We would expect
to retract the top left and bottom left belts and extend the top right and
bottom right belts. If the math is telling us that we need to extend the belts
on the left what can end up happening is that the machine spits out way too
much belt which can cause issues.

The solution is to tweak the initial guess for the frame size. I would try going a little wider or narrower on the width and height at the start and that should fix it.

@bar the numbers he posted were 100mm off rather than the 10mm he was saying.

how far off can the anchors be before the alarm triggers? Is it just extend vs
retract? if so, a different initial frame size guess will address it (with the
frame warped like this so that there is a 100mm difference between the
diagonals, you can be in the situation where two need to be noticably shorter
than expected and two significantly longer and the guess is right in between

David Lang

1 Like
20

I would expect 100mm to still work. The frame can be entirely not square in any way, but then you would want to go into the configurations settings and enter XY guesses for each anchor point instead of setting the width and height

1 Like