Just a heads up: latest firmware v0.88 did not work as expected for calibrating a horizontal frame (concrete floor in this case). I could tell it was trying, but something is going wrong with the ‘slack’ belts during the initial 3x3 configuration (excerpt below)
Reverting to v0.87, fixed the issue. Since I know my actual frame dimensions (3900 x 4700) I didn’t need the frame dimension estimation feature of v.088. Using v0.87 and the video guide below, appears to be working (its calibrating now, as I write this)
Per another thread, try starting out with a fresh yaml file. I had to wipe mine to get 0.88 to work, and this helped another user as well. I think there’s a bug with how the yaml files are handled sometimes.
Are you horizontal or vertical w the M4?
If horizontal, try 0.87, that worked as expected for me. Just make sure you know your frame dims pretty close to actual.
Or, try the fresh .yaml with .088?
Im horizontal. I did the set up on concrete 12 x 8. Ill try to install .87. Im about to give up on this. I ended up using my shaper origin for this job. I
Took down my M2 thinking the m4 was goind to be a breeze.
What I found with V88, it started looking worse than the older versions and then improved as it processed and ended with the best measurement of all the calibration runs I have done.
Hi. Did install .87 and it won’t extend to the values i input. For some reasons looks like it needs to extent another’s 12 inch or so.
When I rebooot the machine width changes to 2924.300 x 2066.500 even though i enter 3657 x 2438. I keep saving and it doesn’t seem to save and record these measurements.
I have been messing with this for too long. Iver a week.
I think im done with this. It gets worse and worse. Did a clean start. Installed v88 again. Uploaded all the files and went ahead to calibrate and it just a mess all the way around. Belts are not retracting properly for calibration. Is this a notmal thing to go through.
It got worse than v87
Sorry to see that. Did it keep unspooling until it started winding the belt backwards? How far did it get before this happened. Unfortunately, you can’t let it run unsupervised. Which version of M4 are you running 4 (with ethernet cables) or 4.1 with the upgraded control board?
Not sure if i should start a new thread or follow this one. I am also having issues with v0.88 in the horizontal mode.
So I have been trying to get my Kickstarter M4 up and running. Life got crazy shortly after I got it and am now just getting to it. I installed Firmware v0.88 and am having a lot of the issues that a lot of other people seem to be having. So many issues with the belts not tensioning correctly and unspooling themselves. It is almost like sometimes it forgets which way to turn the belts. I had the lower two both fully unspool and re-spool backwards in the calibration sequence. Being I am pretty new to this i wasn’t sure if this was normal or not. It took me a few hours to get them untangled and re-spooled.
I am also having an issue with the bottom right belt almost never fully retracting. It usually seems to have about a 12"-30" left sticking out. I have to hit retract maybe 30-40 times, each time it pulls it in an inch or two.
One other weird thing is after spending 12+ hours fighting with it I finally got it to calibrate and was able to run a small project. I did notice the top right motor body moves where as the others don’t. The bottom is obviously screwed in but the top of the motor spins slightly. Its like the motor is not fully assembled or something. The top and bottom half are not fully rigid.
Any suggestions for getting the bottom right to fully retract every time?
How about the motor moving?
Why do the belts sometimes go backward? I now know I should stop it before it gets to far, but all of the initial calibration seems to loosen the belts so much before it starts moving that they are getting themselves tangled up some. It will pull tight, then loosen two bels so much and pull the other belts tight and move a little, then loosen those belts way up and pull on the other two…
This sounds like the little magnets are not glued in properly and/or are not positioned immediately above the little hall effect sensor chip.
And this one is probably one of 3 things:
Idler gear jamming on its spindle. Probably not your problem because it’s usually caused by fine dust getting in there.
Belt spool sticking as it goes around in the arms. Possible problem, although again more probably caused by too much dust getting in there.
Drive gear and idler gear engaging too hard. Most likely cause for you. With the arm partially assembled (or disassembled) you should be able to get be able to get the idler gear up and out from the drive gear and insert it back in again without any real force. If you can’t then loosening the screws that hold the motor in place and pushing it towards where the belt comes in and out on the arm should make just enough room. If you’ve used the locktite to hold those screws in then they may not want to come out. Please have a search through the forum for the answers to that one, usually involves using a torx nut driver…
Not sure if i should start a new thread or follow this one. I am also having issues with v0.88 in the horizontal mode.
So I have been trying to get my Kickstarter M4 up and running.
I assume this is the 4.0 kickstarter, not the very recent 4.1 kickstarter.
Life got crazy shortly after I got it and am now just getting to it. I
installed Firmware v0.88 and am having a lot of the issues that a lot of other
people seem to be having. So many issues with the belts not tensioning
correctly and unspooling themselves. It is almost like sometimes it forgets
which way to turn the belts. I had the lower two both fully unspool and
re-spool backwards in the calibration sequence. Being I am pretty new to this
i wasn’t sure if this was normal or not. It took me a few hours to get them
untangled and re-spooled.
the 4.0 electronics have a bug that a pin on the encoder is not grounded like it
should be, that causes the encoders to read backwards. There is a manual fix to
put a solder blob on the encoder between one pin and the cap next to it.
However, most of the time, arm reliability problems are that the magnets are not
in the right place, ot not glued solidly enough
I am also having an issue with the bottom right belt almost never fully
retracting. It usually seems to have about a 12"-30" left sticking out. I
have to hit retract maybe 30-40 times, each time it pulls it in an inch or
two.
take the arm apart, check how tight the motor is against the idler, shift the
motor away from the idler to make it move better.
One other weird thing is after spending 12+ hours fighting with it I finally
got it to calibrate and was able to run a small project. I did notice the top
right motor body moves where as the others don’t. The bottom is obviously
screwed in but the top of the motor spins slightly. Its like the motor is not
fully assembled or something. The top and bottom half are not fully rigid.
we have had one other report of the screws holding the motor together being
loose.
Hi. Im using 4.0 with ethernet cables. Is 4.0 just not reliable at all? I did order 4.1 upgrade and i guess they are being shipped. Should i just stop messing with this thing until i get the 4.1 upgrade?
Im recalibrating one more time.i calibrated last night again. I decrese the values to extend belts and seems like when i move it to the left or right the belts dont tension correctly
Thank you all for the info. I did order the 4.1 upgrade kit so with so many things requiring taking it apart I will probably just wait for that and do it all at one time.
I will definitely pay attention to all those sticking points though when I put it back together!
Hi. Im using 4.0 with ethernet cables. Is 4.0 just not reliable at all? I did
order 4.1 upgrade and i guess they are being shipped. Should i just stop
messing with this thing until i get the 4.1 upgrade?
if you haven’t used hot glue to anchor the ethernet cables in place and keep the
dust out, those connections are unreliable.
The ethernet connected encoders also have problems with static electricity
(which can build up due to dust collection
past that, it seems like software issues.
Im recalibrating one more time.i calibrated last night again. I decrese the values to extend belts and seems like when i move it to the left or right the belts dont tension correctly
what fitness score did you get from the calibration?
Thank you all for the info. I did order the 4.1 upgrade kit so with so many things requiring taking it apart I will probably just wait for that and do it all at one time.
I will definitely pay attention to all those sticking points though when I put it back together!
The 4.1 arms are made of a slipperier plastic
don’t have the risk of the nut heads hitting the spools
put bearings on the idler
give more space between the idler and the motor
have a much better belt guard to keep the belt out of the gears
properly ground the direction pin on the encoder
use a more reliable connector than the ethernet jack for the encoders
many small improvements that SHOULD make the arms more reliable
Hi. After many many many calibrations i did one cut. Im re calibrating again. The cut i did is off by a quarter of an inch or so. Im trying to upload a video but its too heavy. Will upload shortly
