Gosh, an imsai 8080 with a hard drive. Extra points if you get GC running on it.
Spent a couple years writing communications handlers for ATMs and EFT in the early 80s, using an HP PSI (programmable serial interface) Z80/SIO card that plugged into their 2100 minis. UV EPROMS, in circuit emulator, and lots if midnight oil. I was their only assembler programmer, had to write the mini’s device drivers too. Did you know the characters after the DLEs are not included in ASCII bisync CRCs with real IBM devices but other vendors often screwed that one up?
I made an IBM AS400 do foreign translation in a way IBM asked me to explain how it worked. So I do remember that it did weird stuff with non display characters. I basically passed data thorough a pc acting as a terminal and had the PC and AS400 working in conjunction on the same data before it had been done. IBM was under the impression the terminal emulator was isolated. Ah the old days…
Moose, you consistently remind me of my dad. Please take that as a great compliment!
In the 80’s (before I was born) he and 2 other guys were hand tracing and etching circuits in our basement and building some seriously cutting edge computers in what would now be called a technology startup…
I was using a Callan BSD 68K system around that time, a commercial equivalent. It was built into a terminal. I’m not sure if it coexisted with, or preceeded, the similar (ducks) Sun 3.
Almost bought one of those early 8080 boxes, but after long hours on the job it seemed too much like work
I found a little trick to keep the chains from wrapping around the sprocket. I take the chain pins and put a small closed end wrench on it and put it on the first link at the sprocket. The extra weight keeps the chain from wrapping around the sprocket.
Going back to the original post, I’ve made a number of changes to the calibration process including adding separate buttons to extend each chain each with a five second delay and count down, I’ve added two buttons to choose the kinematics type, and I’ve added a slider during the triangular calibration process (a separate issue someone raised)
The changes are available now if you are using version 0.99 directly from the source code, or they will be a part of the official release of 0.99 next Wednesday. Thank you again so much for all of the suggestions. The feedback on how to make the process better is absolutely invaluable. If when you try the updated system you see more things which could be improved, please please let me know!
Hi,
Were you able to figure out how to get this chain calibration message resolved? I am having the same exact error message. I’m running Windows 10 with GCv1.02.
I went through the chain calibration 5 times and tried manual calibration about 4 times, but about 30 seconds after it says calibration complete I get the please calibrate chain lengths message.
Hi @rv9man, did you try FW/GC1.03?
It’s a good choice to be always with the latest. Lots of things fixed every time.
Next release Wednesday/Thursday I think.
Edit: Had to edit the Wednesday as it depends where on this glob you are.
@Gero’s advice about using the current versions is good. Also, re-name or move the settings file groundcontrol.ini which lives in your home folder. GroundControl will create a new one with default values, not a bad place to start calibrating from when having trouble
what are the machine measurements that you end up with at the end of the
calibration?
the ‘please calibrate chain lengths’ message comes up when the machine cannot
figure out where it is based on the chain lengths it thinks it has. This should
not be happening unless some of the dimensions that it has are wonky
If you can attach the GroundControl.ini file or even a screenshot of your settings it could help us figure out what is going on also. My bet is that for some reason one of the machine dimensions is wrong (for example a negative distance between the motors) and that the system is struggling to solve for it’s position given that information.
Welcome aboard @rv9man… we’ll help you get through this. To help us, can you tell us about your setup? Is this a temp frame, are you using a linkage kit and if so, which one. Is everything standard or do you have some substitute parts. I’m sure we are all currently assuming that its a stock design with stock parts but if there’s something different, knowing will help us help you.
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the ideas. I am finally back in town and hope to get a chance to work on the CNC tomorrow. I deleted all of my previous GC stuff off my computer and downloaded v1.03. Will start from there and I will take pics of any error messages that come up during the calibration phase tomorrow. Thanks again for all the support and help! It is much appreciated! Mike
I downloaded the latest firmware and GC v1.03 and calibration went well! Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions… much appreciated! Now it’s time to start building some cool stuff!!!
