I’m looking for ideas to make this thing able to complete one cut job. I have been trying to cut the stool from the community garden. I have had horrible trouble getting this thing to stay connected.
I’m just gonna list the things I’ve tried so far:
Used the Maslow internal network
Was able to calibrate this way with 20-30 attempts had to start with 500x500 / 3x3 and work up slowly with many many failed calibrations at totally random points in the calibration process.
Used my Home network - no changes
Had a hard time getting the belts to retract extend and then tighten, I would extend and by the time I got the machine rehung I was getting timeout errors and had to start over.
Used my home Wi-Fi - changed the priority of the device to high, locked it to 2.4 band, isolated it to a specific access point that was moved into this room just for this,
With this config I’m able to setup ok and start cutting but I have not gotten farther then cutting out 1/2 of the stool.
The last attempt was starting on leg #4 and the Maslow lost contact and just kept cutting right across the whole board! I have a number of cnc machines and this is the first time with any of them I have ever seen a cnc machine continue a cut like this! Not one I will start and walk away from anytime soon after this.
I have a cnc router that I built that also uses fluid cnc and I do not remember having these kinds of connection issues with it but it’s been a while since I have used it.
So is there something I can do to improve network stability?: Can I add an external antenna to your board, change the channel / tweak the band? do you know of or can you think of anything I can to improve this?
I have been using the same laptop so far, my next test will be with my other laptop (ASUS vs IBM) then I was planning to try an external Wi-Fi adapter on either/both laptops. Can I switch over to USB directly and test via that?
I have some pi 5’s sitting here can I setup one of those as the controller and USB connect it to Maslow? I’m open to all ideas here I have all kinds of hardware here to test with.
I have not grabbed the code and looked at it at all yet, but can you let me know is the communication Maslow code are you getting that from FluidNC?
I will try and add come pics of the runaway cut here in a few but figured I’d get started with all my questions first. If you want details on my home network let me know and I will go more detail but it’s big and complicated, but I’m able to move 100+gb databases all around in seconds, all the access points are wired with a 2.5gb backbone and I have a 2gb fiber feed. I’m using Tp-Link Deca routers/AP’s I’m up to 6 now I think with Wi-Fi 2.4/5/6e all active currently. However, I have the laptop and Maslow connecting to a dedicated 2.4 network and Deca at present.
I just fail to see how it has anything to do with my network when the Maslow private network is even worse! Seems like I need more power or a better antenna on the board~
I’m love the idea here just need to make it alot more reliable!
The last attempt was starting on leg #4 and the Maslow lost contact and just
kept cutting right across the whole board! I have a number of cnc machines and
this is the first time with any of them I have ever seen a cnc machine
continue a cut like this! Not one I will start and walk away from anytime soon
after this.
we don’t know why this is happening. I would guess that the main proccessing
loop is locking up and the machine is continuing on the motor settings that it
last had
I have a cnc router that I built that also uses fluid cnc and I do not
remember having these kinds of connection issues with it but it’s been a while
since I have used it.
this is part of the reason we are so puzzled. One big difference is that instead
of steppers that only move when they get a signal, we have pid loops that work
to maintain velocity until their targets change
So is there something I can do to improve network stability?: Can I add an
external antenna to your board, change the channel / tweak the band? do you
know of or can you think of anything I can to improve this?
I think you would have to swap out the ESP32 module, the one in use doesn’t have
an antenna connection.
I have been using the same laptop so far, my next test will be with my other
laptop (ASUS vs IBM) then I was planning to try an external Wi-Fi adapter on
either/both laptops. Can I switch over to USB directly and test via that?
in theory, yes, you should be able to use universal gcode sender or equivalent,
and it did work at one point, people are trying this and reporting issues.
I have not grabbed the code and looked at it at all yet, but can you let me know is the communication Maslow code are you getting that from FluidNC?
So can I buy another controller board to experiment with Antenna changes? I don’t want to mess up my only board, sometimes these antenna adds go bad. I have a ton of antennas I can steal from my drones to do some testing with.
So can I buy another controller board to experiment with Antenna changes? I
don’t want to mess up my only board, sometimes these antenna adds go bad. I
have a ton of antennas I can steal from my drones to do some testing with.
they have been waiting for more boards to arrive so that they can ship the rest
of the orders, but after that they will be up for sale as replacement parts.
I suspect that @bar will be willing to send you one for free for testing (and
may have some that have other known issues that he can send you now and you can
fix enough to use)
I would suggest emailing Anna and asking about options (recognizing that they
may be busy packing and shipping for a week or so)
Few reasons could cause lock up, could be related to sdcard damage from EMI interference, instable voltage and ground bounce on the ESP32, voltage anomalies due to the electrostatic charge from ungrounded vacume hoses, etc.
Voltage confirmation - anyone have a datalogging digial oscilloscope would be great to run some lines and datalog their cut attempts. We should validate that we have stable voltage all through the panics and maybe we see there are anomaly issues that correlate to job failure.
While it might be the network, it might also be a segfault (error) in the firmware that is causing this. I have had the same happen to me and I’ve been wracking my brain in this new ( to me ) environment to try to capture more data of what is happening on these kinds of failures so we can fix them. The way I understand it, and I am by no means an expert, the machine, once it is cutting should NOT need anything connected to it to continue, so I’m personally doubting that particular thing is the network, but rather that the software got into a bad state (causing the disconnect and also the bad movement).
I’ll work on getting the schematics posted ASAP. You are right that they are missing.
@SymeKutz DM me your address and we’ll send you another board to experiment with. I would love to learn how to make it more reliable in that environment. I’d even be open to doing a version with an external antenna if that seems to make a difference.