Newbie calibration & setup help

Watthedog · January 2, 2021, 2:41am

Greetings all. First post here.

I have recently finished setting up my Maker Made M2 Kit. It was quite the bumpy process and I there are a few unknowns. Summary so far:

Using “The Default Frame”, not the stud mount version they supply brackets for with the kit.
Using the Makerverse software linked off their site here
I was able to get everything functioning last night and begin the calibration procedure. I set home correctly. I can move the machine away from it and ask it to return home and it does so consistently.

When testing X calibration, it moves in the Y direction also. Not a little bit, a lot. I told it to move 24" and it moved probably 4-5" in Y. Moving strictly in Y does not result in any X movement (starting from home/center). I did some searching and the suggestions I saw were that chain lengths were uneven. I checked mine in the home position and I have the exact same # of links from the bearing carrier to the first link engaged on the motor sprocket (133). What do I check next?

Probably not related, but you never know: My Y+ and Y- seem to be inverted in Makerverse. Is this something to be alarmed about? I imagine there is a setting to just flip these and I haven’t found it yet.

Possibly related - how do I correctly setup the chain length/spring tension? The instructions are super unclear about this (among other things lol).

The calibration asks to measure motor offset - how are you guys measuring this accurately? I can’t imagine using a tape measure to do this results in CNC-level accuracy?

Similarly - how are people accurately calibrating the machine? The videos/instructions I have seen seem to suggest calibrating over a span of only approx. 12". Wouldn’t that error be magnified by a factor of 8 across the entire width of the cutting area?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Orob · January 2, 2021, 5:57pm

if you are getting y movement during the x horizonal move, then the position of your center isn’t well understood by the system. It likely has the wrong number between the motors. If it knows the chain length (each link is 1/4"), then it knows 2 sides of the triangle. You can remeasure that (in mm) and set $83=xxxx if using makerverse 1.0.6 or redo the calibration if using 1.1.2

Watthedog · January 5, 2021, 2:23am

I agree. Its a simple triangle

I just double checked the calibration. I have a 120" top beam and I am measuring 119.625" between motors @ the 8 o’clock position. Starting from the home position I moved 24" in the X and it moved 4.5" in Y as well.

Where do I look next?

Orob · January 5, 2021, 3:06am

Offset is the y distance from the top of your spoil board to the plane of the motor shaft center. Is that number correct?

Watthedog · January 5, 2021, 3:09am

Yes, I verified that number as well.

Orob · January 5, 2021, 3:57am

If your beam is parallel to your spoil board and the home position is dead center of your spoil board… (machine home) not offset because you want to cut in a different location (x or y axis zeroed; both level) with the board at 15 degrees from vertical), then I don’t know what else to have you look at other than to move to 1.1.2 and do the precision calibration.

Watthedog · January 5, 2021, 4:11am

Ugh. Ok, I’ll give that a shot.

Is there a guide to move to 1.1.2? I think I read somewhere that I need to upgrade firmware to make that happen?

Thanks.

Orob · January 5, 2021, 1:52pm

the wiki entry for makerverse basics has instructions and a link to a video.

Watthedog · January 7, 2021, 4:31am

Thanks, I’m about to go through this. I found a video where you walk through the Due firmware update and just FYI, the verification step using the Serial monitor is blocked by another youtube video link:

Watthedog · January 7, 2021, 5:03am

Ok, updated to latest firmware and latest version of Makerspace. I did the initial settings in the calibration, but haven’t done the part where you pin the chains together or measure the 6 hole -edge distances. Hope to give that a shot tomorrow.

Still, with the correct motor distance and offset input into the software, I’m still getting significant Y-axis movement when I tell it to move in the X axis.

Orob · January 7, 2021, 1:48pm

You see if it says grbl version ??? That you just flashed at the expected baud rate. I’ll have the other video links removed. - ended up moving the links to the right so you can see that part.

Watthedog · January 7, 2021, 5:05pm

Yeah, I did verify that, I noticed its spelled out in the instructions on Github. Thanks.

Watthedog · January 14, 2021, 3:07am

Ok, I think I may be making some progress here. I had to take a break for a bit and now I am trying to approach this as I would any other engineering problem.

My motors were backwards. That explains the inverted Y. Seems to be able to move X without Y drift now. I could see how this would explain the vertical drift if the motors were attempting to compensate for the sled weight in the wrong direction.

I am doing the 1.1.2 Calibration. I must say… not user friendly! 10 steps forward, 9 steps back, but I’m getting there

Thanks for the help so far.

Watthedog · January 14, 2021, 3:17am

Well, this is not promising:

I don’t understand. Totally unexpected. I thought it would have been pretty close. Most of my edge distances were only like 0.020" off the target. I had one that was 0.25" on the bottom left.

Watthedog · January 14, 2021, 3:30am

Thats better (I changed nothing):