I saw the error message and the continuous blinking _ and assumed it didn’t install. I tested it last night and it seemed to be there. I found that my Ipad connected more consistently than my shop PC. So this afternoon I brought it back to my shop and after a few attempts(an error about a corrupted YAML file) I got it into calibration mode. I was soo excited!! It then proceeded to chew up multiple belts and lock up as a tangled mess. ( It had originally calibrated correctly, so I know I built it correctly. )
I have a high threshold for IT pain but this is bordering on masochism or sadism depending on how you look at it. I am very disappointed that I wasted an enormous amount of time (and $500) with nothing to show. I understand the concept of Kickstarter but expected something that would eventually work.
I can’t sell it in good conscience but at least the Dewalt router works.
We’re doing our best to move away from robotics kit and towards something which arrives fully assembled and is easier to use, but there is still a lot of work to be done. If you have any advice for specific issues or ideas for how to make things better I’m all ears.
Bar, How else should I feel? I just hit calibrate it seemed to to start correctly, and then excess belt were spooled off and then retracted. The result is a huge tangled mess of mangled belts. This is after endless hours of troubleshooting.
Did I do something wrong? If I ordered replacement belts and took it all apart, and reassembled, why should I expect it will work?
Have these issues been addressed in 4.1? I would be happy to ship it back to you for a diagnosis or parts. Would you credit me towards a new unit?
I really want you to succeed, it’s an ingenious product.
No, you are entirely right. The machine should be designed so that can’t happen. There should be no possible combination of buttons which can cause the machine to do what you are seeing.
To some extent hopefully. The new belt guards should do a much better job of keeping the belts out of the gears.
I’m happy to send you a free upgrade kit once we get them in stock in our store. We’re waiting for the parts to ship from the factory now.
Fundamentally there is still something going wrong, and I have truly no idea what it is. Videos, pictures, screen shots, logs all make a HUGE difference in solving issues like this. Without being able to see your setup I’m pretty much guessing blindly about what is going on
I wonder if a troubleshooting form or a template of basic info on someone’s setup would help. Starting out with some standard info would probably save a lot of time in this forum.
Jumping off this idea, I wonder, @bar, if we could get a Maslow 4 COMMUNITY POLL going to create a database of setups and if they are working or not.
It would be interesting to see what % are working well and even more interesting to look for correlations and patterns to see if certain setups work better than others (SW version, frame size, horizontal vs vertical, type of anchor, etc.).
I’d offer to set one up but IDK all the best, most relevant questions nor how best to define “working well” to drive a fairly objective answer for that one… I also dunno if these forums have a way to do a poll and create a database or if something else (google sheets for example) would have to be used but it might be worth finding a way to set something like this up!
Note that we would want to be careful to set up questions intelligently (like when to use categorical data vs continuous data) to best set up the back end data analysis.
This is sort of like when you asked for feedback about the anchor flexing value in a recent update, but bigger.
@MattD There would probably be a strong bias toward machines that aren’t functioning well since that demographic likely spends more time here in the forums
The intent I had of asking users to fill out a support “ticket” of info would be to help reduce Bar’s time in here answering questions and should speed up the troubleshooting process.
Maslow version (if M4, ethernet or JST):
Frame setup (vertical, horizontal, construction method):
Frame dimensions:
How far in the setup process have you made it? (place an X in the brackets)
a. Machine assembly [ ]
b. Frame assembly [ ]
c. Computer connection [ ]
e. Software update [ ]
f. Initial calibration [ ]
g. Gcode/NC program upload [ ]
h. Successful first cut [ ]
Photo of your setup:
Issue you’re having:
Troubleshooting you’ve done so far:
Video/picture of the issue:
Supporting errors and log files:
@Stevec As to not hijack your thread, can you try filling out the above info? As Bar mentioned, we’re kinda flying blind trying to help you here without knowing more about your setup and what you’re experiencing.
Happy to when I get back to my shop tomorrow. I think a poll would be a good idea. It would be nice to know what percentage of machines are working reliably and how they are being used. I have a very narrow and negative view based only on my experience.
Sorry didn’t get to filling form before leaving for about a month. When I get back I am going to dig in deep to figure out what’s wrong with my machine.
