After numerous attempts to get Calibration going, I need HELP.
The log is down below - last log where I have been experimenting with the measurements as it seems to object to whatever I put in it.
I do this
Starting with the machine off and turning it on
Connects normally (direct to Maslow network)
Control panel comes up normally
Unlock (alarm)
lower z-axis all the way down
Click SETUP, check Configuration, set measurements, (Width or X) 3000 x (Height or Y) 2300 - and Vertical orientation. SAVE
( Wood Rack measures 115" x 91" or 2946mmX2311mm and angled around 15-20 degrees from the wall)
Retract all
Extend all, pull out until M4 stops.
Hang router on rack (i.e., attach all 4 belts)
(I have made a pin of an old drill bit with a drilled golf ball as a handle, which supports the router base through a hole to this point. I got tired of holding the thing up while attaching it. I use bolts run into t-nuts at the corners)
Pull my PIN. Let the router rest on the extended cables.
Press CALIBRATION.
Calibration has started, but always stops after a couple of minutes at most, with “Emergency Stop, unsafe to continue” or (as below) “your coordinate system is not accurate, adjust your frame dimensions and restart”.
I started with width = 2946 (115")
Height = 2311 (91") This was supposed to be a bit over 8 feet, but when I was about done with the build, I realized the 2x4s I purchased from Home Depot were in the wrong bin - not 8 feet but the pre-cut framing studs
. Thinking it did no real harm, I forged on ahead. Mistake?
Getting the “dimensions” error, I began to play with the values, 3000x2300. 3000x2200, 3000x2000.
Got the “Center point deviation over 100.000mmm” errors at that point.
So, back to 3000x2300.
I’ve gotten pretty good at “retract all” and “extend all”, but even though the M4 is a hobby machine for me (I’d hate to think what would happen if I was depending on it to run a business), I would really like to cut a few sculpture pieces on it.
Can provide pictures if they might help. Belts do not seem to act like in the latest configuration video, that is, whose tight and where.
Thank you for your help!
Serial Messages
Index.html Version: 0.85
[MSG:INFO: Channel auto report interval set to 50 ms]
[MSG:INFO: FluidNC v0.79 (Maslow-Main-7b9f3a44-dirty)]
[MSG:INFO: Compiled with ESP32 SDK:v4.4.7-dirty]
[MSG:INFO: Local filesystem type is littlefs]
[MSG:INFO: Configuration file:maslow.yaml]
[MSG:INFO: Machine Maslow S3 Board]
[MSG:INFO: Board Maslow]
[MSG:INFO: UART1 Tx:gpio.1 Rx:gpio.2 RTS:NO_PIN Baud:115200]
[MSG:INFO: SPI SCK:gpio.12 MOSI:gpio.11 MISO:gpio.13]
[MSG:INFO: SD Card cs_pin:gpio.10 detect:NO_PIN freq:8000000]
[MSG:INFO: Stepping:Timed Pulse:4us Dsbl Delay:0us Dir Delay:0us Idle Delay:240ms]
[MSG:INFO: Axis count 3]
[MSG:INFO: Axis X (-2438.400,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: Axis Y (-1219.200,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: Axis Z (-100.000,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: tmc_2209 UART1 Addr:0 Step:gpio.15 Dir:gpio.16 Disable:NO_PIN R:0.110]
[MSG:INFO: Motor1]
[MSG:INFO: tmc_2209 UART1 Addr:1 Step:gpio.46 Dir:gpio.38 Disable:NO_PIN R:0.110]
[MSG:INFO: Z Axis driver test passed]
[MSG:INFO: Z2 Axis driver test passed]
[MSG:INFO: Kinematic system: Cartesian]
[MSG:INFO: Using spindle NoSpindle]
[MSG:INFO: STA SSID is not set]
[MSG:INFO: AP SSID maslow IP 192.168.0.1 mask 255.255.255.0 channel 1]
[MSG:INFO: AP started]
[MSG:INFO: WiFi on]
[MSG:INFO: Captive Portal Started]
[MSG:INFO: HTTP started on port 80]
[MSG:ERR: Not handling localfs subdirectories]
[MSG:INFO: Telnet started on port 23]
[MSG:INFO: Set to comply]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1678.372]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1637.403]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1731.129]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1844.330]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset 0.021]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -0.054]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -42.450]
[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]
[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]
[MSG:INFO: Setting z-stop position]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]
[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.312 TR: 0.250 BL: -11.095 BR: -105.668]
[MSG:ERR: Center point deviation over 100.000mmm, your coordinate system is not accurate, adjust your frame dimensions and restart.]
[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]
[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]
It’s totally normal to be discouraged, because honestly the Maslow 4 is a buggy piece of shit. Look no further than the last 3 firmware updates which each introduced an annoying bug, but took weeks to fix. Calibrating this thing is annoying because it will fail and it won’t really tell you why. I spent like 15 hours on mine before I actually got it to work.
I’m going to list the problems that I ran into and maybe you can check them off your list one by one:
Update your firmware to the latest. I mean it’s a total crap shoot because bar may have introduced another bug, like the one that just causes the belts to shoot out and tangle on themselves, but you can try it because that’s probably as good as it gets. You are on 0.85 and 0.87 is out.
If you update the firmware, sometimes the maslow.yaml which holds your calibration data can become corrupted and stops it from calibrating properly. Go ahead and try replacing the maslow.yaml with the one included in the current firmware.
Are all the bolts tight? While the belts are fully retracted, try moving each of the 4 arms to make sure they have full range of motion. During assembly one of the steps says not to tighten the bolts when assembly the arms, which is dumb because this vibrates more than an 80’s sex toy. When the bolts in the armatures get loose, they will cause it to bind up and not have full range of motion. Then you have to disassemble the whole thing to tighten the bolts on the arms. Also I hope you tighten your grub screws down when assembling the gears because multiple people have had those fall out too. Hell I even had a bolt come loose on the underside and mar up my surface while cutting. I used all nylocs too, honestly every damn bolt on this POS should be slathered in loctite and torqued to the point where they are about to cam out. Use a hex driver that has a handle, not that shitty L wrench that it comes with.
On the question of range of motion, did you happen to install a dust shroud? because the location where it attaches happens to where the lowest arm is located. So if you lower it too much it can get caught on the shroud. He could have designed it so that one of the rear two arms not near the dust extraction point had the lowest arm, but no…he just didn’t. Really the only way to fix this is to calibrate at a z height that will clear the shroud. I have the 4" btw.
Make sure you measure from the attachment points for your X/Y frame size, not like the wooden frame itself. This is easy to overlook because it states “they only have to be roughly correct”. Believe me you will want them as close as possible to correct.
Bonus - when calibrating for a full size frame cutting a 8’x4’ sheet. The final 9x9 calibration pass hangs off the side close to 50% which is stupidly unstable.
I am actually working on removing that step right now because it is frustrating. I am not sure if I will have it working well enough to release one Wednesday, but I am hoping to.
Updating to the latest version (0.87) will give you a slightly more helpful message telling you if you need to make it bigger or smaller, but hopefully 0.88 will do the adjustment for you automatically.
You are very close, you just need to get these numbers
Under 100.
We pretty strongly discouraged folks from buying it for business use for exactly that reason. It’s getting better steadily, but there’s still lots of room to improve.
I did the exact same thing so you aren’t alone . It should work fine.
I’d try measuring the frame again by hand with a tape measure and start with those values, that should get you close enough.
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1678.372]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1637.403]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1731.129]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1844.330]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset 0.021]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -0.054]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -42.450]
The fact that the top left pulled tight with such a large offset may mean that
the magnet there is slipping.
I’m pretty sure that this isn’t a case of the magnets slipping. To me that looks like one belt didn’t retract all the way the first time you pressed retract so you pressed it again (which is totally fine)
OK, thanks Bar. I do appreciate your patience with us and our (multitudinous (even a word?< it fits, I’m sure, should be if not (a word that is))) issues.
David recommended, basically, checking the magnets. Anyway to do this without disassembly? Thanks!
The way to check the magnets is to press Retract All then Extend All (and extend the belts) then press retract all again BUT I’m almost certain that the issue that you are seeing isn’t related to the magnets.
I think that this is the solution you are looking for
Will certainly check the measurements, again, just to make certain. I just did a retract and extend cycle again, and the upper left numbers are still out of whack as before. This is, now that I noticed, a consistent error.
I take it back then! I think I’m wrong and @dlang is right, it could be a magnet issue.
What this is doing is checking to see that if the belts start out at 0, extend out to some length, and then retract back to zero, that we have the same understanding of where zero is that we had before extending.
If extending out and coming back is giving a different number that’s a pretty solid indication that the magnet is slipping in there.
BTW, I recall this is happening pretty consistently, with the upper left (one belt didn’t retract all the way the first time you pressed retract so you pressed it again (which is totally fine)). 6 inches or so still deployed when all others are retracted tight. I’ll go for the loose magnet idea then. Good thing I already have my wrench handy - bought a set at Home Depot to originally assemble the M4. Old hands didn’t last too long with the original wrench, though it was very useful in a few tight spots.
I’m here to say drilling a hole and putting a pin in is genius. I have a bit of small rope with a loop tied in it and a hook on the end that I use to hang mine while I’m attaching the belts. It works pretty well but the pin might be easier.
Also, my top left kept not retracting fully and he was usually between 110 and 125 mm. And usually I had to do retract all twice to get it to pull all the way in. I suspect I won’t have that problem again after I tear it apart because that belt jammed and ate itself. Fortunately it’s pretty near the outside and there’s a lot of extra belt on there. so, I need to find a couple of hours to tear it apart. Especially frustrating as I had just gotten it calibrated and starting to cut reliably.
Wondering if it would be a problem to extend all, then cut off the problem end and reattach the clip to it? Would you need a new clip or can it be reused? No idea here how tenacious the super glue would be. Always in favor of the simplist method.
If it would extend that would work great, but it won’t extend. It is all jammed up. Based on the last one I fixed when I ate a cable (way back in the spring) the screws are hard to get out of the plastic cable ends and in drilling mine out I went too far and had to use a longer screw and washer to hold it together.
I changed the force up to 1500, confused the length temporarily, but a couple of retract/extend cycles corrected that. Made sure latest software and tried and failed to run calibration. Completes perhaps one grid, with cables on bottom looking a bit loose. Studying the calibration video to compare how low/high on the spoil board the router goes. I’m confident of the measurement (check and recheck) of the rack 2946 (115in) x 2300 (91in).
. It should work fine.
