I started a few days ago with simple cuts in 9mm plywood, I saw a lack of precision in the horizontal cuts, which I solved by scaling whatever in that direction, everything was going well while I learned to handle the machine and understood the messages it displays, then I started a project that requires precision and I am using 18mm slatted pine, this is where my headache began, I don’t remember what firmware version I had, but I updated to .84 and corrected some errors in the frame hoping to improve the precision, which didn’t happen, rather it got worse. I couldn’t send long cutting runs because it would go off-route and continue cutting out of phase. I still didn’t understand the messages the machine was giving me, so I don’t know if the center was off, but searching on this forum I started to understand a little. I put hot glue on it, I readjusted the precision of my vertical frame, I made the anchors firmer to eliminate the 8mm offset from the center point on the BR motor. Sometimes when extending the belts the TL motor would get stuck about 5 cm from the belt coming out, but then it would loosen and continue, but it gave a 15mm error. I went back to the .83 version because I didn’t see any changes when replacing the yamln. I took the magnets apart and checked them, I changed the position of the motors and it improved a lot. Although I can’t make cuts on the entire sheet, I have to do it piece by piece in the center of the frame to minimize failures. Yesterday everything was going perfectly, I celebrated that my maslow gave me my first perfect circle on a piece that has two 20mm holes, the G code was for three passes of 6mm each, first hole, second hole and contour of the piece and when it returned to the first perfect hole to make its second entry the machine stopped saying that TR exceeded by 4000. I centered everything and restarted the machine, changed the G code and tested it in an online simulator, I made some small changes like the place where the cutter entered and the tabs I changed their place but the path was the same, it did the first route perfectly, but when it reached the first point to enter the next 6mm the machine stopped again showing again the same error TR exceeds by 4000, I deleted and changed the yaml, changed the G code and for the third time it stopped in the same place when approaching for the second time to the same place at the moment that Z increased 6mm, TR exceeds by 4000, I touched that motor to check its temperature but it was barely warm although the other three motors were cool, I decided to make the holes and the outline separately, I chose the outline first and did the three passes well although there was no longer precision in the movements, then it was my mistakes and I couldn’t make the holes. Today I couldn’t get it to work, each test movement and TR would loosen a little at the end of the movement, when I sent another movement it would recover tension, I changed firmware, html, yaml and I danced retract-extend many times, I removed the hot glue to see if there was dust and glued it again because now BR had a 5mm offset and TL kept losing tension and nothing improved. I started to try applying tension and releasing tension and it showed me the error Emergency stop! Stopping all motors, I wanted to retract the extender but it didn’t allow it and I restarted, but now the BR belt got stuck and it was ruined about 150 cm from the end. I’m considering whether to turn the belt to leave the damage hidden inside the reel or if I should cut the piece off…
But I can’t stop thinking about the fact that it stopped so many times at the same point when everything was supposedly erased and changed.
I apologize, I don’t speak English well and Google is helping me, if I’m incoherent or if photos are needed for better understanding, let me know so I can find a way to improve my explanation.
We just created a new firmware update to help address exactly this issue. Can you give this version a try and let us know if it helps:
You will need to update both the firmware and index.html files and then run calibration to see the effects.
wow, thank you very much. I was really afraid to update, but today I’m putting the machine back together, I’ll change the position motors to do tracking and on Sunday with great excitement I’ll do tests and I’ll tell you what happened. 
Yesterday I was calibrating the machine in 3x3, 5x5, 7x7 grids and when I was going to calibrate the 9x9 the belts went crazy and luckily I quickly disconnected.
My fitness got to 0.6 and every time I released tension and then applied tension the center was more off-center due to the BR motor, then I realized that it doesn’t lose center as long as Z is fully down, like in calibration, but when installing the cutter it says it is off-center 4mm in BR and 2mm in BL and this increases every time I release and apply tension raising the Z axis, it has been off-centered up to 14 mm, I thought that using the Z stop made the software calculate its movement but it seems not.
I changed to .83 firmware to verify this, but there only BR is off-center, the others remain stable as I move Z and apply and release tension.
With this understanding, I did a new calibration today with the new firmware, first on 7x7 and then 9x9 grids and I got a fitness of 0.85 with which I stayed and started working, the scale factor also improved, which before I had to scale in X by 1.0056 and now with this new fitness the scale factor in X is 1.0032.
My first 3 acceptable pieces, two of these have two internal circles of 22mm that did not come out so round but I celebrate that it does not crash, but it does show the warning message of the excess in 4000 of TL and now sometimes in BR and BL.
I cut those 3 pieces of 98 x 15 cms approx, one by one, I centered the material so as not to work near the edges.
I adjusted the material to the center of the frame to cut 3 other pieces of similar size, the same, piece by piece, the warning message of excess in 4000 in BR keeps appearing more and more and this happens when there is Z displacement, but I notice that it is always reaching the same distance X from the board and it leaves a very ugly mark on the work, that in the trot, but even just calibrating Z this message appears in BR.
It is also happening to me that all the belts are retracted except TR and I have to connect and disconnect several times, extend - retract everything but nothing loosens TR, in those moments to extend I apply tension manually and the connector LED lights up yellow that detects pressure but the motor does not turn, after countless retracting and extracting it takes pity on me and releases the entire reel and then retracts without problem, I have changed the position of the motors and this output continues to fail, each motor gets blocked at a different point, the first one failed when extending about 5 cm from exiting and now this one fails when retracting, but it is always TR.
Today when it started to lose precision was in the fourth cut, I saw that BL released a little tension and recovered quickly, but the damage was already done.
When it started to show more often the warning message of excess in 4000, even with the router off, only positioning Z, the motor that is alerted feels hotter than the others
Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
[MSG:WARN: Motor current on Bottom Right axis exceeded threshold of 4000]
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
[MSG:WARN: Motor current on Top Right axis exceeded threshold of 4000]
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
[MSG:WARN: Motor current on Bottom Right axis exceeded threshold of 4000]
Jog: Z-10
Jog: Z-10
[MSG:WARN: Motor current on Top Right axis exceeded threshold of 4000]
this sounds as if there is a mechanical problem in the arms. I would open them
up and try to move the motors away from the idler (the idler is a little
oversize, but there is just a little slop in the motor mound)
Ilso, when you reassemble, add some silicon based lube around both the spool to
the arm, and around the idler to it’s shaft (make sure that all the idlers spin
freely on their shaft)
David Lang
This sounds reasonable, although I already checked and lubricated the idler shaft when I took everything apart to check each magnet.
I accept the challenge, although the last thing I want to do is to loosen the screws with thread locks, but at least I have to do this to TR, since I just saw that it has some torque from the factory assembly screws.
I will try to do what you tell me to move the motors, although I am thinking more of a problem in the control board, since I have already rotated the motors and the problem always ends up in the same output, but I want to rule everything out.
I have already disassembled the first motor and I confess that I was very hesitant, since the idler shaft had very good freedom of movement and lubricant.
I was able to remove the motor screws by hitting a torx bit on them and then applying good pressure while turning.
I found the friction problem that is suggested, the U-pin that catches the motor shaft protrudes from the base of the motor
and also has an oscillation of almost 0.6 mm and is rubbing against the arm.
I ask for recommendations from the most experienced here on the next step to solve it
- Should I roughen the plastic piece? (it seems that it does not compromise the rigidity of the arm)
- Should I supplement the motor to lift it? (I am worried about changing the distance of the magnet if the supplement is wide and I am worried about the rigidity of the motor if I only put washers on it)
I hope for recommendations, tonight I will continue disassembling the motors and maybe tomorrow I will do tests, but I must decide my solution, thanks
Javier Betancourt wrote:
I found the friction problem that is suggested, the U-pin that catches the motor shaft protrudes from the base of the motor
and also has an oscillation of almost 0.6 mm and is rubbing against the arm.
I ask for recommendations from the most experienced here on the next step to solve it
- Should I roughen the plastic piece? (it seems that it does not compromise the rigidity of the arm)
- Should I supplement the motor to lift it? (I am worried about changing the distance of the magnet if the supplement is wide and I am worried about the rigidity of the motor if I only put washers on it)
just cut away the plastic where it is rubbing. you really don’t want the fine
plasic dust it produces to extend elsewhere into the machine.
David Lang
Are you sure that is what is causing the issue with the over current? It would be awesome to know that definitively that is the issue because it’s a pretty straight forward fix.
I’ve lowered the plastic on that part slightly to account for the retainer clip.
Unfortunately that change requires re-making the mold for that part which will take some time.
I’m not sure if this is the solution, but I’m sure it’s a bug and I’m correcting it right now and I’ll see if I can test it tomorrow.
In addition to this, I’ll say that ten days ago I checked all the magnets and they were in their position, today I found one loose. It seems that they can fall at any moment.
Javier Betancourt wrote:
In addition to this, I’ll say that ten days ago I checked all the magnets and
they were in their position, today I found one loose. It seems that they can
fall at any moment.
if you used enough superglue, they will not move (enough heat to break the glue
will melt the plastic), but it’s really easy to have a magnet held in place with
friction for a little bit, but without enough glue, the vibration can cause it
to work loose.
David Lang
I had enough glue to leave a clear, even film on the roller, but there was no trace left on the magnet. I don’t think it was because of the heat, because the temperature has never been that high. I think there may have been some body fat from my fingers left on the magnet, and that added to the possible vibration. But I had already ruled out the possibility that the magnets had moved, and that happened to me.
Did you fix the overcurrent issue?
I have not been able to do consistent tests, after doing the last check I made four pieces and it showed the warn message only once on the first piece, for now it seems that the overcurrent problem was solved and it seems that the precision in the drill and circle entries has also improved, but at the moment I am manually sanding and milling a lot of errors that these inconveniences have left me, I am making a piece of furniture that assembles many pieces and I want to leave everything ready to do a new scaling and cut the last parts.
I will bet that my problems have been solved, because this last stage of construction is the one that requires more precision and it will be where I can draw conclusions and deliver a reliable report
I had all my hopes that this would be my solution to the overheating warn msg, I did my test of two thin rectangles at 1mm depth, one horizontal and one vertical to measure the result and get the scale factor, but in the end it made some strange movements and the 4k warn msg on two motors every time Z moved 0.5 mm, so I repeated the file this time without turning on the router and without a cutter and in the video you can see the undulating movements and how the machine accelerates and decelerates,
so I gave up on continuing with the cut and decided to take the machine apart again because it still showed an off-center point of 7mm.
While I was taking it apart I saw that when I turned the Z motors all the LEDs on the machine lit up and since the error appears when they move, it made me wonder if this is returning voltage or causing some interference¿?
First magnet installed on its roller but I thought of hitting it against the metal sheet and it came out without a problem, I think it could turn with the work and give a bad reading,
I continued with the remaining arms and oh surprise two more magnets out of place, I go for the last one that I had already re-glued a few days ago and it also came out by hitting it lightly against the sheet (I don’t know if my gel glue from the kit is damaged or if I really don’t put enough), by God, the four magnets are loose.
Now I put a lot of glue on the bottom and sides
I removed a motor to check if the U-pin was still rubbing, but this doesn’t happen anymore.
Whenever I take the arms apart, I try to leave the straps rolled up on the spool and not move them so that when I put them together they don’t loosen, but I realized that the spools were so tight that the neck where they join was tightened and doesn’t let them spin freely,
and I’m pretty sure that this is the problem with the msg warn 4k, it gets so tight that it doesn’t spin, so I released the straps to put them back on manually and I had the great idea of greasing the belt path and they were very smooth. I assumed this was the problem, assembled it and went to calibrate with the .85-1 upgrade that I hadn’t managed to do before, I started with 3x3, 5x5, 7x7 and everything was fine with a 1.02 fitness level, although when I tightened the belts they squeaked strangely and I thought it was because of the lubricant applied, in the 9x9 calibration it showed me errors of a few millimeters when I got to the furthest points of the lower corners and the belts opposite to these points were without tension at that time, but it finished the calibration with a fitness level of 0.6 and I decided to stick with that to continue with the cuts.
Since I have to work in the center of the frame, I want to adjust my XY home and although it says it was adjusted but it always goes back to another point when I release and apply tension, the belts squeal at each tension, it doesn’t take the new home, I give up changing it and I adjust my cut to the center that the machine decides.
First cut wonderful, second cut and a msg warn 4k when making Z an entry and it damages the cut but I let it continue, it keeps working and increases the number of msg warn 4k every time Z moves, I think about not paying attention to it and continue with my cuts, but it keeps showing the error in several motors just by making Z home, I think it may be that the reels have been tightened and I don’t want to take everything apart again, so I lowered the retraction tension from 1300 to 100 to extend all the belts completely and then retract them and big surprise that the belts of the upper motors were torn from the base
and I had wound them manually and I know they were fine before lubricating…
This is my theory, it all started several days ago when tension was lost in the trot and we tried to increase the retraction and calibration force to correct it, thinking it was a lack of force in the motors, but I think it is rather excess force and the reels did not allow the belts to enter well, increase the force only made it worse and now that I lubed where the belts go through there was no tension build up on the whole roll and the tension was transmitted entirely to the end of the belt and caused the tear, so my next test will be with less retraction tension, this time it will be 1100.
I already washed the belts and reels to remove the lubricant, this would all be more fun if every time I take it apart I didn’t have to remove the hot glue from the connectors.
I’ll try again tomorrow, but this time I think I found it
I’m sure now,
it’s not the U-pin that’s causing the msg warn 4k