So I am sketching out a structure for a doc in the repository to collect troubleshooting suggestions. I really appreciate how much work and help IanB and Dlang do in helping new folks get started and in developing the firmware. I don’t feel like I know enough to always help directly but I thought I could collect some of the common threads.
Are there suggestions for topics or structure?
Here is what I have so far, pushing a request to upload it to the Main repository soon.
Great idea, and for actually doing it!
For maintenance actions - maybe some links to the various frame size visualisers, and I’m sure I saw someone had done a really got what-all-the-Z-stuff-is diagram for explanation?
Thanks for putting this together.
We now use Find Anchor points instead of Calibrate as it more accurately describes what it is doing. Some of the Docs haven’t caught up yet.
Not so much loosen bolts around belt guard as confirm Belt Gard not fouling anywhere.
Under Common problems add
After interruption of fault ensure Z values are accurate. Note setting Z-stop also zeros out the Z-home.
A shortcut way of doing this is prop up Maslow so bit can’t reach work surface, look at value of Zm and lower Z axis by that amount. E.g. if (Zm: 42.00) lower Z by 42. If depth was lower than it should have been, the Z motors will go right down and buzz when they can’t go any further, Zm will be Zero and Z home will be correct relative to Zm (a minus number)
Z axis not going all the way down (losen the bolts to the steppers, run it down
and then tighten them)
with any of these, if you can’t easily find a post laying out the
troubleshooting, hit me up and I’ll rattle off something close to get us started
some of these should possibly get linked in as part of the build process docs
(spools too tight as a prime example)
David Lang
Note that there is already a Troubleshooting section in the Wiki Maslow 4 Manual The Belt Maslow (a.k.a Maslow 4) Manual - #9 by jwolter . If we think that section cannot be expanded/updated to cover these things, I would suggest we turn that section into a reference to the troubleshooting document you are creating. Either way, I suggest we integrate the two so that there is only one document to maintain. Oh, and add lots of cross-references so people can find it from different parts of the forums.
Thank you I had not seen that. Wow. All of that looks great. I had been adding stuff to the repository as a central place to put things that also comes up as a website eventually. I don’t need to remake things that are already good.
I don’t have a great plan of how to merge or cross reference. Bar pointed me towards the repository wiki as a place to put stuff that will become a website. It has been mostly me editing there so it isn’t a great living document space yet. I would be happy to copy things over from your manual regularly? With either place I think the key would be to make them as visible as possible to people. I have been poking around the forums but had somehow missed all of that great work. I guess I would suggest copying things form the forum guide to the repository wiki space for a while, maintaining the forum one as you have been until or if the repository wiki picks up some more life? I would like to add links back to the forum one if that feels like a good idea.
I like how concise and clean the forum manual is. In the documents I have been making I have been leaning more towards maximal approach than minimal. I feel like they are different enough that both would currently be useful to people looking for information. I don’t want to step on toes in the forum manual project, I have have been personally happy collecting things and stuffing them in documents as they made sense to me.
It looks like our efforts so far are fairly complementary with not a lot of overlap. I have made documents for Software, Frames, Bits(stub) , Materials (stub) , Routers and Spindles (stub), and on updating the readme for the main repository. Bar has been working on a quick start manual and on moving the current assembly instructions and current getting started instructions over to the repository. I also made a title and an empty document for pictures and instructions for helping people make sense of the interface but I haven’t done anything with it yet as there is a lot of good change work going on the interface right now and I haven’t had a chance to try any of it out in real life. I started working on a more comprehensive manual format but these other documents seem to be more useful at the moment.
My current plan then would be to keep building things in the repository but to link back and reference stuff from the forum wiki. If community engagement changes or flows better one way or the other they look different enough for both to be useful. I would welcome any input or help with the repository documents.
As I understand it the things in the repository are being automatically made into a website that may replace parts of the maslowcnc.com
here is the current state of that site:
I would say that the repository wiki is the future. I started the forum wiki because when the Maslow 4 was released, there wasn’t much documentation, especially as Bar was trying to respond to user issues and users were making discoveries left and right. Don’t worry about stepping on my toes. I created the forum wiki, but I tend to get busy at work and life and disappear from the forums for months on end. I’m just happy to have people actively documenting. If there’s stuff in the forum wiki that you want to use for the repository wiki, take it. If you want to add to or modify anything in the forum wiki, just do it.
Thank you. : ) I have time that comes and goes as well. I’ll do what I can with documentation in the repository. Feel free to add and edit there too please if you are on and see something that would help. It’s a fun project to have a router robot, I often have more time at a computer than I would to cut things out so…
