Unable to Calibrate Maslow4

Troubleshooting
1

I was really looking forward to an easy calibration procedure…but here we are.

I finished assembling my Maslow 4 today, turned it on, then upgraded the firmware to V0.81.

I retracted the belts, extended the belts, Put it on he frame, and ran the calibration procedure. If I remember correctly, nothing happened and the I didn’t realize the serial area was giving me messages because it was in the background.

Suggestion #1, put the serial messages on the same window as the calibration window.
Suggestion #2 - The calibration menu extends to the top and bottom of the screen on my computer, which makes it look like I’m missing stuff. Please put it in a box where you can see that it is one widow and doesn’t extend of the screen.
Suggestion#3 - When I finally saw the serial area was giving me messages, I couldn’t tell what was the last message. Please add date stamps or some way to know what the last message was.

I turned it off and on again and it told me I needed to go through the whole procedure again. I took it down retracted, extended, calibrate. Nothing happened…but this time I see it is telling me it needs to reboot.

After I reboot…it tells me I have to go through the procedure again.

I take it down, retract, extend, put it back up, calibrate…Everything retracts…but now it says the center numbers don’t line up because I’m off by 100mm. I look in the configuration screen and it is back to defaults. I change the numbers, but now it tells me it doesn’t know where it is, so I have to do the whole procedure again.

I take it down, retract, extend, put it back up, check the numbers, calibrate…Everything retracts…but now it says the center numbers don’t line up because I’m off by 100mm. That’s a 4" window. That’s not a lot of wiggle room. The instructions say “These measurements are just a rough guess to get the calibration process started”, but apparently they really do matter.

Suggestion #4…Don’t say it only needs to be rough when the tolerance is in inches.

I make more accurate measurements, update the machine numbers with the more accurate numbers. And it tells me I have to go through the whole procedure.

Suggestion #5…I understand that it won’t move because it thinks its not safe. But if I can see that it’s roughly in the center…just have it tell me what the numbers should be so I can enter those numbers and let it to it’s thing.

I try at least 4 more times of taking it down retracting, extending, calibrate and more times than not it does nothing with some cryptic measurements, or it says that the center is not good enough, even though I’ve checked the measurements six times now.

At this point, I give up and am going back to the original maslow. I wish I hadn’t of modified the bottom part of my frame until I made sure that this worked.

I remember that he OG maslow procedure was initially confusing, but I could at least work through it. I had high hopes for this automated calibration procedure, but more automation means there’s less I can do and the I could never figure which of the many error messages was holding me back.

Suggestion number 6 - The thing I was looking forward most was not resetting chains. But, based on my experience, I just have more chains to reset, which makes it more tedious. Why won’t it just remember where it was? Why do I have to reset everything every single time?

Also, my browser kept saying I timed out as I removed and put the Maslow on the frame.

I tried to attach my error logs, but that feature seems to be missing

Here was the last one before I gave up.
Serial Messages
Index.html Version: 0.81
[MSG:INFO: Channel auto report interval set to 50 ms]
[MSG:INFO: FluidNC v0.80 (Maslow-Main-061f8600-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:INFO: Telnet started on port 23]
[MSG:INFO: Setting z-stop position]
[MSG:ERR: Cannot run calibration until all axis are extended fully]
[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]
[MSG:ERR: Please press Retract All before using Extend All]
[MSG:INFO: Set to comply]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset 36.288]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -1290.424]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -1486.937]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -1640.001]
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset -0.075]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset -0.011]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -211.125]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset -1677.298]
[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]
[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]
[MSG:INFO: Setting z-stop position]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]
[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]
[MSG:ERR: Unable to move safely, stopping calibration]
[MSG:INFO: Setting z-stop position]

2

Looking at the printout this seems a bit troublesome. Looks like you hit retract all twice and the second time you got this value for the top left. Is that what happened? If so, I believe there may be an issue, after you hit retract all once the values should be very close to Zero for all the subsequent times you hit it. Can you verify?

3

When you retract all, are the belts retracting completely? If not, you may need to make sure they are unobstructed and increase the retraction force. Increasing it in increments of 200 is generally recommended.

4

Thanks for asking. At this point, I’m going to keep using the OG Maslow for the next project and just wait for the next project, or for the OG Maslow to jump a sprocket or something before I make the switch from old to new.

I expect the software will be much better by then. It took me a long time to build the OG Maslow and everything was working by the time I got to it. I think I’ll purposely do the same this time around.

I really posted this to hopefully help the improvement process.

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5

The belts were all retracted before I extended them.

That it took two times pushing retracted to get them retracted is something I wouldn’t remember. I went through the process at least 10 times.

If they have to retract all the way the first time is something that should be in the instructions.

6

It’s not that they have to retract fully the first time, it’s just that they have to retract fully before you try extending them, as that is how it knows how long the belt is after it is extended. It tracks the amount that is unspooled during extension so it knows when to stop.

7

Good to know. The were retracted fully every time before I extended them.

Based on my experience and the number of times I had to retract and extend, it doesn’t seem to ever track and remember how much is unspooled.

8

That would point to issues with one or more of the encoders, which could be as simple as a magnet being placed wrong or not being glued as well as you thought, or could be one of them having a different issue.

What you expect to see when retracting all belts is those numbers get closer and closer to 0 as it has less and less belt to retract. It looks like your bottom right and top left (especially top left) are reporting numbers that suggest that they are the problem.

9

If that’s the case, it would be nice to be able to extend and retract one at a time and see the encoder numbers in real time to help troubleshoot problems like this.

Even better. As you assemble each one, you connect it to the board and make sure it’s working correctly before you assemble the next one.

10

Chris wrote:

If that’s the case, it would be nice to be able to extend and retract one at a time and see the encoder numbers in real time to help troubleshoot problems like this.

Even better. As you assemble each one, you connect it to the board and make sure it’s working correctly before you assemble the next one.

agreed, and it has been suggested. (@bar please note)

David Lang

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