Just throwing this out there, and i’m not knocking the developers, its obvious alot of work has been put into it but as someone who is trying to start using it, I’m confused and frustrated when it comes to Webcontrol. I can not find a detailed enough guide on where to go to get started, how to walk through setting it up, where exactly to go to find the downloads needed, etc. I feel like i have been fumbling around the forums and github site for 2 days now trying to grasp what to do, how and in what order. Sad part is i have been using ground control for months and had no idea Webcontrol was a replacement for it. What I’m afraid of is it is there somewhere but its difficult to find and this post is just adding to a list of other posts trying to figure this out.
Has or is someone writing a guide or wiki on how to get started using the webcontrol thats easy to follow for someone who is new? I find the github website layout for the webcontrol confusing and not clear where stuff is. And If i’m having trouble figuring it out I’m sure others are too.
Do i have to use the raspberry PI?
Whats the advantage to this over just running through windows?
What calibrations should be used based on setups?
What order do you go through the settings before trying a calibration?
How much plywood do I need to do the calibrations?
Why are some of the calibrations grayed out?
Which Firmware should be used, i saw three different ones to download?
How do I setup the firmware?
I’m willing to help if needed. I think there needs to be an established getting started section with updates as things change to help others get caught up with the group.
Thank you… that is alot of helpful information. I had some fits with webcontrol today but finally got through it and performed holey calibration.
So one question. I was trying to get the z-axis zeroed right after quick setup and setting the chains. everytime i would get an immediate error saying the sled location couldn’t be identified and then it would lock up. it happened to me about 4 times in a row. then i happened to hit the save home button after setting the chains and then when i went to the z-axis to zero it there were no issues.
Shouldn’t setting the chains cause it to reset and save home? just curious if anyone else experienced this.
It would be good if we had a timeline. I can say I put my Maslow down for a long while due to the lack of software changes. I think it’s important to note many things on the Maslow are contributions from community members. This is why there is more sweat and less documentation. Ground Control was growing and being updated weekly then monthly, then sorta whenever. Webcontrol was a way to work around limitations of the interface Ground Control was built on aging and causing incompatibility. It became the De Facto choice. It just kept growing. More people used it and that led to more input. Now we are at a new fork in the road. As a newbie the information has aged. Every once in a while someone comes along and documents their build and experiences. Maslow is an ever evolving platform and as we move forward once again the information will change making the old information stale. The community is layered experiences. There was even a forum before this one. Much has been lost in forward motion of the community, the only pertinent information is the information of now. Unless you freeze your system. This is why we will always be behind on documentation unless there is someone dedicated to full time management of it.
When you have extended the chains, the system should know how long the chains are and should be at the home position. You are saying you have to save home and then it will move on to allow you to set the z axis zero, but if you don’t it locks up? That isn’t right.
Tordren Webcontrol log.zip (329.5 KB) yeah thats exactly what appeared to happen. as soon as i touched the z-axis controls after setting chains I would get an error stating something to the effect of one of the examples below. I have the log i can send if someone wants to take a look.
“Unable to find valid machine position for chain length 0.00,0.00 Left chain length greater than system settings chain length LeftChainLength: 3490.21 System Chain Length: 3360”
“Unable to find valid machine position for chain length 133.84, 0.00 Left chain length greater than system settings chain length LeftChainLength: 3455.25 System Chain Length: 3360”
“Unable to find valid machine position for chain length 1650.99,1650.99 Number of guesses exceeds KINEMATICSMAXGUESS” (I had this exact one multiple times in a row as well)