I’ve tried everything. Looks like everything else is working. I can move the z axis, retract all belts (well the one time) test shows all magnets, encoders and motors are detected. The fan runs when I try to extend all and turns off when I hit stop. I’ve pulled on all the belts and tried to provide tension, I even tried using a screwdriver through the belt endings to pull a little. When I hit retract all after reboots I see the motors trying to move. I’m not seeing any error callouts in the msg box.
I’m kinda outta ideas. Not sure how to fix this. Any one got suggestions?
You need to lever the belt against the point where it goes into the arm, it takes more force than you expect, you can’t just pull it you need to lever it against the stop. Once it starts moving then as you maintain tension it will extend until it reaches its defined length.
I think the video that @md8n is referring to is the one on the User Guide page (User Guide — Maslow). As said above, assuming there’s not a bigger issue, the belts take a really good tug to get going. However, after they finally start moving, they feed out automatically as long as there is a small force applied. The hard part is only the initial pull. Rather than pulling straight out initially, it is much easier to pull the belt end to the left or right side first, this levers the belt end against the arm and is usually enough to get past that initial force point.
I usually go around and lever all four belts to get them going, then I feed them all out simultaneously. For a while, I was only doing one or two belts at a time, but you will have to retract and extend many many times, so doing all four simultaneously will save a lot of time in the long run.
I wasn’t sure about the term lever (at least until I actually did it). What helped me was the gif of it working. Maybe rocking the belt ends? or a graphic with arrows showing the lateral movement.
It definitely felt like too much force which is why I thought it wasn’t working. Without rocking the belt end, pretty sure I would just be dragging the Maslow around the garage with me.
Definitely been there. Before I tried levering them (or rocking them if you prefer), I had to get down, plant my feet on the sled and pull heartily before they would budge.
@dlang David, do you know the purpose for requiring so much force to get them going? Why doesn’t “Extend Belts” just ready the belts to be loosened with the same minimal force as required after the initial big tug?
We played around with doing exactly that by intentionally introducing a little bit of slack, the problem is that it can lead to the belts getting tangled because when we introduce slack it is from the center of the spool which sort of leads to “bubbles” in the way the belt is spooled up
In my experience (a couple of months ago; I’ll be back in the trenches probably this weekend), it was as much about the speed of the snap as it was about the force. If I could create a sharp movement (acceleration), it almost always worked first-time.