Ok so I had the dreaded usb connection issue. While cutting. When it started back up, it dug into my piece ruining it completely. The reticule in GC is not the same as what’s on my Maslow any more. So my question is. Do I have to recalibrate this thing again? Or am I safe to cut still?
That sucks, there is always some risk 
My fix for the dreaded USB error was rerouting my USB cable away from any other cords.
As far as recalibrating, you don’t have to fully recalibrate but you do have to find center again.
Hopefully someone will chime in to better explain that.
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I’ve honestly never had that happen before. I bought a special USB cable with the repeater in it. It’s been working great. Today was just not my day I guess. I’ll look on the forums to find out how to find center again. Thank you @gersus for your help! I value your input.
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Did anything get turned on when the connection was lost like a vacuum, garage door, fan, drill? Others have seen issues when something random is turned on near their work area or on the same circuit. It’s very frustrating and I’m always holding my breath during each cut.
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nah, it was cutting perfectly. nothing changed. I was on my phone when it happened. wasn’t even using the pc.
EMI is an environmental issue that causes disconnects. The issue is not limited to the Maslow. The more wire, the larger inductor / antenna is created and a greater potential for it to creep in. Because it is environmental it can be present Tuesday from 6pm to 4am but not on Wednesday. It can involve humidity and temperature. There is a 4 part series on EMI in quad copters on youtube but be warned it takes over 3 hrs to get through it.
Thank you
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when you loose your connection, the firmware no longer is where it thinks it is
and you need to do the chain length reset process (or re-calibrate if you didn’t
mark your chains)
David Lang
You don’t need to recalibrate. You just need to reset your chain lengths. If you haven’t already, follow the procedure in the wiki for resetting chains the easy way.
@dlang I definitely didn’t mark my chains. It’s always ‘i’ll do it next time’ and then you land in a situation where you shoudla done it last time… -sigh-
@madgrizzle Thank you, I will look into that now and see how hard it is. I’m tempted to just sell it tho, and use the Lowrider exclusively. I just get annoyed with all the recalibrating. Seems like I recalibrate more than I cut.
When you say recalibrate do you mean resetting the chains? Calibration is the process of optimizing you system parameters with cuts and measurements. You don’t need to recalibrate because of a USB disconnect.
OK, but I’d need to do the “Pull tight and measure” part of the chains right?
nope, just set the chain lengths. It lost the position of the chains for a second, it didn’t forget the dimensions of your machine.
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Ok this isn’t sounding as bad then. Can you point me to instructions of how to do that? I’ve never reset the chain lengths, usually just do a full recalibration when something goes wrong.
Thank you!
actions --> set chain lengths - automatic. and then you just follow part of the menu like in the calibration
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Alright, I’ll try that when I get to my shop tomorrow. Thank you.
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This process has you set the sprockets to have a tooth at 12 o’clock and then
put the right link of the chain over that tooth.
to do this, you need to figure out which tooth to use. the default
(configurable) is 1651mm which is 65 inches (note, this is 65 inches from where
it connects on the ring, so you need to add a link or two depending on how you
have the chain attched to the ring)
When you do a full calibration, in the final step before you do 'move to center,
the chains are at this position, so you can mark the chains at that point.
David Lang
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Thank you David. I will try that. So it’s basically the beginning stages with the chain part, then skip the rest?
Just go to what @Dag83 posted and it will bring up only those specific steps you need to do to reset the chains.
A while back I was have usb error issues as well that ruined many a project. It seemed to only happen when removing larger amounts of material. Small v cuts no problem.
To make a long story short the problem was with the static in the vacuum hose was somehow messing with electronics. I ran a ground wire from router base to true ground in the plugin. I wrapped bare wire around vacuum hose and alligator clip it to router base. This seem to solve the problem. I had a recurrence of the problem once and realized I didnt have my clip from vaccum hose connected on router base. Connected it and no problems. I also wondered if it had anything to do with load on the router creating electrical interference…not sure if grounding base would have helped with that or not. At the least worth a try. Hope this helps.
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You could also try getting an rpi to run webcontrol, and use a 6 inch USB cable to connect to the Arduino. The rpi is so small and light it will easily fit next to your controller on your frame.
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