Servos stopped moving, particularly on Bracelet.g

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witb
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:39 pm

Servos stopped moving, particularly on Bracelet.g

Post by witb » Sat Jul 16, 2016 11:46 pm

Hi MakerGear,

Thank you for making a great product. I mean that sincerely. Despite the hiccup below, I’m still impressed in the quality of the product, and grateful for an active community able to help each other without needing to pay for an army of support staff. Of course, the price for the M2 is in fact steep enough to fund an army of support staff, but compared to the (redacted competitor name) on which I wasted weeks (well, months) the MakerGear is a Fantastic product. Thank You Again!

Short version: If you ever lose physical movement and motion of the X/Y/Z servo motors, especially in printing the first trial print, Bracelet.g, almost as if the servo-motors somehow suddenly lost the signal, even if it had worked perfectly moments ago, re-check the 6-pin connector, re-insert the 6-pin connector the rest of the way, then use a zip-tie or three to achieve a better cable routing strategy for the 6-pin connector from the power-supply into the Single Board Computer (SBC) enclosure.

In hindsight, I should not have been surprised that the Z and Y motion had partially detached that connector, nor should I have been surprised that some of those 6 pins powered the servo motors while others independently powered the fans and HBP. I’m not completely sure that I’d build the product that way, but I’m still impressed enough with the rest of the product that I don’t want to be critical here. After all, I’d bet that the HBP, fans, SBC, and servo motors might each have different voltage & power requirements. In hindsight, I should’ve known or realized all of this sooner on my own. Of course, that’s the problem with hindsight, it’s not nearly as valuable as foresight.

The longer version, which almost became a support request? ( Included only since (a) some of your symptoms might match these, and (b) more detail sometimes helps the “support search request” faster find the right article… )

I’m trying to use my brand new MakerGear M2 for the very first time. The bed corners seemed to calibrate very nicely. However, the M2 Quick Start v1.1.3 app (Mac/OSX) completely failed to print the bracelet.

After all motors functioned perfectly in nicely calibrating z-height and corner leveling, with a few turns of the 2mm Allen wrench of course, and thanking MakerGear for including the very convenient blue slip “gauge.” I followed the instructions in heating bed & extruder, opened the included PLA, and it seemed to feed nicely. Once all temperatures were achieved for PLA printing, I tried to print the included Bracelet file, but neither the bed nor the head moved in Z, Y, or X dimensions.

I’m scrupulously following all instructions having read all of them at least three times. The USB connection and HBP connections seem good since, after many tries at debugging this, I’m sill able to heat the bed and see the temperature changes in Quick Start App (QSA) on my MacBook Pro. I can repeatedly heat and cool both the bed and extruder, and the QSA seems to get good temperature readings back from the M2. From the QSA, I also have control of the platform fan. However, XYZ manual controls in the QSA for the bed & head do not have any effect on the servo motors for X, Y, Z motors. The servo motors don’t even try to move. In contrast, all three dimensions moved perfectly in originally setting bed height and calibrating the corners. The first moment anything appeared off-track was when I attempted to print the bracelet file. The QSA depicted “progress” in the progress bar of the QSA on OS X. However, neither the bed nor the head physically moved. The extruder continued extruding a small amount of the included PLA for awhile, extruding the PLA as it simply curled into free space at a very slow rate without the bed or the head moving, aside from the fans since the fans seem to still be functioning properly. The “PLA slowly curling a trickle into free space” occurred until roughly 50% of the progress bar had elapsed without any physical motion from any of the XYZ servo motors. However, at this point, the extruder can neither extrude nor retract the included PLA. I’ve repeatedly tried powering the system on&off, but this produced no improvement. In fact, after attempting to print the Bracelet, the X/Y/Z servo motors are all now unresponsive even in any attempt to re-calibrate the Z-height. It’s almost as if, “once the platform heated, the servo’s lost signal from the Single Board Computer (SBC)."

Actually, heat had nothing to do with it. Motion of the HBP snagged the 6-pin connector partially detaching it. Sigh. Solution: re-fully insert the 6-pin connector, wish to somehow get back the past 90 minutes, but still post the experience to help others. Other recommendations for MakerGear: more clearly flag this caution, both in the documentation, and perhaps by including some bright orange zip-ties, recommended to keep that cable out of the way. Of course, dreamer that I am, I’d also love to buy a MakerGear branded sleeve/cover to keep the dust off my brand new M2! Thanks Again!

Cheers,
Brian

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Jules
Posts: 3144
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:36 am

Re: Servos stopped moving, particularly on Bracelet.g

Post by Jules » Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:06 pm

Yeah, I had something similar occur when I first tested the Rev.E, but you're the first customer to mention it, so I figured it was a one-off on the one I was testing. (My bed got caught on the wire harness while I was setting the Level and Starting Height, and got hung up. Didn't pull anything loose, but it wasn't going anywhere either, and it made an awful lot of noise until it was disconnected and disentangled.)

Yep...I should have mentioned it. :roll:

Looks like sometimes there might be a little bit too much slack in the wire harness. (I wonder now if that hasn't been responsible for some of the other stoppages that one or two other folks have seen lately.)

Here's how you can avoid the problem, and you're right - all it takes is an extra zip tie. Leave yourself enough slack in the harness that the print head can move all the way from side to side on the X-axis. (And mine has two harnesses showing, because it's now a dual.) You just need to take the slack out of the main harness along the right side support, and tie it up out of the way in that open rear slot.
zip tie.jpg
Very simple fix. I'll flag Rick and Josh about it. Thanks for letting everybody know. :)

msinger
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2016 8:37 pm

Re: Servos stopped moving, particularly on Bracelet.g

Post by msinger » Sat Jul 30, 2016 8:39 pm

witb wrote:I’d also love to buy a MakerGear branded sleeve/cover to keep the dust off my brand new M2!
Does anyone know of a cover that will fit the MakerGear M2? I know I won't use it everyday and I'd like to try to keep it as dust-free as possible.

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