Bottom line: New build - having lots of trouble diagnosing weird communication/electronic/software/controller issues that are making the machine unusable even as a pen-plotter. Losing motivation…
Setup:
*LR3 with 750mmX x 1500mmY rails, all PLA plates (for now)
*Ryan’s hardware kit (had to replace defective X stepper but otherwise all parts from the kit)
*Jackpot controller, preloaded firmware from Ryan - according to the boot message FluidNC 3.8.0
*Running in AP mode (experimenting with different devices to run interface, including chrome on Windows 10 Pro (Suface) and Kindle tablet)
*Had modified the stepoffs and steps/mm in the config, but reverted to a copy I had made pre-changes to Ryan’s original config.yaml to try to rule this out
*Running GCode uploaded to SD, making GCode with Estlcam
*I haven’t cut strut plates yet and (full disclosure) waiting to tidy up wiring until I’ve got those.
The issue(s):
*The biggest problem that makes the machine pretty much worthless until resolved is intermittently/unpredictably stopping (software/board crashing??) while running GCode.
*The machine responds to jog commands through the web interface sometimes instantly, sometimes delayed (seconds), sometimes not at all.
*The resume and “clear alarm” buttons never work on the FluidNC ESP3D interface. (This is problematic as it makes it more difficult to get past status messages, ie. where they are included in recommended probing scripts, tool changes, etc).
*When I run code and hit pause it does pause (on tablet mode, doesn’t recognize anything on the main interface page and keeps on running), but I can not resume at all and then nothing responds (won’t even reset the Jackpot controller, have to manually disconnect and reconnect power to get control again).
*When the controller hangs and I have to hard reset with the ESP buttons or disconnecting power I sometimes get “ERROR:152 Configuration is invalid. Check boot messages for ERR’s” but there are no errors listed in the boot messages, and I reverted to the copy I had made of the original config and am still getting this error here and there.
For clarity, these issues occur without the router plugged in (so not EM issues from that).
Some things I’ve tried:
*Reverting to original config.yaml (although I’m pretty sure some issues like the problems jogging where noted before I made changes).
*Watched for patterns for a triggering event when the GCode running hangs - can’t find a rhyme or reason.
*Ruled out endstop switch connections (or interference from steppers causing false positives) as triggering the machine halting (connected and reconnected and clicked them while a job is running - this doesn’t interrupt the program).
*Other stuff but my brain is fried at this point and I can’t recall what else I’ve done/ruled out…
Some of this stuff seems like EM interference issues (but I think not actually likely since there isn’t a lot of connected metal and router isn’t plugged in), some seems like web interface issues (resume and clear alarm buttons not responding to clicking) and some just feels like a firmware or controller board problem.
I am nearing my wits end. Not finding any posts/Google results for people struggling with the same stuff. Any pointers happily accepted. Hopefully I’m missing something simple and maybe obvious to someone out there.
Build Photos (plan to tidy wiring after I get this thing reliable enough to make/install the strut plates, unless someone thinks the wiring may legitimately be the issue)
