Pen Up/Down Troubleshooting

[EdmondsLibrarian]

I am in the process of upgrading to the 2.5 version with the pen up/down feature. The servo isn’t responding to commands from the software. (The pulleys are.) What would be the best process to follow to troubleshoot the pen up/down?

PS- I’d recommend the upgrade to all users because the belt is better than string.

[Anonymous]

I assume you have the motor shield v1.
Are you certain you are on the right servo pin and your servo is wired correctly?
Are you sure your servo works?

[EdmondsLibrarian]

I’m starting to try running with Makelangelo version 7.1.0
It appears that all the styles of drawing available require the pen up/down feature to work (I liked that all one long line.)
My servo doesn’t move beyond a little click when it is plugged in.
The pen up and pen down commands don’t do anything. (The driving around is working great.)
I thought it might have been the extender wire, but there is no result with the servo plugged in directly. Any ideas?

Picture
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzmn5pYsAKsWcmtkZWx0MmdjNW8/view?usp=sharing

[Anonymous]

Have you tried both port ser 0 and ser 1

[EdmondsLibrarian]

Excellent suggestion.
Switching connections was the answer! Thank you.
It took some tenacity since the pins will go in with either orientation. This is probably a detail worth noting in the instruction page. (For newbies, the extension cord connection takes quite a bit of force as well.)

[Anonymous]

The board is labelled S+-. The white wire should go to S.
Please post the URL of the spot in the instructions that failed you and I will fix it.

[EdmondsLibrarian]

http://learn.marginallyclever.com/index.php/Makelangelo_2.5.2_Assembly
The picture after “Connect the servo extension table to the control shield. Use this picture for reference”
Shows it in the second row of pins. (Mine needed to be in first row.)

[Anonymous]

Hrm. the easiest fix would be to move both servos the the same value so no one can plug it in wrong.

[Anonymous]

I am having an issue with my servo not recognizing the settings once the artwork has been started. While testing in settings the servo responds perfectly well to the up / down settings, though once the artwork is started it seems to bypass these settings. I have even tested setting both up and down to stay in the up position to see if they were just being reversed but even when I did this it would just bypass these commands and do up as down and down as up

Any ideas?

[Dan]

What values are you setting, what values are you seeing?
Defaults are 50 degrees for pen down and 90 degrees for pen up.

One quick fix would be to test 90 pen up, then physically remove the horn and place it at the right angle. After that everything should be fine with default settings.

[Vladimir]

Often there are cases when in G code there is a command to raise the gondola, for example G1 Z45 (up)
But the servo for some reason does not work and does not raise the gondola.
Maybe it’s a bad servo or static electricity, but the problem is present.
How do I make a check if the servo of the gondola lifted or not?
It would be convenient to install a button (limit switch) near the servo-drive, if the actuator is activated, the contacts of the circuit-breaker are closed, all OK and the engines move the gondola to a new location.
If the servo does not work and does not close the contacts, the process stops for a pause.
Without such a check, the traces of the pencil appear at the time of idling, which should not be.
If you use a bot as a toy, it’s good and as it is, but if the work is serious and big, you can not do without checking …
I also noticed a feature. When I press the pause button, the gondola stops and rises, after pressing the gong, the gondola remains raised until the next operation of the servo from the G code.
As a result, a skip is obtained in the figure …

[Dan]

is (A) servo failing sometimes, or (B) is servo too slow or (C) both?

When you press pause… is it from software? is it from lcd panel? software is supposed to return pen to previous state. lcd panel… maybe it forgets.

[Author]

Posts