Control 'Un-homing' itself

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PNSNengineering
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Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:15 pm

Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:58 am

Hey Doug and BB team,

Something I've had happen a few times on my control is it will seem to time out, and when I come back to it the control un-homes all axes and zeroes out all work offsets (like it just turned itself on). I use a touchscreen laptop most of the time connected over network, and I had this happen quite a few times when the screen went to sleep. I'd turn back on, the page would update, and everything would reset. Just had it happen on my main laptop too as I was working on my probing routine. I switched over to the code editor on my laptop to make some changes, and when I returned to the page a minute or so later everything was reset.

It also seems to only happen after the 1.0.0 update. Just curious if there's a recommended fix or if anyone else has noticed the same issue (hopefully not just me!)

Thanks,
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Alex Pinson
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Doug
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Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by Doug » Sun Jun 06, 2021 5:39 pm

I haven't seen this issue. It would be great if you can figure out how to reproduce the problem and send me the sequence of events. I'd also be interested in which browser you are using on your laptop.

Finally, if you go to the SETTINGS->ADMIN page, you can generate a bug report. The bug report is a file that contains the program that is currently loaded, the system logs, and your configuration. When you get that file, try attaching it to this thread. It may provide some info on what caused the reset. This would be especially useful right after the failure has occurred.

PNSNengineering
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:15 pm

Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Fri Jun 11, 2021 6:16 am

Thanks Doug. I will try to get a bug report next time it happens - right after I posted this I was playing with probing some more and had the issue happen 4 more times. I realized that it didn't have anything to do with the machine idling, I was just most likely to notice it after I had been away from the control (since it would have happened while I was away and then I'd notice when I came back).

I am using Opera on the laptop I use as the dedicated control interface and Chrome on my main laptop, both have shown issues. It seems to just happen randomly, the most recent time I was looking at the control and in between inputting MDI commands (an F10 and a G0, neither of which should un-reference or reset work offsets)

Like I said next time I'm playing around with it I will try to get more info. One thought I had over the last week was if there's a short or other issue with the E-stop it could be momentarily e-stopping the machine - quickly enough that I can't see that it was e-stopped on the control - and that's what is causing the soft reset. Just looking at the control demo (https://demo.buildbotics.com/#control) it doesn't look like a recent e-stop will show in the messages tab, will a bug report (or some other way) tell me if there was a recent, but not active, e-stop?
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Alex Pinson
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Doug
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Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by Doug » Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:25 pm

Yes, an estop will show up in the logs, but the logs are quite cryptic.

If the machine estops for any reason, all homing information will be lost. This can also happen if a limit switch trips for some reason.

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Doug
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Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by Doug » Sat Jun 12, 2021 11:00 am

I learned today that if you click 'Pause' during a probing operation, the machine will estop. I have submitted a github issue on this problem. See https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/301 .

Is it possible that this is what is causing your issue?

PNSNengineering
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Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:24 pm

Unlikely. I'm never actually seeing the estop flashing, it just goes from referenced and homed to all offsets and current position at zero. There's no error state after it all zeroes out, I can still move the machine I just have to re-home and set offsets again. It doesn't seem to only happen when probing but any time the machine is idle (never had it happen while running a CAM program)
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Alex Pinson
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PNSNengineering
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:15 pm

Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:42 am

Okay, finally got a bug log for you. I'm also a little frustrated, as every time the control throws a warning (I'm trying to tweak my tool probe functionality and keep getting over-travel warnings when trying to run a program - probably worth its own forum post) but every time I get a warning it's like I'm locked out of the control. All of the home/set/zero buttons for each axis are grayed out, I can't jog with the remote, and nothing short of an e-stop will bring it out of this state when I'd like to just be able to stop the program after a warning. I may just be missing what I need to do in this case but I got stuck multiple times.

Anyways, I don't think the two are related - the bug report may show both issues, as the offsets all being reset happened at some point after I walked away from the machine once a warning came up, when I came back everything had been reset. I was also using two different computers to access the control over a network, not sure if that would have anything to do with it.

Edit: I was about to post about the other issue I was having, but it appears it's already pretty well documented with an issue between G92 and G53: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=226 this is the issue I am having, but when I get an overtravel warning it locks up the control and I can't continue to run the program (unlike the other users who don't seem to be having trouble, they just get a warning but the program runs fine).
Attachments
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Alex Pinson
IG: pnsn.engineering

PNSNengineering
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:15 pm

Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:18 pm

One last update, I think I found the issue. The control seems to be resetting whenever internet connection is lost momentarily. Unfortunately I'm tied to connecting over WiFi since I have an older control with no display out and we don't have wired internet in our basement. Every once in a while our internet will momentarily drop out when we get a phone call (a larger issue than the scope of this forum lol) but lo and behold today we got a phone call and the control reset.

I'll look into fixing that on my end, but since that's not the only reason connection may occasionally drop it would be nice if it didn't cause the control to reset (since theoretically it could be run without an internet connection anyways).
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Alex Pinson
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Doug
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Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by Doug » Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:46 pm

Thanks Alex,

Since the built-in WiFi antenna is inside the aluminum enclosure, you must have a pretty good WiFi signal to avoid network problems. You can improve the network signal with a WiFi dongle. If you decide to get one, it must be 'linux' compatible. I use one like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H9 ... UTF8&psc=1

If you choose to get one of these, I recommend unchecking the 'internal WiFi' box on the 'Network' configuration page. Make sure you re-enter your network password with making this change.

Another thing that can cause grief is if you do not have graphics acceleration on the computer that is presenting the display. If you are finding the 3D View slow, you should not use it for now. We will disable the 3DView on computers without graphics acceleration in an upcoming release.

PNSNengineering
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:15 pm

Re: Control 'Un-homing' itself

Post by PNSNengineering » Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:29 am

Thanks Doug,

Just picked up a WiFi dongle and a phone line filter so hopefully those will help a bit. Ideally a connection drop wouldn't cause a full reset but minimizing connection issues will help too. The good thing is it doesn't seem to reset the control if the machine is running, only when idle (that or I've just been lucky and haven't had a drop while trying to make a part :)
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Alex Pinson
IG: pnsn.engineering

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