Gondola isn't moving - euphy/polargraph GitHub Wiki

Yes way, it happens to the best of us. If the gondola is moving, but in the wrong direction, read my gondola is moving in reverse

Test for it

  1. Plug your machine into the USB, start the controller. Choose your serial port, and get the message at the top of the screen to go green (polargraph connected)
  2. click set home
    • Your motors will wriggle, and then be energised, and lock.
  3. click move pen to point, and click somewhere on the machine on-screen (near the home point is safe).
    • Your motors should pull the pen to a new location, not necessarily in a straight line
  4. click move direct, and click somewhere on the machine on-screen.
    • Your motors should pull the pen to a new location, moving the pen in a straight line.

What happened

  • None of the above did anything. That's not good news. Indicates some deeper problem, probably with the power supply, power connections etc. Check your polarity, your supply voltage.
    • This might be a communications problem, and the commands just aren't getting through.
  • Step 1 locks the motors, step 2 moves the motors but step 3 does nothing. Better. This is usually means that there is a mismatch between the size of the machine in the controller, and the size that you've told the machine. The machine looks at your request, and will often find that the move would take the pen off the edge of the machine, and will politely refuse to cooperate.

Debug

There is a debug console in the Polargraph controller that shows you the raw communication between the machine and the controller. You can pop it up with ctrl+C. When you've done that, send your move direct command and watch for the response from the machine. You will probably see something like

line was not on the page, skipping it!

Note that if you are running the Polargraph Controller from source (in Processing), all of the debug messages are automatically shown in the Processing console already, just look there.

Solution

  • Upload your machine specification. Click 'upload machine spec' on the 'setup' tab of the controller.