2.0 thoughts and eval

Okay, all.
I've had my 2.0 for a couple of weeks now so I thought I'd share.
As most of you know, I was a very early adopter on the handibot having purchased the original Kickstarter version.

The hardware is all but flawless, and there will be a lot less time spent keeping this aligned and running than 1.X, very stiff and robust.
A couple of innovations I love:
The new zeroing is fantastic! No micro switches to break. A Z tap plate comes installed to the bed so cutter changes will be reliable matches for multi-bit designs.
Part of the packing material became a jig. Okay, maybe not the greatest jig ever but genus reuse of packing material.

The ONLY hardware problems I've had so far are the Z plate has extra holes for mounting the router mount higher or lower, well the extra holes needed chasing with a tap. Brian says this has been captured, and your unit will not have this problem. Also, some hardware was looser than I am comfortable with but no harm just tightened it up.

The firmware/software is where things become more of a mixed bag.
Fabmo is a significant change over sb3 that ran the 1.X units. I see it as having HUGE potential, but I also see it as mostly unfinished.
It is very user-friendly, and you can be cutting in minutes. File handling is drag and drop, and the SBC will buffer several files in a queue for you.

Now on to the unfinished part.
While the hardware is in place for four simultaneous axes, the firmware does not yet support it. So if you want to use the rotary indexer you have to reconfigure your Y axis to B. This brings up the other critical downfall of fabmo if you do reconfigure your Y and B, good luck getting it back to how it came as there is no support for profiles as of today.

So how do I rate it overall? I am giving it a 7 with the ability to go to a 10. If I was a new user I'd probably give it a 10 as I'd never realize the lack of profiles and the lack of support for the fourth axis. That is the great thing about software/firmware issues. They can be fixed as quickly as the code can be written and the SBCs flashed.

Hey Mark! Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad that you could appreciate the (imperfect) jig. It definitely could use some tweaking but was a good afternoon project one day when I was trying to think of ways to use the excess material left over after cutting out the test cut bases.

The guys in the shop are chasing those threaded holes in the Z plate now to make sure that the different positions work well--an oversight from the machine shop that has been making our metal parts and I'll be following up with them before we make our next order of parts.

I've also asked Earl (builds the handibot frame) to use a higher torque setting when tightening the bolts that hold the plastic frame together. We use thread lock on every bolt that holds metal parts together so I hope that none of those were loose.

I keep pushing handibot related issues to the top of the pile for our software guys. They're working to adapt FabMo to run on all ShopBot tools which will require much of the functionality that I want for handibot--but I'm maintaining that handibot needs to continue to be their focus until all features are working well.

Thanks again for your feedback and for your support over the last few years. Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences with the tool!

Brian,
I really appreciate the way you, Ted, and all of Shopbot/handibot will go to no end to get things right.
I am sure that as the software/firmware gets tweaked 2.0 will become everything the handibot was originally envisioned to be. I know getting the Kickstarter has over the last couple of years made me into a full blown maker.
I added a 3d printer last fall and will add a laser cutter this fall or winter.
With the teething pains behind me, I am perfecting a wood and hopefully later urethane handle for the knife sharpener I have been 3d printing.

Anyone interested can see my progress over at the G+ site: [plus.google.com]
I won't post it all here as this forum hates photos and they are stupid simple over there.

All,

I'm new and have had the HandiBot v2 for about three months or so. Things I've learned are vast and probably noob issues if anything.

Some of the small issues I'm running into worth noting (to me) are:

1) is like to be able to establish a park position at x=0, Y=6 (or so). It may be possible, but I haven't found it yet. If so, call it user error and skip to the next item. I'd like to have a set park location to maximize workflow and have access to remove wood from the cutting area. Helpful when cutting 6x6 repetitive pieces.
2) the index jig's round nubs are too loose. It seemed to occur over time, as if they rounded through use. I drew new jigs and cut them using 1" x 1/2" diamonds with a 1/4" round tip. Seemed much tighter. I have created some index templates and sent them to a local machine shop so I can lock them and interlock them together. I'll let ya'll'in's know how that turns out.
3) when I drag and drop multiple files into the job manager, some files do not stay in alphanumeric order. Sounds dumb, but when I'm tiling, it is frustrating where I have to delete the files and reload them. I haven't been able to figure out how to bypass and select the next file in order.
4) if you're manually moving the router and you hit a stop, you're going to need to rezero. The numbers keep moving at the stop. Kind of frustrating, and really taught me to not use the manual movement keys unless I absolutely have to - and when I do, pay attention to not come close to a stop or I'm ruining the piece.
5) straight lines in X are off by about 1/64th at the tile start point. I would like to adjust it out, but the only instructions I found were to check for square. I did that, seemed pretty solid. It would be great if there was a tiling check adjustment to slightly nudge X into alignment.

Like I said, I'm new. These may all be user error, so I apologize in advance.

First, don't apologize for having an opinion, even if something is user error, it points to a possible human factors problem. I'll put the rest of my opinion inline with your post.

Steve K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All,
>
> I'm new and have had the HandiBot v2 for about
> three months or so. Things I've learned are vast
> and probably noob issues if anything.
>
> Some of the small issues I'm running into worth
> noting (to me) are:
>
> 1) is like to be able to establish a park position
> at x=0, Y=6 (or so). It may be possible, but I
> haven't found it yet. If so, call it user error
> and skip to the next item. I'd like to have a set
> park location to maximize workflow and have access
> to remove wood from the cutting area. Helpful when
> cutting 6x6 repetitive pieces.
It is hard to do this from the control software right now as it would involve editing the park macro. This is why I am asking for the ability to copy macros to and from the SBC.
There is another way though if you are using Vcarve Pro, click the material setup button on the top of the toolpaths side. At the bottom of this dialogue is a place to set origin/park. This will include the park in the cut file and it will be included in each tile if you are tiling.
> 2) the index jig's round nubs are too loose. It
> seemed to occur over time, as if they rounded
> through use. I drew new jigs and cut them using 1"
> x 1/2" diamonds with a 1/4" round tip. Seemed much
> tighter. I have created some index templates and
> sent them to a local machine shop so I can lock
> them and interlock them together. I'll let
> ya'll'in's know how that turns out.
Please do.
> 3) when I drag and drop multiple files into the
> job manager, some files do not stay in
> alphanumeric order. Sounds dumb, but when I'm
> tiling, it is frustrating where I have to delete
> the files and reload them. I haven't been able to
> figure out how to bypass and select the next file
> in order.
I have not tiled under fabmo yet but this does sound like something that needs to be addressed.What I did under 3.x and should work well under fabmo is to arrange cut files into folders and subfolders within dropbox and then call/copy one cut file at a time. Fabmo should remember the last folder you used.
> 4) if you're manually moving the router and you
> hit a stop, you're going to need to rezero. The
> numbers keep moving at the stop. Kind of
> frustrating, and really taught me to not use the
> manual movement keys unless I absolutely have to -
> and when I do, pay attention to not come close to
> a stop or I'm ruining the piece.
yes, this can be a problem but over time you will bang the stops less and less. I put additional markings on my 1.x and probably will on my 2.0
> 5) straight lines in X are off by about 1/64th at
> the tile start point. I would like to adjust it
> out, but the only instructions I found were to
> check for square. I did that, seemed pretty solid.
> It would be great if there was a tiling check
> adjustment to slightly nudge X into alignment.
If this is in addition to any random slop then you still don't have it square. Again I have not had to square my 2.0 but I've had to do my 1.0 and it can be tedious. I like your idea of software help though if that is posible.
>
> Like I said, I'm new. These may all be user error,
> so I apologize in advance.

Mark Evans Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > 1) is like to be able to establish a park
> position
> > at x=0, Y=6 (or so). It may be possible, but I
> > haven't found it yet. If so, call it user error
> > and skip to the next item. I'd like to have a
> set
> > park location to maximize workflow and have
> access
> > to remove wood from the cutting area. Helpful
> when
> > cutting 6x6 repetitive pieces.
> It is hard to do this from the
> control software right now as it would involve
> editing the park macro. This is why I am asking
> for the ability to copy macros to and from the
> SBC.
> There is another way though if you are using
> Vcarve Pro, click the material setup button on the
> top of the toolpaths side. At the bottom of this
> dialogue is a place to set origin/park. This will
> include the park in the cut file and it will be
> included in each tile if you are tiling.

I'll try this one today... I know exactly where you'e talking about. I'll give it a try - sounds almost too easy.


> > 3) when I drag and drop multiple files into the
> > job manager, some files do not stay in
> > alphanumeric order. Sounds dumb, but when I'm
> > tiling, it is frustrating where I have to
> delete
> > the files and reload them. I haven't been able
> to
> > figure out how to bypass and select the next
> file
> > in order.
> I have not tiled under fabmo yet
> but this does sound like something that needs to
> be addressed.What I did under 3.x and should work
> well under fabmo is to arrange cut files into
> folders and subfolders within dropbox and then
> call/copy one cut file at a time. Fabmo should
> remember the last folder you used.

Fabmo is each to drag and drop into Chrome from a folder.... I'm OCD when it comes to file naming conventions, so I like the T1_name, T2_name format. This problem happens when I select multiple Tile files from a folder (every project by layer have their own folder). When I drag the over, occassionally, the files get out of alphanumeric order. If you're not paying attention, you may think you're on the correct tile to cut, but you're out of sequence... and if you hit the green button... well, you're not going to be happy. I'd tell you a story of how I found this problem on a 24 tile sign... on the 19th tile. I now check every time a drag and drop a batch of tiles. There is no way to reorder the files when they get out of sequence... you just have to delete (trashcan) the ones out of sequence and drag and drop individually back in. It works... but just an annoyance. Once you learn it can happen to you, you'll never forget to check, that's for sure.

The nice thing about the interface is that it loads the next file for you. Speeds up the work flow quite a bit. I would like to find a way to store common cuts in the Fabmo. Like the T-groove key slot I use for teh back side of signs to hang them with a screw on the wall. If the Fabmo has a bit of memory for file location and a sample image or something, that would be helpful. It may have it already and I haven't found it.


> > 5) straight lines in X are off by about 1/64th
> at
> > the tile start point. I would like to adjust it
> > out, but the only instructions I found were to
> > check for square. I did that, seemed pretty
> solid.
> > It would be great if there was a tiling check
> > adjustment to slightly nudge X into alignment.
> If this is in addition to any
> random slop then you still don't have it square.
> Again I have not had to square my 2.0 but I've had
> to do my 1.0 and it can be tedious. I like your
> idea of software help though if that is posible.
>

I think in the Fire It Up app, it could have a software function to reduce / eliminate racking laterally. It is, after all, just math. For now, I think I'll hit the left side of the frame with two or three pieces of blue painters tape on the edge and see what that does.

Thanks for all the ideas and your time. I really appreciate it!

Steve

Steve,

Are you using your tool in "Access Point" mode or do you have it connected to a network. The job manager should organize jobs according to the time at which they were submitted (not so helpful if you're selecting a batch)--but in access point mode the tool doesn't "know" what time it is--so it can't sort things by submission date and it gets kinda random. Connecting the tool to a wifi network would help with that.

I'll second Mark on the use of an alternate home position in vCarve. I usually keep my home position at X=0 Y=8 so that the tool automatically pulls out of the way when it is done cutting and I can get to my work and pull it out.

I replied in the X Y accuracy thread about some ideas for improving the square on your tool. I'm going to mess around with that today and will report back in that thread.

Brian