Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Topics Related to the ORD Bot Printer

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Sun Dec 22, 2013 3:22 pm

Had a very productive day yesterday, IT MOVED! Yay! Many many thanks to Seadevil for taking time from his
busy day to babysit me through the firmware flash and give me a fast course in how that's accomplished. I
don't have many pictures since that particular process isn't very photogenic but here are Seadevil's instructions
for what we accomplished. FWIW, we followed this vid, step by step, pausing at each step and performing
it realtime, then resuming the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZgkR3ztAdw

Hoping to document some progress over the Christmas break since I'm off and it's cold outside anyway!

Merry Christmas everyone!
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby flickerfly » Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:06 pm

Congratulations and Merry Christmas!
flickerfly
 
Posts: 247
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:04 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby seadevil » Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:28 pm

I promised merfman I would send him my marlin steps/mm code. Here is a cut/paste. If you know or measure your belt size and count your gear teeth you should be able to get the x/y/z steps accurate and easily without the trial/error approach... Note that I did use trial/error for the E axis. When doing that I recommend you pay careful attention to the config.h file. There is a setting that prevents "cold" extrudes. If you do that before you wire up and configure the extruder thermistor you are ok because ramps thinks it is already hot. Otherwise you might want to (temporarily) enable cold extrudes until you extrude/measure/recal. I think this is always a trial and error process and not having that hot end around waiting to burn your hands is a good idea.
Code: Select all
// default settings

//                              ***-------------------------- degrees/step
//                              |||     **------------------- microsteps/step
//                              |||     ||     *-------------- mm/belt tooth
//                              |||     ||     |   **--------- gear teeth/rotation
//                              |||     ||     |   ||   ****-- screw travel/rotation
#define _beltStepsPerMM_  ((360/1.8) * (16) / (2 * 18))
#define _screwStepsPerMM_ ((360/1.8) * (16) /           1.25)
// by experimentation 3/0/13 extruded 10mm, got 71mm
// by measurement 4/26/13 100mm measured 120mm - so add final /1.2
//#define _extruderStepsPerMM_ ((760*1.1)/7.1)/1.2
// switch to the makerbot drive gear, measured 107 expected 100
#define _extruderStepsPerMM_ ((760*1.1)/7.1)/1.2*(100.0/107.0)
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT   {_beltStepsPerMM_,_beltStepsPerMM_,_screwStepsPerMM_,_extruderStepsPerMM_}  // default steps ord-bot


One final note. I did not do the "appropriate places" copies explained by jb92563 in viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2337&start=10#p21265
I think the first just moves the marlin software under the adruino folder and can be avoided with arduino "open" to load from the marlin directory.
the 2nd step.. copy the libraries into arduino. I'll have to look more carefully at that. At first glance it looks like AVR support for gen6,gen6,sanguino (and I'm using arduino + ramps) But then there is that libraries directory and hardware directory. The library contains drivers for SPI and LCD. I haven't checked to see if these add or overwrite existing code. I can say my reprapdiscount taurino+ramps and rumba both work with the reprapdiscount smart LCD using the native arduino 23 libraries. I'l have to look a lot more carefully at that hardware one. It has a different avrdude config. (This is the program used to "burn" the code into the AVR.)

I have had problems with that step. (disclaimer: I have an AVR ISP cable and know a little about AVR's but have not reviewed all the bootloader details) I have hit the dreaded "avrdude timeout" problem and just use my ISP cable when it happens. I believe there were bugs in some early versions of the bootloader and arduino where the escape sequence to enter the boot loader could be triggered by terminal code. I have tied reburning my bootloader with various ones from arduino, and I have tried other avrdude config settings, but never found a good solution. Maybe that conf file will fix it? I'll try to dig deeper here. (probably going to the source for avrdude and seeing what it says.)

One word of warning on firmware. You should assume your arduino board (bottom board under the ramps) is not programmed when you get it. It might contain test code, but it probably does not contain the correct code for your machine. If you power it connected to your machine who knows what will happen. You need to flash that board with a USB cable before you start testing your machine!
seadevil
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:59 pm

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:39 pm

Many thanks to Seadevil for posting that code! That's next in my list of firmware mods!

Got quite a bit done at the local makermeet on Saturday. Haven't had much time to
work on the 'bot recently. All the mechanicals are initially done! With the help of the
group on Saturday, I was able to get Pronterface up and running. Adjusted my axis
endstops so it would "home" properly. Had a little bit of an issue with the Z-axis
un-squaring itself over travel. I think we got this fixed, the theory is that one of the
motors might have been on the hairy-edge current-wise so we turned it up and that
seemed to fix the issue...

Noob2Noob tip: Before you start putting everything together, make notes of exactly
what components you have for the bed, hot-end thermistor, number of teeth on the
gears/pulleys, etc... everything. You'll need that later when you start with the firmware. ;)

Myself, and a couple guys in the group, consistently have timeout issues when uploading
the firmware to the Arduino... re-trying fixes the issue but it's taken 10 or so re-tries to
get it to sync... any fixes out there?
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:31 pm

Got the extruder calibrated last night. Went through some calculations I found on the 'net and those numbers
weren't even close. :( A 10mm extrude command just barely moved the extruder... so, I took the experiment
with Pronterface approach. After about 20 minutes, I was able to settle on 750 as a good number for Wade's
Reloaded extruder with a 47/9 gear set.

Noob2Noob tip: Make sure your filament will pass through the hole in the extruder before assembly. Otherwise,
you'll be pulling apart your extruder and cleaning out the hole mid-calibration...
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:05 pm

Spent some time last night debugging my "heated bed won't heat up" issue... I'd gone to our local Maker
show-n-tell last Weds, was discussing the issue with a fellow Maker and he made the comment "You have to
hook up both wires" - I had no idea what he meant but the space was so crowded with enthusiastic visitors
that I didn't have time to ask what he meant... as I sat pondering why my bed wouldn't work last night, studying
the wiring guide, it hit me. Both the 11A AND the 5A supply must be connected for the bed to work. A
quick splice and rewire job and I had a working bed! I now understand the need for insulation among other
things tho... ;) For some reason tho, the LED doesn't work on the board... I don't really care at this point,
that's a problem for another day, other things have more priority...

Next up, level the bed and try to get that first print!

Merf
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:49 am

New problem, hopefully somebody here has experienced it... I started getting Err:MINTEMP errors that shut down the printer. I've checked the thermistor value at the connector and it was 116.2K, seems legit. Did I somehow manage to blow up the board? Anyone have any ideas?
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby fma » Tue Feb 04, 2014 6:03 am

The board may have seen the thermistor loop open at some time: check your wires, move them while reading the temp to see if you can reproduce the problem...
Frédéric
fma
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:53 am

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby Merfman » Tue Feb 04, 2014 1:43 pm

Thanks fma... I've pulled/ohmed/checked the connections more times than I can count. I found Bart's Thermistors 101 post
in another thread here.... he explained how the thermistor network operated and gave some input about trying to diagnose
the problem. So, after reading that post, I powered up the board and checked the voltage at the pins: Got GND on on pin.
4.97V on the other. Put together a structure that'd allow me to check the voltage once the thermistor was connected, and
found that voltage to be 4.77V - seems correct. So, I'm now wondering if somewhere on the board the A->D function is
broken... more debug ahead. Guess I need to find a schematic of the RAMPS board and see if other clues can be found...

So, stupid question: If the board get's a MINTEMP trigger, would reflashing the board erase/reset this? Or do I have to
manually reset the board in some non-obvious fashion? I've re-powered it multiple times and reflashed multiple times.
Still getting the MINTEMP error...
Merfman
 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Intro - 3D Noob - Hadron build

Postby fma » Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:12 pm

The conversion is done continuously; you don't need to reset/reflash anything. Some firmware won't extrude until your restart the board, but the thermistor is still read.

BTW, do you see the temp read by the firmware? Most (if not all) host softwares continuously display it... Is it correct?
Frédéric
fma
 
Posts: 213
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:53 am

PreviousNext

Return to ORD Bot

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests

cron