RADDS work now stable with RepRap Firmware

Quote
toxuin
Hello, guys.

Where do I connect a inductive Z probe on RADDS?.. Probe model is LJ18A3-8-Z/BX. I wired it up through a voltage divider so it outputs a 3.2 V when triggered. A perfect replacement for normally-open Z min switch, but a manual for Duet says I need to connect it to E0 endstop. There is also a reference in code to E0_AXIS, but it is not in Pins.h for RADDS.

E0_AXIS is endstop[3],

https://github.com/dcnewman/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Platform.h#L96

But in Pins_radds.h, only endstops[0] - [2] are assigned.

https://github.com/dcnewman/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Pins_radds.h#L55

Issue being that there's not a wealth of spare digital pins exposed on the RADDS board. You can usurp one of the digital pins from the AUX1 header on the RADDS, put it into Line 55 or Pins_radds.h, and then build. I've not myself tested the lastest RADDS build since the (welcome) code/library re-arrangement which happened late last week and over the weekend. So, you may want to use a slightly older, more stable time-slice such as,

https://github.com/dcnewman/RepRapFirmware/tree/36e3d7c26fac61335935980027a8490772ca304e

Going forward, I can assign one. Using D38, the unused Z-max from RADDS would make sense EXCEPT it is already allocated to use by a MAX31855. And 34 and 36 are also used. (Those are the RADDS X-max and Y-max which are instead used for the Z-probe and another MAX31855 CS pin.) Sooo, you might want to try digital pin 39 which on the RADDS board should be exposed as the Servo PWM3 pin. I'll consider usurping that one as well going forward.

I've experimentally added use of D39 (RADDS v1.5 PWM3) as the E0_AXIS endstop pin thus making it accessible as the pin for an inductive Z-probe. A build of 1.09x-dc42-radds with that is now uploaded to the github repo (dcnewman/RepRapFirmware). I do not myself have an inductive Z probe and as such am not in a position to test. I have also tentatively removed pin 39 from the list of I/O pins controlled by M42.

Thanks! I will test that one out and let you know the results. I am currently using a relatively old build so it is time to update anyways :-)

Inductive probing works!

Here's what I've put on my config file:
M558 P4 X0 Y0 Z1 H3 ; Probe emulates a switch, used for homing only Z axis
M574 E0 S0 ; Probe output is inverted = active high
G31 Z0.30 ; Margin between probe trigger point and the nozzle

I've noticed RepetierHost now "looses connection" to the board quite often although I haven't change any config files. I have to press "Fake ok" after nearly every command I put.

Does the comms issue only occur with the inductive probing enabled? (I don't myself see how they might be related.)

There's three changes here which come to mind

1. You enabled the inductive Z probe. Unlikely to be the cause.
2. RepRapFirmware is now using a standalone copy of the Arduino libraries isolating itself from the assorted changes the Arduino team makes from time to time.
3. Previously, the RADDS build alone conditionalized out use of a secondary serial line ("AUX2"). That was working. Then that conditionalizing was added to the main RepRapFirmware (dc42 branch) but done a little differently. My fork for the RADDS ended up in a couple of spots with a mixture of the two styles. That may have been posing a problem. I've built and uploaded a 1.09x-dc42-radds-a.bin which you can try. Hopefully that will fix the issue. If it doesn't, then the problem may be related to 2 above.

I will try it, thank you!

Also, I've noticed that although Z probe works, it is very inconsistent. Sometimes it triggers while airborne 100 mm above bed. Does the pin 39 have any pullup\pulldown modes? My sensor is PNP, I use it with 12V, 4.7k and 12k resistors which should produce a ~ 3.3V output.
Fun fact: when I connect it to Z endstop pins – it is super-consistent. What am I doing wrong?..

Quote
toxuin
I will try it, thank you!

FWIW, I didn't have any USB comms issue with the very minor USB testing I did via the Arduino app and a spare RADDS board I have with me. (Am not located with my printers at the moment.)

Quote
toxuin
Also, I've noticed that although Z probe works, it is very inconsistent. Sometimes it triggers while airborne 100 mm above bed. Does the pin 39 have any pullup\pulldown modes? My sensor is PNP, I use it with 12V, 4.7k and 12k resistors which should produce a ~ 3.3V output.

Looks like the code enables the internal pullup,

https://github.com/dc42/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Platform.cpp#L417

And reading it is

https://github.com/dc42/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Platform.h#L1230

which is then filtered and then comes out of the filters about here,

https://github.com/dc42/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Platform.cpp#L438

Quote
toxuin
Fun fact: when I connect it to Z endstop pins – it is super-consistent. What am I doing wrong?..

Well, the normal endstop pins have the internal pullups asserted,

https://github.com/dc42/RepRapFirmware/blob/dev/src/Platform.cpp#L263

and then they are very simply read with a single digitalRead() call. That's the code at least. No good advice from me on why you're seeing what you're seeing: I've not invested the time in digesting the filtering code.

Sorry for the confusion. That's just me and my ~amazing~ soldering skills. Probe now works quite stable, I confirm.

I haven't flash a newer version you've linked yet, but I must say that OctoPrint talks with the "old" version just fine. I'll still try newer version with RepetierHost. Flashing with bossac just requires me to boot up a Windows machine.

Quote
toxuin
Sorry for the confusion. That's just me and my ~amazing~ soldering skills. Probe now works quite stable, I confirm.

Ahh, thanks for the follow up and glad to read that things are working.

Quote
toxuin
I haven't flash a newer version you've linked yet, but I must say that OctoPrint talks with the "old" version just fine. I'll still try newer version with RepetierHost. Flashing with bossac just requires me to boot up a Windows machine.

There's bossac for OS X which I use -- comes with Arduino App when you install SAM3X tools. And I thought there was one for Linux as well, again from Arduino. (I'd swear I used it before.) [For Windows, I just keep assorted Windows VMs around and run them with VirtualBox.] Also, I too use Octoprint. So if it's working fine with Octoprint, that means I won't see the issue myself when I return home. I do the serial comes with Octoprint and PanelDue.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2016 11:58PM by dnewman.

Hey dan , I just want to report since the last time, the DVR8825 bin you sent me, everything is fine except its kinda acting weird when I try to manually extract/retract via octoprint. If I ask to extrude 5mm its gonna retract a bunch (20+) if I try to resent the same command, it not working, I have to change the number for it to work and its random if its gonna retract or extrude and how much it gonna, its the same thing if I send a G command via terminal or manually control. But its look OK while I was printing last week. But im kinda afraid its gonna start acting weird sometime during a print and mess up the print.

Could it be the lack of direction delay in the pulse ?

Any progress on getting the pulse delay ( stepper driver brand) in M command ?

Quote
GroupB
Could it be the lack of direction delay in the pulse ?

It could be. I'm not a stepper driver expert.

Quote
GroupB
Any progress on getting the pulse delay ( stepper driver brand) in M command ?

I've not made any efforts myself in that area. So, no progress that I'm aware of.

As to an mcode extension, I'll raise the issue in a week or two. Am somewhat busy with other matters for a week or so.

Quote
GroupB
Hey dan , I just want to report since the last time, the DVR8825 bin you sent me, everything is fine except its kinda acting weird when I try to manually extract/retract via octoprint. If I ask to extrude 5mm its gonna retract a bunch (20+) if I try to resent the same command, it not working, I have to change the number for it to work and its random if its gonna retract or extrude and how much it gonna, its the same thing if I send a G command via terminal or manually control. But its look OK while I was printing last week. But im kinda afraid its gonna start acting weird sometime during a print and mess up the print.

Could it be the lack of direction delay in the pulse ?

Any progress on getting the pulse delay ( stepper driver brand) in M command ?

I suspect a faulty driver or cable, or your extruder acceleration is set too high, or the combination of steps/mm and extrusion speed you are asking for is too high.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hi everyone,

As we see here : [github.com] Dan Newman as stopped the developpement of the firmware .

Dan, can you explain your choice please ?
RADDS can use your new CoreNG firmware ?

Thanks.

I Think yes :-)

To build it, import the project into Eclipse Mars 2, select the desired configuration (SAM3X8E or SAM4E8E), and press Build.

---

Mein Club: [hackerspace-ffm.de]
RADDS-Shield -> Commercial [max3dshop.org]

Quote
shofman
Hi everyone,

As we see here : [github.com] Dan Newman as stopped the developpement of the firmware .

Dan, can you explain your choice please ?

With the high rate of substantial changes to the organization and library underpinnings of the dc42 RepRapFirmware (RRF), I've put my port of the dc42 RRF to RADDS on hold. In a few weeks, I may look into getting dc42 RRF 1.11 building for RADDS. It -- v1.11 -- does not presently support the RADDS electronics. For the time being, my https://github.com/dcnewman/RepRapFirmware-RADDS and https://github.com/dcnewman/CoreNG-RADDS will build RRF 1.10 and earlier for RADDS.

Going forward, any port I do will be done out of https://github.com/dcnewman/RepRapFirmware and https://github.com/dcnewman/CoreNG. Those repositories use the newer dc42 RRF structuring which should be more amenable to supporting other electronics owing to (welcome) restructuring work done by dc42.

Quote
shofman
RADDS can use your new CoreNG firmware ?

CoreDuet and CoreNG are not firmwares. They are a collection of subroutine libraries for supporting the Atmel SAM3X8E and SAM4X8E chips. If you use the dc42 versions of those repos, you build them with the Eclipse Mars.2 IDE. If you use my forks, you can build with either the Eclipse IDE or the scons command line tool. I'm not a fan of scons, but I'm even less a fan of IDEs. I would normally use gnu make but multi directory make can be burdensome to maintain when you do not directly control the directory layout nor changes to the layout. Hence my using scons rather than gnu make.

Thank you Dan & Angelo for your answers.
So for now, the last version for RADDS is RepRapFirmware-1.10+4-dc42-radds.bin, OK ?

Has someone tried the Wifi ESP8266 with this firmware ?
With this interface : [github.com] I can't connect to the printer
Hardware connections are good, because I can communicate with Repetier firmware and this interface [github.com]

@+

Quote
shofman
Thank you Dan & Angelo for your answers.
So for now, the last version for RADDS is RepRapFirmware-1.10+4-dc42-radds.bin, OK ?

I don't really know. I've not had time to do much testing with it. I've been traveling a lot this past month.

Ok Dan.

What about Angelo or Toxuin fot the wifi connection with RRP 1.10?

Angelo, which firmware do you advise now ?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 01:41AM by shofman.

@shofmann

Depends which firmware do you like.
I do not know which expiriance do you have and which 3d-Printer do you would like to build and which add-ons do you would like to implementate?

Reprap-Firmware is a great Firmware.It is programming very good and I like the setup via SD-Card.

Marlin4Due is also great. People, who have expirience with Marlin has it easyer to handle it.
MarlinKimbra is also fine.
I personaly use Repetier-Firmware for my Deltas.

Personaly I like all Firmware.

Have Fun
Angelo

---

Mein Club: [hackerspace-ffm.de]
RADDS-Shield -> Commercial [max3dshop.org]

Angelo,

Do you have any info about the shortage of raps128 everywhere ? and I mean it... your shop, reprap.me, makerfarm and many other, all out of stock since a while now... is there a problem on the distribution side ?

Im kinda waiting for them, hope they restock soon, I dont even care if I have to buy in euro for them now ( live in North America) since they out of stock everywhere, I bet it could take a while for makerfarm to restock them ( only N/A distributor I know) if even the euro vendor are out of stock.

Today we get 1500 Raps128.
All preordered.
The next charge will come next week.
1000 RADDS and 3000 Raps128.
I will ask Makerfarn, if and how many I can send it to him.

I hope, that in the end of next Month all distributors have all in stock again.

I change the RADDS / Raps128 Display, Extension-Board etc .. Produktion from China to Europe (Germany/Hungary).
So in future we have it Just in Time with less rejects and a large Stock.

At last we would like to replace the THB6128 with a new Stepperdriver IC.
We have the Datasheet and wait for 20 Sampels to test. The new Microstepper IC would be enable in August 2016 in the Market.
So we will become independed for the China Market.
Sorry for our Delay.

If it is urgent to get Raps128 for you, please send me a PM :-)

Have Fun
Angelo

---

Mein Club: [hackerspace-ffm.de]
RADDS-Shield -> Commercial [max3dshop.org]

Quote
angelo
@shofmann

Depends which firmware do you like.
I do not know which expiriance do you have and which 3d-Printer do you would like to build and which add-ons do you would like to implementate?

Reprap-Firmware is a great Firmware.It is programming very good and I like the setup via SD-Card.

Marlin4Due is also great. People, who have expirience with Marlin has it easyer to handle it.
MarlinKimbra is also fine.
I personaly use Repetier-Firmware for my Deltas.

Personaly I like all Firmware.

Have Fun
Angelo

I'm a newbie with 3D Printer (but i'm an IT professional since too many years ...)
I will build a Delta like DC42's.

I have choosen 32 bits electronics, and RADDS because I have experience with Arduino.
My configuration :
RADDS with ESP8266 Wifi (4M version)
LCD 12864 (RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Smart Controller)
1 E3Dv6 Hotend
MK8 & NEMA 17 Extruder
hotbed 24V (300 mm round size)
DRV8825 and nema 17HS16-2004S1
Inductive Z probe LJ18A3-8-Z/BX

So I have no problem with any firmware... I have to try !

@+

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 10:32AM by shofman.

Angelo,

Thanks for the answer, is not that urgent I can still print on my dvr8825 but im having circular pattern that I want to remove and want to return to normal timming , that why I want to switch to raps128. I can wait another 1-2 week I guess, you take preorder on your website ? order them from you or makerfarm do not make make a big difference in price after all that not a 10 lbs package to send by post.

Im currious about the new THB6128 you will receive, whats the difference ? Im not so good with datasheet but if those new model make the "low current zone/ slowest movement more accurate or a better decay"in other word more delta friendly, im more than ready to wait for the new model or even beta test them.

Shofman :

Beware with those DVR8825 you will run into problem with the Reprap Firmware because of the longer timing they need, You will need to have a "special firmware" Like dan send me to make those work at more than 4800 mm/min ( if you read this thread then you aware of it) if needed I can send it to you but its the 1.09r.

Also dvr8825 will produce circular pattern on your wall and top infill ( whatever the firmware), to fight this you will have to put them in fast decay ( I test them, its better but still there, you can see them when look closer but you cant feel them with your finger) or add diode to the 1/2 of the motor coil ( did not test this one) also note that if you going 24V it will be worse than 12V with those driver , dvr8825 do not work good on low mH motor, mine are 3.5 and are doing this problem the one you chose are 2.8, they will do this also. That the mainly reason I will switch to raps128

The LCD 12864 will connect to the radds with some modification to the pinout BUT there is no software in Reprap firmware to make it work, they only support the pannel due other firmware should have no problem to make it work.

Thank you for your advices about the motor stepper.
I'm in the beginning of the build, so this question has not yet asked, and DVR8825 are very low cost and good for testing (and RAPS128 were not available..)
The R firmware version is available here : [github.com].


Concerning the LCD, I've found this : [github.com]
Angelo, do you have tried it ?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 05:37PM by shofman.

Quote
shofman
The R firmware version is available here : [github.com].

That's just the normal 1.09r build. It's not the one-off build with some limited code to support a DRV8825. That was a one-time build I did and sent to someone else. It's also not a build I can reproduce at the moment. However, I did post the changes IIRC so reproducing that .bin file would be a matter of rolling back to the right time in the repo, pulling that, applying the change, then doing a build. Or getting a copy of the .bin file from GroupB.

Ok, topic modified....

Hi shofman,
concerning 12864 LCD I have a slightly different setup from your link but it works as the radds has built in level shifters to 5V for the display pins.
My setup uses the extension port, a cheap 6$ 12864ZW Display and a cheap rotary encoder, no peeper, no SD card, I use the one on RADDS.Communication is SPI, so only a few wires needed.
The advantage of my setup is that you can choose SparkLCD in the Repetier online configurator and don't need to manually specify pins in the configuration files (this speeds up the process of re-programming with arduino sw).
Disadvantage is you have separate parts and no SD next to the display.
It took some time to figure out the port definition in Repetier as this is done in several files and there are som redefinitions to increase confusion...
Cabling is in the attachment.
You need to solder the extension board header (aux) to the RADDS and build your own cable.
If you don't want to tinker and are willing to pay a bit more for the 12864 display you can use this one: [forums.reprap.org]

Hi,

Your LCD link is wrong, can you send the good one ?
Thanks

Just got through 9 pages of this thread: Thought I'd give RRF a go on my Due\RADDS coreXY bot. I've used Sailfish, Marlin & Repetier in the past,... but I'm having a heck of a time getting this installed. I feel like I'm missing the secret handshake or something.
I've been following this page:
[github.com]

When I run scons though (I'm on a Mac), it constantly gives me this:
scons: *** No SConstruct file found.

I've been using Python for years, but never scons. I've been searching all over the web for what to do about this, but there is surprisingly little. Mainly it's just 'make a SConstruct file'... very not helpful.
This is probably a noob mistake, but can someone help me out here?
thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2016 02:23AM by AK_Eric.