Problem with firmware or electronics?

I bought the boards from MakerBot, I have gotten several versions of the firmware, the latest from replicatorg 16, reprap-mendel-20100308, and a couple others.

Made the changes needed for replicatorg to show the rpm field for stepper control.

The reprap firmware crashes both the extruder and the motherboard when I use the reprap host software on windows xp.

Replicatorg with the latest firmware 2.2 for MB and 2.3 for EC will control the heater and thermistor, but only runs a dc motor, as expected.

One thing I have found with the extruder controller, I have to reinstall the boot loader every time before I upload any firmware.

I have a ttl-usb cable that works to upload firmware to the motherboard, but I have to use an arduino as an icsp to upload to the extruder controller.

In the end I do not care what software I use to control the machine, since I will be able to make g-code or use skeinforge to supply the build data.

Any help would be appreciated, since this is the last step to my repstrap project refitting a cnc mill to print.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2010 11:48PM by naldarn.

I have the same setup. Drew a bit of a blank with ReplicatorG and the stepper control. It needed more re-writing than I could be bothered with.

If you download Adrian's latest version of the host software from Sourceforge as well as the latest 5D firmware and extruder driver - it all hangs together pretty well.

Si

Quote
SimonRafferty
If you download Adrian's latest version of the host software from Sourceforge as well as the latest 5D firmware and extruder driver - it all hangs together pretty well.

Interesting info, thanks. It sounds like we should perhaps make a new release on SourceForge, so that folks who find using the .zip file releases easier than using svn can use it?

Naldarn: Two questions:

(1) Are you easily able to try the current Reprap svn host software and firmware? If you can, please try it, and post your results to this thread.

(2) Would you like me to create you a quick reprap-mendel-20100530.zip file, and make it available for download? If that works for you, I'll ask the team about doing a "real" release to SourceForge.

Jonathan

Thanks for all the help. Just to test the electronics, I was able to upload the 1.6 motherboard and 1.8 extruder firmwares from replicatorg, and get it to move the motor!

The machines.xml file did allow the adjustment of speed and current running the stepper.

Upgrading to a more recent firmware and using reprap host would be useful, esp. since I would like to add a heated bed in the near future.

In the end, a compiled firmware, and troubleshoot of why I have to reburn the bootloader everytime would fix my problems.