Reprap Forum - Next Wave Electronics Working Group

GEN 7 V1.5 upgrade (no replies)

zayoo — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:55:50 -0500

Hi,

After six years of flawless work and one upgrade(LCD, knob and better supply), time is come for another upgrade.
I successfully upgrade GEN 7 V1.5 procesor 1284P to ESP 32 devkit V1. Now GEN 7 is running on Marlin 2.0 with ESP3D.
Only change on the original board was trow-out of ATX connector and adapting to modified ATX supply stable 14V,15A, actually that was before ESP upgrade.
Now for ESP compatibility 5V psu GEN 7 supply line is dropped to 3.3V with step down converter.
Proto board stack on old DIP40 and on it is ESP32.
On board is two filters with pull up resistor for endstops and one optocoupler for my Z probing inductive sensor, 74HCT08B for driving MOSFET-s and SD slot. Only one extra line was needed for supplying 5V for fet-s driver.
Still there is some issues which are not so critical:
-I'm not satisfy with ADC converters on ESP
-temperature can not go below 20°C
-additionally filters on ESP for ADC-s needed
-PID auto tune doesn't work as suppose, M303 gives wrong values so I use old ones from 1248P.

I have no more time to solve this and I get functionality so this will wait.

This was quite a challenge. :)
Br

My little electronics project over Chrismas and New Year (14 replies)

majic79 — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 13:53:45 -0500

[github.com]

I'm just going to drop this here and ask what you guys and girls think

Gen7 - still current? (no replies)

majic79 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 16:23:59 -0500

Heya!

I'm fishing for information, and maybe looking towards my next project.

I'm in need of a controller for my next 3D printer (Mendel90) and I'm 95% happy with my home rolled Gen7 board (I did this over 6 years ago for my Foldarap - still going strong). I've got another electronics project on the go, and I'm sort of having regrets now about not going for an ARM32 MCU, but I digress.

Things I really like about Gen7:

Replaceable Stepper Drivers
Marlin Compatible
It pretty much "just works"

Things I want to improve:

Switchable Fan output
Heated Chamber control (power out/temperature in)
Extra stepper motor output (dual powered Z or dual extruder support)

Before I try and reinvent the wheel - is there already such a beast out there? Or do I need to roll my sleeves up?

ESP32 Question on Pin's (34, 35, 36 and 39) (1 reply)

oldtimmer — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 09:19:58 -0500

I know this are input only Pin's
My question is on pull up and pull down.
Is there a situation that you might use pull downs on this pins?

Thank you

esp-wroom-32 - Board for(Laser, Autopen, 3 Axis cnc) (4 replies)

oldtimmer — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 22:28:18 -0400

Hi All

Been working on a board for the 38 pin (esp-wroom-32).
The firmware I am using is GRBL_ESP32
I would like to know your option.

Here is a picture of the board [attachment 112967 lcnc.jpg]

I have only set the endstop pins and the pwm pin left all other pins to be set as needed.
Pins P34, P35, P36, P39 are inputs only I put pull up jumpers in for this 4 pins.

What needs to be changed or added?

Thank You

gen7 redesign like a gen 1.4b (3 replies)

terramir — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 07:04:32 -0400

thinking of a generation 7 1.4.1 b differences wanted 2 extruder one hot end support (a Bowden-y design).
servo support for mechanical z-probe.

two fan headers one always on one switched

and support for reprap discount smart display with sd card.

would also prefer to breakout the i2c header for support for realtime clock if it's ever supported in marlin and possibly other things.
any of you have any input because the gen7 1.3.1 has been quite reliable but I think I really need dual extruder support now and
the extra 4 MHz would come in handy.
any and all suggestions on pin assignments would be welcome.

terramir

New board for the ESP32 : ESPIon (15 replies)

Moddingear — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:22:27 -0500

Hello, this is my first post here, so I don't really know where to start.
I designed a new board based on the RAMPS, with all know issues addressed, for example :

Added blade fuses for all power input
Power inputs are now screw terminals, rated for much higher current
Separated power inputs for bed/hotend/fan/5V (servo)/VCC/VMOT
Abstracted motor driver interface : Motor drivers are no longer directly on a board, instead they use another board, allowing for much easier installation of TMC or like drivers thanks to broken out I2C/SPI/UART. Chip select for SPI could be done using another PCF8574 connected with I2C
Added 7 stepper drivers by default, using 1 less pin thanks to a shift register placed on the stepper driver board (PCF8574).
Reset button pin broken out.
Features jumpers for simpler wiring : If you use 24V for heaters and motors, and 12V for fans, you can set the jumpers so you only have to set 2 wires instead of 4. Same for VCC/5V.
Changed mosfets for heaters to IRLB3034.

It's based around the ESP32 DOIT Devkit V1, as it is the most popular ESP32 board and the cheapest available, and some PCF8574 for more I/O to allow it to have enough

UPDATE : Changed the title.
As there is no board made for the ESP32 as of yet, this board might fit the bill with some good options.
It's now named the ESPIon

Here is the schematic :
https://easyeda.com/moddingear/espion

Mixing FPGAs and ARM core with Zynq (5 replies)

misan — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:40:08 -0400

I am by no means an FPGA power user and what I have been seeing is not even a new technology, but it seems no one so far has reported any work on the specific direction I am about to suggest.

I have started playing with the idea that yet another type of controller could be based on a more parallel approach than what we are used to. If we think about just stepper pulse generation, it is quite common to use a number of tricks so only one timer is used for that. But if you consider the truth of the matter each stepper should perform each step at a very specific moment in time (GRBL AMASS tries to improve upon that). However, because different limitations most systems will use the main timer and condition the other steppers to the main axis timing.

However, what if we could have a single processor (with more than one timer) allocated to the control of each motor? What if all these processors were hosted in the same chip, using the same codebase and yet operating entirely on their own? What if each one of them could be monitored by an ARM Cortex-A9 core that handles network communications and filesystem access (g-code decoding too)? What if this ARM core is in on that same chip too and runs Linux?

Well, all that seems possible with Zynq-7000 Xilinx SoC. At least, it seems possible to me, but I started stating I am no FPGA wizard, so I might be dead wrong.

That is why I am starting this conversation to get input from you guys.

My impression is that adapting Klipper could be the best way to start, but I reckon such a control architecture could usher in much higher flexibility. For example, it could be possible to replace some of the motor controllers easily, to switch any axis from a stepper motor to a dc motor with an encoder or to a FOC brushless motor. Besides, it seems Xilinx already created the basic plumbing for accessing from Python to the shared memory of the soft processors (or any other programmable logic we might use for motor or temperature control).

Arduino 1.8.7 support for Gen7 V1.5 (apply also V1.4) (2 replies)

zayoo — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 15:11:34 -0500

Hello all,

I can say that my Gen7 1.4 board work great after several years. But I did some upgrade on printer and I would like to compile Marlin 1.1.9 version.

I have next software's versions:

Arduino IDE 1.8.7
hardware: Gen7 Arduino IDE Support v2.1 Compatible with Arduino 1.0.3 to 1.0.5.
Marlin surce code 1.1.9
Gen 7 v1.5 electronic with ATmega 1284P

Because arduino hardver gen7 support is only to arduino version 1.0.5 I did some research and upgrade bords.txt file to ride off some warnings following instruction on Arduino Hardware Cores migration guide from 1.0 to 1.6

But still I have next error messages while compiling:

Detecting libraries used...
recipe.preproc.macros pattern is missing

Error compiling for board Gen7 with ATmega1284P and 20 MHz.

Please, do anybody know solution for this issue?

Thank you
Zayoo

DRV8825 and gen7 1.3.1 (no replies)

terramir — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 11:52:41 -0500

DRV8825 carriers are getting cheap, now my question is is there a reason why they would not work with a gen7 1.3.1 board and if so what would be the hack around it
in short would it be possible to use those steppers?
terramir

So where are we in 2018? (19 replies)

+Mikie — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 02:46:34 -0400

As above, with respect to new genuine open source community-supported 32bit controllers?

The only board I see represented here seems to be Gen7, and it too seems to be dead-ish. Having a single extruder may have something to do with it. Even the ancient RAMPS had provision for two, and I thought we were supposed to go forward and not backward?

RAMPS-FD and Smart RAMPS seem to be dead-end, and justifiably so. Nothing to do with developers, Arduino really screwed up the Due with their choice of processor. And you can't really polish a turd.

Other than that, heavily-advertised and talked-up Duet and Smoothie seem to be the only options with some support and user base. Personally, I'm not interested for several reasons, the least of them being the price. Yes, I know - support you get with it needs to be paid for, but it kinda beats the "community" aspect of it. But to each their own.

So, what's left? A pile of Chinese knockoffs, in many cases with open or hidden flaws. AZSMZ, Lerdge, AZTEEG, Re-Arm, MKS... Cheap to begin with, but later on - who knows?

On the DIY side, lots of separate people or groups doing the research and coding separately on LPC and STM processors, and who knows on what else. Industrious, but no real genuinely community-accepted results and mass use. Nowhere near like RAMPS in its' day.

So where are we? Is there a board being developed that could take over RAMPS' crown, or are we going to be forever stuck with commercial offerings?

Beginning with gen7 1.4.1 10 ohm mosfet drivers resistors (10 replies)

terramir — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:05:27 -0500

The specs of the "arduino chip" atmel either 644p or 1284p allow for a max sink of 40mA and since the combined supply is 200mA the max current for all pins should be around 200 mA using a 10 ohm resistor allows for a current of 500mA @5v while in version 1.3.1 the resistors signaling the mosfet were 1k ohm resistors which limit the current for signaling to 5 mA was this an error or is there an internal resistor on the pins which already limit the current??
Could use some input for another design project.
terramir

ESP 8266 Module with Adapter (no replies)

kkrishnan — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 23:34:04 -0500

Hi

I would like to get an ESP 8266 -12E WiFi IOT Module With Adapter. These are the specifications:
802.11 b/g/n
Standards Certification: FCC / CE / TELEC
Wireless standards: 802.11 b / g / n
Frequency range: 2.4GHz-2.5GHz (2400M-2500M)
Data interface: UART / HSPI / I2C / I2S /
Operating voltage: 3.0 ~ 3.6V (recommendation 3.3V)
Working Current: Average: 80mA
Operating temperature: -40℃ ~ 130℃
Storage temperature: Normal temperature

I found this on a site but haven't contacted the providers before. I have to contact them as soon as possible if they are good at their service. If you have some ideas, let me know about them. It will be of great help.
Thank you.

Is this PSU inought? (3 replies)

Kubas_inko — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 12:23:11 -0400

So, for like a year, I was storing parts for my 3ds printer. I found this old ATX PSU (attachment) from grandpas old PC and I would like to ask you, if the PSU is powerful enough to run basic delta 3d printer (Something like kossel) and if the CPU power cables (attachment) can deliver what it needs or do I need to wire it differently.
Thank you very much for any response.

Rambo is not communicating (2 replies)

Tony3 — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 06:42:47 -0400

Hi all,

After connecting to PC and power supply connecting and lights blinking LEDs. When connected with Repetier-Host connects but does not respond to commands and EEPROOM can not be displayed. Where is the problem?

Thanks
Tony

Burn Bootloader AtMega 1284P AU (1 reply)

Steppdroid — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 05:49:31 -0500

Hi guys, i have damaged the bootloader, i want fix it with this Usb Asp
I can? is correct? Thanks! sorry my bad english!

ST32 based solution (19 replies)

parasole — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 01:59:25 -0500

Hi there,

Not sure if this was not already posted, any one know about STM solution for 3D printers? Looks like they did quite a good job in adapting Marlin for their F4x series, and even their evaluation board is not that expensive considering the capabilities they deploy on this board...

[www.st.com]

[github.com]

Key features & Benefits
• Adaptable to any 3D printer mechanics
• Based on open-source Marlin firmware
running on STM32
• Driving up to 6 axes (3 extruders) with
programmable motor currents via firmware
• Controllable by portable devices thanks to
embedded Wi-Fi module
• Controlling up to 3 hot ends and 3 fans
• Supports up to 3 heated beds
• Easy firmware customization thanks
to embedded debugging tool and
OpenSTM32 environment
• USB and microSD peripheral support

ATX power distribution board. (10 replies)

TbirdMan — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 19:44:49 -0400

I am working on designing an ATX PSU power distribution board with the current features:

20 or 24 pin ATX plug in mainly for control
5V USB output coming from the 5Vsb (possibly a jumper to choose 5Vsb or main 5Vline?) to power electronics
2 pin terminal for PS_ON (can be jumpered or have a switch added to manually control)
LED + terminal for PWR_OK
provision for a 10W10Ohm resistor to stabilize 5V power (some supplies require this, mine doesn't seem to like it.)
2 voltage rails, fed from PCIe power plugs or screw terminals each with a blade fuse provision targeting a 15A rating on each rail.

I am looking for input for other features people might want to see, any ideas?

Remixing Sinaptec board (5 replies)

rollingdice — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:18:20 -0400

Hi everyone, I'm looking into remixing Sinaptec board (for those who know nothing about it, click here).
Basically, I want to push the hardware cost down even further while keeping it friendly for beginner. I want to redesign several things on this board:

Rotate Pololu drivers orientation 90 degrees. I want to make cool air pass easier under the stepper driver. Current implementation on Sinaptec (and RAMPS board) is not optimal, I think.
Merge all X,Y, and Z stepper enable pin
Make stepper driver jumpers connected to GND (eliminated header pin and jumper cap) but keep their footprint (just in case)

So, any comment on my plans?

X And Y Axis Moving In Wrong Directions (1 reply)

hardy2feb — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 13:44:18 -0500

I have made some up gradation in 3d printer. I have replaced extruder with e3dv6 extruder everything was working really well but for replacing extruder i had taken off belt and drill the whole little larger but after making changes in my machine is not working properly. Both X and Y axis are moving in wrong direction

Is it just a mechanical problem or firmware setting problem ? Pleases guide me thank you

Amplifying signal from controller to multiple stepper drivers (1 reply)

PropellerHat — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 08:41:35 -0400

Hello! I have a problem with my printer that has several extruders. I have simply shared the step and direction signals of the extruder output for several easydrivers to control the steppers of the extruders, but the direction signal is too weak for all of them. Shouldn't this be easy to solve with some added circuitry to boost the signal level? I have had the same problem with two different controller boards, RAMPS and 3Drag.

I read the direction is controlled by a continuous voltage instead of square wave. The steppers do turn nicely but so the step signal's square wave has sufficient power but direction signal needs some kind of transistor setup, I suppose. How to do this most simply? Would a step up converter help? If I try to source a step up converter that has a significant but not too high boost for not damaging the drivers when there is only 1 or 2 drivers running?

Thanks!

MKS GEN V1.2 (2 replies)

paoparts — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 13:37:44 -0400

Hi,
I search a dimension between the holes fixing for the MKS GEN 1.2.
Best regards

(WIP) I2C System (6 replies)

alatnet — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 12:04:36 -0400

So thinking on how I2C with arduino (any size that supports I2C) I am going to be working on an off with creating I2C chips that hopefully will become a standard, among others, for 3D Printers.

Here's my first chip:
[attachment 57726 I2CMotorChip.png]
Pololu Driver Chip using I2C.
Supports two stepper motors.
Chips:
-I2C: [www.ti.com]
-Pololu Driver: A4988 (can be swappable if compatible.)

EDIT:
Ok either im going insane or something is wierd with the forums...

Arduino Support Library: [github.com]
Feel free to help in adding to or fixing up the library and adding it to any reprap firmwares.

EDIT2:
Ugh... i need someone to do bitwise ops... i am getting confused with them... >.<

AMIS-30543 drivers :) (7 replies)

JamesK — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 05:50:22 -0400

I'm really liking the look of the new AMIS-30543 drivers. With the SPI based control for micro stepping and current limiting we could really have some fun with these. Has anyone looked at dropping the current on a motor when it's not moving, or dropping the micro-stepping during high speed moves? Not sure if that second one is going to fly - changing the micro-stepping while the axis is in motion sounds like a recipe for missing steps, but limiting changes to when the motor is stationary sounds like it defeats the purpose.

The drivers are a bit pricey at the moment (~$20), but presumably the clones will soon arrive. I see there was already an announcement post [forums.reprap.org]

James.

UDOO-NEO (11 replies)

unarmedrob — Sun, 17 May 2015 03:47:28 -0400

Arduino and Raspberry Pi combined, and only $35 on Kick-starter.

Just posting to get peoples general consensus on the device. Would it be capable of running a reprap? Maybe with its own webserver?

[www.udoo.org]

looking for a manufacturer for designing PCB (2 replies)

Saha — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 02:27:50 -0400

Hi everyone,
I am designing a PCB with a very low pitch BGA part, not sure if there is any Chinese manufacturer who can do this, do you know anyone?
thank you,
Saha

New gen Heated bed with better heat distribution ? (2 replies)

Chri — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 04:54:46 -0400

Hy guy`s

Alot People always struggle at having large prints sticking not very well to the print surface, as maybe some peolple know the actual MK1/2/3 heatbeds always have a uniform heatingzone, but with this the heat is for sure always more at the center than at the outer parts.

So i thought, why not make two heating zones. one center with less power per cm² than the second one on the outer corners with more power ?

Note: the following drawing is only a sketch of it, as i`m no electronics guy, i don`t know anything of the right layers and stuff.

heatedbed2.jpg

the most outer line ist just the dimension of the bed, not a heating circuit.

Maybe someone knows a little bit more if this concept will work.

Chri

Gen7 "Connecting..." problem (7 replies)

zayoo — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:57:58 -0400

Hi all...

I have DIY Gen7 V1.5 board with with uploaded bootloader and Marlin 1.0.0. software.
I'm trying to connect Gen7 with Printrun 2014.08.01 sw on Ubuntu 14.04. But my bord always stuck on "Connecting..."

When I connect Gen7 directly over serial terminal port (CuteCom) and reset board i get:

\0x00start
echo: External Reset
Marlin 1.0.0
echo: Last Updated: Dec 12 2014 21:07:30 | Author: (none, default config)
Compiled: Dec 12 2014
echo: Free Memory: 13513  PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Hardcoded Default Settings Loaded
Error:0
: Extruder switched off. MINTEMP triggered !
Error:Printer stopped due to errors. Fix the error and use M999 to restart. (Temperature is reset. Set it after restarting)

I can also turn off and on power supply over M80 and M81 codes.

I notice when I establish connection over serial terminal and then start Prontface connection is done. And then I can control my board over Printrun.

Does anybody have or had similar problems?

I found on internet that some "sleep times parameters" in Printrun scripts should be changed but i can't find this parameters in my version of Printrun.

Please help.

Br
zayoo

my pcb toner transfer scale problem (8 replies)

mocamba — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 04:40:48 -0400

Hello to every brave electronics reprappers around trying to make it to the bottom of things,
i live in Paris France and I wish to make a gen7 v 1.5 from scratch.
I have a problem with the scale of the gen 7 v1.5 design that I got from the gitHub that I'd like to toner transfer on a copper one-sided board.
When i place the ATX connector that I got from Hong Kong (I couldn t find a shop in Paris who would sell some!)
alongside the 1:1 scale pdf of the PCB
its slightly bigger so the pins won't fit with the holes.
Can someone help me?
Plus I'd like to meet some people in Paris who would like to share the adventure.
thanks guys

Replace Gen6 board by Arduino/Ramps (27 replies)

Replace — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 05:22:01 -0400

Can this be done ?

I seem to have fried my Gen6 board (2012) on my Orca v04x
As it is pretty expensive I consider to replace the hardware with Ramps on Arduino.

Any considerations not to ?

Thomas