Uploading/Connection Problem

I have just finished building my mendel prusa. I am new at the topic and I am having trouble with the software side. It seems I cannot connect to any programs whatsoever. The manufacturer said I have a gen6.d board with firmware already loaded onto it. I have tried to connect to replicator G and pronterface, but they both just show connecting.... and never actually connect. The USB driver was installed successfully and the latest driver has been downloaded. I have uploaded new firmware to the board using the Arduino IDE. In Replicator G, I get the following error when trying to connect:

[20:04:20] Initializing Serial.
[20:04:20] Attempting to reset RepRap/Ultimaker (pulsing RTS)
[20:04:23] RepRap/Ultimaker not responding to RTS reset. Trying again..
[20:04:23] Attempting to reset RepRap/Ultimaker (pulsing RTS)
[20:04:26] RepRap/Ultimaker not responding to RTS reset. Trying again..
[20:04:26] Attempting to reset RepRap/Ultimaker (pulsing RTS)
[20:04:30] RepRap/Ultimaker not responding to RTS reset. Trying again..
[20:04:30] Attempting to reset RepRap/Ultimaker (pulsing RTS)
[20:04:33] RepRap/Ultimaker not responding to RTS reset. Failed to connect.
[20:04:33] Supports RC

Any idea what to do? I would really appreciate some advice.

I'm having a similar problem. I bought a gen6 board from mendel-parts ages ago.. probably over a year, and just now got around to getting it going on a freshly assembled mendel.

I'm getting three serial devices when I plug it in. /dev/ttyUSB[0-2] .. anyone know why there are three? I can't find any documentation on this board which makes me kinda sad. In fact, I can't find any up to date firmware for this board anywhere at all.

I found a command for backing up the factory firmware which worked with /dev/ttyUSB2, but try as I might, I can't get replicatorg to recognize any of the three ports.

Maybe there's some way to use minicom or something to verify that my board is actually working?

My bad. Those other two serial ports are other devices I forgot I had plugged in.

mendel-parts is pretty much the place for gen6
camiel has compiled a software bundle that is numbered by the
order you install it.
also james hardiman has a software tutorial on youtube:
[www.youtube.com]
here is the gen6 wiki:
[reprap.org]

I checked mendel-parts and I couldn't find the firmware.

Also, that tutorial is for windows Maybe useful to somebody.

I have made some recent progress. I have uploaded the newest firmware made for my version of the prusia mendel. I have also reinstalled printrun with pronterface. I am still getting the same error with Replicator G:

Attempting to reset RepRap/Ultimaker (pulsing RTS)
RepRap/Ultimaker not responding to RTS reset. Failed to connect.

Pronterface actually shows my printer is online finally and connected. I have not connected any heater wiring, but I have the endstops and motors connected. The problem I am asking about is that when I press the +.1,+1,+10,+100 buttons in pronterface, nothing happens. Is there a way to manually move my motors and be able to test them using pronterface. I though that is what those buttons did, but I could be mistaken. And if I am not mistaken and this is the manual way to do this, why isnt my printer responding to these buttons..

I can post the script that I am receiving to see if anyone recognizes anything that might be out of the ordinary. Thanks.

Thomas

BTW,

I did learn that in the arduino IDE, I need to select sanguino as my board. I doubt if this helps anyone, but I thought I would throw it out there anyways.

See attached picture for script output from pronterface

Do you have the thermistors connected? As you can see the firmware panics because it reads 0 degrees temperature, implying the thermistor is disconnected or broken.

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--
-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

No, I do not. Can I at least test the motors using pronterface without the thermistor or heater being connected?
Thanks.

Thomas

If you change HEATER_0_MINTEMP and BED_MINTEMP to 0 in Marlin, I think that would make it possible to run the motors, unless there's some other safety feature somewhere. I still suggest you turn MINTEMP on later, as it's a good safety feature.

---

--
-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

Update for me..

I've found some firmware on the mendel-parts site after all, tucked away in a strange location. Apparently the newest firmware is "Marlin" so I tried installing that. Still got the same unresponsiveness.

However, I was able to get it working somewhat by restoring my backup of the factory firmware, which was great, but some of the axes were in the wrong directon, so I'm going to have to put some somewhat customized firmware on there in order to get my machine working.

Can anyone help me figure out how to debug these problems? Is there supposed to be some output on the serial port if there's some kind of problem? I try connecting to it manually with minicom and nothing seems to come up and it doesn't respond to anything I type. Without some indication of what its problem is, I'm just shooting in the dark.

Every time I try uploading software with arduino I get nothing from replicatorg.. only luck I've ever had was with the original firmware.

@Nudel The mendel-parts Marlin firmware, which I assume tomprint3d is also using, doesn't panic when the thermistor is disconnected, it just turns off the heater.

At least, that's the impression I'm getting from reading the source.

So it doesn't seem to explain either of our problems.

Okay I've put on my programmer hat and discovered that there's a message that comes up when you start up this Marlin firmware I got from the mendel-parts site. This includes when you hit the reset button. The message doesn't come up for me, even though I've confirmed that it should.

If you have a serial port terminal program, Nudel, you may want to try the same thing, and let me know what happens for you. Connect to it with the appropriate baud rate (Hm.. by default that rate is a little strange, maybe try a few common ones) and hit the rest button and see if a message comes up. If not, it may indicate a firmware problem more extensive than just a configuration error.

Er, sorry, I meant tomprint3d should try that.

I'm having the same connection problems connecting to my new MakerFarm Gen6 board on a Mac running OSX Lion. I installed the correct versions of the driver, repG (0025) and the Arduino SDK (0018) and Marlin (from the Mendel-Parts site) and have read everything on the Gen6 wiki and watched the video linked above. I can compile and upload the Mendel firmware from the Arduino SDK but repG and ProtorFace can not connect. Anyone else on a Mac?

cheers,
Michael

Bloody hell.. okay here's something weird. Apparently if my sketch size is big, it fails, if it's small, it works o.O

WTF? Anyone have any idea what might be wrong?






When I upload this program it works:

----
void setup() // run once, when the sketch starts
{
Serial.begin(9600); // set up Serial library at 9600 bps
}

void loop() // run over and over again
{
Serial.println("Hello world!"); // prints hello with ending line break
delay(1000);
}
----

But when I upload this program, it fails completely. I get nothing from the serial port:
----
void setup() // run once, when the sketch starts
{
Serial.begin(9600); // set up Serial library at 9600 bps
}

void loop() // run over and over again
{
Serial.println("Hello world!"); // prints hello with ending line break
delay(1000);
/* Repeat the above two lines over and over about a thousand times */
}
----

The two programs are, with the exception of the resulting size of the binary sketch, identical. One works, the other doesn't.

Interesting dbenoy. I also tried your program on OSX Lion. The small app worked fine, I connected correctly. The large one failed and seems to have crashed the driver as now it does not appear in the drivers list and I get a long string of Java errors when uploading related to the USB, even after restarting the IDE.

Michael

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2012 04:49PM by mhackney.

I'm curious, what boards are you guys using? I just got mine from MakerFarm today.

Michael

I got mine from mendel-parts over a year ago. Only now finally putting it to use.

I'm going to dust off my windows box and try it there.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a week of skiing (school break for my kids). Hopefully there will be some good news when I get back!

I have a windows box too but I really wanted to use my Mac and be done with it! Possibly a driver problem with Lion? It seems that folks had this working.

cheers,
Michael

Don't know if this'll help, but to speak to my sanguinololu with marlin with my xubuntu box, I have the following procedure:

12v power on
USB cable in
Reset arduino with onboard button
Start pronterface - connect

With sprinter this was never an issue, but it seems like the echo/debug information (?) from marlin can make it difficult to connect sometimes. Resetting the electronics and connect with pronterface shortly afterwards always work though. Someone else probably know why.

---

--
-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

Flashing under windows with the arduino+sangino 0018 software supplied by mendel-parts seems to work!

I need to plug my board back into my actual machine now, but some cursory tests seem to reveal success. Interestingly, the debug light flashes for much longer during the uploading process when I do it under windows. Perhaps the software that does the actual flashing to the sanguino chip under linux/OSX is crashing after a short time, explaining why only small programs make it uncorrupted.

I had to modify the baud rating in the configuration.h to get it communicating with replicatorg, but then all seemed to work great.

I think this is some disheartening stuff, though. Even though it appears I'll be able to print from Linux proper, I don't want to have to make future firmware changes under Windows.

One grim possibility is that mendel-parts hevily patched the sanguino/arduino sources and/or the firmware uploading tools :[ I want to have more faith in them than that, but the fact that the download page only supplies windows software like it's the only option makes my heart drop a little, and my cynicism kicks in. Perhaps it's just me, but I think the corroboration on this thread casts a shadow on that theory as well.

This official Marlin software works with gen6 hardware, and has better compatibility with RepG. [github.com]

No need to use the one from mendel-parts it seems.

Hmm, that's actually what I started with. In fact, it was pre-loaded on my Gen6 board. But I was not able to connect to either RepG or Prontorface so I started going through all of the info and ended up here.

cheers,
Michael

thanks Nudel.

I can now adjust my motors. I have been having problems with the connections of the motors where unless I hold pressure on the connector in one direction, there isnt good contact and the motor doesnt receive power. I ended up soldering my motors to the arduino board. They all respond when I move them in pronterface. My x-axis moves beautifully, but my Y and Z axis motors just shake back and forth when I move them manually in pronterface. My question to anyone is that I want to know if there is a way to tune my motors so they will turn in each direction smoothly. I read that you can turn a dial for your motors all the way to zero but I do not believe I have a dial that I can turn with a screwdriver on my board. Any ideas on how to fix these motor issues?

I posted a video on youtube showing the errors I am having with my motors. Sorry about the small video. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks.

Mendel Prusa Motor Problems

Z looks like not enough current. What stepper drivers are you using? Most, if not all, reprap electronics has current adjustment with a tiny variable resistor.

Y looks like only one coil is driven. If the connection was loose while powered up it may have sparked and destroyed half of the driver. Another possibility is the motor is wired incorrectly.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

nophead,

I have only turned the Z axis motor about a quarter-turn in the clockwise direction. I am guessing clockwise adds more current.. Im sure there is a limit without burning up the motors as well..

You said the Y axis might have had half of it burnt up from shorting out. Is there a way to test this. I know that none of my connections are loose because each one is soldered onto the board. Even the extruder motor. And all of them are clear of each other so no shorts have been occuring. I am not saying one hasnt occurred in the past, but since I have soldered all the leads, none have shorted that I am aware of. Any other issue that anyone has heard of that might be my Y and X axis problem?

I appreciate all the help everyone has given me so far.

Thomas