Electronics solved (?) - firmware problem

I talked to Simon McAuliffe a bit on IRC and explained my problem with the breadboard/electronics. He suggested some voltages to measure on the PIC, and it came down to the following: I've used the hex firmware files on Sourceforge (SF), but they seem to be for an older version of the Universal board (i.e not V1.1/1.2). The firmware version on SF uses different pins to send signals to the L298N (pins 10,11,12,13 instead of 10,11,17 and 1). This could explain why my breadboard design did not work and might also be an issue for others using the SF hex files and the UCB 1.2.

Maybe someone will put up some new firmware files on SF later today, otherwise I'll try compiling the source later this week and put them up there.

Joost

i'll try and do that later tonight. it would be nice to have those files up there and current.

I would also greatly appreciate having access to recent firmware files on sourceforge. I spent about 5 hours last night working with Joost to try to troubleshoot an issue with communications, and if the problem is due to the old firmware I was using, I will be thrilled beyond comprehension if I can get the new firmware on the PICs and that solves the issue.

Firmware communication works the same, using the same pins on the PIC. Only the functionality (and wiring) has changed from the old stripboard to the new universal boards.

okay, i released a copy of the most recent versions of the firmware on sourceforge. hopefully that does the trick for you.

Eric, Joost,

I had the same problems with firmware this weekend... The ones in sourceforge seem to be compiled for a previous version of the stepper card and not the universal one. I noticed that because only 2 of the 4 stepper output pins were working... then I tracked back to the PIC having the outputs for the steppers on pin 10, 11, 12, 13 instead of 1, 10, 11, 17. Then checking the source code I found out there was an old card using such pins described there. So what I did was to compile my own from the source code and the problem got fixed for the stepper cards. Here is the firmware I used.

stepmotor.hex
stepmotorb.hex
stepmotorc.hex
extruder.hex

I'm still having trouble with the Extruder card thou... that one doesn't even light up the led. I'll try to tackle that down next weekend. Let me know if the firmware attached works for you, specially the extruder one as that will tell my extruder card has something else wrong.

Zach,

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the use for the iobox.hex and stepmotor-small.hex files?

Thanks Luis! If these work I'll definitely owe you a beer/coffee/beverage of choice.

Iobox.hex is general purpose for card we don't use. I was using it as the basis for the reprap programmer. I made my own version with its own port and everything for easier inclusion in the tree at some future point. I'll be dusting it off again later. I don't know what the stepmotor-small is.

yeah, basically you can ignore those two. in the future, i'd like to get those renamed so that they are something like xaxis.hex, yaxis.hex, thermoplast-extruder.hex, etc. but for now at least they're there, right? =)

Flashed a PIC today with the firmware Luis posted. At first I placed the PIC on my breadboard to do some more tests. For whatever reason, it heated up, smoke came out, and I figured this was *not* what was supposed to happen. Strangely enough, the PIC actually survived this torture and still worked. I then stuck in my stripboard, did some additional wiring and turned on the power ...

the LED flashed...

This was a grand moment... when I then attached the stepper motor, it did something as well. It is not rotating, but sort of vibrating between 2 steps. My guess is, that this is a wiring issue, which I will try to solve tomorrow. For now, I am just very happy that things start to fit together.

Joost

That's wonderful to hear, Joost!

I have the hex code and a Willem universal programmer. I can read the blank pic, but it won't program, I get "error writing program area". This programmer been wonderful for the last two years. Any ideas?