UCB promlem.... again

Dylan wrote:

> Thanks Jonathan I might have to take you up on
> that offer, I could probably give you a few $ on
> paypal to cover shipping.

It would be more valuable (and somehow more apt)
for you to instead just send me back one of your
PICs as well as returning mine (label which is
which!!). Then I could see whether your PIC works
as intended in my boards ... and if it does, I
just gained a spare PIC :-)

But if one of your Houston user group friends
has a known working PIC to lend you, that could
be faster and simpler still.

> I tried installing SDCC and making the tx_baud
> file from the source and then simplify it to get
> it to just send 1 character that I actually can
> receive without junk. Unfortunately it gives me an
> error when trying to open the pic14.h file. I put
> it in the include folder and now it sees it, but I
> still get an error (plus a bunch of undefined
> variables and stuff).

Sounds like something is different between your SDCC
environment and EMF's. I've not compiled that code
myself, so I don't know whether it would fail here
or not. What does the command

sdcc -v

output on your system, and how did you obtain and
install your SDCC?

I have pressing issues with transport right now (both
vehicles in this family are now unusable!!) as well as work,
but I can probably program up and verify a PIC with tx_baud
code (or steppermotor code if you want!) this weekend,
if that looks like the right way forward.

Jonathan

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Jonathan

How could I send you my PIC and yours if I don't have yours? or were you meaning you send me one and me test it, then me send you mine and yours to verify?

SDCC: mcs51/gbz/80/z80/avr/ds390/pic16/pic14/TININative/xa51/ds400/hc08 2.7.0 #4818

should be v2.70 downloaded from the sourceforge site for win32

At first I thought that you meant you couldn't drive to where you needed to program. But yeah, time constraints. My vehicle is dead too by the way, I'm going to try to get one later today.

I'll try to get SDCC working. If that fails then I'll take you up on that offer to check it.

thanks
Dylan

Dylan,
I have not done any programing yet and I think it is important we meet on Sunday. If you can't get transportation, let me know, and I'll see if I can pick you up. I only have a Desk Top PC, so I can't bring it to the meeting.
I can't afford to buy a laptop right now but I know we can get this all worked out by meeting in groups.

Thanks,
Jim

Dylan wrote:

> or were you meaning you send me one and me test it,
> then me send you mine and yours to verify?

The latter. When you return mine, include one of yours
too -- no extra shipping costs :-) I can test it, and if it works,
I can use it. To avoid me having to return your PIC, that PIC
becomes my "reward" rather than a Paypal payment. I'm
assuming you have spare PICs -- if you only bought exactly
the quantity you need, then that's perhaps not a good
approach :-)

> SDCC:
> mcs51/gbz/80/z80/avr/ds390/pic16/pic14/TININative/
> xa51/ds400/hc08 2.7.0 #4818

Um... where did you read that that was the right version
of SDCC for our code? Did you follow the Wiki info on
setting up a Reprap firmware build environment?

Older reprap firmware revisions (as in, until 4 days ago!!)
used an SDCC version from their CVS repository,
version 2.5.4 revision #1183, so sdcc -v says:

SDCC : mcs51/gbz80/z80/avr/ds390/pic16/pic14/TININative/xa51/ds400/hc08 2.5.4 #1183 (Jun 9 2007) (UNIX)

However, as of Christmas Eve and revision 1215, we've
finally managed to get a stable firmware codebase that
uses autoconf, uses 16F648As not 16F628As, and can
compile with a current SDCC (and needs a very recent
gputils, but that's another story!). Now we need to
get the firmware build wiki pages updated to match...

Bottom line: I suspect these test files from EMF were compiled
using the older SDCC setup. I don't know if they were intended
to work using SDCC 2.7.0.

> My vehicle is dead too by the
> way, I'm going to try to get one later today.

One of mine will supposedly be fixed tomorrow at noon.
The other... needs a four figure sum for a new engine!!

> I'll try to get SDCC working. If that fails then
> I'll take you up on that offer to check it.

OK... if you're intending to do firmware development
(or enjoy the challenge!) that's cool; if you just want
to get a working board, setting up SDCC and gputils
might be more work than you want to attempt.

Tonight I programmed tx_baud.hex into a spare 16F628,
and have it in one of my Stepper Controller boards now.
I see only garbage output -- and that board works fine
with stepmotor.hex code in it!

So, there may be a problem with tx_baud as a test tool,
sadly.

Looks like I should send you a PIC containing known
working stepper code (stepmotor.hex) rather than
tx_baud.hex !

One more test:

Meanwhile: if you put a stepmotor.hex PIC into your board
and hook it up TX->TX and RX->RX (assuming there is a
silk-screen error on your PowerComms board of some sort,
can you then boot from the LiveCD and find the compiled
poke binary (probably under firmware/tools/ or similar)
and do

echo 0 | ./poke -d 2 -t /dev/ttyS0 -v

(which means "send SNAP command 0 to the device with
SNAP address 2 out on the serial port named ttyS0, and
be verbose in what you display while doing that") ...
what happens?

Hang in there, and we'll figure this out!

Jonathan

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Jonathan

I don't think that the baud test was meant for that version of SDCC since it was made about 6 months ago. I was wanting to get the SDCC working also because I wanted to modify the code myself and maybe make something from scratch. I'm used to basic though so it might be somewhat challenging.
I don't have the time tonight to try the testing, but on Sun the local group will meet and one of them says he has working versions of both boards (gen1 and gen2) so I'll try to mix and match and see if that works.
One of the other reasons I wanted to get the source code was that I was thinking of making the reprap work as FDM and SLS with a laser. That way I can do whatever shap and overhang I want. I might be able to get better precision too. I'm not going to bother trying to design any of that though until I get closer to the FDM working.
I'll take a look at that poke tool and see if I get anything.
I'll probably post in a day or 2 when I get a chance to try all the new tests.
thanks

Dylan

> on Sun the local group will meet and one of them says he
> has working versions of both boards (gen1 and gen2) so
> I'll try to mix and match and see if that works.

Sounds like a good plan. Be sure to write up what you find out,
so that what you learn doesn't just stay in Houston :-)

Jonathan

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Jonathan

The houston group just finished meeting a while ago. I took my cable, pcomm, UCB, and chips and it worked fine on his machine (thanks RoundSparrow). He had to use the serial to usb adapter, but my cable was used from my boards to the adapter so the cable works too. The only thing now is checkin the computer side of it. He was running Unbuntu off the hard drive. We even hooked up a motor and got it working.
Step 1- redo test with live CD if succesfull:
step 2- test for viability in windows, if unsuccessful:
step 3- convert old machine to linux.

Step 2 is where I would like to end. We all know it can be done on Linux, but for now I'm used to a windows environment and want the option.
If step 1 works and 2 doesn't, then I'll uninstall all my java and reinstall all the versions of what is needed that have worked for others.

I have run the software on both Linux and Windows on PCs, others have run it on Mac machines under OS X, too. It is definitely portable. Someone ran it on PPC Linux, even, on an older Mac!

I'm working on a "newer simpler better" installer for Windows, with Bruce W, but it is not done yet... meanwhile, the Wiki instructions have worked for others, so they should work for you too. Did you deliberately *not* follow some part of them in your initial install??

Jonathan

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Jonathan

Ok, I don't know how or why this happened, but I got it working with the liveCD with all the default setting, but restarting in windows without touching any of the boards still won't work.

I'm assuming 0.8.1 is the host version on the CD.

Here is what I installed-
1-jdk-6u3-windows-i586-p.exe
2-Java3d-1_5_1-windows-intel586.exe (odd, I have an AMD machine, but the AMD version game me errors saying the chip was wrong)
3-j3d-org-java3d-all.jar moved to the right location
4-rxtx-2.1-7-bins-r2.zip extracted as indicated by the website for both usage and development
5-run host software.... then the same error for testing

Ok, I know it works.... just not with Windows.
I'm having trouble running Unbuntu on my main screen (46" DLP 1280x720) I probably have to install it and some files for that, I really want to get it to work under windows too.

Maybe it's a prefs problem?
Click here for snapshot of prefs

*sigh* well, it's getting somewhere.


Dylan

Happy New Year!

Dylan wrote:

> Ok, I don't know how or why this happened, but I
> got it working with the liveCD with all the
> default setting, but restarting in windows without
> touching any of the boards still won't work. ...
> *sigh* well, it's getting somewhere.

Definitely! It means your boards are fine :-)

I'll PM you, maybe I can remote control your Windows PC
sometime tomorrow (really today, 01 Jan 2008!) and see
if I can spot anything different about your setup.
Or, just maybe, you can be the first Reprap user to test
a new Windows Reprap Host program installer... if you
are brave enough :-)

Jonathan

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Jonathan

I tried the experimental exe installer from Janathan which worked great and easy to use. I know that works properly. We installed it at one of our Houston meetings on another computer and after installing Java it worked properly and everything. Nice job Jonathan.

I am going to end this issue here since it defenitely isn't a UCB board issue anymore so the title and the first 2 pages are pretty much off topic then.
I'll start a new post to see who has had windows issues and how to fix them.

@Jonathan. I reccomend puting the exe up here somewhere, I saw the zip, but that exe works so well. I do reccomend puting Java on there too though.

Dylan

Dylan Wrote:

> @Jonathan. I reccomend puting the exe up here
> somewhere, I saw the zip, but that exe works so
> well. I do reccomend puting Java on there too
> though.

My goal is still the end of this month for releasing
both the Windows .exe installer and a set of DEB packages
for Ubuntu and Debian Linux.

I'm not as far along as I'd like with the finishing
touches to either one... but we'll see what happens
in the remaining couple of weeks!

Jonathan

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Jonathan

I already tried all that. I don't remember if I wrote it above, but I got it to work on another pc windows and on my pc on the live CD. I am working on installing linux on a really old laptop for dedicated reprapping.

Dylan,
You are replying to a spammer. woaixiaoxiao is just repeating old posts all over the forums.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I figured as much, but I wanted anyone else who came across this to know the current status instead of thinking that someone put forth a valid point and I was just ignoring them.