Marlin on Sbase - There, and back again.

Hello,

First Post! I love forums, they're the greatest invention since the invention of inventing.

I've also got a quite practical question: I've got an MKS sbase, which is currently running smoothieware. I'd like to try marlin 2.0 on it, and I know how to get there. What I don't know yet is, how do I get back? Is the flashing-what's-on-the-sdcard mechanism part of a fixed bootloader that will survive the switch to marlin, or is it part of smoothie and will it be gone once I flash marlin? I'm quite interested in marlin2.0, but I'm not ready to brick my board over it.

Greetings,

The Doc

The HAL isnt even beta... are you a developer? If not I suspect this is a really bad idea.

As I understood it, the question whether or not marlin2.0 is in beta is up for debate. There's a thread on github suggesting releasing it in 2017, so it can't be too alpha-ish I guess. According to the github page, the HAL for the LPC1768 ARM-Cortex M3 is however good it has to be to move from the "In development" section of the table to the "Current HALs" section. And I'm not a _marlin_ developer as such, but I am a developer in the general sense.

I'm not a slaphappy idiot. If I was, I would probably just have gone and flashed it and worried about how to revert my decision once it's too late, right?

Also, the question wether or not it's a good idea aside, I'd still like to know how it would have to work and then decide wether or not to go for it. As I wrote, I'm quite interested in it, but I'd like to avoid the whole creek/paddle situation.

The smoothie bootloader sits in the first 16K of flash and is responsible for reading and flashing the firmware.bin from the sdcard. As a worst case scenario, you would want to be familiar with flashing the bootloader just in case something goes horribly wrong and making sure you have access to those pins on your board.

Note that it is the Smoothieware firmware which presents the SDCard as a external storage on the computer. I don't know anything about Marlin 2.0 so I don't know if it also does that, so be warned that you may need physical access to the SDCard, just in case the board is a hassle to get to.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2018 07:38PM by sdavi.

If I understand you right, as long as I can get a firmware image onto the sd card and don't wreck my bootloader, I should be able to flash back and forth without trouble. And if I do wreck my bootloader, worst case is I have to compile the proper bootloader from source and solder in some flying wires to get at the pins. Does that sound about correct?

yeah, although it's unlikely its always best to be prepared. My guess is the only way to overwrite the original bootloader would be to flash over it via ISP or if a firmware uses IAP to update itself (and overwrites it).

I've been uploading non-smoothie firmwares to my Azteeg X5 mini and Smoothieboard and never encountered any issues. Even the odd time when i've forgotten to change the linker script back to start at 16K after compiling on my mbed-dev board it's never affected the bootloader.

Hey doc.

I'm heading down a similar route. Were you able to flash Marlin 2.0 and then go back to Smoothieware? Any complications?

I did it last night. No problems, just make sure you're either using a fresh SD to play with Marlin on, or make a back-up beforehand.
It was mentioned in the github thread that they're purposely not overwriting the smoothie bootloader..

And no, no luck. Azteeg X5 GT had nothing to display on the powered miniviki (previously running machine, so all is plugged in correctly).

Since I have zero Dev skills, it looks like I'll be waiting for the full release.

Hi @all,

entering an old thread, but I have the same idea.
Have a LPC1768 board from MKS (SGEN_L).
After reading this posts, I put on a New Marlin 2.0 on the board. It is working so far.

But the way back is closed for me.
First I erased the Malrin firmware.cur from the SD-Card.
Then I copied the two files (config.txt and firmware.bin) on the SD-Card and rebootet the board. But the firmwar.bin doesn't change to firmware.cur and connecting to the board, there is still Marlin on it :-(

Asking me, why it worked on your side, and what to do....

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Prusa I3 mit Anpassungen nach toolson | MK3 Heizbett | 1,75mm E3D-Clone mit 40W Heizpatrone und Titan-Direct Extruder | Marlin 2.0 bugfix auf MKS SGEN_L mit TMC2008 | Simplify3D 4.1.1

should work...

just needs a firmware.bin file the config file is only used once the firmware is running

I would try a different sd card.. and make sure you safely eject the sd to ensure it is finished writing all data

OK, after your agreement, I tried it again.

Before, I always copied the files through the serial interface onto the SD-Card.
This time I ejected the SD-Card and wrote it on a sd-card-reader.
This worked now as expected.

Thanks for giving me this indirect hint.

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Prusa I3 mit Anpassungen nach toolson | MK3 Heizbett | 1,75mm E3D-Clone mit 40W Heizpatrone und Titan-Direct Extruder | Marlin 2.0 bugfix auf MKS SGEN_L mit TMC2008 | Simplify3D 4.1.1

The SBase also runs RepRapFirmware. So you have a choice of at least 3 firmwares.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2019 02:28PM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Really?
Thought RepRap-FW is only running on SAM-CPUs?

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Prusa I3 mit Anpassungen nach toolson | MK3 Heizbett | 1,75mm E3D-Clone mit 40W Heizpatrone und Titan-Direct Extruder | Marlin 2.0 bugfix auf MKS SGEN_L mit TMC2008 | Simplify3D 4.1.1

Quote
herkra
Really?
Thought RepRap-FW is only running on SAM-CPUs?

There is a port of RRF for LPC1768/1769 processors. See [github.com], [reprap.org], [reprap.org] (but note, RRF 3 is still in beta). There is also a section on the Duet3D forum for RRF on other boards, at [forum.duet3d.com].

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].