Firmware rookie asking questions - be warned...

Hi,

I hope all are well.

Please could forum users provide any information on the below - here's a bit of background before the rookie questions.

I have been having a lot of trouble with a set of electronics (Gen3) lately and have been troubleshooting in a number of areas. At one point or another, all elements of the electronics have been working, just not at the same time , The problem has now decided to stay on the temperature/thermistor area on my extruder board and has done for the past two days. beforehand it was changing between the extruder and the Y axis - most unusual...

checks were made on connections between axis/rs485/nichrome/thermistor to find any loose connections or short circuits but no joy. I have reuploaded firmware to the boards but again no joy.

So - time for the rookie questions.

Question 1: Can firmware be downloaded from a set of electronics?
I have a set of electronics which works 100% on another mendel. Is there any way that the firmware on this set of electronics can be downloaded from the boards and then uploaded to the troublesome boards? I have uploaded firmware onto the working set of electronics only on the motherboard (to update my E_Steps) but not on the extruder board - this firmware was uploaded by the person who i bought the electronics from.

Question 2: When uploading firmware to the extruder board, I do not see the 'DEBUG' light flash as it does on the motherboard - Has my firmware uploaded successfully?
I select the Arduino Diecimila, Duemilanove, or Nano w/ ATmega 168 from the Arduino software (Version 18) and compile the software without any problems. Once i upload the software (Press Reset, and release once the software is done compiling) i do not see the debug light on the extruder board flash in the same way as it does on the motherboard. Although after about 5 seconds, i get a message on the Arduino software that the software has uploaded. Maybe an upload is only successful when both are seen - i'm really not sure which is why i thought i'd ask.

As always, your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Happy RepRapping to you all.

Raj

I think the answer to Q1 is yes. I remember reading this but I've never done it so I don't remember how it's done.

On Q2, I think the 5D firmware is set to blink the debug light during RS485 communcationi instead of blinking on a regular interval like the MB. But you can change this in the firmware. If you search for blink() in extruder_class.pde, you should find a commented out line in the slowManage routine. If you uncomment this line, it should blink slowly like the MB once the firmware is loaded.

Hi brnrd, thanks for your information.

I'll dig around for a 'how to' on Q1 and post it.

For Q2 - I should have made myself clearer. During the actual upload the MB light flashes rapidly for about 10 seconds and then returns to its normal rate. I do not see the same kind of rapid flashing on the extruder board as i do on the MB during the upload, I just wondered if the firmware actually had uploaded.

After all of my troubleshooting with electronics and putting the blame on firmware, it seems that the trouble i am having is actually down to hardware. Rookie hardware questions on the way .

Thanks

Raj

It probably uploaded since Arduino said so.

I recall looking for a method to download firmware from an arduino board and not being able to find anything - from memory I recall reading something about the compiled firmware on the arduino chip being quite different from the files for the firmware on the computer and it not being able to transalte back.

Happy to out-googled or out-witted though :-) Would be a good thing to be able to do.