Firmware basics help Marlin which file?

Hi all, new to this printing and the Arduino idea. i have built a Mendel all is well & working fine. my question should be simple. during the build & looking on the forum there are lots of comments about updating the firmware. ive been to the github and downloaded the latest Marlin zip for my Melzi controller. when i open the zip i am greeted with lots of files. which one is the firmware i should upload if needed?

also can i make a copy from what is already loaded on m board?

hope somone can advise

The configuration settings for marlin are in configuration.h, and - for advanced settings - in configuration_adv.h.

The answer to your question is basically no. You can't save the image that is loaded on to your board, but you CAN ask the firmware what its settings are and at least write them down. Look at the marlin documentation and readme file. There are M commands in the love 500 range that allow you to query the settings. Pronterface actually prints them all on the logging screen when you first connect.

thanks for the reply,but if i had a blank board which file would i load. marlin.pde?
the confusion is which ever file i open they all
seam to have the others show in the tabs on the arduino.
this is all new to me.

The IDE shows all of the files' but you don't load any of them onto the board. You need to build and upload the resulting image. The IDE gives you a button to do just that. Just press the button, it will compile and then upload.

still not got the answer i was looking for, which file do i open in the
Arduino IDE? i think it is Marlin.pde but want to be sure.

hi bandit
how you getting on with compiling and uploading ??
I too am new to this stuff. I'm trying to calibrate my extruder and need to adjust in the config file then upload apparently.

so far i have figured out that you can load any one of the files and the whole set loads into IDE

currently getting a few errors when compiling but ill figure that out

i would also like to back up what i have on the board as aside from the extruder calibration it seems to work quite well
im using a gen6 d board.
Any help appreciated

hi, i am using marlin .pde firmware.with a reprapro melzi board. everything came loaded. i have not had to compile or up load yet. however i have adjusted the extruder steps. if yoy know what steps you need. what i did was in pronoface send command m92 e(axis letter in this case for me e for the extruder) followed by the number of steps required.
example if you wanted 875steps send M92 e875. you can do this as many times as you wish. once you are happy send command M500. this will save it in the board. you can edit your firmware on your compuer and save the file. so if you have to in future upload the firmware it will have the correct number of steps. there is a command to view the configuration but you cannot download a copy of what is already loaded.
the above worked for me with the melzi etc not sure if it is the same for the gen6.
hope this helps.

Hi
thanks that certainly has got me thinking. ill give it a try and see what happens.
i guess even if it doesn't "save" to the board i could always include the command at the start of my G code
now off to look for the "view config" command

oops.. Wrong topic. N/M

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2013 09:58AM by Knimrod.

Hi, just read this as I'm also calibrating and looked for how to set extrusion steps. Found this.

I think that I should create a initiation file saved somewhere, that I could just send out whenever needed. Then i could send that file if i ever had to upgrade the firmware.

The file should end with the store command.

Thanks for info.