Noisy download

Is it normal for a Sanguinololu to make bizarre noises with the motors when downloading from the Arduino IDE? If so does anybody know why?

I would have thought the only pin activity during a download would be the serial comms. Does the bootstrap think the motor pins are LEDs or something?

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I've never seen this, but yes, it looks like your bootloader switches pins other than the serial comms.

Uhm, using the Gen7 bootloader? The programmer LED is disabled there. Binaries are a bit hidden in the Arduino IDE Support package in the release documents folder. For compiling your own variant, look into make.sh in the arduino support folder on how it's done: [github.com]

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I am just using what came on the board. It also had sprinter installed which I used to test the wiring and then replaced it with Marlin. I could replace the bootstrap as I do have an ISP programmer.

The other odd thing is the motors make a noise for a few seconds when reset, but it seems to be noisier than when they get enabled. The noise during the bootstrap is very odd as it is very loud and different each time I load. The motors show no sign of moving so it must pulse the enable or step at a high frequency or something.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Actually the extruder rotates at high speed during the download, which would be bad news if it had filament in it, so I will have to replace the bootstrap.

I presume the noise during startup is also the bootstrap as I assume it waits a couple of seconds for comms before running the firmware.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

So is there a bootstrap correct for Sanguinololu with a 644P?

I have a Sanguino one that came with Marlin, but that seems to mess with a LED as presumably the Sanguino has a LED. Also the 644P directory only has hex files for 1284P so the Arduino IDE doesn't find it.

How does anybody else manage to load firmware without having their extruder go off on one?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2012 08:01AM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

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I am just using what came on the board.

Ah, I think quite a number of vendors upload something, regardless wether this works or not. They're vendors, not developers, testers or manual writers, after all. Recently, a number of Gen6s appeared with FiveD uploaded and badged "firmware uploaded", implying "ready to use". FiveD doesn't even support Gen6, AFAIK.

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So is there a bootstrap correct for Sanguinololu with a 644P?

As said, I'm pretty sure the Gen7 Arduino IDE Support package works. As we know now you have an 644P I can tell you there's a matching binary in it. But you're looking for something with a "Sanguinololu" badge on it, right? If I'd try to make fun of you, I'd recommend to rename the folders and files in this package to your taste and edit boards.txt to make things work again.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Sorry but I can't find any binaries in the Gen7 github you linked to, perhaps I am being dense. The make files seem to be for Linux only.

Googling I found only Sanguino versions for 644P and they drive the LED on B0. This is what the reprap wiki says to install so I can't blame the vendor.

B0 is the E dir pin, so it must be crosstalk to the floating pin next door that makes it step. It might explain why it is random. Sometimes it spins fast and sometimes very slowly. Either way it will either strip the hobbed bolt and require cleaning, or destroy the hot end. I don't understand why nobody else has reported this issue. Maybe the crosstalk is more on my board for some reason, perhaps flux residue. I will investigate with a scope.

The reason the motors are energised is because there is a 100K pulldown on the Pololu enable pin. I think I will add a 4K7 pullup so they are disabled when the bootstrap runs and during reset. It seems a cleaner solution.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

OK is was crosstalk from the EDIR pin, which it thinks is an LED and ESTEP. Putting a scope on ESTEP was enough to stop it completely as it acts as a weak pull down.

Putting a 4K7 pullup on the enable line stops all the motors being energised during firmware download and during reset. On reset the bootstrap flashes the LED three times and that could be heard from the extruder motor as well.

On to the next problem, why the first extruder movement after a reset ignores the feed rate and goes very fast.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

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Sorry but I can't find any binaries in the Gen7 github you linked to

It's a ZIP file:

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

nophead Wrote:
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> OK is was crosstalk from the EDIR pin, which it
> thinks is an LED and ESTEP. Putting a scope on
> ESTEP was enough to stop it completely as it acts
> as a weak pull down.
>
> Putting a 4K7 pullup on the enable line stops all
> the motors being energised during firmware
> download and during reset. On reset the bootstrap
> flashes the LED three times and that could be
> heard from the extruder motor as well.

Nophead,

Just found his post. I have had this exact problem so I disconnect my extruder motor before each firmware upload. (As to why I didn't report it before - naivety is probably the best answer - I assumed ther was a reason and had bigger fish to fry.

Could you please document your fix on the Sanguinololu wiki (or your on blog) so the non techies like me can apply the same fix without frying our boards. (I.e. with pictures )

Thanks,
Craig

I added a bugs section on the Wiki [reprap.org]. I can't take photographs easily because the board is screwed in and I changed the connectors to screw terminals, so it would be a PITA to remove it.

The best fix is to change the 100K pullups R7 and R8 to 4K7 but I just soldered a 4K7 SMT resistor on the X motor Pololu, across the enable pin and the pin next to it which is MS1 and is tied to VDD by a jumper. It was a bit of a bodge because I didn't want to remove the Sanguinololu.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Thanks Nophead,

The notes you added to the wiki will help. I will attempt this sometime soon. In the meantime will stick to my disconnection of the stepper to prevent damage.