What is this board and can it run Marlin 1.1.8

Hello everybody!
Let’s give it a quick introduction: I am owner of an orcabot 0.43 since some weeks now. I made it work and print and also started modding it.
Now I am at the point where I want to change some firmware settings. Unfortunately Igor the printer just as it is, no sifteare,, no docu and no one to ask. I did not find a single picture that matches my Bord. I guess it is a gen 6 electronic of some kind.
Is there any intelligence out there to tell me

1. What board that is
2. If Marlin 1.1.8 will run on it
3. What sanguino settings I need to choose in Arduino software for flashing

I thing I red something about backup. I will of course try that because the printer is working with whatever firmware is on it now.

Enclosed is a picture of the board. Thanks for any ideas on that thing.

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Picture size is quite limited, so here is a link to the picture:

[www.dropbox.com]

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Orcabot 0.43 with heated bed.

It does look very similar to a Gen 6

It depends on what main chip is on it

644p is two small for modern firmware
1284p is tight with modern firmwares (and can run into issues if you have a LCD or enable to many options)

Your going to have to clean that chip (isopropyl alcohol and a cotton bud) and read the number on it.

Thanks. That was a good hint. On the chip it reads:

ATMEL
ATMEGA 644P
20AU 1048

I don’t have an LCD installed and currently don’t use ABL or Software retraction. I guess too many of these kind of things can cause the problems. Only thing I have is a heated bed.
The thing that I want to do is mainly enabling fan support like here unter “spare pin extension”:
[reprap.org]

It would also be O.K. to know the firmware that is currently on the device reconfigure it and reinstall it just with the fan modification. Is there a command to read the installed firmware version?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2018 12:48AM by NozzleMover.

Most id themselves over serial on power on..

but not all, and early marlin just said v1, for everything

Most come to the same issue with this...

you can retrieve a lot of setting from the firmware with M501
But, it does not tell you anything about what thermister type you have.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2018 02:18AM by Dust.

Thanks again.
So my plan would than be the following:

1. Back up the running firmware like described here: [reprap.org]
2. Use the M501 command to get most of the settings
3. Donwload Marlin 1.1.8 and adapt it to my printer (incl. the fan support)
4. Enabel additional features carefully, if at all
5. See if it works (if not, re-install image of running firmware)

The chip is the one from the Gen6 electronics, as far as I understood the corresponding RepRap Wiki. And I want to be using the the 1284 settings of the sanguino in Arduion although it sais 1048 on the chip, right? Or just see what works best?

The chips says "ATMEGA 644P"

so you need to use the 644p settings

1048 is probably a date code for manufacturer 48th week 2010

It also says its "20AU" so its a 20mhz chip... you need to look at the crystal and see what speed its actually running at probably only 16, but you need to set ardunio IDE to correct speed or serial communications will not work.

also backup eeprom as it may contain valuable data

eg avrdude -p m644p -c stk500v2 -P {your com port} -b 38400 -U eeprom:r:eeprom_backup_file.hex

I just got my printer setup again which uses the GEN6 board. I was looking at updating the firmware. Did you get 1.1.8 to run on the GEN6 board?

No. I will earliest try it end of next week due to time constraints...

Ok so I got over my fear of bricking the only controller for this printer and was finally able to get Marlin 1.1.8 on my GEN6 board. So as I am sure you have found out the GEN6 board has an older bootloader which is most likely from Arduino legacy days (00XX). Marlin 1.1.8 needs to be compiled in something newer than Arduino IDE 1.6.8. I downloaded Arduino IDE 1.8.5 and installed it from:

[www.arduino.cc]

Now the Arduino IDE 1.8.5 does not have native support for the Sanguino based boards, so you need to download the files for that board and put in the .\arduino\hardware folder. You can get the files from here:

[github.com]

Once added you are ready to burn the bootloader from the Arduino IDE via the ISP method. Since I do not have an ISP programmer I used an Arduino Uno R3 as an ISP. You need to connect the Uno to the PC and open the example sketch ArduinoISP (it is number 11). On line 81 I uncommented #define USE_OLD_STYLE_WIRING and uploaded the sketch to my Uno. Once uploaded I powered both the GEN6 and the UNO off and wired the Uno to the GEN6's ISP pins as shown in the link below.

[www.arduino.cc]

Once everything was wired up I plugged the USB into the Uno and applied power to the Uno (the GEN6 will get it's power from the Uno). After double checking my wiring to make sure the only thing connected to the GEN6 was the Uno I burned the bootloader to the GEN6 by following the instructions below:

Open Arduino IDE
Click Tools. Set Board to "Sanguino"
Click Tools. Set Processor to "Sanguino W/ ATmega644P or ATmega644PA (16 MHz)" (Obviously you will want to verify what chipset you have by looking at the print on the board and what numbers are
on the crystal)
Click Tools. Under Programmer, choose "w Arduino as ISP".
Click Tools. Click Burn Bootloader
Arduino will begin burning the bootloader. The process takes about a minute or less.
After Arduino reports "Done", press the reset button on your GEN6 board.
Disconnect the power from the Uno board, unplug the USB cable and disconnect ISP wiring.
You're ready to load firmware!

Sorry if this seems overly simplified but I was tired of searching the net for all of this info and second guessing myself on if this would work on a GEN6 board. So if this saves one person that frustration it is worth it. Well time to move on to getting manual mesh bed leveling setup so I can compensate for the +/- .004" that bed leveling wasn't able to correct. Good luck!

your a bit out of date... thats the old, not supported way to install Sanguino

use this method:

Start up Arduino IDE

Open up the menu File|Preferences

At the bottom is a field Additional Boards manager URLs:
Enter "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lauszus/Sanguino/master/package_lauszus_sanguino_index.json"

Click OK

Open up the menu Tools|Board:|Boards manager...

This will open the manager. Scroll down till you see Sanguino
Click more info, this will reveal an install button.

Hit install.

Close the Board manager.

Your done!

lol yea that is a bit easier! I was searching the net and trying to follow the path from 00xx days till now. Yes my board and my expertise was out of date a lot has changed since I built my printer in 2010-2011. Honestly the changes are rather amazing that has happened. Thank you for the updated info!!

Quote
Dust
your a bit out of date... thats the old, not supported way to install Sanguino

use this method:

Start up Arduino IDE

Open up the menu File|Preferences

At the bottom is a field Additional Boards manager URLs:
Enter "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lauszus/Sanguino/master/package_lauszus_sanguino_index.json"

Click OK

Open up the menu Tools|Board:|Boards manager...

This will open the manager. Scroll down till you see Sanguino
Click more info, this will reveal an install button.

Hit install.

Close the Board manager.

Your done!

Wow that sounds like it has saved me a lot of trouble. To make sure I got it right: This is the procedure to compile and then install the new firmware, right? Hopefully it also works this way on my Mac.
Thanks a lot for the comments. I will also keep trying...

Quote
rotinaj13
Ok so I got over my fear of bricking the only controller for this printer and was finally able to get Marlin 1.1.8 on my GEN6 board. So as I am sure you have found out the GEN6 board has an older bootloader which is most likely from Arduino legacy days (00XX). Marlin 1.1.8 needs to be compiled in something newer than Arduino IDE 1.6.8. I downloaded Arduino IDE ...

Did you back up your old firmware first?
How to validate that the backup worked?
How to bring it back on the board in case you need to?

Thanks again for your help!

Quote

Wow that sounds like it has saved me a lot of trouble. To make sure I got it right: This is the procedure to compile and then install the new firmware, right? Hopefully it also works this way on my Mac.
Thanks a lot for the comments. I will also keep trying...

no this is just how you add Sanguino support to the Ardunio IDE (your chip is a Sanguino)

From there you select the board Sanguino then select the processor 644p @ 16mhz (or 20... you need to look at that crystal)

Then load up marlin and make sure in configuration.h the motherboard line is "#define MOTHERBOARD SANGUINOLOLU_12"

Then you can verify (which just complies but doesn't try to upload)
If no errors then you can try an upload.

rotinaj13 recommends installing a new boot loader, this may or may not be needed... If you cant upload then you probably need it. For that you need a AVR ISP. A device that lets you put data on the chip without a bootloader. (can be as simple as another ardunio board running AVRISP firmware)

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2018 04:49AM by Dust.

Yea the method I posted gets around the old boot loader generating errors when you attempt to upload firmware. Since my Gen6 was older and I would be wiling to bet yours is as well you will need to update the boot loader unless someone has done this which would most likely be the case if it is running 1.1.x. The information Dust posted replaces my link for downloading the drivers for Sanguino and putting them in the arduino/hardware folder. This link talks about using AVR dude to backup the firmware but I am not sure how the port portion of the command is phrased on a mac. I did backup my firmware which I used an install of Arduino 00XX that was previously installed and had the Sanguino drivers built in. I never verified my backup just moved forward:

[reprap.org]

If you go to upload and get errors that look like this then either your baud rate is wrong, wrong board selected or you need to burn the boot loader:

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

Dust: Are you sure about the board in the configuration.h? I had mine set as

#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_GEN6

bah... brain fart...

should be #define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_GEN6

I used to use SANGUINOLOLU boards ... Same CPU, different pin outs

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2018 04:25AM by Dust.