DreamMaker Overlord :: trying to use with Repetier :: much help needed

Hi guys, I just bought a DreamMaker Overlord Pro 3D printer. It was pretty sudden, I was still looking up the variants I had and was really into kossel but well, the price was just so low and I didn't have much time to really sift through the forums and reviews. Based on a very incomplete view for the printer I went on and negotiated it down to 330Eur. It looks like a very good price compared to the actual price it sells for but after you get to the nitty gritty it is almost too much for what it is. I will explain as short as possible:

- the original firmware is useless, the nicest feature, the auto-calibration without an actual calibration probe (they use some current sensing techniques while touching the build plate with the nozzle) doesn't work at all, even the manual calibration tries to be very simple and noob-friendly (press up/down the nozzle until the print looks good) but it fails to be easy to achieve

- they have just open sourced their firmware but it is badly written and it is based on an ancient Ultimaker Marlin variant that Ultimaker has stripped almost all Delta stuff of so they had to re-write much of it and conceal the actual settings from the end-user in an effort to emulate the ultimaker at ease of use; they failed at this too;

- they are very noisy, the rapid movements and the initial auto-calibration it does at every startup sound like metal space ship crash; I have traced down the noise not in the stepper motors bad current handling but in one of the stepper motors, something must be wrong inside it, friction between rotor and stator or something else because with no current (the connector unplugged from the board) there is no noise -so no mechanical issue- and with the current on the other towers don't make that noise. Anyway while manually jogging the axes to trace the horrendous sound I seem to have fried two stepper drivers. Out of the three, among which one was already replaced by the previous owner, only the DFRobot ones have been damaged. Actually there is no visible damage and it's strange that jogging the axes would damage them as I see so many yotube videos where people just push by hand the effector to the home position... but with these stepper drivers on the board it doesn't start and when i take them out it starts ok.

- the original firmware has all sorts of problems with so many features that don't get repaired in new versions and the development is so slow and there is so little communication from them towards the buyers that I don't recommend at all any 3D printer that doesn't have everything either open-source or hackable so that an open source firmware can be used out of the box. I was looking into SBASE before this, now I am certain that unless they open source everything about their board I will buy a Duet next time.

- I didn't get many responses on the dreammaker forums and am pretty frustrated already so I thought that here I'd have much more chances to get some guidance.

These being said I am done venting off and the reason for my post is that there is effort by some more knowledgeable users on the dreammaker forums to port everything to Repetier now that the original firmware sources are accessible.

There is a github for this (https://github.com/jayz28/Repetier-Firmware-OLP) but I downloaded it and looked through the folders I have no idea what should I do with that one. Can I use it like a Repetier Host to connect to the printer with the settings that might be defined in there or is it just something to be compiled with arduino to actually upload to the board. Maybe I can get some opinion because at a first look you will see much more than me, as a very noob at repetier/delta/3d printing etc

About the Overlord Pro board:

- the board is a custom variant of arduino mega 2560; it looks very good and professional
- the motor steppers are A4988 made by DFRobot
- the LCD panel is an OLED custom panel
- the SD card shield is custom made
- the hotend is custom and has a board where the fans, heaters cartriges, sensors, etc plug in, which is handy.

Maybe some of the Overlord Pro users are also roaming these forums but the number of OVP owners pales in comparison to the experienced delta guys in reprap forums.

I am hoping that I can get some help understanding what is needed about a Repetier fork that would work for this custom board and how can the SD and OLED panel be defined in the software so they are usable without the USB connection. Maybe these efforts are already impelmented to a certain degree in the github Iinked above but I have no idea where to look.

Thanks for guiding me through this mess.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2015 07:46AM by realthor.

---

RepRap Lander concept on Concept Forge
RepRap Lander concept on RepRap Forums
My Things, mostly experimental stuff

Maybe you can take some photos of the wiring harness and the board and the hotend wiring? Just to get an idea of what we are talking about.

I am thinking, if you are not going to use their firmware with things such as fancy LCD and force sensors, then just throwing out the controller and bringing your own may be easier? You are going to be tired of 8 bit electronics on a Delta anyways.

If you want to go with your board then it says on the Github page:

Quote
Please use your new at [url]http://www.repetier.com/firmware/v092[/url] for easy and fast configuration. You get the complete sources you need to compile from the online configurator. ...

So you go to Repetier. Get the firmware. Then you need to replace some of the files from there with some files from the Github. If you have zero experience with Arduino then I think you should go with my suggestion. To upload firmware you under any circumstances will need the Arduino enviroment

I flashed their latest official (experimental) firmware and man that is bad software, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do...anyway I don't want to stay locked in that environment. I will try the Repetier route and can always go back if I don't like it but I doubt that. I like hacking, even if that means learning to solder With arduino I did compile Marlin with custom configurations it's not that difficult when you know the board, LCD, etc.

Moreover, I believe the LCD is already ported into this github version. I wouldn't want to spend much time hacking it though as I have other projects I want to use it for but well...

So how do I know what files/folders to replace with what files/folders.

Anyway, it makes sense to upload some photos. I'll upload them to g+ and link them here.

Meanwhile I'll try to do a mashup of images I find online:

General layout:



Electronic Board:



Stepper Drivers (notice the empty driver spot that can be used for another etruder):



SD Shield:



Battery Pack for emergency case (nice feature):



Original Hotend with connectors board:



I will take some pictures when I get home. Are you interested in anything else? Better pictures with the circuitry? I can't find too many detailed images on web.

---

RepRap Lander concept on Concept Forge
RepRap Lander concept on RepRap Forums
My Things, mostly experimental stuff

I'm good - Pictures are fine. I believe that most of the cabling will work directly with any off-the-shelve board. The few that wont (endstop in particular) you can in 5 min make a small adapter to make them work... If it was me, I would put the board on the shelve and just focus on start printing with a different board. It should be very quick - But you will give up a lot of features.

I once spend an entire weekend troubleshooting a cheap ATX power supply for one of my projects. Made forum posts and what not about it. I finally found a possible solution, but the perspective was another weekend spent with my soldering iron. I asked my self - "What makes you happy, troubleshooting electronics or working on my project?" - I answered to my self, that I'm doing this for the 3d printers. I then put the ATX on the shelf and went and bought a new ATX that worked.

It seems to me, that you need to ask yourself the same question.

Well... there has to be a learning curve and I will end up learning a few things by tinkering with it. Money is not really a problem for me up to a certain amount, it's my philosophy that limits me from spending too much for something. Yes I have other projects that I would be glad to be able to do quicker but at the end of the day I am not revolutionizing anything in this industry... it can wait, life is more then one hobby, and I have a few .

If this will become too frustrating I will probably end up going the Duet0.6 way and move this board to the corexy I have already payd and waiting for the parts ... So that will be experimental anyway and the dual extruder capability of this Overlord board fits better a cartesian than a Delta from the calibration pov ... (I've hured).

Until then I would like to dive a bit into the Repetier environment and learn how to set it up and communicate with the board via USB.

Question: If I am to swap a single motor from the three with another one that is different (I already have another stepper motor but it is 2.5A/200 steps which is for sure different than the others). Would I need to replace all three motors for the Delta configuration to work properly? Or can I setup the config in such a way that I can mount my existing spare motor without affecting the delta functioning.

---

RepRap Lander concept on Concept Forge
RepRap Lander concept on RepRap Forums
My Things, mostly experimental stuff