RAMPS 1.4 + Mega 2560 & Sprinter

I am a newbie with RAMPS. I have been using Sanguinolulu for about 3 months w. Sprinter and Pronterface. I ran this on Prusa Mendel.
Before I start firmware update the RAMPS, I have a few questions that I can't find on wiki or here.

Is the configuration.h for motherboard 33 for RAMPS 1.4? Sprinter list up to RAMPS 1.3 motherboard as 33.
On Arduino 022 the board selection should be my Arduino Mega 2560, correct?
Last step, compile and upload? Any tips or steps that I am missing?

If you are using a mega 2560 then yes the specified board in the arduino program should be mega 2560.

I use a 1280 and so specify 1280 - my understanding is that this is simply for the arduino software to connect to the board properly - the uploaded firmware would be the same in either case but you must specify the actual board that you are using in the arduino software prior to upload.

So

1. Edit the files you want as necessary inside the sprinter folder
2. Open the pde file into arduino software (and it load associated files together with it)
3. Double check you have spec'ed the right arduino board that you are using.
4. Compile
5. If compiling is error free then click upload.

You can do all this when its all plugged together to the printer (or when it isn't), if it's all hooked up then close the arduino software and try connecting to the printer with pronterface.

Sorry, didn't mean to ignore your other query ... I don't have the answer though. I think it only changes which pins are set to which functions in the firmware.

I would guess that the pins in ramps 1.3 and 1.4 are very similar if not the same but I don't know (I use ramps 1.2 and haven't looked at the other two much at all).

You could check the schematics and compare but I suspect a better answer than mine will come your way soon :-)

I had a bit of trouble with the default pin config in an earlier version of sprinter and it took me a while to realise what the problem was - might be worth your time looking at the pin definitions in the firmware to at least understand which pins are used for what.

Good luck!

Hi,
I'm a newbie at all this. I built a Prusa Mendel. Using RAMPS 1.4 electronics with a MEGA 2560. I downloaded Arduino 0022 software and Replicatorg. Can anyone point me to a step by step configuration process I can follow to load any required firmware etc? I'm just lost and don't know how to proceed.
Thanks

Thanks I'll reread a few wikis. Just received the Arduino 2560.

@librav the info is no doubt out there but prob a bit scattered across diff blogs and the wiki ...

Firstly you need to pick a firmware and download it.

I recommend sprinter - google kliment github sprinter and you'll find the latest. Download it.

Then, as said above

1. Edit the files you want as necessary inside the sprinter folder.
2. Open the pde file into arduino software (and it load associated files together with it)
3. Double check you have spec'ed the right arduino board that you are using.
4. Compile
5. If compiling is error free then click upload.

The firmware will then be on the board. Quit arduino. Open ReplicatorG (or another hostware) on the computer and try to connect to the printer.

I guess "1. Edit the files you want as necessary inside the sprinter folder. " is the tricky part where it'd be nice to have a bit more confidence than I gave you :-)

If you have a look most of the options you need to work with are in the config file and include

Board type - ie arduino mega 2560 in your case
thermistor type - 100k or 200k most likely
Endstop details
Acceleration
And prob a few things I am forgetting.

If you have a read through config h you will most likely get a good idea of what is worth looking at and what is best left alone to begin with.

Make sure you specify your board and anything else you can be sure about. After uploading the first time you'll perhaps have to go back to the f/w and adjust a few things (like inverting axis and how the endstops are set up). I did this a lot before everything was about right - as far as I can tell it's unlikely that wrong settings will cause much trouble so don't sweat it too much. Try, try again as it goes ..

Hello, recently bought a ramp shell 1.4 and am using the Arduino Mega 1280 with the 10.10 pronterface and ubuntu, but I had problems with printing, because each time the print in the middle, someone could help me with this?
thank you
ps. worked hard to put part of buffer'm not getting satisfactory results using firmware sprinter

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2011 04:06PM by danielramos.

Similar problem here Daniel. Have you tried dmesg command to see whether the USB port has been disconnected from the system while printing? I do get some message about port being disconnected due to EMI with Mega 2560. Problems of missing bytes with FTDI-based Mega 1280 (may be only happening with 64bits ubuntu).

misan

not tested on any of dmesg but tested on Windows XP and it worked perfectly, may be an incompatibility with the hardware I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 32bit

OK, 32 bit. I have not tested 10.10 version, only 10.4. My problem was that some Ok responses were missing and print stopped because of this. Printing without power to the RAMPS board did not change the situation. dmesg command showed no new connecton/disconnection of USB port. Data was only lost on receive channel and not very often but after lots of tests and no ideas, I bought a Mega 2560 because it has a different USB/serial adapter that uses a different driver.

It tested ok with the RAMPS board not powered but unfortunately now I have got USB disconnects caused by EMI interference when I run it while powering the RAMPS board. Windows or Linux do fail same way here. But using a different computer (battery powered laptop works ok.

With my original setup I was having failed firmware uploads from the Arduino IDE one out of three or so. Are your code uploads to the Mega working every time?

I have not yet solved this issue,

misan

I am doing further testing on a clean installation is installed and arduino java or any other program or a new PC today will post the results

I've bought an SD card for my RAMPS, it still is not the answer, as it stops randomly too. I am adding D1 and removing USB while printing.

misan

even with a totally different computer did not work, I think it's a problem, perhaps in our arduino, or the compatibility between our system and arduino mega ...
I could not debug the error still

You shouldcheck the outtput of dmesg command on a terminal window to see whether the USB port was disconnected or not when the printer stops working. Mine complains about EMI (interference).

Have you got any error when uploading code to your arduino board?

Cheers,

misan