newbie - firmware woes

Hi All -

Firstly thanks for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate your advice in advance.

my board is a gen6, by setup is supposedly a prusa base

So I've followed the reprap project for a while, and finally got my hands on a mostly-assembled kit that someone gave up on. I went through and verified every pin off the board, and x y and z motions work both + and - when using sprinter firmware, but the hotend does not heat and the tray size seems too small as the steppers keep hitting the edges. i don't see a "*_steps_per_mm" setting in the sprinter configuration.h to tweak this

I also have been trying the new 5d firmware, and with this firmware the hot end heats and correctly reports temps, but movements only work in the + direction. From what I ahve read this indicates sensor failures, but using sprinter without and pinout changes the sensors correctly work and allow me to home-all no problem.

Does anyone have a suggestion on what I should be looking at to troubleshoot the problems? I think I should stick to using just one firmware and make it work with that. Should I stick with Sprinter or the 5D firmwares?

I did google around and checkout some forum posts, but it doesn't appear anyone has the same question as me at the moment.

thanks in advance
./Ben

i decided to just stick with printer as i have all my axis fully functioning with sensors there and i'll just have to troubleshoot the hot end by itself.

it's not too late for me to change my method if someone has a better way or any insight to share.

thanks for viewing.

i'm going to just talk through the thought process i have, please correct me if i'm wrong

firmware 5D interpreter --> hot heats AND reports temp, axis move only +, sensors not reporting

firmware sprinter --> hot end does NOT heat or report temp, but all for steppers work, axis move correctly, sensors function, home-all works fine


so the differences between 5D and sprinter clearly are not hardware, and are not even physical pinout, which means it must be software pinout and that i should make my pins.h from sprinter reference the same pins as 5D does for the hotend and the thermistor.

does this sound logical? is there somewhere else i should look?

thanks

so i did a fake print of the minimug.stl shot glass from thingverse and it appeared successful in its movements

temperatures still not reporting BUT the hot end did get hot by the end of the print

any insights? (please!)

Hi there,
If you are 'ok' with the process of downloading firmware then you could try Marlin on the Gen6 and switch back if you have too much difficulty getting it working. I'm using Marlin on a Gen6 board. It works well. I'm using Pronterface as host, and Slic3r to convert STLs to Gcode. I can mail you my configuration.h tab if you like so you can compare settings.

Can you give a little more detail on what software you are using?
Have you photos of your machine posted any were? It would give a little overview of your rig.

I'm sue you'll get it going with a little bet of persistence.
Keep asking questions. If I can help I will.
Regards,
NumberSix

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Hello and thank you for your response. I will keep in mind that i still have unexplored firmware options.

My machine is... weird. I got used off of a guy who got an official botmill parts kit when they first came out with a prusa mendel, but it had mixed components of the original mendel. He was missing pieces and had the wrong belts, and had a bad experience when he shipped parts back and they sent more incorrect parts. Needless to say that some of it is custom.

it's got a wades extruder, but doesn't have a hot end mount. i spent the day fabricating one, and i need to make an improved version. I have it melting plastic today, but still not reporting temps in sprinter. I also rewired a brand new thermistor and brand new wires to the board. Unfortunately I know the board was soldered onto as the kit didn't ship with the correct number of molex connectors, so it could have blown a pin on the atmega (I don't think this is true because with no hardware or pin changes 5d firmware reports temp fine). The previous owner never did get it to print, and the sensors weren't working for him either. I have since resolved those issues and i believe that everything is working except the hotend components.

I would love a copy of a working config file, and if you send it may way I'll try out marlin.

I do have a spare gen6 board to play with so if i damage this one so be it. I think in the future sanguinololu is the right choice component failure wont knock the whole board out.

Anything I can check to verify the thermistor in sprinter?

On another note, my hot end does seem to have a hard time getting up to temp. Is the solution for this simply better insulation?

thank you