Bewildered by Firmware Choices

I have a Heacent 3DP02 that I'm trying to update to use a Bowden type extruder. The old extruder "gear" was a sort of hobbled bolt type thing but the teeth were never good at gripping the filament and slid all the time. So I went with a different one with a more aggressive tooth. The physical assembly is not the problem.

The problem is that I need to change the extruder feed rate. So that means fussing around with the esteps settings in the firmware.

I'm pretty sure the board is some sort of Melzi 1.0/2.0 eBay Hybrid (it's definitely a Melzi board).

I have the original sources and (I think) the original Configuration.h for the "Sprinter_Melzi" code which is what I think they used. I can fuss with the axis_steps_per_unit settings until I get the feed right. This is my first step.

Ultimately, I'd like to use a more modern Firmware, but I am bewildered by all the different choices. I would also be interested in some way to reasonably convert the Configuration.h file into one of the more modern ones. Are there any tools out there for this purpose?

All the guides I've seen have about a paragraph in them about how to go and I could start from scratch, but it seems like I've got all the numbers I need, I would just need a translator.

James

Repetier has an online tool that would just involve you reading through the Configuration.h file to find values while you step through the UI. I don't think it would be too difficult to match the terminology used in the two firmwares.

For Marlin, you might try the new 1.1 RC from the main Marlin GIT repository, I assume it is fairly stable for most. I believe Marlin is a fork of Sprinter, so it should hopefully be easier to transfer over the configuration settings. Just open both files in side by side windows and start stepping through them.

An either case, just post back here (better perhaps in the firmware forums) with any questions you encounter.

After I settled down a bit and realized the Configuration.h file wasn't that big, I created a Repetier Configuration.h file that I'll be trying in a bit.

It took some fussing to get the original build environment with arduino-0023 to upload to the board (it apparently does have a bootloader installed, whew) and after doing a couple iterations with the estep value, I think I've got it feeding correctly (at least according to Pronterface). Since I am using the original heater and thermocouple I just have to fit the fan to the fins on the nozzle part.

I'm a little concerned that the nozzle assembly is a little wobbly in the old fittings, but once I get the fan set up I'll run a test print.

Should I pack up the original build environment and post it here?

The wobbly nozzly will give you fits as there is a gap between the top of the nozzle barrel and the filament feed tube. This will create a gap with which the filament can fill into causing a cold donut inside the tube causing a misfeed.
God forbid you achieve this. It will drive you crazy tyrying to find the filament divot problem.
I finally figured mine out and went with clone E3d v6 heads.

I would go with the marlin RC,
I came from repetier because it used to have more options but i prefer the new marlin, mainly because i wasen't able to get the auto leveling to work like it should. Just compare the two configuration.h files and copy the settings to marlin.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2016 03:27PM by Govahnator.