hmm. this is definitely a bummer. one possible solution is that we could post the hex firmware, and you could upload it manually. still, not an ideal solution. as for gcode: yes, its definitely the route for the (near) future. theres still a relatively large amount of work that needs to go into it, but it is working, and you can use my subversion branch until its integrated into trunk:by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
correct: no interrupts in the gcode stuff. =)by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
well, that processing sketch is very crude. are you sure you're running it from the Processing host (and not the Arduino host?) other than that, i'd say wait a week or two until i merge my gcode stuff with the main host software (or run the subversion branche version in reprap/trunk/users/hoeken/gcode_hostby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
well, if the step pin is sending a square wave (that repeats) then the firmware should be working reliably. are you sure your stepper drivers are handling the step signal correctly? i'll try and take a look at all those firmwares tonight to make sure they still work properly.by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
an easy way to test teh SNAP stuff is to use the host software... fire up the stepper exerciser and it will tell you pretty quickly if it works or not.by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
anyone got a cloning machine? i'd love to make it perfect, but i'm swamped.by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
jay: its alot easier to interface directly with an SD card instead. all we have to do is upgrade the processor and it will be no problem. the next time i take a crack at the electronics, i'll probably look at a beefier uC like an atmega32 or an atmega128 (or one of the ones with USB built in) however, the electronics work well now, so i'm going to let them be for probably 6-9 months. sverre:by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
i'll try and update the various install pages to make things easier to figure out. of course i'd like to get the host software setup so that it includes all these .jar files in the initial download so the install instructions are: 1. download the reprap host software. 2. run the reprap host software. problem is, i dont know a whole lot about how to package separate .jar files together. any jaby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
hey, .pde is the file suffix that the Arduino host saves its files as. Its all C code, with a tiny bit of C++ in there as well. the SNAP protocol itself is solid. it works well, has low overhead, and is fast. plus, we already have lots of code written around it. however, the problem with our current stuff based on SNAP is that we've outgrown the protocol we designed around it. sending indiby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
yo, sorry forrest. i knew you did that, but i couldnt find where it was. can AoI export that 2D drawing to something like DXF? i guess i'll find out!by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
keep in mind if you want to do virtual part production that you can do that with the reprap host software right now. its not intuitive, but if you change your geometry setting to 'nullcartesian' you can then load and build a part and it will go through the whole slice/dice process. pretty rad. ~Zachby ZachHoeken - General
Hey all, I have access to a lasercutter, and one thing I'd like to play around with is to create some lasercut gears. does anyone know of any good/easy software i could use to generate basic gears in DXF or other vector format for use in a lasercutter? also, i dont know much about gears, but i basically want two meshing circular gears. i'm not sure about the ratio, but i think 2:1 would be aby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
both. i'm not sure if you're familiar with using subversion, but its common practice to make a branch of a project to make major changes so that the 'trunk' doesnt get broken with potentially non-working code. some major changes were required and i'm now testing everything to make sure that both snap and gcode work. once it all works properly, i'll merge it back into trunk and we'll make a releby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
seriously guys, please do this!!! i'm picturing the video and its amazing.by ZachHoeken - General
in case you havent seen the blog entry, check it:by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
thanks =) to be honest, the v1 of the SNAP protocol is going to be obsolete on Arduinos soon. the GCode stuff fixes lots of problems (see: ) and is just generally awesome. i would suggest porting the gcode stuff. either will work, but you'll get better results and have more flexibility with gcode. also, its 95% procedural. there are a few OO remnants i need to remove (extruder code) and theby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
if someone is interested in helping update the BOM, please send me a PM. I'm swamped with all sorts of stuff like running the RRRF, working on the McWire designs, coding for the Arduino, etc. Its all contained in a google doc and its easy to update that. The partlister is all open source code as well and easy to understand. I'm sorry if you've run into problems, but keep in mind its a work inby ZachHoeken - Mechanics
crap! sorry about that. its fixed now. for some reason i accidentally only published one page, and not all pages. i wont let it happen again its good to see that even if i were to fall of the earth, you guys are still resourceful enough to still get at the BOM.by ZachHoeken - General
JBB: do you have any suggestions on an intro to RS485 for beginners? i think one of the reasons the project doesnt use all the things it should be using is that people arent familiar with the technology. not all of us are professionals (i'm certainly not!), but we do all share a common passion to make this technology succeed, even if we sometimes go down the wrong path =)by ZachHoeken - Controllers
i use a light switch from any hardware store. it works great, is cheap, and is large... which means its easy to turn off in a hurry =)by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
hey sverre, i would suggest porting from the Arduino stuff instead of the PIC stuff. i've fixed a bunch of bugs, and have dealt with the whole 'how do you emulate 4 snap devices on a single avr' problem. plus, the code should be much easier to understand, as well as being written for the same architecture (not a big deal, but it certainly does help. also, the PIC stuff has lots and lots of haby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
This weekend I spent hacking on the GCodeWriter stuff that was posted in the forums (i forgot who posted it... sorry! plz remind me.) anyway, i had to make some major changes to get it integrated properly. this led me to branch the host software in subversion and make all my changes there. tons of hacking later, gcode is now integrated and is a 2nd output option. it works great, and adds somby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
yo. yeah, atmels are great! we've been doing alot of work on creating a system based on the Arduino (as triffid said above, its basically an atmega168) anyway, check out the main wiki page about it: we've even created a simple GCode parser for the Arduino which will allow you to use GCode on your reprap machine. i finished writing about 1/2 the code this weekend. read up on it, download thby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
cool. it seems like the consensus is that 2 levels would be the best: a software 'pause/stop' mode and a hardware button to stop everything. i like the idea of making the 'esc' key a shortcut in software, as well as a big, red GUI button.by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
yeah, i just kill the power. i wired up a simple light switch on my atx power supply's sense pin... the switch turns it on/off. you're right though... an abort button would be nice. we'll put it on the list =) technically, there is a 'cancel build' menu option, but its not very visible and doesnt take effect immediately.by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
it would require a pretty significant code rewrite to change that, but it is something i'd like to see. it would be nice to remove the objects completely and be completely procedural, it just looks like a big challenge when i have everything working and would like to actually print stuff. are you interested in taking a shot at it?by ZachHoeken - RepRap Host
"So what does making the comms to the machine G code actually achieve?" sorry if i reacted strongly to that. all i really mean was that if you are going to criticize peoples work, you better have a solution or an alternative to back it up. in addition to that, we're going to great lengths here to build something that *everyone* can build. if that means doing surface mount stuff, expensive sby ZachHoeken - RepRap Host