Zach: It's not so much 64bit CPUs that could become an issue, but 64bit Windows OS versions. Running Windows XP Pro on a 64bit chip, for example, doesn't use that CPUs "64bit goodness"... so "normal" 32bit Windows DLLs etc. work fine. Englewood: On the original issue of serial libs: We recently switched to using the rxtx serial libs, these have been tested and are known to work on both Windowsby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Zach, Yes. Doing both is very much fine, if we have the manpower available to do so. I was reluctant to suggest it since I'm not really the right kind of manpower for that work, myself. > because the designs we have now work Well, if you don't mind drilling out the "not quite holes" into mounting holes, and inserting a couple of connectors backwards from the silkscreen info :-) They workby jmarsden - Controllers
englewood, I don't know whether anyone has tried using reprap-host-0.8.zip on Widows Vista yet. You can help out by testing that, if you like :-) My "educated guess" is that it will work fine, but at this stage the only way to be sure is to try it! If you already have a machine running Windows XP, or probably even Windows 2000, that should be fine. Win 95/98/ME and NT are totally untested asby jmarsden - RepRap Host
englewood, Please read the wiki for software installation information. Software developer docs are undergoing change right now, because we now have some non-developer docs :-) One place to start from would be . You can use the project subversion repository on SourceForge to grab all the Reprap-related source code we have. C, Java, C++, shell scripts ... it is all there. BTW... by definitionby jmarsden - RepRap Host
> I was just hoping there was a Darwin nearby already so I could > at least start off with the replicable parts, such that they are right now. Grin! There are quite a few people who would love to have a set of those parts :-) As of today, you can get them made via a commercial RP company, but you're looking at about US$2300 or so for a full set. If you have friends at a University witby jmarsden - Reprappers
> I spend winters at the South Pole ... Wow! (I was tempted to say "Cool!" for a moment)! I was wondering a couple of days ago if we'd ever get a Reprap into Antarctica (thinking about worldwide replication of Repraps, and when we'd be able to say we have "at least one Reprap on every continent") :-) Do "jump in" -- your skillset seems a good fit. Let's see how far we can get by Februaryby jmarsden - Reprappers
A comparison, based on my understanding to this point: COM84-style on PowerComms: + Simple, relatively easily understandable. + Uses existing PIC programming software such as picprog or whatever. + No "first PIC catch 22", can bootstrap using blank PICs. - Needs a real serial port, because we'd be bit-banging the serial lines. Self-programming over SNAP on every UCB: + Works witby jmarsden - Controllers
emf Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > On second thought, a COM84 programmer looks like a > simpler design to emulate. I'm not sure if it's > compatible with JDM software, but it looks like > it's pretty close, at least. I'm pretty sure a JDM *is* in essence a COM84 that has been enhanced to use the charge pump weirdness, so you can have a higher prograby jmarsden - Controllers
Luis, Did you try increasing XAxisTorque (make sure your L298N is heatsinked)? An earlier post from Eric pointed at which has links to datasheets for two variants of the Sherline stepper. I'm guessing the later one is the one Eric has. I know Eric has some big honking 10W resistors in series with the stepper coils, because I was there when he hooked it up :-) From, memory, they are 2 ohmby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Blerik, Good bug reports! The random segment one is almost certainly a side effect of a very recent change to the code, comitted two days ago in svn revision #620, by Adrian. The svn log says: > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > r620 | adrian-bowyer | 2007-06-04 12:59:28 -0700 (Mon, 04 Jun 2007) | 5 lines > > Polygon outlining changed to sby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Thanks for the ideas! It's 2:43am here in California ... I need some sleep! The README is updated in svn ready for next release, and the RepRapLinuxSoftware page also describes the j3d.org .jar file requirement now. I don't think I have the power to change the MIME type of .jar files on SourceForge :-) In Windows I can use Firefox and right click on the link in my earlier post and choose "Savby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Good catch! We are currently trying to find the official source for that .jar file. Right now it is in our Subversion tree, so you can grab it from Put it with RXTXcomm.jar and the Java3D .jar files under jre/lib/ext/ and things should go more smoothly for you :-) [ I know that .jar contains code from but I don't know how to download that .jar file or the sources for it... any help on thisby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Zach and I discussed release engineering and release process a bit in email, and then we realized it would have been better discussed "in public". With Zach's permission, therefore, here is his most recent response to my thoughts about this stuff. Further comments/discussion/ideas etc. are very welcome! ----------------------------------------------------- very convincing. we probably shouldby jmarsden - Developers
I like the "JDM-on-PowerComms" idea, if it can be made to work: (1) Low cost but (probably) effective -- very much in line with Reprap overall approach in that regard :-). (2) No pre-programmed bootstrap chip requirement (which might eventually limit exponential reproduction). (3) No serial lead swapping needed for those with only one serial port (BTW, some of us still have PCI multiport serby jmarsden - Controllers
More useful Wiki pages that are not linked on the path I would have expected! Thanks for the pointers. We should probably link to CygwinBuild from somewhere in the HowToBuildReprap tree? Maybe from RepRapWindowsSoftware, or from its developer-oriented equivalent if that page is now becoming user-oriented?? Jonathanby jmarsden - General
Zach just released my reprap-host-0.8.zip package on SourceForge. . It includes a (very short!) README file, do please read it :-) This is just a very first packaged release of the host software. Do *not* expect perfection! However, you can reasonably expect that it actually runs the Reprap host software on Windows XP, Mac and Linux :-) If you do not want to actually develop the host softwaby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Done in RepRapLinuxSoftware right after I committed the change. Others maintaining the Windows/Mac pages can get the idea from my changes to the Linux one (I hope!). Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
AP2k Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > When you boil it all down, you are going to be > required to have either a preprogrammed > controller, or unnecessary hardware bit-banged by > the PC. You can't bit-bang over the SNAP network :-) So your PIC Programmer will need a little intelligence in it -- a PIC can provide that. The concept (as I understand iby jmarsden - Controllers
Cool! Any chance you could document the state of Cygwin support as a Reprap firmware development platform, on the Wiki somewhere appropriate? Please? :-) cvs -D 20051210 is what the firmware/Makefile grabs under Linux, too, BTW. Thanks, Jonathanby jmarsden - General
The change requiring rxtx libs has been committed (svn revision 620). Look for reprap-host-0.8.jar or similar on SourceForge soon! Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
The C source code for the Reprap firmware is exactly where it should be -- in the publically accessible Subversion repository. There should therefore be no need for "please email it to me" requests. Interested parties can either check it out (there are open source zero cost SVN clients for Windows, including TortoiseSVN ), if you want a local copy of the C sources. Or, you can just browse theby jmarsden - General
Great -- a real Java person to fix up code he already knows well... sounds good to me. We should start using the SF bug tracker to prioritize and assign bugs to people... do I have sufficient rights at SF to do that kind of thing, and if I do, is it OK if I make a start on that? Meanwhile ... if you're really looking for Java bugs to fix ... my suggestion would be for you to explore p this oneby jmarsden - Developers
You can use anything that will generate STL files to create things to print with a Reprap. Using something simple and open source for actual Darwin design and construction helps ensure the whole toolchain is replicable, using something written in Java helps ensure the toolchain is portable. But once you have a Reprap, you should definitely use whatever 3D modeling tool you have available to yby jmarsden - General
The key word being "eventually". If you have a Repstrap that can manufacture PCBs and do surface mount component soldering on them... *tell us* :-) Maybe Reprap v4.x will be able to do that?? Meanwhile, soldering surface mount components at home is not for those with even slightly shaky hands or poor eyesight... I don't think we should be expecting Reprappers to do that. And oh yes, you *willby jmarsden - Mechanics
Talk to Forrest Higgs, whose overall approach in Tommelise seems to include something approaching "I'm an American, so I'm not metric" :-) See: for the deviations from the Reprap philosophy that underly his approach. BTW, I think his comment about "Tommelise has been created for people who aren't particularly clever ..." may be overly humble -- anyone who can construct anything even vaguely reby jmarsden - General
Team, We're getting very close indeed to an initial 0.8 release of the Reprap host software, pending confirmation of successful operation on Windows by Zach (Linux and Mac already tested OK!). When that time comes, I'd like to tag the host subtree in Subversion as being "release-host-0.8" so that we (and future generations of host software hackers) can easily determine just what was *in* that rby jmarsden - Developers
See this thread for some at least partly related stepper motor discussion. Jonathanby jmarsden - Mechanics
Background: The use of the rxtx serial libraries from has had at least a little testing across a few machines now. They also work on Macintosh, for which Sun javax.comm is not available. So by using them we (a) gain Macintosh host capability and (b) avoid weird Sun licence restrictions on the javax.comm stuff. Well, we might actually also (c) gain Solaris compatibility -- anyone have a Sun wby jmarsden - RepRap Host
I just checked in a change that could affect everyone with a modified reprap.properties file. The software now *only* uses the reprap.properties file in ~/.reprap/ -- and will create one there if it does not exist. This means that if you have an existing reprap.properties file you will want to move or copy it to there before using the current (revision 617) Subversion code, and before using aby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Since it wasn't 100% obvious to at least one Reprapper I helped with this on IRC very recently: The Preferences dialog calls the power settings XAxisTorque, YAxisTorque and ZAxisTorque. These are the "power" settings Adrian is referring to, so do not look for the word "power" in the Preferences dialog! BTW, increasing this apparently did the trick. One formerly wobbly stepper now turns :-) Aby jmarsden - Controllers