Incidentally... maybe we should start a new forum thread, since this is no longer a "frustrating UCB issue", more a "how to get Eric's non-standard steppers to rotate" issue at this point? \by jmarsden - RepRap Host
The T-shirt design can wait :-) Maybe those huge series resistors of yours are just too high a value?? :-) Maybe try two in parallel per coil, halving the effective resistance?? Or is that too much of a risk to the stepper? I suspect not, unless you let it get *really* hot, your stepper should survive. But then, that's easy for me to say, seeing as it is *your* stepper :-) Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Dean Schrickel Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are you saying a C variable can be re-defined to > handle the 1.8 degree, (200 step) for the firmware? Sort of, but not quite. A #define'd constant, not a variable. I've skim-read some of the firmware source code, trying to get a feel for it. I didn't write it, and have never run it. This is an important diby jmarsden - Mechanics
Zach, Well... "all" we have to do is get it so it replicates, and package/document things well enough that moderately skilled people (as opposed to expert tinkerers!) can both run the software and build the hardware! Then I strongly suspect those new users will start to appear, and user groups will form. Perhaps faster than we can keep up with!! Meanwhile, I suppose Eric and I just accidentalby jmarsden - RepRap Host
To clarify: the "generic" Java 1.4.2 installed to /usr/local had issues, at least in the state I found it in. The Linux distribution (OpenSuSE in this case) -packaged Java 1.5.0 worked great. Also... Eric treated me to lunch, and I had an idea while working at his PC which may help me get a simple host software package out... so it was a good day all around :-) Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Sounds fine to me, though I'd think someone (ideally someone other than the committer of the new or revised .aoi file) should actually load it into AoI, export it as a .stl, and then RP the revised part from that (at worst, virtually RP it using null cartesian, in the absence of working test hardware), and make *some* degree of effort to check that it really can be used to build a Darwin, beforeby jmarsden - Developers
> The only intersection between these otherwise > distinct questions is when a numbering system > implies to the world that we've made a release > when we haven't. The piece of SourceForge where you make files available for download is called the "File Release System"... when you stick package files there, in one sense you have "released" those files. Ready or not, tested or not...by jmarsden - Developers
Eric, the host software stuff I can definitely help with, if you see me in #reprap and want real-time advice as you do the reinstall, just ask. Incidentally I started on a (quick and dirty) package of the host software last night, but Adrian's recent changes to Preferences broke my .jar approach, and I didn't finish "fixing his fixes" to (re-)allow running from .jar files... that may be completeby jmarsden - RepRap Host
There appears to be firmware support for half step control, currently unused for the default motors. So it looks like someone already planned for controlling 200 step/rev steppers. Simon will no doubt know a lot more detail about that, incluidng how well tested that support is or is not (!) -- but, at least in theory, a quick edit of pic14.h to #define HALFSTEP appropriately and a firmware rebuby jmarsden - Mechanics
Wow, Zach -- great info, thanks! StepperMotorController looks very useful. It deserves to be more widely known about and read. And ExtruderController has a similar listing for Extruder boards (though a couple of the commands there apparently lack parameter/return info that could be helpful). Thinking about why they are not more widely read already... I think if they had been named StepperMotby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Eric, bartlee45 is right -- getting that ACK means the PIC is happy, and talking correctly on your newly constructed SNAP network. This is good :-) Why Reprap won't talk to it... hmmm.... it's probably something simple I am missing. So... here are some complicated possibilities to consider!! (1) You're using my "conversion to rxtx libs", which is not official code yet (not checked in to Subvby jmarsden - RepRap Host
If you get a response from the poke command with T and R shorted (looped back) on the PowerComm board, the stuff being sent (in <>s) should exactly equal the stuff received (in []s). What goes out, comes right back in, i.e., loopback! That tests the MAX232 chip and (some of) the PowerComm board wiring. When you have a UCB (or several) out there in the network, they should actually "talk"by jmarsden - RepRap Host
> anyone working on the project at this stage should have a full > understanding that they are acting as developers and beta testers Sure. At *this* stage! But when you call something "v1.0" -- people will not expect that so much any more. Publicity from a "v1.0" release will bring in many new onlookers, all potential new reprappers. And, I think, we've been suggesting that "v1.0" isby jmarsden - Developers
Eric, poke is trying to talk to the PICs on the ring, so if you see a reply from a PIC (the stuff in [] in Zach's post), the UCB is working, at least as far as talking to the network using the right protocol. I believe the zero in the "echo 0" is the SNAP "GetVersion" command, asking all boards in the ring to acknowledge it. Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
I think that at some stage, this project is going to need to transition from pure research into a somewhat more conventional project, in the sense of packaging, support, documentation, ease of use, etc. I'd thought the start of that shift would be with the release of "RepRap Darwin v1.0"? But OK, if we're not ready or willing or able to do that, then we're not going to do that. > 'fully tesby jmarsden - Developers
Once a file is downloaded from SF and on an end user's PC, you can't "see" that SF date any more. Look at this from and end user viewpoint, not that of a core team person making releases. Maybe someone handed the user the files on a USB drive or a CD-R. Think about doing phone or IRC based tech support for (possibly hundreds or even thousands of) end users. Good, solid release engineering isby jmarsden - Developers
Zach, If this works out, you could look at adding the config file(s) for it to svn, and add the commands needed to a Makefile under electronics/ so the PDFs get auto generated. That way we don't need to keep PDFs in svn :-) We may want to hack the script to allow command line override of the config file name, so we can have one such file per PCB -- then the output .pdf files can ne uniquely buby jmarsden - General
I hacked two small but useful firmware-related things tonight, and both jinxed and sebastien tested them for me live on IRC. Those changes are checked into subversion. (1) The building of SDCC now works without having to manually edit newcmdcl.h in the SDCC sources. So now, checking out the firmware subtree and doing a make in there "just works". (2) I hacked slightly on Zach's package-releasby jmarsden - Developers
Nathan: Yes, as I see it, the use of CNC stuff is for impatient people wanting to build something (a Repstrap) *now*, rather than wait for a fully working RepRap Darwin v1.0 to print their parts, or pay $2300ish for a commercial RP service to do it. I think it's great for those with the ability and experience with CNC to take that route (and fine for anyone with the money to spend to get a set oby jmarsden - General
Using a laser would move the design *far* away from replicabiity -- a low cost machine that can "print" the parts to construct a working laser would be an amazing device indeed :-) Jonathanby jmarsden - General
I think the omission of PDFs from the published UniversalController-v1.2.zip file (and PowerComms-1.2.zip) was probably a packaging error. See for the v1.2 stuff as it sits in the development tree... PDFs and all :-) NOTE: This is fine for right now... this is not the "official standard" way to get these files for the longer term:-) Right now pretty much all install instructions assume thatby jmarsden - General
A possibly half-baked idea... try using the poke tool to see you can communicate using SNAP with the UCB? It should be in ~/workspace/firmware/tools If all you see in there is poke.cc and not poke, type make and it should get built. Then ./poke -h will give you its help message. It seems to me you are at the borderline of "is this a serial comms issue or is this a SNAP protocol isby jmarsden - RepRap Host
> i still think we should have stuff that can be user editable live in the > filesystem just to make things easier to understand. i dont really know how i > would go about 'extracting' the reprap.properties file. the stl isnt nearly as > important, but it would be nice to have that easily changeable for those wishing > to tweak it. Right now, you'd do jar xf Reprap.jar repraby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Here is the result of executing svn diff in my Reprap subdirectory. No huge changes, only about 25 lines of Java code affected so far, plus the 5 to switch to using rxtx libs. Jonathanby jmarsden - RepRap Host
ZachHoeken Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i'd love to check out the latest copy of what > you've got going. ------------------------------------------------------- Yes, it's amusing, you're happy with the success of a Reprap,jar that is already several days old, and therefore already obsolete :-) I'd love to check it in so you could do that :-) Paging Adby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Answering my own question... It works :-) I've hacked up STLObject to use URLs not Strings and changed the code that uses them appropriately. I've not enhanced the File Open dialog to allow you to specify a remote URL, but that looks quite doable as a nifty enhancement that sort of fell out of trying to get reprap-wv.stl into the .jar file! I'm getting to the point where I could really use thby jmarsden - RepRap Host
Following some very useful testing with Joost earlier, we now have a single 170Kbyte file Reprap.jar which "is" the Reprap host software and which runs on both Ubuntu Linux and on Windows XP, using the rxtx serial libs, Java3D, and Sun Java 6. This is significant progress towards a far cleaner and easier software install. However, in the process we found that it uses a lib/reprap-wv.stl file asby jmarsden - RepRap Host
net3d Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don't believe making the stepper controlers is > possible for $16. Especially when you take into > consideration the time needed, tools and > everything. This statement isn't logical. It is rare (though not totally unknown) for me to make illogical statements! For someone who already knows how to solder and owby jmarsden - General
Colin K. wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The problem with RepRap right > now is that it's incapable of manufacturing > anything capable of justifying the cost of > building the machine to begin with. This means you > either need to make it a lot cheaper to build, or > capable of building much more interesting things. Are all research projects exby jmarsden - General
net3d Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I didn't say anything about adding parallel to > serial support. True. However, in this thread, Bozz wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The other advanatge would be for those of us who own > PCs that don't have serial ports on the back! This is the idea being responded to in the lasby jmarsden - General