Thing-O-Matic connection issues, both on Ubuntu and Windows 7 Enterprise..

[Carl Myrland]

A friend of mine gave me a Thing-o-Matic that he used some time ago, and the only premise for him to give it to me was that I didn't ask him about any problems I might have.. Which now seems to me was a sneaky way of saying "it doesn't work", but hey. I might be wrong..

So, I've tried to connect to the thingomatic from to different computers: One running W7E, the other running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Neither are able to connect with the Arduino board.

Well, the Ubuntu one apparently has a 64-bit java issue which causes ReplicatorG to crash. See pastebin for more info. http://pastebin.com/1ed9vQbq I did find a post proposing a solution here: https://github.com/makerbot/ReplicatorG/issues/274, but I can't get it to work. I am unable to find the RXTXCommDriver.java he's talking about in my Ubuntu 14.04 setup.. If anybody wants to help out, I'd be very grateful.

However, my biggest issue is to get the ToM working with my W7E computer, as I am a teacher and want to use the printer at school during the next few weeks.. When I connect the ToM to the computer it initially fails to install the correct USB to serial port-driver, but I've found a fix for that. When I start ReplicatorG it tries to connect to the printer, but I only get this output:

[21:34:24] Connecting to machine using serial port: COM4
[21:34:27] Read timed out.
[21:34:27] Packet timed out!
[21:34:32] Read timed out.
[21:34:32] Packet timed out!
[21:34:32] No connection; trying to pulse RTS to reset device.
[21:34:37] Read timed out.
[21:34:37] Packet timed out!
[21:34:37] Unable to connect to firmware.
[21:35:07] IOException retrieving version file at http://download.replicat.org/updates.xml

I've read about people having this problem but still being able to flash the arduino, but when I try to flash it ReplicatorG just freezes. avrdude starts as a background process, but nothing happens. The only thing I can do is to unplug the USB cable, close ReplicatorG, reconnect the printer and start ReplicatorG again... But I'm kinda stuck here. I really have no idea about Arduinos, 3D-printers, Makerbot or anything. I just want to get this thing working, but it seems like all the support forums are dead.

Oh, and I'm curious: When I connect the printer to the computer, a red LED starts flashing a steady pulse, like one blink every two seconds or so. When I try to flash the device, it starts blinking with five quick flashes in a row, a short pause, then five new flashes, etc. Can somebody tell me what the different LED signals mean? I've tried to google it, but found nothing.

Anyone?

[Dan Newman]

On 28/04/2015 2:28 PM, Carl Myrland wrote:
> A friend of mine gave me a Thing-o-Matic that he used some time ago, and
> the only premise for him to give it to me was that I didn't ask him about
> any problems I might have.. Which now seems to me was a sneaky way of
> saying "it doesn't work", but hey. I might be wrong..
>
> So, I've tried to connect to the thingomatic from to different computers:
> One running W7E, the other running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Neither are able to
> connect with the Arduino board.
>
> Well, the Ubuntu one apparently has a 64-bit java issue which causes
> ReplicatorG to crash. See pastebin for more info.
> http://pastebin.com/1ed9vQbq I did find a post proposing a solution here:
> https://github.com/makerbot/ReplicatorG/issues/274, but I can't get it to
> work. I am unable to find the RXTXCommDriver.java he's talking about in my
> Ubuntu 14.04 setup.. If anybody wants to help out, I'd be very grateful.

If you download a RepG distro from replicat.org or the Sailfish Thing
at thingiverse.com, it comes with its own JVM and should use that JVM
if you run the executable out of the folder it came packaged up in.
That should avoid the 64bit java problem.

> However, my biggest issue is to get the ToM working with my W7E computer,
> as I am a teacher and want to use the printer at school during the next few
> weeks.. When I connect the ToM to the computer it initially fails to
> install the correct USB to serial port-driver, but I've found a fix for
> that. When I start ReplicatorG it tries to connect to the printer, but I
> only get this output:
>
> [21:34:24] Connecting to machine using serial port: COM4
> [21:34:27] Read timed out.
> [21:34:27] Packet timed out!
> [21:34:32] Read timed out.
> [21:34:32] Packet timed out!
> [21:34:32] No connection; trying to pulse RTS to reset device.
> [21:34:37] Read timed out.
> [21:34:37] Packet timed out!
> [21:34:37] Unable to connect to firmware.
> [21:35:07] IOException retrieving version file at
> http://download.replicat.org/updates.xml

> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.replicat.org%2Fupdates.xml&h=gAQH0USxv&enc=AZN-YOMgMNNEbXApNmqGwJ7yULnHmBch33ths_CY0jSTjYNJxnh7mfcUNCNYYBjYFhVlr2q6bZhbQWL5XHs64awu6H6vQcWR3F8OhnZHm-YNn7pW1kOk9gDIGRfk_e8DCHNlXcnf0CZMXRVQV39UJRaMJLvweBW_XC9AqYd1sNENTw&s=1>

You need to find out what firmware & version of said firwmare is installed
in the printer. Knowing that, you should then be able to determine what version
of RepG to use. Unfortunately, unless the bot has a Gen 4 LCD interface, you
cannot tell without connecting (successfully) over USB and talking to it.
Short of that, you just then need to install a known firmware.

> I've read about people having this problem but still being able to flash
> the arduino, but when I try to flash it ReplicatorG just freezes. avrdude
> starts as a background process, but nothing happens.

Getting the timing right for pushing the RESET button on the motherboard
AND starting the firmware download is very tricky on Windows. It's easier
on a Mac (IMO). Issue on Windows, is that Windows jumps through too many
hoops instantiating the USB device after the RESET button press. In the
meantime, the AVR has started the bootloader and the 2s clock is ticking
on the timing window to start the download.

> The only thing I can
> do is to unplug the USB cable, close ReplicatorG, reconnect the printer and
> start ReplicatorG again... But I'm kinda stuck here. I really have no idea
> about Arduinos, 3D-printers, Makerbot or anything. I just want to get this
> thing working, but it seems like all the support forums are dead.

And you do want the bot powered on when you attempt to do firmware downloads.

> Oh, and I'm curious: When I connect the printer to the computer, a red LED
> starts flashing a steady pulse, like one blink every two seconds or so.

That's normal. Other patterns (e.g., two blinks on, pause, two blinks on, etc.)
is not normal.

> When I try to flash the device, it starts blinking with five quick flashes
> in a row, a short pause, then five new flashes, etc. Can somebody tell me
> what the different LED signals mean? I've tried to google it, but found
> nothing.

Doing the reset caused some garbage characters in the buffer of the USB
chip to be received by the main Arduino processor. That was then perceived
as a bogus received command and so ERR_HOST_PACKET_MISC was signalled (5 flashes).

Dan

[Carl Myrland]

Thank you for your reply! To avoid too much text in this post I'll cut away everything not relevant and try to narrow it down to what I need done.

I'll pursue a solution for Ubuntu for now, since I've tried hitting reset and update many times in Windows and still nothing happens, and that's WAY more frustrating than Java/RepG crashing in Ubuntu.. :) Ubuntu seems to be closer to success, if only I could get Java to stop crashing!

Regarding the RXTXCommDriver.java-issue you said:

If you download a RepG distro from replicat.org or the Sailfish Thing
at thingiverse.com, it comes with its own JVM and should use that JVM
if you run the executable out of the folder it came packaged up in.
That should avoid the 64bit java problem.

-- I already have download RepG (0040) from their webside, and always run it from within the extracted folder. No go. I am not fluent enough in Linux to figure out the missing pieces of my puzzle. The github post i referred to in my initial post mentions updating rxtx to rxtx2.2pre2, but on my Ubuntu 14.04 that package is installed by default. Just to make it clear: My Ubuntu DOES find the TOM, RepG DOES identify the firmware (v3.0) and it IS able to connect, but on connection JAVA dies due to a buffer overflow and crashes RepG. I tried symlinking and chmodding like it said in the github post, but to no avail. I need distro-specific and step-by-step instructions if I'm to get this right.

Again, thanks for your help. I really hope I can find a solution before too long..

[Dan Newman]

v3.0? Then you want RepG 29r2 or earlier. Even 29r2 required v3.1 but
it may work with v3.0.

Dan

[Carl Myrland]

Okay, thanks. I downloaded it, but java still crashes on connection :/ I figure I'll have the problem solved as soon as I get help getting the RepG to use RXTXcomm2.2pre2 instead in RXTXcomm2.1.7.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Vintage Makerbot" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/vintage-makerbot/IWJV1ZfXO2k/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to vintage-makerb...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.