Software to install for the summer's event

[gcan...@mtu.edu]

Please remember that you need to bring a laptop to the event! Commissioning of the printers will require the laptop having the below listed software installed prior to arrival at MTU. We have considerable experience installing these packages on machines running Windows and Linux, but no experience with Apple OSX, so probably won't be much help to Apple users. All of these have relatively mature installation packages for all OSs, so hopefully there won't be too many hassles with installation. Reasonably detailed installation instructions are to be found on or linked by the download pages, and you are welcome to ask questions to the group should you have issues.

The first thing to get is the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) from http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. This is the software we will be using to configure and upload the printer's firmware. Ensure that the software runs

Next, download and install the mighty 1284 board definitions from https://github.com/maniacbug/mighty-1284p. Download the zip file (look for Download ZIP button, on right, I think). There are instructions for where to put extracted files at http://matterfy.com/pages/how-tos. These files setup the Arduino IDE so it can communicate with the printer controller board.

Jump over to http://www.repetier.com/download/ and get Repetier-Host for your OS. Linux users, be sure to run configureFirst. This is the host program from which the printer is controlled and print jobs are launched.

Get Cura from http://software.ultimaker.com/. This is the software that converts 3-D software models to code that the printer controller understands.

We will be posting a mostly-preconfigured version of the firmware on github in the near future and will issue download instructions to the group shortly.

[Kristen S]

Anyone else having issues downloading the mighty 1284?  I can get to a certain point, but then when I go to the boards it's not an option to click on.  Should I just wait until the preconfigured version is available?

[gcan...@mtu.edu]

You must have the board definitions installed, the "preconfigured" part can't be loaded to the printer controller without the definitions in place.

What operating system are you using?

Is the Arduino IDE installed and working?

Were you able to download mighty-1284p-master.zip from github and extract the files?

"Installing" from this point is then a matter of renaming and copying the expanded folder to the appropriate Arduino folder per http://matterfy.com/pages/how-tos.

Please let us know...