More links relating to 5D firmware/GCode

[Graham Klyne]

When setting up Skeinforge (>=v40) + Gen6 electronics (or other5D firmware),
these links might be helpful background:

http://reprap.org/pipermail/reprap-dev/2011-March.txt - a fairly general HOWTO

http://www.tinkerin.gs/2011/01/what-is-5d.html - useful intro to basic concepts

http://www.tinkerin.gs/2010/12/volumetric-5d.html - interesting discussion of
what happens to the plastic when it's forced out throug the hot end.

http://www.tinkerin.gs/2011/01/volumetric-5d-testing-continues_22.html - comment
about PLA; inconclusive

http://www.tinkerin.gs/2011/02/tilted-cube-test-print_05.html - these guys are
really digging into the details of what's happening to get the best possible
print quality. Right now, I'd settle for something usable.

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[Martin Ling]

Thanks for researching this Graham, very interesting reading. It's good
to see a well-thought approach now being taken to the problem of getting
accurate extrusion results, and that we should be able to apply it using
the extruders we're already putting together. I'm following the
tinkerin.gs blog now, and will revisit this in more detail once we've
got a running machine.

Martin

[Graham Klyne]

I've made some progress today, but much of it has been wrestling with yet more
incompatible software... but I do believe I'm within spitting distance of
getting a usable quality print on my Mendel.

Mainly, my efforts have focused on tweaking and re-loading the firmware. That's
where the extruder steps-per-millimetre are configures. I also needed to adjust
the X, Y and Z steps per millimetre too: I was previously getting prints about
12-13% over-size.

Two main lessons from today are:

(1) the latest Arduino software (022) is not compatible with the Sanguino
hardware add-on needed for working with the Gen6 controller. Instead, use the
complete arduino-018-incl_sanguino package that can be downloaded from
mendelfactory.com (the new domain name for mendel-parts web site).

(2) there's a utility caled 'avrdude' which is a general purpose Atmel
upload/download/setup utility. I used this to make a copy of the original
firmware image before pushing new ones to the Gen6 controller. Again, the
latest version doesn't work with the Gen6 electronics. But there's a version
that does work in the arduino download package from mendelfactory.com: look for
path arduino-0018/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude.exe.

All the firmware setings you need to tweak are in a file called configuration.h
in a separate download from mendelfactory.com. There are some very similar
formware downloads: I've been working with one called
20110107_GEN6-FW_Mendel_Parts_TCST2103.zip, which is almost identical (apart
from a README) to another one called
20101216_0070_Mendel_Parts_new_opto_TCST2103_shipped_from_17DEC2010.zip.

And what did you guys do with your weekend :)

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