ReplicatorG issues

[Mike Schroeder]

Hi,

I'm setting up a Cupcake CNC which has no upgrades.  I originally installed ReplicatorG 40 on my Windows 10 notebook.  It seemed fine.  I could use the control panel to read and adjust the temperature and move in all three planes.  It even extruded as expected in testing.
The problem was that If I tried to print something, nothing happened.  On searching, I discovered that the original Mark 4 Plastruder isn't supported beyond version 29r2.  I removed the version 40, and installed version 29 r2 and now it sees the Cupcake, but the control panel won't open.  No error messages, just nothing except this:
[09:35:57] Packet response code: OK
[09:35:57] Packet payload: 0 0 0 0

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

[Dan Newman]

On 22/01/2016 6:38 AM, Mike Schroeder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm setting up a Cupcake CNC which has no upgrades. I originally installed
> ReplicatorG 40 on my Windows 10 notebook. It seemed fine. I could use the
> control panel to read and adjust the temperature and move in all three
> planes. It even extruded as expected in testing.

You want RepG 29r2 or earlier. And you need to stick with Skeinforge 35 as
the slicer. RepG 27 would be a safer bet.

> The problem was that If I tried to print something, nothing happened. On
> searching, I discovered that the original Mark 4 Plastruder isn't supported
> beyond version 29r2. I removed the version 40, and installed version 29 r2
> and now it sees the Cupcake, but the control panel won't open. No error
> messages, just nothing except this:
> [09:35:57] Packet response code: OK
> [09:35:57] Packet payload: 0 0 0 0

MakerBot starting breaking the control panel five ways from Sunday round about
RepG 29 as they were adding support for the Replicator 1 about then.

ALSO, it was very common back then for a new RepG release to require new firmware
in order to communicate with the printer. So, there's a chance that your Cupcake
firmware cannot talk with RepG 29 owing to incompatabilities (e.g., RepG using a
newer S3G command than your Cupcake's firmware understands). So, you may need
to play a game of finding or building older and older versions of RepG or upgrading
the firmware in the Cupcake and Plastruder. Once you have everything talking,
you will be using old electronics with and old, dated slicer.

> Any ideas?

Remove the old electronics and extruder and install something newer. Unless you're
on a budget, it will save you time and grief. The extruder would need to be replaced
so as to have a stepper motor based extruder instead of a DC motor extruder. (Unless
you can find recent electronics which still support DC motor-based extruders.)

Dan

[Mike Schroeder]

I may do that (upgrade hardware) but not yet. 
I installed 0027 and the control panel works again.
When I try to build, I get 120 messages similar to this:
[18:19:30] You're moving too fast!
G1 X-4.83 Y23.22 Z0.55 F5710.952 Tries to turn an axis faster than its max rate.

Is there a setting in ReplicatorG to tell Skeinforge how fast to move? or is something else wrong?

Thanks again,

Mike

[Jetguy]

Go to rep-g preferences and TURN OFF speed and other warnings.

[Mike Schroeder]

Thanks, but I don't find any such setting in preferences, or anywhere in 0027.
When I select the build, it gives me that error, with the option to continue anyway.  I tired that, and the printer went crazy.

So next, I tried updating the firmware.  The motherboard upgrade worked fine, but the extruder upgrade doesn't want to work.  Is there a trick to it?

If I decided to get a newer extruder, where would I find that?  It doesn't look like Makerbot has anything that would work.

[Mike Schroeder]

When I try to upload the firmware for the extruder the motherboard starts flashing 5 on the debug light.
Do you know what the flashes mean?  I've done some searching, but haven't found it.  Lots about the RepRap motherboard hardware but I haven't found an explanation of what the debug led means.

[Dan Newman]

On 24/01/2016 8:43 AM, Mike Schroeder wrote:
> When I try to upload the firmware for the extruder the motherboard starts
> flashing 5 on the debug light.

Means the motherboard has lost comms with the extruder controller.

Disconnect the extruder controller from power and the motherboard before upgrading
its firmware. While that's not critical, I personally could never, ever get the
EC to accept new firmware when it was powered via the power supply and/or draining
power over to the motherboard. It's a very difficult board to update firmware on.
'tis why I've never attempted to distribute any of the firmware fixes I have for it.

Dan

[Mike Schroeder]

I don't follow.  How can the Extruder accept new firmware without having power?

[Mike Schroeder]

I assume you mean power cycle.  I've done that a couple of times.  It makes no difference.
As soon as I click the next button after selecting the com port, RepG looses contact with the printer, even before I get the upload button.

[Dan Newman]

On 24/01/2016 12:48 PM, Mike Schroeder wrote:
> I don't follow. How can the Extruder accept new firmware without having
> power?

USB

Dan

[Mike Schroeder]

OK.  I get it.  Still not working.
Would a different version of RepG make a difference?
Is it expected behavior that RepG never says it's connected?
The readme in the reprap-gen3-firmware-1.2.zip file refers to tips-and-tricks in a wiki which no longer exists.  Do you know where this file can be found now?

Thanks muchly!

Mike

[Dan Newman]

On 25/01/2016 7:43 AM, Mike Schroeder wrote:
> OK. I get it. Still not working.
> Would a different version of RepG make a difference?

Unlikely. It's avrdude under the hood and it's likely the same
version of avrdude embedded in all the RepG 20's and 30's.

> Is it expected behavior that RepG never says it's connected?

It's not supposed to connect via USB to the EC card. Indeed, if you
connect RepG via USB to the EC card, then avrdude cannot access the
card to do the upgrade.

> The readme in the reprap-gen3-firmware-1.2.zip file refers to
> tips-and-tricks in a wiki which no longer exists. Do you know where this
> file can be found now?

No clue. MBI support pages used to have pages for the older bots
in "archives". They also had an archive of the old wiki.makerbot.com
pages.

Again, I always had an extremely difficult time upgrading EC firmware
over USB. IIRC, I had one Gen4 card which failed about 35 times until I
finally got it to work on the 36th try. The timing was always very
difficult. I eventually just switched to using an AVR ISP programmer.
The Gen3 cards may have needed an FTDI-based ISP programmer -- I don't
recall, but I vaguely recall them having a 1x6 pin header for programming
and not a 2x3.

Dan