Hi Mr Joshua,
Congratulations! :D
A little step forward but when looking back..so much knowledge gained!
Anyway...I still haven't fixed my own problems but I think I can help with yours..:)
After endless hours of research and trial and error I have figured out that the myriad of firmwares that exist can basically group into three:
And the myriad of available hardwares that exist giving place to our beloved Melzi are four:
Both lists are more or less in chronological order (i believe), and create a combinatorics of 12 possible configurations all of which would take a loot of time to master...not to mention the workarounds...:S
To make the story short, it appears to me like the reprapPRO (aka RRP) started their own branch of Marlin (which is a "mashup of Sprinter and grbl") that would fit in their old melzis with Atmega644. I understand they did so because the "official" reprap Marlin uses thermistor tables that, once compiled, take larger memory than an algorithm to calculate the temperature and in this way they "improved" the firmware by making it fit in a smaller chip.
However, this is where all of our pains began. By making a branch that looks so much like the original one but what suits only to the printers they sell, reprapPRO contributed to make the already confusing reprap development even more confusing...they even store their code in github, like reprap!!:)o. (Don't take me wrong, I don't think they had bad intentions and i acknowledge all their invaluable contributions, but this one...ojojoj...).
So, the conclusion is, once the chips of the Melzis and Sanguinos grew in size to an Atmega1284, now they have capacity for the "official" Marlin firmware, but unfortunately now it cannot measure the temperatures properly because the thermistor table can't take in consideration the little resistor that is put in series with the connector of our Melzi...(:P)
But, that is not the end...regarding motors, if yours don't fit exactly the specifications of those of reprapPRO, then you are also doomed...the stepper.cpp program that controls them (well, actually it controls the stepper drivers) is so much different from that of the "community" development that you need both their motors and their stepper drivers, which i assume are the ubiqutous allegro4983, but couldn't find any reference for that...
To finish with this, the only way out here seems to be:
As I see it, only the first option is a viable one...Regarding the temperature, i am quite fearsome (please if someone else is reading this stop me before I begin...:S). About the motors, I have succeeded also in controlling them by means of the "official" reprap version of Marlin, so I recommend you to do it because, at least in my experience, they sound smoother than with the reprapPRO...
I will keep you updated! Good luck!
EDIT: For the Z axis I have it set up to 4000 in the line:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {81.80,80.70,4000.0,600.0} // default steps per unit for Ultimaker
UPDATE:
Eventually I have all the axis working, homing as they should, although the stepper drivers get a bit too hot for my taste. Regarding the temperature readings, after some hours of struggling with the HUGE piece of code that is MARLIN I found out that someone else has already done it: the rp3d.com people! :D
So, this is what I have done:
Now I have to adjust a bit the potentiometers in the stepper drivers, because the motors sound too loud and they are getting VERY hot, even though the voltage is set to 0.8V as indicated by reprapPRO (sorry, their link is down today..:(). I will follow up these instructions (hoping that I have the a4982 drivers...): http://reprap.org/wiki/Pololu_stepper_driver_board
Congratulations! :D
A little step forward but when looking back..so much knowledge gained!
Anyway...I still haven't fixed my own problems but I think I can help with yours..:)
After endless hours of research and trial and error I have figured out that the myriad of firmwares that exist can basically group into three:
- Sprinter development
- Official reprap.org Marlin development
- repraPRO Marlin development
And the myriad of available hardwares that exist giving place to our beloved Melzi are four:
- Sanguino
- Gen7
- Melzi with Atmega644
- Melzi with Atmega1284p
Both lists are more or less in chronological order (i believe), and create a combinatorics of 12 possible configurations all of which would take a loot of time to master...not to mention the workarounds...:S
To make the story short, it appears to me like the reprapPRO (aka RRP) started their own branch of Marlin (which is a "mashup of Sprinter and grbl") that would fit in their old melzis with Atmega644. I understand they did so because the "official" reprap Marlin uses thermistor tables that, once compiled, take larger memory than an algorithm to calculate the temperature and in this way they "improved" the firmware by making it fit in a smaller chip.
However, this is where all of our pains began. By making a branch that looks so much like the original one but what suits only to the printers they sell, reprapPRO contributed to make the already confusing reprap development even more confusing...they even store their code in github, like reprap!!:)o. (Don't take me wrong, I don't think they had bad intentions and i acknowledge all their invaluable contributions, but this one...ojojoj...).
So, the conclusion is, once the chips of the Melzis and Sanguinos grew in size to an Atmega1284, now they have capacity for the "official" Marlin firmware, but unfortunately now it cannot measure the temperatures properly because the thermistor table can't take in consideration the little resistor that is put in series with the connector of our Melzi...(:P)
But, that is not the end...regarding motors, if yours don't fit exactly the specifications of those of reprapPRO, then you are also doomed...the stepper.cpp program that controls them (well, actually it controls the stepper drivers) is so much different from that of the "community" development that you need both their motors and their stepper drivers, which i assume are the ubiqutous allegro4983, but couldn't find any reference for that...
To finish with this, the only way out here seems to be:
- Tweak the firmware to adjust temperature tables (I don't dare to check the algorithm..::o)
- Wait until someone with more knowledge does (:o)
As I see it, only the first option is a viable one...Regarding the temperature, i am quite fearsome (please if someone else is reading this stop me before I begin...:S). About the motors, I have succeeded also in controlling them by means of the "official" reprap version of Marlin, so I recommend you to do it because, at least in my experience, they sound smoother than with the reprapPRO...
I will keep you updated! Good luck!
EDIT: For the Z axis I have it set up to 4000 in the line:
#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {81.80,80.70,4000.0,600.0} // default steps per unit for Ultimaker
UPDATE:
Eventually I have all the axis working, homing as they should, although the stepper drivers get a bit too hot for my taste. Regarding the temperature readings, after some hours of struggling with the HUGE piece of code that is MARLIN I found out that someone else has already done it: the rp3d.com people! :D
So, this is what I have done:
- Get the Marlin from the thread that Mr Joshua pointed in Soliforum : http://www.soliforum.com/topic/5436/pangu-i3-the-best-price-quality-ratio/ (thanks Mr Joshua and YSB)
- Edit the thermistor table using the reprap calculator pointed by YSB: http://nathan7.eu/stuff/RepRapCalculator/RepRapCalculator.html#TempLookup
- Connect with Repetier and...enjoy!
Now I have to adjust a bit the potentiometers in the stepper drivers, because the motors sound too loud and they are getting VERY hot, even though the voltage is set to 0.8V as indicated by reprapPRO (sorry, their link is down today..:(). I will follow up these instructions (hoping that I have the a4982 drivers...): http://reprap.org/wiki/Pololu_stepper_driver_board