Played with loading different firmware combinations, discovered That Cupcake profile running from RepG 21 (yes I had downloaded several version by this point) and using Firmware V2.4 for RepRap Mobo V1.2 worked a treat could move both X & Y in Positive and Negative directions, homing also worked a treat (once I had wired up the old Darwin style end stops) Z still did nothing but whistle.
After looking into why Z would do nothing I discovered a dead stepper board (simple swap around proved this) on closer examination I found 1 pin of the SMD chip on the stepper driver was not soldered at all, Bleep tested this to prove that the leg was not connected to the board (it wasn’t) soldered it up & voila it now works a treat.
Now were really flying I thought (yep straight into a brick wall) so now all I have to do is get the extruder talking, tried to flash firmware onto extruder board from RepG, no joy at all just won’t flash (and yes I do know the reset timing trick), checked that I could flash firmware to extruder using Arduino worked fine once I had set the correct board type Mega168 Decimilia and got the hang of the reset button timing trick, so I am able to use Arduino to flash extruder.
But no matter which firmware version I try I cannot get the firmware on mobo (various versions tried albeit randomly) to talk to the extruder controller (EC).
To complicate matters when I bought my G3 set I could not get the standard EC anywhere, so I settled on the Techzone version as I thought (and still think) that this is electronically identical to the G3 RepRap EC version 2.2.
After emailing the Techzone, they responded with this:-
Any firmware that is configured for the Gen 3 electronics should
work just fine. The main reprap firmware doesn't come configured by
default for gen 3. Most people who want to use RepG use the RepG firmware
for gen3, but that doesn't work with the thermocouple. I haven't looked
through that firmware to see what it would take to get the thermocouple
working. The original firmware that was on the board can be found here http://www.reprap.org/mediawiki/images/c/c1/TechZone_gen_3_firmware.zip
. It works with the standard 5D gcode controllers and should work with RepG
if set up to use its 5D gcode libraries (you have to select the correct machine
type). They might have it fixed now, but the last time I tried RepG with
5D firmware it had a bug in manual control, but worked to send a file to
print. You have to use the same firmware type on the motherboard as the
extruder or it can't talk. The cupcake firmware sends commands
differently to the extruder than the standard 5D gcode. If you aren't
stuck on RepG I highly recommend repsnapper for communicating with a 5D gcode
firmware. Also, since you mention you are upgrading a Darwin, the 5D
gcode is set to use a stepper motor for the extruder, not the DC motor that if
I remember right was standard on the Darwin. If you use 5D gcode you need
a stepper for the extruder.
Thanks
Kurt Bidstrup
Thank you Kurt for this very informative response, this might explain why I can get the Mobo & Steppers working perfectly using the cupcake profile in RepG but with no EC comms.
But I have tried following Kurts suggestions as to using RepRap 5D firmware flashed using Arduino IDE and although I can connect to the Mobo (RepG complains about the old version number but this is expected) I am unable to control the axis properly, I would be happy that this is just a configuration issue and I could fix it by doing more web research on this exact issue, but I still have no connection to the extruder board at all despite making sure the mobo firmware revision (revision not version) is the same one as the extruder.
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