Printrboard scalability limitations?

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12-24-2015, 07:33 PM
wubwub

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Printrboard scalability limitations?

Hey everyone,
First post here.

I am having an issue with a Printrboard F5, it seems like I may have (hopefully)missed something compiling the marlin hex, maybe you guys can help. :)

Attachment 8119

I built a fairly large printer, mechanically, turned out better than expected.
My effective print area is 450X355X310mmH.
However, even though I am setting my X/Y/Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT, I seem to be capped in the firmware at around 250mm travel in any direction.
My movements are very close to where they should be in steps/mm, maybe off by a mm or so.

I am suspicious of the firmware, mostly because of my auto bed leveling command response; as outlined in the firmware, I have my safe areas set up to probe in the center of the firmware calculated X/Y area after homing, and sure enough, the Z probe descends at around 125x125mm, instead of attempting my set travel dimensions. All behaviors mentioned are the same with Repetier and Pronterface.

The printer is NOT skipping steps or drive teeth, the issue persists in Repetier Host (with appropriate bed size/travel settings). :mad:

A quick background since I haven't added a sig yet, This is not my first printer or GCode machine, this is not my first Printrboard, and this is not my first firmware compilation/flash.

Thanks! I can include more data on request, does this forum have a 'spoiler' function for code, or just use pastebin or something?
12-24-2015, 07:41 PM
wubwub

Oops, I forgot to mention I am using the version 1 Marlin for Printrbot source, other versions give me operability issues that are even worse, like pin assignment issues.
12-24-2015, 10:00 PM
Roxy

Quote:

Originally Posted by wubwub

Oops, I forgot to mention I am using the version 1 Marlin for Printrbot source, other versions give me operability issues that are even worse, like pin assignment issues.

Let me guess... You are compiling with Arduino V. 1.05, right?
12-24-2015, 10:44 PM
wubwub

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roxy

Let me guess... You are compiling with Arduino V. 1.05, right?

I was using 1.6.5, I believe, with teensy.
12-24-2015, 10:58 PM
wubwub

Are you thinking this a library issue?
12-25-2015, 08:48 AM
Roxy

Quote:

Originally Posted by wubwub

I was using 1.6.5, I believe, with teensy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wubwub

Are you thinking this a library issue?

I don't know for sure. I ran into problems with V1.6.5 with the Marlin branch. MarlinDev works with 1.6.6. If you get the 'Hourly Build' of Arduino and install that, you may be OK.
12-25-2015, 01:14 PM
wubwub

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roxy

I don't know for sure. I ran into problems with V1.6.5 with the Marlin branch. MarlinDev works with 1.6.6. If you get the 'Hourly Build' of Arduino and install that, you may be OK.

I'll take a look, see if that rectifies the issue.

Thanks, merry Christmas
12-25-2015, 02:01 PM
wubwub

Ok, recompiled with 1.6.7, and beta Teensy, still exact same issue. Stuck with that 250x250x250mmH square.
Interestingly, this hex is a good deal larger than the last I compiled.

What the heck am I missing here? Is there a size sanity check code? I'm going to try a different source now, but I was getting issues with the Y endstop pin assignment before. The Y endstop would not trigger under any of the newest versions, didn't even get around to checking other mechanical properties, as that was a big no go to begin with.
12-25-2015, 02:26 PM
wubwub

Ok, even worse with other releases. It seems I'm stuck using the Printrbot source, same issue plus some with other releases that aren't printrboard specific. Here https://github.com/Printrbot/Marlin/...ot-prod/Marlin is the exact release I'm toying with, and I would really like to figure this one out since the other candidates give me grievous errors.

I'm going to try two things until someone can interject a better idea, I'm going to look through the Marlin master (https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/tree/RC/Marlin) and see if there is any different definitions or calculations for xyz_max_lenth/base_max_length, and I'm going to look through the first source for similar. Call it a frustration move, not sure where else to go, I much prefer using a Marlin flavored hex over others, especially because the others I have tried give me oodles of convoluted compilation errors.

I will report anything interesting I find, hopefully I find a pointer to something I can adjust.
12-25-2015, 05:44 PM
Roxy

Quote:

Originally Posted by wubwub

Ok, recompiled with 1.6.7, and beta Teensy, still exact same issue. Stuck with that 250x250x250mmH square.
Interestingly, this hex is a good deal larger than the last I compiled.

What the heck am I missing here? Is there a size sanity check code? I'm going to try a different source now, but I was getting issues with the Y endstop pin assignment before. The Y endstop would not trigger under any of the newest versions, didn't even get around to checking other mechanical properties, as that was a big no go to begin with.

If you attach your Configuration.h file to the post, we could take a quick look at your settings and see if something obvious can be seen. These settings are for my Delta printer. You are going to have to put in numbers that make sense for your printer. It is these settings in your Configuration.h file that are going to limit the bed size:

// Travel limits after homing (units are in mm)
#define X_MIN_POS (-DELTA_PRINTABLE_RADIUS)
#define Y_MIN_POS (-DELTA_PRINTABLE_RADIUS)
#define Z_MIN_POS 0
#define X_MAX_POS DELTA_PRINTABLE_RADIUS
#define Y_MAX_POS DELTA_PRINTABLE_RADIUS
#define Z_MAX_POS MANUAL_Z_HOME_POS

#define X_MAX_LENGTH (X_MAX_POS - X_MIN_POS)
#define Y_MAX_LENGTH (Y_MAX_POS - Y_MIN_POS)
#define Z_MAX_LENGTH (Z_MAX_POS - Z_MIN_POS)
12-25-2015, 06:30 PM
wubwub

// Travel limits after homing
#define X_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 450
#define X_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Y_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 355
#define Y_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 310
#define Z_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0

#define X_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[0] - base_min_pos[0])
#define Y_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[1] - base_min_pos[1])
#define Z_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[2] - base_min_pos[2])

I'm going to print the function and see if I can find a problem.
12-25-2015, 06:54 PM
wubwub

Quote:

Originally Posted by wubwub

// Travel limits after homing
#define X_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 450
#define X_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Y_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 355
#define Y_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 310
#define Z_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0

#define X_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[0] - base_min_pos[0])
#define Y_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[1] - base_min_pos[1])
#define Z_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[2] - base_min_pos[2])

I'm going to print the function and see if I can find a problem.

I am about to have a stroke, my arduino libraries decided to self destruct on their own... As stupid as that sounds, I'm getting huge errors on compilation now, files not being found etc. I'll fix that later, probably with a hammer. :mad:
Here is my Config module; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx9...ew?usp=sharing
12-26-2015, 03:40 AM
wubwub

Well, I found a band-aid.
i sent a command to the board, specifically M211 Xn Yn Zn, where n is our expected max build, works fine now. I still think it's strange that I couldn't find any modifiers in the different modules.

Im not sure if anyone tried to build something this size off of a printrboard. I wonder if they've run into a similar issue, or if there really was something I did wrong n compilation?
12-26-2015, 08:48 AM
Roxy

I think it is more like who ever made this work for the Printer did some strange things to the source. Where are base_max_pos[] and base_min_pos[] defined? They are only referenced in Confgiuration.h They are defined somewhere else. And it doesn't seem like they need to be because just above that you have the values for:

#define X_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 450
#define X_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Y_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 355
#define Y_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 310
#define Z_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0

But base_max_pos[] and base_min_pos[] are used to set the length of each axis. How does this make any sense?

#define X_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[0] - base_min_pos[0])
#define Y_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[1] - base_min_pos[1])
#define Z_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[2] - base_min_pos[2])

You need to find where base_min_pos[] is defined and where (and how) it is used.
12-26-2015, 02:12 PM
wubwub

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roxy

I think it is more like who ever made this work for the Printer did some strange things to the source. Where are base_max_pos[] and base_min_pos[] defined? They are only referenced in Confgiuration.h They are defined somewhere else. And it doesn't seem like they need to be because just above that you have the values for:

#define X_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 450
#define X_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Y_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 355
#define Y_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 310
#define Z_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0

But base_max_pos[] and base_min_pos[] are used to set the length of each axis. How does this make any sense?

#define X_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[0] - base_min_pos[0])
#define Y_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[1] - base_min_pos[1])
#define Z_MAX_LENGTH (base_max_pos[2] - base_min_pos[2])

You need to find where base_min_pos[] is defined and where (and how) it is used.

base_min_pos[n] and base_max_pos[n] are defined as the values X/Y/Z__MIN/MAX_POS_DEFAULT in a separate module, I didn't see any other pointers or variables.

What this came down to, the base EEPROM variables needed to be scripted and stored again after a flash, this included acceleration, digital pot config, you name it. After sending values and saving with M500, variables persisted. It did not click for me since the source variables were something like
#define X_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 200
#define X_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Y_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 200
#define Y_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0
#define Z_MAX_POS_DEFAULT 235
#define Z_MIN_POS_DEFAULT 0

Where if they were all 250 to begin with, this would have made more sense. I looked for a while, still I have no idea where these values of 250 were generated. It was very counter intuitive for me, but I'm sure there is an excellent reason for this behavior. :confused:

The good news is, I'm pretty much ready to roll now. I did change my safety margins a little, 425x355x300mmH, can't wait to print some one piece quad copters! :o
12-26-2015, 03:12 PM
Roxy

This code base has been modified enough from the original.... If you end up with another problem, please .ZIP up the whole thing and post it with your questions. I think we are going to need to have the actual code you are building in order to help.
12-26-2015, 04:20 PM
wubwub

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roxy

This code base has been modified enough from the original.... If you end up with another problem, please .ZIP up the whole thing and post it with your questions. I think we are going to need to have the actual code you are building in order to help.

No prob Roxy, thanks for the brain time.

It's on my other machine at the moment, I really didn't change much from the release archive, outside of the Config.h and Config_adv.h. :)