Upgrading to Marlin Ver 1.0.5-R2 (Auto-leveling)

[old man emu]

I'm a little bit scared of making a mess of upgrading my firmware to Ver 1.0.5-R2 so that I can employ auto-leveling. I have watched Zennmaster's videos and downloaded his instructions from his blog, but I am wondering if there are any traps that I should be aware of while I prepare my Configuration.h file for flashing.

Can anyone put my mind at ease, please?

Old Man Emu

[Roxy]

If you fail miserably... You can always reload the original firmware! But it really isn't that hard to get a CONFIGURATION.H file correct with your parameters. And with that big Red Kill switch, you can stop bad things before they happen.

You are going to like the auto_bed_leveling! It makes things so easy.

[RobH2]

OME, don't be afraid of playing with firmware. As far as I know, you can't "brick" anything. I experiment with Arduino a lot and have uploaded many, many sketches (programs) to them. It's not like a camera firmware where they scare you saying that if something goes wrong you may have to send it to Canon or Nikon. If it fails, just fix the offending line of code and sent it back in. It's really easy.

So, given that, I ordered the parts today. I'm jumping in with you. Zennmaster's video is good, clear and useful. I'll have parts by later next week so if you are having trouble, I might be able to help you as I configure mine. This looks like a great upgrade and I'm excited about it. Not sure why I waited so long to do it as it's less then $20.

[Roxy]

This looks like a great upgrade and I'm excited about it. Not sure why I waited so long to do it as it's less then $20.

Actually... Less than $8 in parts. You can get the servo from China with shipping on eBay for $5.00 and the switch for $1.25.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SG90-9g-...item1c3e618b8f

[RobH2]

Yea, I saw that too. I just wanted to do the project before August...lol.... Waiting for the "slow boat from China" can get frustrating. I spend more in a couple of beers at happy hour than the difference so I just ordered them from US suppliers.

[beerdart]

Happy Hour? I like happy hours..

[old man emu]

I'll take a deep breath and jump in. Who needs safety cages when you swim with Great White sharks?

OME

[ciutateivissa]

Can anyone put my mind at ease, please?

The way I did the upgrade was to copy the "old" configuration.H file into a text editor (e.g. Wordpad) and printed the whole file out then. I´ve marked the changes I did previosly in red and after flashing the new firmware on the arduino I went through the "new" configuration.H step by step and changed it to my settings. This was a save route for me, at least for the first time I´ve updated.

[RobH2]

Happy Hour? I like happy hours..

Yea, where were you.... it was $3 draft night...

[RobH2]

The way I did the upgrade was to copy the "old" configuration.H file into a text editor (e.g. Wordpad) and printed the whole file out then. I´ve marked the changes I did previosly in red and after flashing the new firmware on the arduino I went through the "new" configuration.H step by step and changed it to my settings. This was a save route for me, at least for the first time I´ve updated.

That's a good way to handle it. Sometimes it's nice to see the entire file as a document so you can get a feel for it.

You can also take advantage of "commenting" in the sketch and use double "//" (without the quotes). Anything after // will not execute. You also use /* and */ to start and end blocks to text to comment it but it's not as easy to find as what I prefer to do. What I do so I can easily find my notes is this:

///////////////////////////////////// My Notes - START ////////////////////////////////////
///////You can also type in here what you actually did and why ////////////////////////

Code
Code
Code

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////// My Notes -END ///////////////////////////////////////

Then I can later scroll the file and look for my big fat commented lines. It eats up a little space and makes the file a tiny bit larger but for these size files it's no problem.