And Back to getting my Two Trees Sapphire Plus working

[Martin_au]

Hi, back again. Took a few days off for Father's Day.

Yes, the Sapphire Plus has 2 Z-axis motors, and if by "dual endstops", you mean 2 z-axis limit switches, yes, it's got that. But, if you use the 3D Touch that is provided, it plugs into one of the z-axis limit switch spots on the motherboard, and so you can't use both.

I had to make a cable for the 3D Touch because the one provided had the wrong connectors and wasn't long enough. That's done.

There's a Youtube video I'm following right now for the installation and they also said that the setting in the firmware were incorrect. They have a whole 2nd video and converting to Marlin. They also said that some problems went away once Marlin was up and running.

Ron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtZPNZ5xks
This video shows the G34 auto alignment. This can actually be done without any Z-limit switches, just using the BLTouch. Mine is setup to use just a single induction probe for everything.

[rongee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtZPNZ5xks
This video shows the G34 auto alignment. This can actually be done without any Z-limit switches, just using the BLTouch. Mine is setup to use just a single induction probe for everything.

Thanks a lot. I will give that a look later today.

[rongee]

Okay, some good progress to report today, and a few more basic questions....

Installed the 3D Touch, ran the cable to the motherboard, and attached it in the 2 locations noted. (using one of the Z-axis limit switch sockets and the BL Touch pins on the motherboard)

Decided to run a power up test again.

Plugged in, and powered up. One beep, no error messages. the 3D Touch lights up, and the probe extends itself 3 times.

Menu screen appears. I go into "Tools", and then "Move" to get the screen in the picture I'm providing. So, here's the behavior I'm seeing right now, with just some very limited testing.

In all cases, depressing the movement buttons kind of jogs the motors one position, which I think is what I'd expect it to do.

X+ moves the head to the right (as viewed from the front of the printer)
X- moves the head to the left
Y+ moves the head to the rear
Y- moves the head to the front.
So, dumb question, is that the direction things are supposed to move?

Now, the one that's a little more interesting.
Z+ moves the hot bed platform down and increments the counter in the up right corner of the screen (shown in the photo)
Z- doesn't move anything, but I can hear a clicking sound coming from underneath, and it decrements the counter. When that counter reaches 0, no more clicking sounds.

With that counter decrementing, that leads me to believe that the printer things that the platform is moving even tho it isn't. That makes me think something is binding, but it's odd to only be in one direction, so maybe something else is going on. I was thinking that I'd disconnect the lead screws from the Z-axis motors to see if they still behave the same way.

Does the above sound kind of kosher, or do I need to be checking something else? Oh, I haven't updated any parameters yet, so it's running with whatever the printer was originally set up with.

Thanks again.

Ron

[rongee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtZPNZ5xks
This video shows the G34 auto alignment. This can actually be done without any Z-limit switches, just using the BLTouch. Mine is setup to use just a single induction probe for everything.

How interesting that he was using a version of Visual Studio to make his changes.

I think I understand a little more, but there are still some holes for me. He made his changes in Visual Studio. Okay. Then he talked about "compiling" the code, which makes sense (I'm an old software developer), but I need to find more info on what compiler to use. And then, as I hear him, you just put the bin file on a flash drive, plug that into the printer, and powers up the printer. It seems that the printer knows to look for files on a flash drive is one is plugged in.

Is some of that unique to the use of Visual Studio? The way I understand something like Pronterface is that it connects to the printer in real time. Does that apply to firmware updates as well, or is that dependent on the printer?

Starting to look at the files as well. It looks like the file robin_nano35_cfg.txt is the text version of the configuration file. robin_nano35.bin is the compiled version?

Thanks.

Ron

[Martin_au]

How interesting that he was using a version of Visual Studio to make his changes.

I think I understand a little more, but there are still some holes for me. He made his changes in Visual Studio. Okay. Then he talked about "compiling" the code, which makes sense (I'm an old software developer), but I need to find more info on what compiler to use. And then, as I hear him, you just put the bin file on a flash drive, plug that into the printer, and powers up the printer. It seems that the printer knows to look for files on a flash drive is one is plugged in.

Is some of that unique to the use of Visual Studio? The way I understand something like Pronterface is that it connects to the printer in real time. Does that apply to firmware updates as well, or is that dependent on the printer?

Starting to look at the files as well. It looks like the file robin_nano35_cfg.txt is the text version of the configuration file. robin_nano35.bin is the compiled version?

Thanks.

Ron

Visual Studio is the IDE/compiler. it's used for all sorts of things, but one thing it's well set up for it compiling Marlin.

If you haven't compiled Marlin before I wouldn't start with this modification. I'd start with just poking around the code and getting a feel for it. Usually with marlin (default version), is that there's a configuration.h and configuration_adv.h file with most of the important editable parameters.

This was more an example that dual leadscrews don't have to be a pain. They can be a benefit.

[rongee]

Visual Studio is the IDE/compiler. it's used for all sorts of things, but one thing it's well set up for it compiling Marlin.

If you haven't compiled Marlin before I wouldn't start with this modification. I'd start with just poking around the code and getting a feel for it. Usually with marlin (default version), is that there's a configuration.h and configuration_adv.h file with most of the important editable parameters.

This was more an example that dual leadscrews don't have to be a pain. They can be a benefit.

Thanks, and I agree, for now, I just want to see if I can get it working as is before starting to make dramatic changes like going ot Marlin.

Right now, it's more a matter that I have a pretty good idea what needs to be changed to enable the 3D Touch (I looked in the config file and all of the parameters that need to be set for autoleveling are turned off), so I just need to figure out how to do that. I think the steps are (1) edit the config file, (2) compile it, and (3) copy the bin file to an SD card, stick it in the printer, and turn it on.

So, I need to figure out the best way to get (1) and (2) done. It seems like among the choices are (maybe) (1) Visual Studio, (2) Pronterface, and (3) something called RepetierHost which is some software that came on the SD card that came with the printer. I've been looking around for more Youtube videos that might explain how to edit and compile the Robin Nano firmware. The Youtube video from Aurora Tech goes through those steps, I think, so I'm going to review that first. There are plenty of Marlin videos around, it seems, but not too much on this one.

Thanks.

Ron

[Martin_au]

Thanks, and I agree, for now, I just want to see if I can get it working as is before starting to make dramatic changes like going ot Marlin.

Right now, it's more a matter that I have a pretty good idea what needs to be changed to enable the 3D Touch (I looked in the config file and all of the parameters that need to be set for autoleveling are turned off), so I just need to figure out how to do that. I think the steps are (1) edit the config file, (2) compile it, and (3) copy the bin file to an SD card, stick it in the printer, and turn it on.

So, I need to figure out the best way to get (1) and (2) done. It seems like among the choices are (maybe) (1) Visual Studio, (2) Pronterface, and (3) something called RepetierHost which is some software that came on the SD card that came with the printer. I've been looking around for more Youtube videos that might explain how to edit and compile the Robin Nano firmware. The Youtube video from Aurora Tech goes through those steps, I think, so I'm going to review that first. There are plenty of Marlin videos around, it seems, but not too much on this one.

Thanks.

Ron

Visual Studio for editing/prepping Marlin. Pronterface is just a serial connection tool to talk to your printer. Repetier host is combined interface/server/etc software for running printers.
The "Robin Nano" refers to your board. That should be a setting in the configuration file. If you want to compile Marlin for your board, it would be worth also getting hold of a pinout and schematic for that board.

When you start messing with Visual studio, grab the Marlin Auto Build plugin as well. Makes it very easy to compile the firmware.