ReplicatorG 0008 and Firmware v1.4 now available!
ReplicatorG 0008 and the generation 3 firmware v1.4 are now available! If you’ve been using an old version, now is the time to upgrade. The highlights of this release are:
- Named SD card builds. You can now create a library of build files on a single SD card and build them as needed. No more overwriting your teapots with dodecahedrons!
- ReplicatorG now ships with precompiled firmware images and an integrated firmware uploader. You no longer need to jump through all the hoops of installing the firmware libraries, the Sanguino patches, or even Arduino at all– just click on “Upload new firmware” in the Machine menu and you can update the firmware on your motherboard or extruder controller!
- The firmware now includes a remote reset command, as well as several small bugfixes that may address some of the in-build hangs some users have been experiencing.
More details, and download links, below.
Some tips and quirks:
- When you update the firmware, be sure to update the firmware on your motherboard and your extruder controller. There are fixes in both halves in this revision. In particular, if you’ve been having hangs during builds, make sure to update the extruder controller firmware.
- When you build to the SD card, you’ll now be prompted for a filename. We’re stuck with the old FAT 8.3 notation at the moment. I’ve been using the “.s3g” extension for these files; I’d stick with this convention for now.
- When you build from an SD card, you’ll be shown a list of all the filenames on the card; just select the one that represents the uploaded build you want to print.
- Prompts still occur at upload time rather than build time. You should click “yes” on the “wait for extrusion” prompt during uploads. I’ll try to get this fixed in the next release.
- There’s no separate firmware package to download; the firmware is included with ReplicatorG. If you want to look at the sources, they’re in the usual place.
- You still need to press the reset button on the board when you upload firmware, but the timing should be much easier now– just hit the reset button and the upload button at the same time.
- I’ve been having trouble uploading the firmware on certain Windows XP machines (in both Arduino and the custom uploader). If you’ve had severe problems uploading under XP, drop me a line or leave a message in the comments.
- The linux release is now a .tgz file rather than a .zip file.
Links:
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11 Comments so far
EFFALO
hurray! thanks so much for all your hard work!
Charles Edward Pax
“Adam” must be an acronym for A Damn Awesome Man. I’m looking forward to testing this.
Matt LaBerge
This is awesome! Thank You for the Awesome Update… You guys Rock!!!
Don
Nice work, look forward to trying it! Did notice that replicat.org still shows 0005 as the latest version.
Adam
Ah, thanks for pointing that out! I’m updating it now.
Fred Feiertag
Really welcome improvements. But I can’t seem to make my Linux box see the serial port. (Ubuntu). All is well on my Windows XP laptop. SUggestions?
Adam
Hi Fred;
Could you see the serial ports with the previous version? I’m using Ubuntu here as well (Jaunty/Karmic) and haven’t had any issues. What architecture are you using? Can you give me the results of running “uname -m”?
Fred Feiertag
Adam,
It returns “i-686″. (Running Ubunto Jaunty) I just got this computer to run the Makerbot and thought that it would be fun(?) to learn about Linux at the same time. I have the Makebot running fine from my windows laptop and just yesterday tried to connect to the new Linux box. The previous and the latest versions of Replicatorg give the same respnse of “No serial port found”. Keep asking questions and I’ll feed the answers as I can.
Thanks for the help.
Fred
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Tim Noble
Hi, I’m just wondering if older Gen 2 electronics are still supported with this new release. I’m running Gen 2 electronics (stepper motor driver v1.2) using an Arduino 328 on a mcwire. Having a very rough time getting replicator G (version 7 or
to work smoothly.
Anything you could recommend about configuring for my setup with the new release would be much appreciated.
Tim
Adam
Hi Tim;
While we’re not explicitly breaking it, we’re no longer actively supporting the Gen2 electronics at this point. Your best bet at this point is to continue using the older revisions of replicatorG, or the RepRap host software, which should work well with the Gen2 stuff.
I’d love to ensure that replicatorG continues to work with the Gen2 firmware, but time is pretty tight right now. Hopefully someday things will ease up and I’ll be able to do just that. :/