ReplicatorG 0015 and new firmware available
these screenshots get sillier every time
It’s that time again– ReplicatorG 0015 is now available for download. There’s new versions of the firmware online, too– v2.1 for the motherboard, and v2.3 for the extruder controller board.
Like the last set of releases, this release is primarily about bugfixes and incremental improvements. There’s a new tunable temperature control system for the extruder controller, and pauses now halt the extruder as well. ReplicatorG has a cleaned-up console, and automatically checks the web for updates (for those who don’t keep a close eye on the blog). See the changelogs below for more!
As always, you can get the latest version of ReplicatorG here, and let me know ASAP if you have any problems or questions!
(The firmware updates have been uploaded to the update site, so if you’re using ReplicatorG 0013 or later, you’ll be automatically prompted to install the new firmware. Remember to restart ReplicatorG after you install!)
A few more details about the upgrade, for the technically inclined:
The PID control routine has been tweaked somewhat to make the derivative term more useful. All three gains can now be set in ReplicatorG by selecting “Machine>Onboard Preferences” and then clicking on the “Set Extruder Parameters” button. The PID parameters will appear at the bottom. After you commit your changes, you can do a soft reset by clicking the “reset” button in ReplicatorG; this will prompt the extruder to update its PID parameters to the new settings. Wikipedia has a good introduction to PID tuning.
ReplicatorG changelog:
- Bug fixes:
- gh-44: “Save As” now works as expected
- New files now work as expected
- gh-35: No longer resetting machine at startup
- gh-33: Removed separate concept of current position from gcode parser
- New features:
- gh-42: arc resolution is now controllable via preferences
- gh-40: valve/fan outputs renamable in machines.xml.
- gh-39: frostruder support.
- gh-37: messages are now color-coded and timestamped
- gh-32: preference for default sketch at start time
- Support for tuning the PID parameters on the extruder controller
- Automatically checks servers for new versions
- Better shutdown and interrupt behavior
| Tagged with | 8 comments | |
8 Comments so far
Ryanp
Wow, fast connect, fast reconnect, PID controller fix, AND PID setting. This is a great release all around. I recommend everyone get it now if you are at 2.0 firmwares.
TheHoagieBoy
The 0015 release looks to be holding up well. I had some initial issues (including java crashing and automatically aborted builds) that disappeared after I rolled the firmware on the mainboard back to 1.6 from the 2.1 version. There was commonly a blinking from the debug LED on the mainboard before doing that. Also a dim blink from the debug LED on the extruder once replicatorg asks the bot to do anything. Left the extruder with the 2.3 firmware and even with the blinking debug LED it seems to behave. Not yet tried out the previous 2.0 firmware on the mainboard though.
Batch 13 bot with the HBP and relay mod.
elkaholic
I have tried all firmware combinations of MB V2.X with EC V2.X. Mother board will not communicate with Extruder. ReplicatorG gets a null version from extruder controller. My extruder controller is V2.0 and motherboard V1.2. Looks like TheHoagieBoy has the same experience. I did not try EC V2.3 with MB V1.6 will do so tonight. I rolled back to Sanguino V1.6 on mother board and V1.8 heated build on extruder controller works with release 0015. I am looking forward to PID and motor control.
Steve
Found a minor bug. The M109 code seems to set the build platform on constantly, regardless of the value sent. As far as I can tell, the problem’s in the extruder controller firmware. Rolling back to v2.2 cleared it up.
Steve
Got a strange question: Is there a feature in either ReplictorG or the firmware that causes sequential travel (i.e. 2 or more consecutive non-extruding head moves) to be combined into a single, diagonal vector? And, if so, is there a way to disable that feature?
Ben Rockhold
Being able to control a heated platform from the control window would be nice.
And if it has that… then my hookup has gone horribly wrong.
Adam
Ben:
You should be able to control the heated build platform from the control panel. Are you not seeing the controls? Make sure you have the “Cupcake CNC w/heated build platform” selected in the “Machine>Driver” menu.
Steve:
No moves should be combined by ReplicatorG at this point. However, the machine queues absolute points. If you for example start a build and the machine has a different idea of where its current position is than you do, you may see what appears to be a combined diagonal move.
Ben Rockhold
Thanks Adam, I solved it myself but what you said was totally correct.
Right after posting I went an noticed that my machine’s specific configuration in machines.xml did not declare the heated platform, so I added that to it and it worked.
I have my own “driver” for this machine because of its custom parts, so I’ve been migrating a block of xml between RepG versions since before I knew about the heated bed.