Announcing ReplicatorG 24!
The latest version of ReplicatorG is now available for download! The big news with this release is support for your shiny new MakerBot Stepstruder™ MK6 (or other stepper extruder), which drastically improve the reliability and repeatability of the printing processes. This release also brings a new firmware version for Generation 4 electronics, which features an improved temperature control system, support for servo motors, and a number of heater safety features.
We’ve moved our issue tracker to Lighthouse, so if you notice any bugs please report them there. Here’s the changelog:
0024 ReplicatorG
* Support for stepper-based extruders on G4 hardware
* Early reversal for stepper-driven extruders
* 5-axis motion commands for G4 hardware
* More example objects and scripts
* Build temperature monitoring reenabled
* Number of UI cleanups
* Improved extruder status reporting
* Several memory leaks solved
* 64-bit platform fixes for Mac OS X, x86_64
* Added s3g decompilation script
* Startup info dump to aid debugging
* Continuous jog and motion stop commands
* Improved Ultimaker support
* Support for legacy RepRap firmware
* Improvements to serial layer
* Scale field reflects mouse scaling factor
* Skeinforge 31 reintroduced
* Skeinforge 39 introduced as experimental
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26 Comments so far
Tweets that mention Announcing ReplicatorG 24! - MakerBot Industries -- Topsy.com
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Baichtal, cibomahto. cibomahto said: ReplicatorG 24 is released! http://tinyurl.com/4ejx676 [...]
tmophoto
so the stepper extruder functionality only works on gen4 electronics?
Matt
And now the MakerBot Unicorn works wonderfully on Gen4 electronics with a servo extension cable that you can get in any hobby shop!
Carmiac
@Matt Where do you hook it up on gen4?
Owen
It looks like stepper extruder support in RepG is for Gen4 only. So are cupcake owners supposed to buy new electronics and a new extruder?
Matt
Check out Marty rocking a Stepstruder with Gen3 electronics. Experimental but looking good:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/stepstruder-mk6-with-gen3
Matt Mets
@Owen You won’t need to. With Gen3 electronics, you can connect a stepper driver up to a standard extruder controller with a modified firmware, and use the current version of RepG to drive it almost as if it were a DC motor. Because the Gen4 electronics use the motherboard to drive the stepper extruder, we had to write a modified driver for RepG to redirect extruder on/off commands to the motherboard.
Matt Mets
@Carmiac Extruder controller outputs A2 (for the first stepper) and A3 (for the second stepper)
coasterman
Uuuuh there’s a serious problem where I cannot edit an existing profile. The skeinforge window never shows up! Dammit, I wish I kept the 0023 files, now I’m stuck with this buggy RepG 24.
colorbroken
Coasterman has a good point — is there an easy way to upgrade or transfer over current settings for Rep so I don’t have to retweak stuff to get the thing comfy again? This should be advertised information, I think. Danke! OH: whatever happened to the shifting screen ability for us lil ol netbook people? My preview doesn’t fit the window properly. NOT TO BE UNGRATEFUL: we love you guys.
Matt Mets
@colorbroken Yes, there is, though I suspect now that it’s not widely known! In the Skeinforge profile window, select the profile you want to copy and click ‘duplicate’. This will create a copy of it in your personal ReplicatorG directory (which is a hidden directory called .replicatorg, located in your home directory/folder). Now, when you load a different version of ReplicatorG, your custom profile should show up.
Matt Mets
@colorbroken I can’t think of anything we might have changed in this release that would cause a change in behaviour from 0023, aside from making some of the dialog windows fixed-size. If you’ve found a behaviour regression, please let us know by filing a bug on the lighthouse bug tracker (linked in the post above). On our shop netbook (an original Eee PC running Ubuntu), the best way I’ve found to see the whole program is to alt+drag the window to reposition it.
Matt Mets
@coasterman Sorry to hear you are having trouble with the new release- have you solved your problem yet? If not, I’ll need some more information (what operating system you use, what steps you are taking when the error occurs), and will try to help get it fixed as quickly as possible.
Also, you can download any of the old versions from the google code site:
https://code.google.com/p/replicatorg/downloads/list
I’ll add a link to this on the Replicat.org download page.
coasterman
I’ve found the Duplicate workaround to work. I use 64 bit Windows 7 Professional OS. When I click “Edit” on a profile, it simply gets stuck pressed as normal, but Skeinforge never shows up and I’m forced to end the task.
Carmiac
@Matt Thanks, but I should have been more specific in my question.
Where do you hook up the Unicorn servo on Gen 4?
@Coasterman Are you using a dual screen setup? I find that about a quarter of the time I have a problem with that dialog box locking when I am running a dual screen setup, but never when I am using a single screen. Which is weird, but fairly repeatable.
Simon
Hmm – not getting any joy on my Mac (10.6.6). I followed the instructions, installed the Arduino driver, and connected my Thing-o-matic, and the ‘Driver’ menu item remains greyed out. Rebooting doesn’t help.
I can see a /dev/tty.usbserial-A600euUf in the console, and USB-prober returns an FTDI device, so I think the USB/serial connection is fine. The T-o-M itself was working fine on a Windows machine running an earlier version of RepG.
Simon
Simon
Ok – crisis averted. When the docs say “remember to copy the folder to /Applications” I read that as copying the application (since applications are folders under OSX). To avoid confusion, the process is:
– make a new folder in /Applications. I called it ‘ReplicatorG-0024′
– copy all the files/folders in the top-level of the DMG to the folder you just made
– run ReplicatorG from /Applications/
Simon
Matt Mets
@Carmiac oh! Use A2 on the extruder controller. The Unicorn scripts generate Gcode that uses the first servo (M300 Snnn).
Matt Mets
@coasterman Oh, I think that’s due to a permissions issue- if you unzip your ReplicatorG folder into certain places, Windows doesn’t want to allow you to write to it, which freezes Skeinforge. We’re working on a better solution, but for now the workaround is a good way to go.
Matt Mets
@Simon Glad you got it to work, and thanks for the install instructions! I’m still new to how programs are installed on OS X, and am hoping that we can figure out how to distribute it in a more Mac-friendly way in the future.
Lucas Saugen
I just got my TOM dialed in on RepG-23 but would like to upgrade. Is there a suggested way to not loose all my calibrations?
coasterman
@Lucas Saugen: You can just delete everything in the ReplicatorG program folder, and copy the new stuff in. All your preferences, profiles, etc are all kept in a .replicatorg folder in your user folder. You shouldn’t have to change anything else.
Dave Durant
Is it me or does the included skeinforge 39 only include a single profile, for “SF39-Thingomatic-baseline” ??
Matt Mets
@Dave Durant That sounds right, SF39 is there for experimentation. We just finished SF35 profiles! Going forward, I think the plan is to concentrate on SF40.
Matt Mets
@Lucas Saugen @coasterman If you’ve modified the default profiles, be sure to duplicate them before you delete your RepG-23 folder! The default profiles still live in the program folder. That’s something we’re hoping to change soon.
A new day for Robot Hospital - MakerBot Industries
[...] course, we talked about the brand-new Stepstruder™ MK6. With ReplicatorG 24‘s new support for the Unicorn, we were bound to again discuss our own Schmarty’s [...]