Uploading new firmware
Hi Paul,
This is Nick, I received my new controller this week. I am able to comunicate with it but not able to upload modified firmware from the arduino IDE. I noticed that a female jumper is supplied do I need to some how connect this jumper in order to upload new firmware.
Also on a bit of a separate issue for testing purposes I connected a 12 volt power supply to the barrel jack and a single stepper to the XAxis. While sending G Code commands to the Gerbil the motor did not move?? I also checked the heat sink it did not get even warm. I tried to adjust the current with the trim pot no luck??
Hi Nick, the 328pb has two uarts while the 328 and 328p has only one uart. I use uart1 since I need access to the pwm pin being shared by uart0. If you want to upload the new firmware to the controller via the usb port, you will need to shift two jumpers from uart1 to uart0. The shield has smal labels next to these two jumpers. That’s all. After upload via the usb port, you need to shift the jumpers back to its original place so gerbil can communicate via the uart1/usb port. Ideally I could have modified the optiboot to use uart1 instead of uart0 which also would have saved me two jumpers but that’s hindsight, sigh.
The 328pb controller is being powered via the k40 shield. The barrel jack is a backup for people who don’t use the k40 shield and use it as a new improved arduino. Or for those who have a different laser set up. If you power just the barrel jack then you still need to power the step sticks via the k40 shield. Makes sure the 5v and external power for the steppers do have a common ground otherwise the motors don’t move. This is happening because the stepsticks also need 5v for their internal logic. If the ground is not common then the step sticks don’t see the 5v but something undefined (i.e. 2V).
Hope this makes sense otherwise I can talk you through it via a google hangout?
Forgot to mention that these jumpers are on the controller board and not on the k40 shield. Also I just have written a page about driving other lasers see Other Lasers
enjoy and feel free to suggest any additions or obmissions!
Uploaded files:
Thanks Paul,
Just got back to this.
Ηi Paul,
I have re-flashed fw from download page but when i type $I I get fw 1.1e .Is this the last fw available as I thought the latest fw is 1.1f.
Thank you for your time.
Alex
Yes the version is almost 1.1f since we wrote our own laser frequency part that is in 1.1f. We use the $I just to tell application software what controller it is. Our 1.1e is equivalent to 1.1f and we should update the header in the firmware.