Friday, February 18, 2011

Quick update

I have still not managed to get the firmware loaded on the main board. Despite changing the baud rate and messing about with timing of the restart it continues to do nothing. What is strange is that the Arduino IDE reports a successful upload with no error messages. The fact that the LED does not flash when I push the restart button leads me to believe that there is something wrong with the board itself.

I managed to contact Lambert from Techzone Communications and he was very helpful in giving me a few suggestions. None of them has produced results unfortunately. One thing that he suggested is that I use Repsnapper as my host software instead of Reprap Host. I haven't gotten Repsnapper working on my tablet yet but it is not yet a priority since I am pretty positive that nothing is being loaded on the Sanguino by the IDE. Unlike Reprap Host, which is written in Java, Repsnapper is a C program and Lambert feels that it is more stable. Time will tell.

I am going to move on from the main board and try to load the firmware on the extruder board this weekend. Even if it doesn't work perhaps it will give me some more information to work with.

On a more positive note, I received my silicon heater pad and the PID controller for same. I will be ready to proceed with my heated build platform whenever I get the Mendel running. I also received my new Soldering station with both a soldering iron and a heat gun included. See Below:

Pretty Cool Eh? It also comes with these extras:


I have been using a fixed temp pencil iron up until now and I just can't wait to melt some solder with this thing.

A major task this weekend, which is a three day weekend for us Saskatchewanians, is to clean up the spare room downstairs. After we make some room in there I am going to move in all of my workbenches and gear. It will give me the room to set things up properly and get organized.

1 comment: