Back Again!

Well, after another extensive period of procrastination I am finally back to work on the RepRap.  I have been at it for a couple of nights and have managed to finish all the wiring so I am back to fighting with the software.

I installed the reprap host on my new/old desktop but I can't seem to get it to run.  It is probably due to version conflicts with Java but, after messing with it for a while, I decided to switch over to using Pronterface and Sfact as my toolchain.  They both installed easily and run fine under windows.

I initially had some problems loading the firmware from the Windows machine until I realized that I had to load a set of drivers for the Techzone USB/Serial board.  I guess they were already available on the Linux OS that I was using on my tablet because I am sure that I didn't have to manually install them there.  (I am sticking to WinXP on the desktop, not because I like it but because I don't have Linux drivers for the wireless card I have on it).  Once the desktop was able to talk to the Arduino I had no problem installing the firmware on the main board and the extruder.

That was where I left off last night.  I was not able to get the steppers running  but I think that was due to my ignorance of Pronterface.  I will go through some documentation today and give it another try when I know what I am doing.

I expect that there may still be some adjustments to the firmware but I will have to get things running in order to know for sure.

Perhaps I will finally extrude.