1 Topic by cephdon

  • cephdon
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Topic: Firmware Update Problem

OK, I have combed through the threads and looked at the wiki's... here is my issue:

I can't seem to update the firmware.
I always get the message "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Just got the SD2 today.  I can connect to it using Repetier on my OSX machine.  Using Repetier, I can manually move the bed up or down and turn on the extruder heat, extrude or reverse, etc.  I know the machine is working perfectly with regard to that and it shows that I have the correct serial port selected.

I have checked the board and it has the auto-reset jumper in place so I should not need to press the reset button to get an upload working correctly.  I have tried version 0022 and 0023 of the arduino software and there isnt any change in the response between them.

It doesn't matter if I wait for the sketch size message to press the reset or hold the reset and release when the size message is shown or not press the reset button at all.

I have avrdude 5.11.1 installed and sym-linked in the arduino hardware tools directory along with the conf file in /etc.

I have also changed the boards.txt file to use arduino upload protocol and changed the upload speed to 38400.

What am I missing? It seems like this should be very simple and in my novice state of mind, I just can't see what is wrong.

Thanks,
--Tim

2 Reply by jefferysanders

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Re: Firmware Update Problem

http://www.soliwiki.com/Updating_Solidoodle_Firmware

3 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Firmware Update Problem

Some printers shipped with faulty microcontrollers. Please contact support and they should send you a replacement.

lawsy's Website

4 Reply by cephdon

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Re: Firmware Update Problem

ok.. So, I decided to see if I could load the bootloader on the chip myself.  I got out my STK500 compatible programmer and hooked up the ISP header pins to the board and after a little bit of fiddling, managed to get the bootloader programmed onto the chip.

Unfortunately, even with the bootloader on the chip (as in, I programmed it myself so I know it is there) I still get the same error.
I even attempted to remove the auto reset jumper so that I would be forced to press the reset button to make it work... no dice.

What else can I try to fix this?

Thanks,
--Tim

5 Reply by lawsy

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Re: Firmware Update Problem

Very strange. This is the second case with this problem. I'm wondering if something on the board has changed slightly and is incompatible with the Arduino IDE.

Only support can provide some insight.

lawsy's Website

6 Reply by cephdon

  • cephdon
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Re: Firmware Update Problem

As a last ditch effort, I decided to download the arduino 22 application again and see if I could get this to work "vanilla".  The only changes I made are to add the Sanguino hardware as required for the application to know about the device and to add my AVR-ISP500 to the list of devices for use when uploading bootloaders.

Then I loaded up the app, opened the project, connected the USB to the SD2 (with main power off), compiled and clicked upload.
Everything worked this time.

Conclusion:
The Sanguino did not have a bootloader shipped from Solidoodle, causing the first attempts to fail.  After attempting to fix everything possible to make this work, the environment was broken in some way.  After subsequently adding the bootloader, the failures were due to some misconfiguration of the arduino environment.

Solution: Don't adjust the arduino environment other than to add the Sanguino hardware configuration to the environment.  Make sure you have a bootloader added to the Sanguino or add if not.  Everything should work as expected.

Suggestion for support: Please consider making the ISP header pins as right-angle, rather than straight. It would be much easier to attach the programmer when needed...or failing that, provide more room to attach a cable to the ISP pins without requiring us to unscrew the cover.

This seems to be solved now.

7 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Firmware Update Problem

cephdon wrote:

As a last ditch effort, I decided to download the arduino 22 application again and see if I could get this to work "vanilla".  The only changes I made are to add the Sanguino hardware as required for the application to know about the device and to add my AVR-ISP500 to the list of devices for use when uploading bootloaders.

Then I loaded up the app, opened the project, connected the USB to the SD2 (with main power off), compiled and clicked upload.
Everything worked this time.

Conclusion:
The Sanguino did not have a bootloader shipped from Solidoodle, causing the first attempts to fail.  After attempting to fix everything possible to make this work, the environment was broken in some way.  After subsequently adding the bootloader, the failures were due to some misconfiguration of the arduino environment.

Solution: Don't adjust the arduino environment other than to add the Sanguino hardware configuration to the environment.  Make sure you have a bootloader added to the Sanguino or add if not.  Everything should work as expected.

Suggestion for support: Please consider making the ISP header pins as right-angle, rather than straight. It would be much easier to attach the programmer when needed...or failing that, provide more room to attach a cable to the ISP pins without requiring us to unscrew the cover.

This seems to be solved now.

Glad you were able to get everything fixed up. Since the Sanguino isn't our own design, it might be difficult to change the header pins.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.