E3D V6 Lite and Press

Thanks for all of that info Wardjr.

I had a look in the stock Press firmware, and it uses "define TEMP_SENSOR_0 1" so I'm guessing that means I'd need the programmer? If I go down this route (huge internal sigh happening this end), could you tell me exactly what I need? I know all the hardware parts as I found that list on MacGyver's thread, but for the programmer, is it just a case of buying one and nothing else, or are there specific cables or anything that are needed to flash the Press?

I'm reluctant to go through this, but the stock hotend is really starting to get on my nerves. It's having yet another acetone bath having jammed badly. Again. Can't really justify the cost of an E3D, but the Lite looks awesome.

Thanks!

Don't adjust PID_MAX. there is no need for this, as PID auto tuning will reduce the amount of overshoot substantially. In my experience too low of a PID_MAX creates oscillation in temperature even with proper PID auto tuning.

Newer V6s and Lite6s ship with a 20w (edit: 25w) heater cartridge also, which doesn't overshoot as aggressively.

I've ordered a Lite, with all the parts to mount it. I'll take pics as I do the upgrade and post a thread on my experiences. It probably won't get here for another week or so, but I'll update you with my success/failure.

OK, I've started on this and already hit a wall!

I thought before I did the hardware install, I'd look at flashing the firmware. I've got the board into boot mode, hooked up to my Mac. I'm running Arduino 1.6.4 with Teensyduino installed. I've set my board to "Teensy++ 2.0".

I thought I would keep it simple first by using a known quantity before starting to mess around, so I tried to compile the unmodded SD firmware. I get a load of warning messages, mainly centering on defined variables which are not used, most of which relate to thermal runaway protection. Gets past all that, then just stops at around 60% (the blue progress bar is just past halfway). It says it's compiling, but nothing is happening. It gets to that point within about 10-20 seconds, but then just sits there and goes no further. It doesn't crash or give an error, the progress bar just stops moving.

As I said, this is the unmodified SD Press firmware that I am trying to compile, so it should just work. But it doesn't. Any ideas anyone?

All I am trying to do is set the thermistor to type 5 and I wanted to set the max temp to 245 as well. But I'm failing dismally!

Just grab a compiled hex from someone that's done this before, like MacGyverX.

OK, so I got the firmware compiled at last. I have no idea exactly what went wrong but I just redownloaded everything and it worked this time. I can only guess that there was something got corrupted in the files I downloaded first time. Or I messed up!

So firmware is done, but you guessed it. I just cannot get the bootloader to work. I tried FLIP and BootloaderHID. All the same problem. The board is powered (2 green LEDs) and the jumper is set. I tried shorting the reset pins to try and force it to work, but nothing.

I have tried on a Mac, a Windows 7 PC, a Windows XP PC and a Windows Vista PC. All the same result. Bootloader says "Waiting for Teensylu... Hint: press reset" and Flip just says that could not open USB device.

I've got an irritating feeling that the only answer here is "buy a programmer".

OK, thanks for letting me know. I've compiled the firmware anyway now, just can't get it onto the board. Bootloader just does not want to play. I'd guess it has to be a driver issue, but I just can't get anywhere with that. Even downloaded the 64 bit signed ones to try on the Windows 7 PC, and get exactly the same message. Think I'll just put all this back on the shelf for now and order a programmer. I'm getting nowhere fast with the bootloader.