E3D V6 Upgrade... And new questions

I have the newer Robo R1 with the hexagon hot end and the enclose bottom. The hexagon started to leak I tried to tighten it with no success. So I ordered the direct feed E3D V6 hot end. I should receive it this week, I have started reading the doc's on putting the E3D together and how to install it on the Robo, but I still have some question specific to my printer.

Hardware
1. With the newer Robo's that are using the Hexagon hot end, can I use all the same wiring for the E3D V6. (heater, thermistor, fan for the heat sink)
2. Do I need to make a new holder for the cooling fan. I sent a picture of my cooling fan setup, hope that helps.

Software
1. I am using MatterContol and Matterslice version 1.1.7, In MatterControl it says my firmware is Robo3DR1autoV1.
2. How can I tell what the max temp is set to and if I have to, where do I make the changes.
3. Is there a difference between the thermistor that is used with the Hexagon and the E3D, if yes where do I make the changes and what are the changes.
4. Above in this post they talk about firmware 6_10 auto-leveling firmware, is this the same as Robo3DR1autoV1. Can I modify this Robo3DR1autoV1 firmware, can it be downloaded changed and then uploaded to the controller card(Ardunio card).

 

The thermistor in the hexagon is a Epcos, it's larger than the semitec that comes with the E3D. You'll need to swap the semitec for the epcos.

The metal fan bracket won't fit with the v6. You'll need to print a new parts fan from thingiverse

Modify the firmware. You might be able to edit the eeprom setings though

Firmware: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q8gdww8g7zybidc/Robo3dR1V2.zip?dl=0

 

Mike, I can't get the hexagon thermistor out of the hexagon hot end, so I will have to go with the semitec. Is there some code in the firmware that I will need to change. I'm hoping I can use the same wiring that is setup for the Hexagon thermistor.

 

Robert,
Per the E3D assembly document http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6-Assembly, you want to modify the file called configuration.h in the firmware posted by Mike with these changes:

Change the thermistor type to the one recommended by E3D on their document:

#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 5
​

You might also want to change the max hot end temp so you can print a wider range of filaments 275 to 300C is reasonable:

#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 275
​

The E3D doc also mentions this change:

#define PID_MAX 255
​

 

I downloaded Mikes folder, there are a lot of files in there. I found the configuration.h file and the Robo3dR1V2 file. Most of the changes you suggest above are already in the configuration.h file. I can open this file in notepad and make the only change I need, TEMP_SENOR_0 5. I looked into the files that came with MatterControl and cannot file any configuration.h or the Robo3dR1AutoV1 this is the file that shows up when you plug you PC into the Robo printer and turn it on. Do these files only exist on the Ardunio card. Also is the Mikes file robo3dR1V2 the same as Robo3dR1AutoV1. Is there a way I can backup Robo3DR1AutoV1 before uploading Mikes file or is there a copy of it somewhere.
Also is there somewhere on this forum that talks about uploading to the Ardunio card, I have done this before, but I'm not sure what Ardunio card I should use. Does the configuration.h files and all the other files in Mikes folder have to be in a certain library for the Arduino software to compile them and upload them to the Arduino card.
Still lots of questions, but little by little I'm learning, thanks for your patients and you help.

 

Robert,
The Arduino board type that you need to select is "arduino mega 2560" (this was in my email). All those files need to be in a folder which should be named with the same name as the *.ino in that folder. This is probably named "marlin.ino" so the folder would be named "marlin". That folder can be put anywhere on your computer. If you have the Arduino environment already installed you just need to double click on the file "marlin.ino" and that will automatically open the Arduino program and load in all the files that are needed. Then you need to select the board type. Then select upload. If you get a com port error just select another com port from the list until it works. All this detail is in Melody's FAQ here http://lele.io/robo3dfaq . Note a lot of the other content in that FAQ is for the old kickstarter version.

Note that what happens when you select upload from the Arduino program is that all those files are compiled or built together to create one executable file. This executable file is then downloaded via the USB port. This executable file is the firmware. When you use MatterControl it probably already has a single already compiled executable file ready to download. The problem with the MatterControl download scheme is that you have no way to modify this firmware.

I don't know the difference between the robo3dR1V2 and robo3dR1V1 firmware. Perhaps Mike Kelly knows the difference. I don't know if there is a way in MatterControl to go to an older revision. I would just go with the v2 version and really would not worry too much about backing it up.

Does this answer all your questions?

 

I think Robo3DR1AutoV1 is this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mc3l8rn3mx303rv/Auto_Level.zip?dl=0

If your printer has a bottom cover you should use the R1V2

 

Steve, I'm still not sure about what folder or file I need to work with in the Ardunio software.
The folder that Mike suggested I download is called robo3dR1V2, I unzipped this file and see that there are 2 ardunio files in this folder.
One is called robo3dR1V2 and the other is marlin. There are also a number of files with the .h suffix, configuration.h, configuration_adv.h, and a marlin.h file and many more .h files. Which configuration file do I made your above changes to. Of all the files that are listed in the robo3dR1V2 folder, which ones are used to compile the ino file.
So I bring up the Ardunio software, I find and open the robo3dR1V2 folder, then open the ardunio file robo3dR1V2. It shows up. After making the changes to the configuration file should I be ready to upload this file to the Ardunio board?.

 

OK - this is a really easy one. Both those files in the V2 directory, marlin.ino and Robo3dR1V2.ino are exactly the same file. Also in the V1 directory, marlin.ino and Auto_Leve1.ino are the same files. All they did is to rename the main Arduino file to the same name as the directory that it is in and kept copies of the original named file. For whatever reason this is what the Arduino environment requires.

You only need to modify the file called configuration.h as I said above. Don't you trust me? Don't worry about what files are actually used to build the final firmware executable. It does not matter.

 

I would make a upgrade to this hotend. Is there any change hardware or firmware to the Robo3DR1V3?

 

Steve
I hope your kidding about trusting you, I'm just trying to understand how the ardunio compiler process works and what all the different files are used for. The more you tell me, the more I'am starting to understanding how the RoBo works and it's really getting exciting. In Mike's folder that I downloaded there are a lot of files, I really would like to know more about them. Thanks again for all your help.

 

Where did this robo3DR1V3 come from. Does anyone know if this is different than V2 and what the differences are.

 

Yeah the means I was kidding. The bulk of the files in the firmware are for customization and I/O support like for the SDcard interface/file system and different LCDs. The really cool stuff is in planner.cpp which figures out what motion is required to go to the coordinates in your gcode file and QR_solve.cpp which contains math functions that are at the limit of any linear algebra that I barely remember from way way back.

 

Mike said "The metal fan bracket won't fit with the v6. You'll need to print a new parts fan from thingiverse"
Mike do you know what fan bracket I should print off of thingiverse.

 

Does it matter how I modify the configuration.h file. I can I use notepad or should I use the ardunio software.

 

After reading through the Ardunio code for robo3dR1V2, it looks like the only 2 files that are used are configuration.h and pins.h. The other files that the code has include statements for are not even in the folder. (wire.h, liquidCrystal_I2C.h, and some others. Am I reading the code correctly.

 

Notepad will probably have problems with carriage returns so you might want to use the Arduino editor. Any text editor will work though. If the editor asks if you want to convert it to dos format (adding carriage returns to the line feeds) that is fine to do.

 

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:186027

 

wire.h and the liquid crystal one are standard libraries that are already in the Arduino install folder. Many more files are used than configuration.h and pins.h.

I agree that under the hood the Arduino build process is not all that straightforward. They try to hide a lot of detail from the normal user. Being used to standard C and assembly development it is a bit strange to me and I don't know all the detail. Some info is here:

http://arduino.cc/en/Hacking/BuildProcess
http://allgood38.io/understand-arduino-development.html

The first code that is executed is setup() and then loop() which are located in marlin_main.cpp. It stays in loop() forever. Somehow the build process mysteriously goes from the *.ino (as in Arduino) file to include marlin_main.cpp and then executes setup() and loop(). I think that most of the 59 files in that directory are involved in the build. You can turn on "show verbose output" in /file/preferences to see what is included.

 

Is your active cooling fan backwards on your picture?