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Hictop Prusa clone. Noob Confusement..

Discussion in '3D printers' started by Joe Santarsiero, Apr 2, 2017.

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  1. Joe Santarsiero

    Joe Santarsiero OB addict
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    Hello friends,

    I had some Amazon dollars burning a hole in my pocket. So rather than designing and/or building a 3DP true Diy I purchased a Hictop Prusa clone. Total cost about $40 with two spools of filament, micro drills, and spatula.
    I finished the build last night and Im trying to figure out how to update the firmware. The card is a custom arduino mega using marlin, but I don't know anything about the realm 3DP hardware/software yet. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. The printer firmware has to be updated to allow mesh leveling from the inductance sensor because I bought that piece separately.

    So far I've downloaded Cura, have a copy of the firmware I want to install, but haven't installed any drivers or connected to the PC yet. The firmware update file they provide is a Marlin cpp.hex file. I don't know where that goes.
    I just want to print already. :)



    Thanks for any suggestions.

    Joe S.
     
    #1 Joe Santarsiero, Apr 2, 2017
  2. Joe Santarsiero

    Joe Santarsiero OB addict
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    I have the arduino IDE to program my Uno's. I tried using the IDE and had no success. Now that I think of it I probably had the uno/genuino selected. I'll try again when I get out of work later.

    Joe
     
    #2 Joe Santarsiero, Apr 3, 2017
  3. SugarJ

    SugarJ Well-Known
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    Yup, use the Arduino IDE, set board type to Mega and upload. I've done it on a RAMPS 1.4+ and MKS Gen board successfully. It looks like Hictop uses their own board but it should work like the other Ramps clones out there.
     
    #3 SugarJ, Apr 3, 2017
    Joe Santarsiero and snokid like this.
  4. Joe Santarsiero

    Joe Santarsiero OB addict
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    So I tried to use IDE again set to a mega and nothing. My understanding so far is that the arduino software can flash the firmware, but it must be a Marlin.ino to open and edit and the IDE compiles that into a cpp.hex.
    Hictop provides a cpp.hex to flash the board from cura to update for the autoleveling, but I don't trust flashing it based on user reports. The printer runs good and I would hate to flash new firmware without having a backup of what's currently installed.
    It looks like I'm going to have to roll up my sleeves and spend some time learning marlin.
     
    #4 Joe Santarsiero, Apr 6, 2017
  5. SugarJ

    SugarJ Well-Known
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    Hey Joe, check this out on Thingiverse. There's an uncompiled version in the zip file. Hictop 3DP-11-ATL FIRMWARE AND SOURCE by joesmithok

    Edit: There's also a program called Xloader that will upload the .hex file directly without the source code being needed like in Arduino IDE. XLoader

    Edit 2: You got me interested in how to download the existing firmware. I found this on the reprap forums, thanks to RNJ over there:


    0.For Firmware Backup and Reset goto the arduino folder where avrdude.exe is located and copy avrdude.conf (located within the arduino folder) to the same directory.

    1. in cmd go to that folder (something like cd "C:\program files\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr\bin") and type the following line (without running it!)

    for backup:
    avrdude -p atmega2560 -P com17 -c stk500v2 -b115200 -F -U flash:r:factory_firmware.hex:i

    for restore (the -D option is to skip erasing before programming):
    avrdude -p atmega2560 -P com17 -c stk500v2 -b115200 -F -D -U flash:w:factory_firmware.hex:i

    replace factory_firmware.hex with the your desired filename and com17 with your com port

    2. now hold the reset button on the mega board and release it simultaneously with executing the avrdude command line (else you will get a timeout error)
     
    #5 SugarJ, Apr 6, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2017
    Joe Santarsiero likes this.

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