Large Format Dowell to Duet conversion

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony I hope this finds you well? I'm away for a while I just would like your help understanding what these results mean? basically everything connected to the board is connecting to everything else. How is this possible? How could we determine if the board is fried so this is all connecting everyting or if there is some wire rubbed down but I just dont understand how it is connecting everything? Charles

[T3P3Tony]

@charles-fraser I am trying to recreate a another issue, when done I will run through the table you have created and report back here.

I did have a quick look right now and the first thing i wanted to see was the thermistor:

Thermistor +or- 12 11 Continuity 120 m ohm

120 mili Ohm is not in the right ballpark but this may be because you are measuring from the terminal block with one side still connected to the Duet.

before you go away can you do a simpler test: unplug the 2 pin connector from temp 1 on the expansion board and test the resistance of the thermistor from that connector.

i.e.

you are testing between the back and red wires in the above image.

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony Thank you Tony, I will do that when back on Wednesday eve. Very best, Charles

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Hi Tony, this is what I get across the thermistor measured at the board (but disconnected)

!

Are we sure it’s not Mega Ohms?

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony any idea when you might be able to look at this all please Tony? Thanks

[T3P3Tony]

@charles-fraser ok so that is not right. A thermistor is likely to be between 10K and 200K, there are a few which may be a bit more but that looks almost open circuit - 7.97 Meg Ohm. either there are wires misconnected in the wiring block you showed in a previous picture or there is a break in a cable or in the thermistor itself.

Another question with the latest firmware is the bed heater now showing up correctly?

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Hi Tony, i rewired the thermistor and extruder heater. Testing across the thermistor along I get c. 176k. Testing when it’s reconnected at the points that go into the board (as show in your pic above) I get 156k. Perhaps there was a loose wire. Hopefully this fixes it.

Regarding the bed. Please refer to the error codes in my last post about this. The thermocouple is not being recognised. We changed the name of the thermistor if you recall as you also had troubles getting the expansion board to recognise the daughterboard / thermistor naming conventions. Should I move the daughterboard / thermocouple and heater for the bed to the mainboard? Could you you please help me with the right commands for the gcode with that? Thanks

[T3P3Tony]

@charles-fraser for the bed thermocouple we made a change in 3.4b5 to deal with the name not working so upgrading to that should fix the issue.

If the thermistor is measuring 150-170k then that could be a 150k thermistor (unusual) or it could be 100k thermistor at 10-15 degrees C ambient. I would contact the manufacturer and ask for the specifications and if you can get them consider if you can swap it out with a known thermistor.

So next steps:

1. Ensure that everything is in place for an upgrade to 3.4beta by getting the Duet2and3Firmware-3.3.zip from the 3.3 release page: https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/tag/3.3 and installing that.
2. upgrade to 3.4b5, to do that get the 3HC and 6HC binaries from the latest beta release here:
   https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/tag/3.4.0beta5
   And upgrade, do the 3HC first, then the 6HC.
3. check the bed thermocouple is now not causing a fault by running M98 P"0:/sys/config.g"

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Thanks but a bit confused. Steps 1 and two appear to both be: “download the firmware and update it” but both have different sources.

[Charles Fraser]

@T3P3Tony

So just to confirm I need to take the updated firmware files from one of the two links you just sent me (really not sure which - hope you will clarify that) - the updated versions of those you show I need in the /firmware folder from this pic in your previous post:

Also please NB your instructions to install 3HC first differ from before. Can I confirm that’t the way I should do it from DWC?

@t3p3tony said in Large Format Dowell to Duet conversion:

Check with M115 from that. It should be version 3.3. If its not the send M997 to up grade the firmware on the mainboard

4. Once the mainboard is reporting version 3.3 then send M115 B1 to find out what firmware is on the expansion board. It should also be 3.3 but may not be. Send M997 B1 to upgrade it to 3.3. Once both the main board and expansion board have 3.3 firmware on them (verify by using M115 and M115 B1) we can move to the next step.

[T3P3Tony]

@charles-fraser the reason i suggested uploading the whole of 3.3 firmware again before updating to 3.4b5 is that some users have had an issue with the /firmware directory not being created and having the right files put it in so that might be a quick way to be sure.

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony Aha I see, thanks for clarifying.

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony said in Large Format Dowell to Duet conversion:

Connect to the duet over USB and run a terminal program like YAT and send M115 from that. It should be version 3.3. If its not the send M997 to up grade the firmware on the mainboard

Once the mainboard is reporting version 3.3 then send M115 B1 to find out what firmware is on the expansion board. It should also be 3.3 but may not be. Send M997 B1 to upgrade it to 3.3. Once both the main board and expansion board have 3.3 firmware on them (verify by using M115 and M115 B1) we can move to the next step.

for reference

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony said in Large Format Dowell to Duet conversion:

@charles-fraser for the bed thermocouple we made a change in 3.4b5 to deal with the name not working so upgrading to that should fix the issue.

If the thermistor is measuring 150-170k then that could be a 150k thermistor (unusual) or it could be 100k thermistor at 10-15 degrees C ambient. I would contact the manufacturer and ask for the specifications and if you can get them consider if you can swap it out with a known thermistor.

So next steps:

1. Ensure that everything is in place for an upgrade to 3.4beta by getting the Duet2and3Firmware-3.3.zip from the 3.3 release page: https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/tag/3.3 and installing that.
2. upgrade to 3.4b5, to do that get the 3HC and 6HC binaries from the latest beta release here:
   https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/tag/3.4.0beta5
   And upgrade, do the 3HC first, then the 6HC.
3. check the bed thermocouple is now not causing a fault by running M98 P"0:/sys/config.g"

Okay I Followed step one and I get

M115
FIRMWARE_NAME: RepRapFirmware for Duet 3 MB6HC FIRMWARE_VERSION: 3.3 ELECTRONICS: Duet 3 MB6HC v1.01 or later FIRMWARE_DATE: 2021-06-15 21:45:56

M115 B1
Duet EXP3HC firmware version 3.3 (2021-06-15 16:12:41)

Then I follow step 2 and I can install the 3HC first and then it asked me a yes no question, something about updating the main controller. I pressed no. Then I uploaded the 6HC new firmware and when it said do I want to update that I said yes and now it just gets stuck on the 'please wait while updates are being installed'.

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Now I cant connect to the boards with the DWC. This should be like updating an iphone. We are so far from there

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony can I reflash the 6HC with Bossa from the Pi?

[Charles Fraser]

@T3P3Tony

I followed these instructions to update the 6HC firmware from the Pi

Updating Duet 3 main board firmware
There are three ways of updating the main board firmware:

If using an attached Raspberry Pi SBC, issue these commands on the RPi:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

It ran through a lengthy process of updating, I still cant connect to the board in DWC!!!

[T3P3Tony]

@charles-fraser to update to the unstable firmware branch you need to point the Pi at the unstable branch. Please do the following on the Pi:

wget -q https://pkg.duet3d.com/duet3d-unstable.list
sudo mv duet3d-unstable.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/duet3d-unstable.list
sudo mv duet3d-unstable.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/duet3d-unstable.list
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/duet3d.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

That will get your Pi up to 3.4b5

After that process completes I expect DWC will be back up and you will have communication with the 6HC. Check the firmware version installed, especially on the 3HC, as you answered "no" to that update.

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Okay I will try that. I just tried to connect through BOSSA through PC and

[Charles Fraser]

@t3p3tony

Okay so we are back online and

Could you please recommend a thermistor that you know works and I will replace the noz and bed thermistor and thermocouple respectively.