M563 Max extruders on tool

kcorbedsellig

I'm building a printer in which I use 12 drives for one tool. Unfortunately, I'm running into an issue where it seems the maximum amount of drives configured to one tool appears to be 10. I'm wondering if there is any reason behind this limitation and if it can be increased and if so If I can do it myself or if this is configured deep in the firmware.

My whole system is in version 3.5.0-rc.3.

To config the tool:

M563 P0 D0:1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9:10:11 F0

The error:

Error in start-up file config.g line 54: in file macro line 54: M563: array too long, max length = 10

Additionally, I'm open to finding a way around this but I haven't been able to find one myself so far. In my use case, I need the 12 drives to work simultanously. The gcode is generated through software I create myself so I'm happy to alter it to work differently but I'm not sure if there is any other way to do this. I could for example add the 12 drives as different axis but as far as I can tell only 6 are supported of which I need one for movement.

Any help is much appreciated as always.

chrishamm

@kcorbedsellig That limit is hard-coded in the firmware but it can be increased. See MaxExtrudersPerTool in RepRapFirmware/src/Config/Pins_YourBoard.h. You can find build instructions here.

kcorbedsellig

@chrishamm Thank you for your reply and advice.

I believe I've successfully built a .bin file with the variable changed as required.

I'm running an MB6HC with a SBC and I'm not sure how to upload the firmware as I have no experience with these processes.

Should I drag the .bin file into the system folder the same way as I upgrade my M23CLs?
Should I somehow upload it via SSH?

deckingman

@kcorbedsellig Just out of curiosity, can you explain a bit more about your machine? I'd be interested to know the use case for 12 extruder drives feeding a single tool.

kcorbedsellig

@deckingman It's not a 3d printer that I'm building but a machine that extrudes paint. The 12 drives are configured as one tool but that tool has 6 nozzles that extrude at the same time with 2 extruders on each. I use machines like these to create artworks.

droftarts

@kcorbedsellig would love to see that!

Yes, for the firmware update, just upload your .bin file in DWC. It should ask you if you want to install it.

Ian

kcorbedsellig

@droftarts Thanks, I'm sure I can make that work.

You can see works from a similar machine here.

dc42

@kcorbedsellig I created https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/issues/980.

dc42 created this issue in Duet3D/RepRapFirmware

closed Increase maximum extruders per tool on 6HC/6XD from 10 to 12 #980

kcorbedsellig

I've just tried to upload my .bin file through the DWC and it failed. Just for sanity, I tried it on a second board but without success again. I now can't connect to either of the boards. In both cases, the DWC still loads but fails to connect and shows the following error:

Gilles-de-Brock- 2024-04-21 at 11.28.26.png

My .bin file is called "Duet3Firmware_MB6HC.bin" and found in "RepRapFirmware/Duet3_MB6HC/". It's 792KB which seems to match the ones found online. The only thing I changed is the variable discussed above.

On one of the boards, the diag led flashes 3 times followed by 2 sec of no flash.
On the other which is a newer one the diag led does not flash at all.

I've tried connecting through SSH to go back to an older version but can't seem to get it to work. It keeps telling me everything is up to date.

I now have two boards that don't respond and can't seem to find out how to flash stable firmware back on them. What's the right way to get these back to life? I have a third one I can try but I'd rather not.

jay_s_uk

@kcorbedsellig see here https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/RepRapFirmware/Updating_firmware#fallback-procedure-2

kcorbedsellig

@jay_s_uk thanks, I've quickly tried to get this going but can't get a serial connection with the boards, and can't get Bossa to run on my Mac either, will have to do this some other time and dust off the old PC I must have around here somewhere.

Unfortunately, this does put me in a situation in which I can't seem to get the firmware changed myself but I also can't proceed with only 10 extruders. If I understand @dc42 correctly the next firmware update could allow for 12 extruders but I imagine that could take a while to become available.

Any chance anybody who feels comfortable altering the firmware could build a version for me that has the 12 extruders per tool allowed? I'm on my last development board now so I can't risk uploading a faulty version created by myself again.

droftarts

@kcorbedsellig Macs have a particular problem flashing the 6HC; we’ve tried to update Bossa to work, but it steadfastly refuses. However, if you have an SBC, you can flash it from that, using the terminal command line version of Bossa. You’ll need to manually erase the board using the erase jumper first. See https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/RepRapFirmware/Updating_firmware#all-other-duet-boards specifically the Bossa > Linux and Raspberry Pi tab.

Ian

kcorbedsellig

I've got the custom firmware working.

The issue was that CrcAppender needed '.NET runtime' to work. After installing that separately and confirming in the terminal CrcAppender worked without errors the rebuild firmware worked. It took some time to figure this out because Eclipse reported no error for it.

Thanks for all the help.

dc42

@kcorbedsellig I'm glad you got it working. I've added a note to the build instructions for RRF that the .NET runtime is needed by CrcAppender.

I've increased the maximum number of extruders to 12 in the source code for the 6HC and 6XD builds, so from the next release onwards you won't need to build RRF yourself.