[Retroplayer]

I've been flying off and on since the 70's. I had a 172 for a few years and then got into sailing for about 20 years. Got out of that and took up flying ultralights. I have a Quicksilver Sprint I have been flying for a few years and it opened my eyes to performance aircraft but I'm tired of not being able to fly in any wind and staying 20 miles for the airport.. When I looked around for something with similar performance the supercub turned up.

What is your estimate cost to build? I know that is usually the cheapest part about flying considering hangar fees, etc...

I haven't looked in a while, but it seems that I was seeing small planes like this for $6-13,000 all the time. They needed some love, but that's not a bad price of entry.

[buddydog]

What is your estimate cost to build? I know that is usually the cheapest part about flying considering hangar fees, etc...

I haven't looked in a while, but it seems that I was seeing small planes like this for $6-13,000 all the time. They needed some love, but that's not a bad price of entry.

The base kit price of that aircraft in the video I think is around 120,000. Factory built as an LSA around 150K. The Carbon Cub is the standard for LSA aircraft. They build the Piper Clone (TopCub) and they are over 200K

A runout TriPacer needing a cover would be in the 10K range but to bring it back engine/complete recover and all the rest an additional 50-60K. A lot of them in the weeds. Replacement on my Sprint is 20K but mine is maybe 5-6K. I own my hanger so don'thave that expense. I used to joke I keepa60K hanger for a 6K airplane.

I wonder what Rolf thinks of my hijacking his thread! :-)

[Retroplayer]

The base kit price of that aircraft in the video I think is around 120,000. Factory built as an LSA around 150K. The Carbon Cub is the standard for LSA aircraft. They build the Piper Clone (TopCub) and they are over 200K

A runout TriPacer needing a cover would be in the 10K range but to bring it back engine/complete recover and all the rest an additional 50-60K. A lot of them in the weeds. Replacement on my Sprint is 20K but mine is maybe 5-6K. I own my hanger so don'thave that expense. I used to joke I keepa60K hanger for a 6K airplane.

I wonder what Rolf thinks of my hijacking his thread! :-)

Small planes all look alike to me. lol

[buddydog]

Well back to arduino.. Had a little quiet time this morning so dragged out the arduino board and this time added the ramps and plugged in the display to it. Plugged a 12v wall wort to the arduino board and the display backlight came on. Tried uploading several "example" programs from the arduino software tab but nothing seems to activate the display in any way. I haven't checked to see if the ramps needs separate voltage to it's green power connector so maybe that's the problem or the example programs perhaps don't address the display in any way. Whatever I need to do more research. It's the problem with being a plug-it-in and see what it does kind of guy!

[Retroplayer]

Well back to arduino.. Had a little quiet time this morning so dragged out the arduino board and this time added the ramps and plugged in the display to it. Plugged a 12v wall wort to the arduino board and the display backlight came on. Tried uploading several "example" programs from the arduino software tab but nothing seems to activate the display in any way. I haven't checked to see if the ramps needs separate voltage to it's green power connector so maybe that's the problem or the example programs perhaps don't address the display in any way. Whatever I need to do more research. It's the problem with being a plug-it-in and see what it does kind of guy!

Yeah, the programs would need to be written specifically for the display with directions as to what pins it is connected to and how to control it. Not quite like a PC where it just magically knows how to handle new hardware.

If you load up the marlin laser cutter firmware, you can play with the screen and knob.

As far as the green connectors on the RAMPS... at this point, no you don't need to connect any supply to it. The 12V/24V input here would power the steppers and then also feed that into the arduino which would regulate it down to 5V for the logic.

To just play around with it, you really only need to plug the arduino into USB, without any steppers hooked up. It will supply enough power to run things as well as the display. The steppers, heated bed, and extruder heaters are what need all the power. The arduino, RAMPS, display, and SD card need very little power.

[buddydog]

Thank you as always Retro. I think I downloaded that before but didn"t know what to do with it. I'll reload it later. I'm busy destroying rivets this morning!

[Rolf_K]

Well, sounds like you got that part down. Now you just need to load the the laser cutter firmware and get it wired up

Got my Arduino MEGA yesterday, found out that it had to be plugged directly to the computer and not to a USB port expander. (Locked up the mouse and the computer!)
Found that it was assigned COM6, so far everything is okay. But when I tried to open XLoader nothing happens. I am using Windows 7 Pro.
What do I do now?

[Retroplayer]

Got my Arduino MEGA yesterday, found out that it had to be plugged directly to the computer and not to a USB port expander. (Locked up the mouse and the computer!)
Found that it was assigned COM6, so far everything is okay. But when I tried to open XLoader nothing happens. I am using Windows 7 Pro.
What do I do now?

Xloader is a program used to send over an already compiled program that is in *.hex format. What were you planning to do with it? Did someone already compile the Marlin firmware for you?

If not, the next step is to download the laser cutter firmware and the Arduino IDE.


Of course, that doesn't explain why Xloader isn't opening on your computer. You get no errors when you try to open Xloader, it just doesn't do anything at all?

[Rolf_K]

Xloader is a program used to send over an already compiled program that is in *.hex format. What were you planning to do with it? Did someone already compile the Marlin firmware for you?

If not, the next step is to download the laser cutter firmware and the Arduino IDE.


Of course, that doesn't explain why Xloader isn't opening on your computer. You get no errors when you try to open Xloader, it just doesn't do anything at all?

Let us start with the premise that I don't know what I'm doing and I am trying to get the correct files/programs copied to my Arduino in order to control my laser cutter.
As far as I know I have installed the correct driver but that is about it.
I don't even know if this is correct:
Attachment 267548
Looking through notes I am unable to find the link to the laser cutter firmware and how to install it.
So I am not going to need the XLoader?

[Retroplayer]

Good idea. Let's start at the beginning.

1. Download this: http://arduino.googlecode.com/files/...r2-windows.zip
That is the Arduino IDE version 1.0.5 (known to work)

2. Download this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8S...it?usp=sharing
This is the modified firmware from Dave at this site: Adventures in DIY Engineering: 40 Watt Chinese CO2 Laser Upgrade with RAMPS & Arudino



3. Unzip the Arduino IDE downloaded in step 1. Place it somewhere you will remember.

The folder will look like this (you might not have all the same folders):
Attachment 267608

4. Right click on the white space of the above folder and choose NEW and then FOLDER. Name the folder, Projects



5. Unzip the modified firmware you downloaded in step 2

It will look like this:

Attachment 267638

6. In the above folder (step 5), navigate thru ArduinoAddons\Arduino_1.x.x and inside that folder is a folder named libraries:
Attachment 267612

And inside this Libraries folder will be 3 folders:
Attachment 267614

7. Copy all three of these folders to the Arduino Libraries folder (step 3 above):
Attachment 267616

8. Now, navigate back to the buildlog-lasercutter-marlin-master main folder (Step 5):
Attachment 267638

9. Copy the folder called Marlin to the Arduino Projects folder that you created in Step 4:

Attachment 267618

10. Make sure the Arduino is plugged in to USB for the following steps

11. Now, in the Arduino folder, double click on arduino.exe to start the IDE.
Attachment 267620

12. Click on File, then Open and navigate to the arduino/projects folder and then the Marlin folder. Choose Marlin.ino

Attachment 267610

13. In the Arduino IDE, choose the Tools menu and then Board:
Attachment 267622

Pick the Arduino Mega 2560 or Mega ADK item



14. Again in the Tools menu, choose Serial Port:
Attachment 267624
And pick the com port that your Arduino is attached to (COM6)

15. Click the Arrow icon in the Arduino IDE to begin uploading the firmware:
Attachment 267620

If you have the RAMPS and LCD already assembled on to the Arduino, you should see the LCD screen come on with a menu after it is done uploading.

That's it. You now have the laser cutter firmware installed and running on your board.

[Retroplayer]

If I made any assumptions above and you need help with a step, let me know. As pointed out, earlier, it is easy to miss some detail.

[Retroplayer]

Oops... just tried and noticed that Arduino doesn't create a Projects folder. So you will need to make that folder after unzipping it.

EDIT: Added this instruction in the above steps

[buddydog]

Hoy Retro.Look at all the steps. ;-) I thought I had all that but I'm gonna start over! I have not actually tried to run that yet. I think this is destined to be the MVT ever for the K40.. hee hee When you say "make that folder" what doyou mean? I know I can right click on the desktop and click new and folder and then name it but is that what you mean? Or does it need to be in some special place?

[Rolf_K]

Oops... just tried and noticed that Arduino doesn't create a Projects folder. So you will need to make that folder after unzipping it.

Retroplayer, that looks great, I very much appreciate all your work. I am starting on a clean slate by deleting all files and folders with the word Arduino in them that has cluttered up my C drive from previous projects and made a new Ardujino folder and project folder.
For now I am going to assume my Driver is correct since the Arduino Mega 2560 (C0M6) shows up correctly in Printers and Drivers :-)
But now it is getting late, so I will take a closer look in morning.

[Retroplayer]

Hoy Retro.Look at all the steps. ;-) I thought I had all that but I'm gonna start over! I have not actually tried to run that yet. I think this is destined to be the MVT ever for the K40.. hee hee When you say "make that folder" what doyou mean? I know I can right click on the desktop and click new and folder and then name it but is that what you mean? Or does it need to be in some special place?

In the Arduino folder, just right click on some white space and select NEW and then Folder. Same as you would do on your desktop.

It's not a required step because you can open the marlin.ino from anywhere, but it keeps things cleaner to keep all your projects in one place.

[Rolf_K]

Hi everybody, I have taken liberty of combining all of Retroplayer's great instructions and illustrations into a HTML e-mail format, so that it can easily be printed and saved it for later.
Maybe Retroplayer should proofread it first, I think that would be a great idea, then he or I can forward it to anyone interested.

[buddydog]

Well there's 5 hours gone of my life gone! I have made such a mess I'm heading to Costco to buy a new computer since I doubt I can get rid of all the mess I have made. I'm going to go get coffee and then delete everything that says arduino (I'm not sure if I even can do that as I tried that once and it still said "are you sure you want to delete X") and start over. I think I was close a couple of times but then put things in the wrong place and then tried to correct that and then made things worse. I don't know how to properly use "copy to" but I do know how to drag and drop so will try that this next time and see if I can get the files where they belong. I notice in step 9 there is the lazy 8 arduino icon. I don't have that in my download done in step 1? I'm also not sure when things are extracted or not either. The stuff opens with something called 7 zip.There is a - sign that says extract but maybe it didn't extract the lazy 8? I think I can't keep proper track of the steps and actually have no idea what I'm doing. I seem to be able to use install wizards to install spam with no problem :-)

Teacher could we please have an old fashioned short circuit problem?

[buddydog]

As I click the arduino exec program it says I have tohave some java thing and that looks like spam? do I have to go through downloading that?

[buddydog]

Yep I think I've have everything where it belongs but I don't have the lazy 8 arduino icon.Instead there is a arduino.exe and when I click that a little window opens and says "at least java 1.5.?needed". I click that and it opens an oracle page that wants money and I don't see 1.5 anywhere?

[Rolf_K]

Yep I think I've have everything where it belongs but I don't have the lazy 8 arduino icon.Instead there is a arduino.exe and when I click that a little window opens and says "at least java 1.5.?needed". I click that and it opens an oracle page that wants money and I don't see 1.5 anywhere?

I am still having problems........... cant even get the first stupid file to un-zip!
Attachment 267664