The Teacup Port - A Work In Progress - 3D Printer Firmware
idbruce
Posts: 6,197
Hello Everyone
Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress, however I do believe that I have a good overview of what needs to be done. At this time, a large portion of the critical components, of the Teacup firmware, have been ported to SPIN, but I know the ported parts contain errors that need to be fixed and the code needs to be tied together.
Anyhow I have attached an archive, just in case that some of you may want to participate in the discussion of or the development of this firmware, with the caveat that many of the settings and hardware associated with those setting are geared towards the use of the controller discussed at this thread: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/155404-Input-Needed-Combining-Propeller-Proto-Board-Prop-DIP-40-and-ADC-for-3D-Printer, however the settings and hardware can be altered to ones particular needs or setup.
There are several threads throughout the forum that apply to many different aspects of my 3D printer project, but this thread will particularly pertain to the firmware required to run the machine. As needed or as requested for information, I will provide links to various other discussions throughout the forum that are pertinent.
At the current point, I am taking the coordinates and converting them to intergers, which will then be converted to the required number of steps to make a targeted move, followed by the calculations for linear interpolation. Much of the code has been ported for all of this, but as mentioned, there will be mistakes, bugs, and the necessity to tie it altogether and make it functional.
During the conversion of coordinates to integers, a mistake is occuring, which places the negative sign within the middle of the conversion. To follow along with this discussion, it will be necessary to locate the following source within the Parse method, but more specifically the call within that source to the ProcessCoordinate method.
EDIT: Before I go any further, I want to make sure, I want to make sure that the proper people get credit, and I want to make others aware of the licensing issues. Throughout this thread, there will be numerous references to portions of the Teacup firmware, and hopefully this inclusion of the credit and licensing information will satisfy everyones requirements.
I think I have said enough for now, take a peek at the archive. Oh and I threw a bare minimum G-Code file in the archive, with the name MINIMUM.TXT for fast testing purposes
Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress, however I do believe that I have a good overview of what needs to be done. At this time, a large portion of the critical components, of the Teacup firmware, have been ported to SPIN, but I know the ported parts contain errors that need to be fixed and the code needs to be tied together.
Anyhow I have attached an archive, just in case that some of you may want to participate in the discussion of or the development of this firmware, with the caveat that many of the settings and hardware associated with those setting are geared towards the use of the controller discussed at this thread: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/155404-Input-Needed-Combining-Propeller-Proto-Board-Prop-DIP-40-and-ADC-for-3D-Printer, however the settings and hardware can be altered to ones particular needs or setup.
There are several threads throughout the forum that apply to many different aspects of my 3D printer project, but this thread will particularly pertain to the firmware required to run the machine. As needed or as requested for information, I will provide links to various other discussions throughout the forum that are pertinent.
At the current point, I am taking the coordinates and converting them to intergers, which will then be converted to the required number of steps to make a targeted move, followed by the calculations for linear interpolation. Much of the code has been ported for all of this, but as mentioned, there will be mistakes, bugs, and the necessity to tie it altogether and make it functional.
During the conversion of coordinates to integers, a mistake is occuring, which places the negative sign within the middle of the conversion. To follow along with this discussion, it will be necessary to locate the following source within the Parse method, but more specifically the call within that source to the ProcessCoordinate method.
IF(bFieldElement_4 == 0) Terminal.Str(STRING("NULL")) ELSE Terminal.Str(@bFieldElement_4) 'MySteps := ConvertDifferenceToSteps(@bFieldElement_4) 'lPreviousX_Location := @bFieldElement_4 Terminal.Tx(32) {Space} Mantissa := ProcessCoordinate(@bFieldElement_4) Terminal.Dec(Mantissa)
EDIT: Before I go any further, I want to make sure, I want to make sure that the proper people get credit, and I want to make others aware of the licensing issues. Throughout this thread, there will be numerous references to portions of the Teacup firmware, and hopefully this inclusion of the credit and licensing information will satisfy everyones requirements.
############################################################################## # # # Teacup - lean and efficient firmware for RepRap printers # # # # by Triffid Hunter, Traumflug, jakepoz, Markus Hitter, many others # # # ############################################################################## For installation instructions, see http://reprap.org/wiki/Teacup_Firmware#Simple_Installation and/or http://reprap.org/wiki/Teacup_Firmware#Developer_Installation For documentation, see http://reprap.org/wiki/Teacup_Firmware ############################################################################## # # # This firmware is Copyright (c) ... # # 2009 - 2010 Michael Moon aka Triffid_Hunter # # 2010 - 2013 Markus "Traumflug" Hitter <mah@jump-ing.de> # # # # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify # # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by # # the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or # # (at your option) any later version. # # # # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, # # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of # # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the # # GNU General Public License for more details. # # # # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License # # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software # # Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA # # # ##############################################################################
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I think I have said enough for now, take a peek at the archive. Oh and I threw a bare minimum G-Code file in the archive, with the name MINIMUM.TXT for fast testing purposes
zip
47K
Comments
This mistake was due to a terminal output that I was using for test purposes, and the offending source is located within the ProcessCoordinate method.
Change
To
The sequence of events is as follows:
A target value is parsed from a G-Code file and then converted into an integer by the ProcessCoordinate method. The return of that method, along with several other parameters, are sent to the uM_DistanceToStepConversion method, which then passes those values along to the MulDivQR method to obtain the actual number of required steps.
I believe the error contained within MulDivQR is one of the following shifts or and:
Multiplicand & 1
Multiplicand >>= 1
Qn <<= 1
Rn <<= 1
Anyhow, I have created a very small spin program to help me resolve this issue and I am now attaching it, just in case anyone is interested or wants to help.
EDIT: Additionally, here is the equivalent function in C++ MFC, which does provide the correct answer:
Checks like that can become tedius and are prone to errors (ask me how I know!). I have a little method called cinstr() in my strings library that I use while parsing.
Will I tend to pass it the pointer to a pre-defined string (DAT table), you can use an inline string as well.
Admittedly, it's probably not as fast as a simple comparison, but it really helps out when the valid character set becomes complex.
As you know, the nice thing about having 8 cogs, is the ability to parallel process. It is my intention to keep the parsing and movements in seperate cogs, and the movements will be much slower than the parsing, so I should have a wide margin of time in the parsing cog to perform extra tasks, so the speed of parsing really is not the issue, as it might be for other uCs.
In all honesty Jon, I do respect your knowledge, experience, and wisdom of programming. Although I have not had problems when the comparisons and operators are correct, doesn't mean that problems or errors cannot occur, because I am certain that your programming knowledge is much broader than mine. In C++ MFC, the CString class has the Find method, which is basically equivalent to the function you show and I have used quite often in the past, because it was fast, reliable, and simple to use.
Admittedly, I do not to slow anything down, unless absolutely necessary or wise to do so. Do you think I should change that comparison to the code you shown? If so, I will.
That is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another major problem resolved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Equating stepper steps to distance, now that is advancement. Time now for linear interpolation
That's completely up to you; I just wanted to show you another way to do what you're doing that bypasses the => and =< traps (that we all fall into). It's interesting that you note the use of the find() function; I'm pretty sure I translated cinstr() from a C library somewhere.
I just finished a generic parsing object that I will write about in my next Nuts & Volts column. In that the setup of that object you pass a pointer to a string of valid characters, and a poitner to your list of valid tokens. Parsing the tokens out requires searching the valid characters; in the is case cinstr() was necessary.
If I was starting from scratch, I would definitely take your advice from this post: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/159947-HELP.spin-I-Am-Going-In-Circles-And-Getting-Dizzy-Byte-Array?p=1313935&viewfull=1#post1313935 and combine it with your last post of this thread. It definitely would have been the way to go.
Sounds very interesting. I have done similar stuff in the past with PERL and it was very effective, but I forget the exact details. However, when it comes to parsing and manipulating strings, nothing beats CString, because you have such a wide array of methods to choose from. I almost believe there is nothing you cannot do with CString. Take a peek at this Microsoft page and you will see what I mean: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa315043(v=vs.60).aspx
In addition to CString, there was also the CStringArray and CStringList classes, with their own wide array of member functions.
I really got spoiled with MFC and programming with SPIN can be real problematic at times
In the archive below, you will find the current state of the TeacupPort, with the addition of some G-Code, and a large partial port of dda.c to SPIN. This partial port, is readily viewable and highly readable with the Propeller Tool. There is still some hints of C lingering about, but it was left there intentionally to act as clues in the final porting process.
For those of you familiar with C/C++, you are well aware that structures are not SPIN compatible, so many of the variables and function names have been changed, but there are serious naming clues to guide, while also referring to dda.c.
With the exception of not having provisions written for a user interface, I firmly believe that TeacupPort.spin and DDA.spin contain most of the necessary code to get a 3D printer or other CNC machine up and running. However, these files are no where near ready to run a printer or CNC machine. They will still need a quite a bit of work, but I am now much closer than I was a week ago.
By using the actual characters rather than the ASCII code, you don't need to add a comment about what the ASCII code means.
Either version of code should behave the same once compiled so I suppose which version to use is a matter of personal preference.
Edit: One more thing. I'm pretty sure none of the "NEXT" statements in that method are needed. I think these unneeded statements might slow the code down on top of using valuable RAM.
Thanks for the tip on the characters, however I actually did know that, because I think you may have told me that before I just have not got to the point of changing it, but I will most definitely change them for the purpose of clarity. As for the NEXT statements, I will also have to go through and weed out the uncessary ones, as you suggest. I knew some of them were unnecessary at first glance, but I did not even think about the ones you pointed out.
I am making good progress today, but converting all the them C structures to variables and keeping track of them throughout the functions is a real pain. Additionally, it now looks like I will have to port dda_queue.c, because it now appears to run the whole show, but the file is small, so it should not be too bad. Hopefully before too long, I should have something that will at least compile.
Thanks for the tips Duane.
Source: Wikipedia - http://reprap.org/wiki/Teacup_Firmware
This is meant to be a bare bones port and all conditional compilation statements will be eliminated. To be more specific, this port will only support ACCELERATION_RAMPING and will not support DC_EXTRUDER as defined within the Teacup firmware. Additionally, although it will not be initially supported, I may add support for LOOKAHEAD in the future, but I believe at this point, it is strictly experimental.
Considering that I finish this port and considering that it functions like it should, there should be no reason that this code could not be adapted to run small CNC machines (depending on the G-Codes required). And in my opinion, any software intended to run a CNC machine or a 3D printer (also CNC ) for that matter, should be able to detect limit switches.
As it pertains to the controller linked to in the first post of this thread, the following source code would be deemed incompatible, considering that all the over-travel switches and ESTOP are monitored by a single pin. In reality, I would have liked seperate input for the switches, but I ran out of available pins. Anyhow, the 3D printer that I am building, will not be using limit switches, however I believe I should add support for the limit switches, just to save someone a lot of grief later.
Considering that I do want to add support for limit switches, it now becomes an issue of ifs, ors, elses, all based upon constants. With the exception of a few unapplicable constants, the following code contains seven constants that are directly related to limit switch monitoring. Without any doubt, I can achieve a solution to adapt the following code to SPIN, but I doubt it would be the ideal solution, so I am open to to any solutions from those knowledgable about programming in SPIN.
EDIT: I do realize that I can easily implement this code by adding six or seven more constants, but I do not consider that to be an ideal solution.
EDIT: Additonally, there is the option of requiring that no limit switches be tied to IO 0, then the constants could be compared against 0.
EDIT: I figured it out. If a limit switch is not present, the value is -1, otherwise the switch is present.
Source: Teacup firmware - dda.c
An Estop should really shut off power to all the motors, heaters, etc. directly rather depend on software to do it. Not a big issue for a small 3D printer but a concern if someone was to adapt it to a larger more hazardous machine like a router or mill.
Using a single pin for multiple limit switches is relatively simple to do. The program knows which axis are in motion and the direction of travel so stopping all motion and then reversing direction on each axis in turn will determine which limit switch was active.
Thanks for the input.
I agree, in fact, several months ago, when we were all discussing limit switches and E-STOPs, I believe someone spit out a reference to a federal regulation, which stipulated the requirements for E-STOPS. I was actually using E-STOP very loosely, and it is just a means of stopping a machine, which uses the controller board linked to in Post #1, more specifically a tact switch
Once again, back when we were discussing this issue, either you or some else brought that point or a similar point up, however I had completely forgot about most of that discussion. Thanks for reminding me.
In all honesty, I doubt that I will currently try to implement that scenario into the code at this point. However, I also doubt that it would be too difficult, when in most likelihood, it would probably be pretty easy, but currently I have one BIG fish to fry
DDA.spin is now in a lot better shape for actual porting, as with the last upload of this file, there is still some C lingering about as clues for future work that must be done. As you go through this file, you will see several comments that start with "Per Bruce:". These specific areas represent various problems that I am having with a speedy port or items that may present a problem.
Additionally, as you go through the file, you will see a very large amount of variables being used, with some very lengthy names, and yes I know that some of these will need to be shortened to enable compiling. As I work on this file, I just want to make certain that each intended unique variable remains unique. Another issue pertaining to the number of variables, is that many of the required structures, already had many variables, so I had to follow the lead of the firmware.
Anyhow, here is the current state of porting dda.c to SPIN.
Since my last posting, I have been spending some time eliminating some or most of the remaining C within DDA.spin, and I must say that it is now actually beginning to look like a SPIN file. Additionally, I think I am fairly close to getting DDA.spin to compile, however my current compiling efforts, now require the porting and understanding of dda_queue.c, before DDA.spin can be completed, but dda_queue.c won't even be a fraction of the battle that I had with DDA.c.
Besides the required porting of dda_queue.c, there has also been a lot of references to pinio.c, but in those instances, it was pretty much a case of just simply assigning values or directions to pins. Whereas Teacup pinio.c had actual functions for making or altering these settings, I simply made the changes in DDA.spin.
After porting dda_queue.c and getting DDA.spin to compile, I believe I will concentrate on finishing the Z axis of the machine, and perhaps start working on the heated build platform. At this point, I have spent way too many hours looking at C and SPIN.
EDIT: Just in case anyone is interested, I will attach a copy of DDA.spin
Before diving in, I decided to map the function calls of what I consider to be the most important files of Teacup, and apply valuable comments to these function calls, so that I may obtain a much better understanding of the firmware then I already have, and I must say that I think it was well worth the effort,, because I have now physically and mentally traced the process of execution, meanwhile documenting it for future reference.
Starting tomorrow, I will begin to further disect the firmware into more critical components and rip out all of the arduino references, that only complicate a clear vision of what needs to be done to make it fit well with the Propeller architecture. If there is anybody out there that has been reviewing the Teacup files and have become a little overwhelmed by all the files and source code, I now submit to you an archive that contains five text files, which map the critical functions of the Teacup firmware.
Bruce
Additionally, I have also decided to support a few more options then I originally intended, mostly because I now have a much better understanding of implementing these options, and the options would be nice to have.
Time for Round #3 - DING DING - Let the bell ring!
As you may have guessed, the more time I spend on reviewing the source code, the better I become acquainted with it. While I believe that I now know the machine movement code fairly well, there are still several sections of the code that I have not spent any time reviewing or have reviewed them very little. The simulator would be one aspect of the code that I really know nothing about. From my understanding though, the simulator basically shows you how the movements are executed. As it pertains to available options, I do believe at this point, in addition to the original items I planned on supporting, I think I will now also be supporting DEBUG, LOOKAHEAD, ACCELERATION_REPRAP, and ACCELERATION_TEMPORAL.
Well that would all depend on how you look at it. For turning the code into SPIN, I think it would be much easier to edit one large file, as compared to several small files. However for program managability, I would have to agree with you 100%, but then again, a person would have to be well versed in SPIN to enable all them objects to communicate with each other and share data. And I just don't believew that I have the SPIN skills for that. I am sure I could do it in C, but not in SPIN. And then again, perhaps I would be better offf pursing a C port than a SPIN port.
In reality, it would probably be much easier working out all of the C problems, as oppesed to converting it to SPIN. One of the key turn-offs for going with C was the use of memcpy. Something that should have been simple, resulted in many, many warnings. For example:
I couldn't find any information about which library memcpy was located in, therefore I could not see the declaration or what was expected.
Source:
Result:
EDIT: I see you figured it out while I was typing my response.
Yea.... Temporarily but it opens up possibities. However the SIMULATOR option is definitely out of the question, because it relies upon the AVR libraries, and I am certainly not going to poke my nose around in there.
Let me ask you a question that I am unsure of, or actually a couple.
1. Since I included all of those files, that should be equal in program size to a running Teacup, shouldn't it?????? I would think so.
2. And if the build succeeded, that would mean it should fit within Propeller memory, shouldn't it???????
EDIT: I said that wrong.... It should be as follows:
Since the build succeeded, then Teacup should fit into EEPROM, or it should aready be there correct????
As for running, is there anyway to determine how much RAM I need for the program to run?????
EDIT: LOL..... I forgot to add the C files..... Now I have several errors
I recall there were a lot of Arduino/AVR references in the code when I looked at it last year. For now you should be able to create stub routines to get it to compile and link. Eventually you will need to provide Prop replacement code for those routines.