3D Printer Firmware Upgrade

The Day My 3D Printer Died...

Upgrade my 3D printer´s firmware was something I wasn't planning to do but one day, suddenly the printer stopped working. The symptoms were:

The display was showing nothing. Just two lines of pixels like in the picture below.
Printer was listed on PC (appeared on Device Manager) but this is no big deal as probably this is up to the usb/serial chip.
Printer was unresponsive to key press.
Printer did not perform movements in response to commands sent by Repetier-Host from Manual Control tab.

My first assumption was that since power was OK, the MCU died. I ordered a new board but was very upset with the amount of time I was going to wait until it arrive. Meanwhile I started searching on the internet for reports of similar issues and how they were solved. Looked after the MCU used and if I could replace it.

Found on my own board, the Melzi 2.0_v5 label and started looking after info related to this. Discovered that Melzi is open source hardware project and it's site is: https://reprap.org/wiki/Melzi (more info in https://github.com/reprappro/melzi).

From this site and lot of more research, I was able to make an attempt to flash a firmware on the board. The process was failing and this drove me think that the MCU was really damaged. Fortunately, I found the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wauNxu3TjyY youtube video talking about bricked firmware due to damages on bootloader and showing the exact same symptoms I was facing during flashing. This inspired me look after how to flash bootloader in order to give one more try on the firmware.

Flashed bootloader and was able to flash the firmware but nothing happened. I was expecting to at least get some signal on the display. After more research and testing, finally things started making sense and I was able to flash firmware and play with configuration to make it compatible to my printer.

Why Upgrade the Firmware?

This is for who want to upgrade the firmware due to any of the reasons below:

Update it if you bought an auto leveling hardware and the firmware does not support it.
If you want to make changes on the way the printer behaves. Maybe, you are not happy with the speed of Z during bed leveling process.
If you replaced the MCU.
If your printer bricked just like happened to me.

About the board:

My 3D Printer is a Tronxy P802EA. "A", I guess, stands for auto leveling. There is Tronxy P802E also.

The board is a Melzi 2.0_v5. Open source project. Circuit and PCB layout may be found at https://reprap.org/wiki/Melzi.

Saw that it uses a ATMEGA 1284P MCU with 16Mhz crystal (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/doc8059.pdf). There is a board called Sanguino with this configuration so Arduino environment may be used to work with it.

Arduino IDE download and install:

Since Arduino is used, lets install it. This will be the application on computer's side used to flash the bootloader and later compile and flash the firmware:

Go to: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. Current version is "ARDUINO 1.8.7"
Click on the version compatible to your computer on "Download the Arduino IDE" area (Mine is "Windows Installer, for Windows XP and up").
Click on the amount you would like to donate or "Just Download" button for free download.
Save arduino-1.8.7-windows.exe installer wherever you what on your computer.
Run the just downloaded .exe file to install Arduino IDE.
Click "Yes" to allow execution of the installer from Windows.
Click "I agree" on the License agreement screen.
Make sure all components are selected and click "Next".
Leave destination folder as "C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino" and click "Install".
Click "Close" when installation is finished.
Reboot the computer. Next time, USB drivers will we ready for Arduino Uno.

Arduino install validation:

Lets make sure everything is fine until now...

Connect your Arduino Uno board to the PC via USB.
Open Windows Explorer.
Right click over "Computer" and select "Properties".
Click on "Device Manager".
Expand "Ports (COM & LTP)".
See on which COM your Arduino Board is (Mine is listed as "Arduino Uno (COM3)").
Launch the Arduino application.
Select File > Examples > Basics > Blink. This is a sample firmware that makes a led blink on the Arduino Board.
From Tools > Board, select "Arduino/Genuino Uno".
From Tools > Port, select your COM (Mine is "COM3 (Arduino/Genuino Uno)").
Click on the "->" button.
The code is compiled and uploaded to the ATMEGA328p MCU from the Arduino Uno. If everything is OK, the yellow led starts blinking on the board.

Install Sanguino support on Arduino IDE (for the Melzi board):

Melzi board uses an ATMEGA1284P with 16Mhz crystal clock. Like Arduino Uno, there is a open source board called Sanguino that uses this MCU. Here we will make Arduino IDE support this board.

Launch the Arduino application.
Select File > Preferences
On "Additional Boards manager URLs" field, add: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lauszus/Sanguino/master/package_lauszus_sanguino_index.json
Click OK.
Select Tools > Board: > Boards manager...
Scroll down until you find Sanguino. Probably the last option.
Current latest version is 1.0.2. Keep this option selected.
Click on "Install".
Click on "Close" after installation finish.

Reference: http://dustsreprap.blogspot.com/2015/06/better-way-to-install-sanguino-in.html

Flashing bootloader to Melzi board:

This step is necessary only if a new MCU was added to the board or for an unknown reason, this code get corrupted. Run the blink application as described below first to validate your development environment. If things go wrong (like error on flash), maybe give a try here is the option.

On Melzi, there is a 2 position set of jumpers to switch power supply between external source and USB. Switch to USB.
On Melzi, keep the jumper located on the very right of the board (USB cable and SD card slot facing down) closed.
Connect Arduino UNO to Melzi as picture below.

* pin 1 MISO (Melzi) on pin 12 (Arduino)

* pin 2 5V (Melzi) on pin 5V (Arduino)

* pin 3 SCk (Melzi) on pin 13 (Arduino)

* pin 4 MOSI (Melzo) on pin 11 (Arduino)

* pin 5 Reset(Melzi) on pin 10 (Arduino)

* pin 6 GND (Melzi) on pin GND (Arduino)

Connect the Arduino Uno to PC via USB.
Launch the Arduino application.
Open File > Examples > ArdinoISP > ArdinoISP.
From Tools > Board, select "Arduino/Genuino Uno".
From Tools > Port, select your COM (Mine is "COM3 (Arduino/Genuino Uno)").
Click on the "->" button. This will make the Arduino Uno board an In-circuit Serial programmer.
From Tools > Programmer, select "Arduino as ISP" (not "Arduino ISP").
From Tools > Board, select Sanguino.
Run Tools > Burn Bootloader. If no errors reported, now you have bootloader flashed to Melzi board.

Reference: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP

Reference: http://www.technoblogy.com/show?19OV

Flashing Blink to Melzi board validation:

Before work with the firmware, lets run the Blink firmware on the Melzi board just to make sure the Arduino IDE is correctly communicating to the Melzi board and bootloader is working, so we are able to flash and run a program.

Connect your Melzi board to the PC via USB.
Open Windows Explorer.
Right click over "Computer" and select "Properties".
Click on "Device Manager".
Expand "Ports (COM & LTP)".
See on which COM your Melzi Board is (Mine is listed as "Usb Serial Port (COM4)").
Launch the Arduino application.
Select File > Examples > Basics > Blink. This is a sample firmware that makes a led blink on the Arduino Board.
From Tools > Board, select "Sanguino".
From Tools > Processor, select "ATmega1284 or ATmega1284p (16Mhz)".
From Tools > Port, select your COM (Mine is "COM4").
Replace the 3 ocurrencies of LED_BUILTIN in the code by 27. This is the MCU's port where the led is connected on the Melzi board.
Click on the "->" button.
The code is compiled and uploaded to the ATmega1284p MCU from the Melzi board. If everything is OK, the led starts blinking on the board.

Configuring the firmware:

Unfortunately, I could not find the firmware for P802EA. After a lot of research, found the below repositories:

I also, tried to compile the above code but did not succeed. Maybe they are old for my current setup, I guess. So, idea was get the latest code and use the above only as reference during setup of latest firmware version to my printer model. Latest Marlin Firmware version is located at: http://marlinfw.org/. Current version is 1.1.9. Steps to download are:

Go to: http://marlinfw.org/
Click on the "Download" button.
Click on the link of the latest release.
Extract the downloaded Marlin-1.1.x.zip file.

Instruction on how to make firmware configuration, is located at: http://marlinfw.org/docs/configuration/configuration.html. It is recommended study this section and also comments from the configuration.h and configuration_adv.h. My approach was study the parameters and bring the ones as much as possible from P802M source codes above.

Flashing the firmware:

Steps to configure and flash the firmware are:

Connect Melzi board to PC via USB.
Double click on Marlin-1.1.x\Marlin\Marlin.ino (Arduino IDE will open).
Switch Tools > Port to correct COM where the board is connected (see your Device Manager).
Switch Tools > Board: to Sanguino
Switch Tools > processor to ATmega1284 or ATmega1284P (16Mhz).
Click Verify button. See that code will not compile because Board is wrong.
Open Configuration.h
Replace: "#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB" by "#define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_MELZI_MAKR3D".
Click Verify button. See that code compiles now.
Now, it is a matter of setup all parameter from Configuration.h and Configuration_adv.h according to the printer. Please refer to http://marlinfw.org/docs/configuration/configuration.html and comments on mentioned files for that.
Click on the "->" button.
The firmware is compiled and uploaded to the ATmega1284p MCU from the Melzi board. If everything is OK, the display shows below on boot and right after, printer is back.

SD is not init on startup:

I had the problem discussed at https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/7155 and by applying the workaround suggested on the same, the issue was solved.

Great tip!

Marlin 1.1.9 firmware customized to Tronxy P802EA :

So, below is my firmware customized to P802EA:

Marlin-1.1.x.zip => This is the original Marlin-1.1.x.zip from marlinfw.org with Configuration.h and Configuration_adv.h customized to Tronxy P802EA.

Progress bar may be enabled by changing the below definitions on Configuration_adv.h:

#define LCD_PROGRESS_BAR // Show a progress bar on HD44780 LCDs for SD printing
#define PROGRESS_BAR_BAR_TIME 9000 // (ms) Amount of time to show the bar
#define PROGRESS_BAR_MSG_TIME 1000 // (ms) Amount of time to show the status message

I did this and the effect is very cool! See picture below:

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