Marlin 2.0 and 32bit board for JGAURORA A5. It is workable?

Werewolf · July 2019

Hello, colleagues.
Anybody thinking about upgrade A5 to 32bit board?
After searching and evaluating the existing solutions (SKR1.3 board, Lerge K) for me is most suitable seems using a:
МКС SGen_L board+set of TMC2130 or TMC2208 drivers+default TFT display+Marlin 2.0.

Or may be already checked solutions are exist?

Samuel Pinches · July 2019

SKR 1.3 I think would be the best choice. However, Marlin 2.0 is still beta, there will be a more stable release in the not too distant future. I would wait for that to happen first. There are a few things still not working 100% in Marlin 2.0, like bltouch.

Gandy · July 2019

I have a SKR v1.3 here ready to replace the MKS. It has exactly the same footprint and works nicely with the TMC2208. So far, I tested it outside the printer to see how firmware upgrades and the TMC2208 work. Never got 2.0 working properly with the TMC2208 on the MKS.

Gandy · July 2019

That is good to know, maybe I'll wait some more after all. Is it only the bltouch or also other probes like the IR probe?

Samuel Pinches · July 2019

Just bltouch afaik, not sure as have not tested.

Charly3 · July 2019

Will the original A5 Touch Display work with SKR v 1.3? Any Experiences?

Werewolf · July 2019

Last friday i got my MKS board and today i install it to my JGAURORA A5. Hardware configuration:
1.МКС SGen_L board
2.TMC2130 drivers (X,Y,Z,E0)
3. Default TFT display (custom community firmware)
4. Marlin 2.0 bugfix
Marlin firmware was configured according manual from MKS supplier and based on example configuration in Marlin package. All functions (display control, motors, temperature sensors) are operational. Mesh bed leveling is working, SPI control for TMC2130 drivers also working as usual.
But when i try start a print a gcode from USB flash or directly from PC - the printer make a preheating a bed and extruder.... and nothing happened. Printing is not started. I have tried 5 times - same result.
I have checked a temperature of extruder - it has some fluctuation, but no more as usual.
Also i have added a capacitor 5000 mkf in +5V circuit near a temperature sensor connector on board - no any results.
What can be a reason?
Configuration file is attached

Charly3 · July 2019

Will the original A5 Touch Display work with SKR v 1.3? Any Experiences?

Charly3 · July 2019

OK, my first A5 is converted to SKR V1.3. It was pretty easy, but two problems caused a little bit of trouble.

Non extruding was too one of my problems. If lin_advance is enabled in firmware. K-Factor can´t be "0". Extruder motor is powerd and in hold-mode but doesn´t move at all. Everything > 0 is fine. K = 0,22 does work fine for my titan direct extruders on A5.

Second problem TFT28 didn´t get and send any Information. SKR V1.3 firmware from bigtree has baut rate on 115200, TFT28 on A5 is configured with 250000 baut. Changing this it´s in SKR firmware the TFT is running fine now.

The first printing results are amazing. Had some simple square boxes for a tool box that came out poor from with mks L1 board. Put the same gcode on SRK Version and all problems are gone. There are two reasons leading into that tremendously better print quality:

1. after new PID evaluation the temp keeps constant in a 0,1 °Celsius range bevore +- 1 to 2 Celsius.

2. the acceleration on all axes does work much smoother.

3. UBL bed leveling is much better too. Marlin "probing repeat test" resulted 0,005 mm precision, but on MKS L1 board the mesh (or maybe driving the Z axis) never was that precise. Up to 0,2 mm Variations over the bed size were normal.

The order for the next SKR V 1.3 is placed ;-)

Gandy · July 2019

That sounds amazing. What kind of bed leveling probe are you using?

Werewolf · July 2019

Charly3, my congratulations!
It seems that SKR 1.3 is really optimal board for A5 upgrade.
Which stepper motor driver you apply?

Charly3 · July 2019

@Werewolf:

I´m using 2208 in UART Mode and took all settings to Octoprint G-Code "before start of Print job". At the moment I´m experimenting with some rather early mode changes - much too loud for nightly print jobs. But beside sound this mode changes helps a lot to print small details with less motion and longer accelerated moves within the same project:

M913 X50
M913 Y50
M913 Z1
M913 E1

By the way: As a solution for non moving extruders - beside the lin_acceleration - I´ve found

#define MINIMUM_STEPPER_PULSE 2

2 or bigger is needed on some drivers. Maybe this could help you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Gandy

I´m using UBL mode. Set it up with Marlin 1.8 and found it to be rather tricky to get it running. Only 12 x 12 point mesh does work for me. Any other settings was leading into a compile error. This might correlate with my border settings, so just play the range of possible mesh points 3-15 to get a working combination according your other settings.

#define GRID_MAX_POINTS_X 12
#define GRID_MAX_POINTS_Y GRID_MAX_POINTS_X

#define ENABLE_LEVELING_FADE_HEIGHT

enables G29 F command. Usually I use G29 F 10.0 to fade UBL correction on the first 10 mm and have it totally off after that.

#define Z_SAFE_HOMING

enshures to home right in the middle of the bed - had problems with 0 x 0 after activating UBL

#define Z_MIN_PROBE_REPEATABILITY_TEST

helps a lot to check the probing unit - my case infrarot sensor

ON MKS L1 board I used

#define MULTIPLE_PROBING 2

together with

#define Z_PROBE_SPEED_FAST 1000
#define Z_PROBE_SPEED_SLOW 50

to get a better accuracy.

With skr 1.3 it´s no longer necessary to have this double probing. Only one (slow) with

#define Z_CLEARANCE_DEPLOY_PROBE 10
#define Z_CLEARANCE_BETWEEN_PROBES 1
#define Z_AFTER_PROBING 10

does a much better job and saves time.

Beside: Marlin 2.0 now counts the probing points while doing the test. So it´s easier to track the action in terminal mode.

For I´ve found that G28 doesn´t disable UBL each and every time, I use M420 S0 wherever UBL neets to be disabled for sure.

Gandy · July 2019

@Charly3 thank you for your detailed description. For me, with marlin 1.1.9, UBL only worked with a 7x7 grid, amy size above that lead to crashes on M500.

Do you use a BL-Touch for auto probing, did you encounter any problems with it?

Charly3 · July 2019

I´m using IR Probe Sensor von David Crocker

Sensitive against reflections but
Z_MIN_PROBE_REPEATABILITY_TEST

states medium error of 0,005 mm

Werewolf · July 2019

Finally i found out a reason of my problem with printing starting.

The temperature fluctuation during extruder preheating was very big (+5/-5 celsius degrees). The printer could not got positive response about temperature stabilization, so no start printing.

Also first time i made a wrong connection of capacitor to +5V circuit (both pins were connected to GND). After correct installing, fluctuation become minimal (less 0.5 degrees).

It very dissapointing factor, that MKS boards till now has bad voltage stabilization (same behaviour was and on original MKS Gen_L board) and supplier not improve design in last generation MKS SGen_L.

Gandy · July 2019

@Charly3 I have one of those waiting to be installed but after reading several reports of problems with the surface of the black Diamond glass on the a5 I didn't proceed with it yet. Did you perform the repeatability test on different positions or just one? What was the worst error you got?

Charly3 · July 2019

Just have a look over here:

https://jgmakerforum.com/discussion/790/print-surface-discussion-bed-adhesion#latest

I just described how I modified the plate to get better adhesion and make it 100% compatible to infrarot sensor.

Before changing to this type of bed surface I worked with ir on original glas bed. This worked fine on one machine - the newer on with the clamped glas - especially after painting that glas plate black from underneath with acrylic color.

But IR did produce problems on the other A5, the older older machine with glued glass to the hotbed. For the glas was not glued perfectly on one edge the sensor was missleaded there quite often.

Charly3 · July 2019

@Werewolf

got same problems in stabilizing hot end temperature with mks gen 1l and marlin 1.19 having a lot of features activated in marlin. This now is gone with SKR.Got less than 0,2 ° Celsius variation now.

aeroburnerkn · September 2019

@Charly3 hi I'm currently trying to install Marlin 2.0 on an skr v1.3 for my own A5 as well, but am running into some issues with this current build of Marlin. The default configuration.h and adv.h work fine, but the Jgaurora A5 set of config.h/adv.h give an error asking for an LCD controller or EMERGENCY PARSER, and I'm not quite sure how I'd get around it i guess. If you wouldn't mind sharing the build of Marlin 2.0 that you were able to use on your A5 that would be much appreiciated! (I also use the IR sensor for a z endstop so don't think it should be too different from your setup assuming you're using CDRSkull's version?) Thanks and if anyone else has a working version feel free as well!

Gandy · September 2019

Just as a side note pertaining the SKR V1.3, Marlin 2.0.x and the 3D-Touch sensor: I have this combination running for a few weeks now and never encountered any problems with the 3D-touch sensor. Maybe this is different for one of the BL-touch variants, but the 3D-touch appears to be fine.

@aeroburnerkn: Some features require the emergency parser which itself calls for an LCD Display (other than the A5 TFT). You can either install one of those or deactivate the features requiring the emergency parser in the first place.

aeroburnerkn · September 2019

@Gandy Thanks I'm looking more into it atm, I think it mainly looks into the HAL LPC1768 folder, specifically narrowing down to the ADVANCED PAUSE FEATURE sending the error message, so I'll get back if I have any luck

LuchoPrincipi · January 2021

There's a custom Marlin 2.0 for A5?

Gandy · January 2021

Not sure if there is a usable binary available, but you should be able to compile a version yourself.
There is a base configuration that should work for the A5. Last time I tried the 2.0 development version with the original A5 control board I couldn't get some of the more advanced features working, but that was before the official 2.0 release. A lot has improved since then, so I see no harm in giving it a try. Be sure to know how to revert to the version you are currently running. If you rely on settings saved with M500, you should write down all settings before you upgrade so you can easily restore them later. These notes will also be helpful on adjusting the base configuration.
If you never did this before, you may want to consult one of the many excellent video tutorials on how to download, configure, compile and upload Marlin.

Marlin 2.0 and 32bit board for JGAURORA A5. It is workable?

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