A Video Tutorial

[wildseyed]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaFRl4nlNLY

I uploaded a howto video for flashing, just in case.

[sampfalcon]

Thanks for this video! It definitely helped! I ended up using an arduino as an ISP, but I was in a little over my head for a bit. Oh well, I learned a lot about microprocessors. Have you noticed the cricut’s stepper motors drawing excessive current, even while idle? I know that stepper motors do draw current when idle, but mine are increasing to 90C + in a matter of minutes. I might have blown some mosfets or something though.

[thetazzbot]

No i didn't notice that. I have not touch this project in ages but i might explore it again soon. I would probably replace the board with a cheap board for a 3d printer and use gcode rather than hpgl Regards, Mark Williamson

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On Jan 21, 2021, at 8:09 PM, sampfalcon ***@***.***> wrote:  Thanks for this video! It definitely helped! I ended up using an arduino as an ISP, but I was in a little over my head for a bit. Oh well, I learned a lot about microprocessors. Have you noticed the cricut’s stepper motors drawing excessive current, even while idle? I know that stepper motors do draw current when idle, but mine are increasing to 90C + in a matter of minutes. I might have blown some mosfets or something though. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[sampfalcon]

It’s all good, it’s most likely another kink I’ll have to work out. It seems to be tied to an issue of very low refresh rates on the screen as well. It takes about 30s for the noise that occurs on the screen when you power the device on to scan out. Might have to do with internal vs external clock/ some sort of frequency issue. I’m fairly inexperienced with microprocessors so I could be completely off, but it could be issues with how I set the fuses (external clock mode vs internal clock mode) as there are a lot of clock related options on the fuse calculator I used...

[sampfalcon]

@thetazzbot , I have some questions, and as far as I know you are one of the only people who has looked deeply into the harware and software.
I have flashed the firmware correctly, using avrdude and an arduino, after compiling the code in atmel studio 7. The clock timing is correct, the display functions properly, and the x and y axis move as intended. All of the buttons that control load/unload and gcode vs hpgl seem to be working fine. The only issue that I have is the cut button doesn't seem to trigger the solenoid. When I turn on the cricut, the solenoid gets power, pulling the blade up and away from the mat. Pushing the cut button makes a sound, so the board obviously knows it is being pressed. I was maybe thinking that it was something hardware related, but I'm not sure what component could fail to make this issue.
I also have been trying to connect the cricut to the computer via usb. The computer recognizes that a connection has been made, but sending a plotted path to the cricut via inkscape (according to wildseyed's video) doesn't do anything. I haven't looked as deep into this issue though, so I'm not completely stuck yet.
I did flash the microcontroller with freeexpression.hex incorrectly once, with jtag enabled and the internal clock enabled. These issues didn't seem to break anything... I could be wrong though.
I have soldering experience and have voltimeters and the like handy, so if any measurements might narrow down the issue, let me know and I'll get on it right away.

Thank you for any help, I know being troubleshooting poorly described problems over the internet can be rough.
Thanks,
Samp

[Danstone]

I'm getting build errors, can't generate elf, make file error, found the solution! I opened the wrong pfoject file, I opened the solution instead of the project, doing so the elf file couldn't be compiled.