UMO / UMO+ Firmware

[Amedee]

In case somebody is interested I 'maintain' an 'alternative' firmware for UMO/UMO+

I say 'maintain' between quotes as I don't really make new developments on this, but it is what I use on my UMOs and I am sharing it -- so don't expect miracles here

It is based on the latest official UMO firmware from Daid with a couple of tweaks:

• UMO and UMO+ code is merge into a single branch, use #define to choose between the one or the other (I did not want to maintain 2 branches )
• Support for the RepRap Discount full graphic smart controller
• Some cosmetic fixes like 'Display fan%' on the Ulticontroller, LED control on UMO+, ...
• Very minor bug fixes

It lives on github here (only 'Marlin UMO Unified' branch is current)

If you don't like compiling your firmware yourself, I also have a firmware builder for that firmware: bultimaker.bulles.eu.
It is not a builder where you can change all possible parameters, but most common choices are provided (again, based on what I use, plus some requests I got).
The builder is safe to use and will generate valid firmware (obviously you are still responsible for selecting the right hardware )

Summary of the changes (from the commit log)

Experimental (Github / Builder) -- UMOU_16.06

• All features have been pushed to Stable

Stable (Github / Builder) -- UMOU_16.06

• 16.05-RC5 - F - Bed PID: is now saved in EEPROM and can be viewed/changed on the controller
• 16.05-RC5 - B - Allow higher temps for the hot end & some tweaks in the UI
• 16.05-RC4 - F/B - Support for hotend fan on ultiboard 2.1.4+
• 16.05-RC3 - F/B - Backport FAN_MIN_PWM feature
• 16.05-RC2 - B - Add choice between Fast and Slow PWM for the fan
• 16.05-RC1 - B - Allow PID control for heated bed
• Apr-2016 - F - Fix for filament detection
• Mar-2016 - F - LED brightness now saved in EEPROM (UMO+ or custom LEDs)
• Mar-2016 - F - Marlin fix: corrected some edge case where auto.g files where ran after a print.
• Mar-2016 - F - Marlin fix for UMO: don't assign PS_ON_PIN as it is not conected
• Mar-2016 - B - Add option to kickstart fan.
• Mar-2016 - F/B - Filament runout sensor support (Backported from latest Marlin)
• Mar-2016 - B - Configurable Z axis / Extruders direction
• Mar-2016 - F/B - Implementation of '// action:command' (Useful for USB printing)
• Mar-2016 - F - Motor current selection ans stored in EEPROM (UMO+)
• Sep-2015 - B - Allow to reverse the rotary knob encoder (On the FGSC)
• Sep 2015 - F - Fix for integer arithmetic
• Aug-2015 - B - Configurable MaxTemp
• Jul-2015 - F - Fix for M117 missing character when printing from USB
• Jun-2015- B - Configuration for GT2 Pulleys
• May-2015 - F - Print Fan% on UltiController status line
• May-2015 - F - Fix float rounding when converting to integer
• Mar-2015 - B - Configurable LCD Timeout
• Feb-2015 - B - Configurable language (French only!)
• Mar-2015 - B - Configurable Axis direction
• Feb-2015 - B - Configurable temperature sensors
• Jan-2015 - F - Better handling of special characters in file names (both UltiController and FGSC)
• Dec-2014 - F/B - Support for the ‘Full Graphic Smart Controller’ (FGSC)
• Dec-2014 - F/B - LED Support for UMO+
• Dec-2014 - F/B - Merge UMO / UMO with Heated Bed Kit / UMO+ in a single firmware.

F: Firmware change
B: Builder feature (With corresponding firmware change)

[Neotko]

Best umo firmware! Make it a Sticker please!

[LePaul]

Made a sticky!

[Neotko]

Any chance to have a extra option in the firmware to swap extruder/heater/heat sensor pins. This way one could change motor 0 to 1 or heat sensor, heater, or the whole enchilada. This could allow to change stuff without rebuilding th pins.h firmware and test stuff if a board/part it's failing. Something like a expert menu area.

Also it could be really nice to adjust motor amps (umo 2.1 boards) by menu (indeed this it's easy by gcode so no biggie).

Also.. Maybe a rc1-rc2 marlin update with all the new stuff like being able to adjust 2
PID for each hotend or motor amps for each extruder?

Just asking I bet this it's time consuming

[Amedee]

Any chance to have a extra option in the firmware to swap extruder/heater/heat sensor pins. This way one could change motor 0 to 1 or heat sensor, heater, or the whole enchilada. This could allow to change stuff without rebuilding th pins.h firmware and test stuff if a board/part it's failing. Something like a expert menu area.

Just to make it clear, you mean at runtime, not at compile time?
I don' think we can do it quick and dirty as some have initialization sequence, but we can look at it...

Also it could be really nice to adjust motor amps (umo 2.1 boards) by menu (indeed this it's easy by gcode so no biggie).

Yes...
Although I have been tempted in the past to add things in NVRAM, I never did it to avoid incompatibility with the official firmware. But I doubt Ultimaker will ever issue a new UMO firmware as they aren't developing this platform anymore (I had no feedback from a pull request I submitted a long time ago).
My priority so far has been to provide a 100% compatible firmware: if you select all defaults you get exactly the same firmware as the one shipped by ultimaker (actually some bytes will differ as the build date is in the fle, but that would be the only difference)
So I think it might be time to go our own way

Also.. Maybe a rc1-rc2 marlin update with all the new stuff like being able to adjust 2 PID for each hotend or motor amps for each extruder?

You are taking about the new upstream Marlin right?
This might be interesting and at the same time a complete new project. Daid made significant changes to the 'old' upstream Marlin, and in some areas he was well ahead. We would need to see what can be done there, but that would be a complete break with the current firmware.

Just asking I bet this it's time consuming

It is...

Nice and interesting request...

I am not giving any commitment, but I'll consider. I am a 'software guy', and I am more at ease with firmware changes than hotend changes, so it is where I can best contribute

Maybe it is because it is new, but this forum motivates me again to tinker with my printers -- however it does not give me more free time... I have a CNC mill in the make and the radio controlled car race season is about to re-start, so that makes a lot of things to do

[Neotko]

If the pins.h could be changed, even with a turn off/on that could be just fantastic.

Indeed I don't think ultimaker will ever change a think on the umo/umo+ firmwares. I bet they must be thinking on new boards for the next year with more cpu and instructions of gcode movements/sec. I was about to jump to Replicape boards but since that could mean to change all heat sensors (specially the bed) I though that, well it isn't a must and I print ok so it's not biggie atm.

I tried to do the pin change on the firmware, but my programming skills are limited. Marlin it's a weird mix of languages and some parts where hard to understand for me.

Your modded firmware it's the best option by far. And your addons are quite nice (the fan info it's a print saver sometimes )

[drayson]

Guys, have you ever had anoyed when stopping a print and the print head just parks where it is?

I raised a feature request at the marlin git, but it seems that the developers are not interested in make a "industralized", safe FW...
https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/1340
Instead of spending a few minutes to code such basic functionality, they play with "autobedlevel" and such stuff or cut the code to fit "whatever"...

Sooo.... I did it veeerrrry dirty by myself and in 80% of stops it works (dont know why at the remaining 20% it doesnt...) Honestly, I have no idea about SW evelopment nor coding, just searching/copy/paste/modify-skills. Anyway, if you´re interested, you can take a look here: https://github.com/Drayson80/UMO_Marlin ... cc110ed978

Any hint is appreciated !!

[drayson]

By the way - I plan to mount a servo to wipe the nozzle after priming, so I´d enabled a few pins for hook it up too...

[nilrog]

Afaik UM took Marlin at some point in time and made tweaks, changes and improvements to it. Their extended code flavor I guess is the biggest change. But fast-forward from back then up to now is there any reason why one could not use stock Marlin firmware and configure it for an UMO+? Given that UM probably won't do much to the firmware for UMO+ anymore, what would you loose by doing that? Surely you would gain improvements to Marlin.

[Neotko]

Exactly. What stops me from doing that it's so silly. Like, how hard it's get the rc2 (for example) and set the screen that works with. Also a follow question, how hard it's to get tingergnone firmware and change it to use the umo/umo+ ulticontroller?

[nilrog]

That question was also on my mind...it's strange that UMO+ and UM2 don't share the same codebase with just differences in controller and menu features. After all they share the same HW.

[Amedee]

My personal objective ils to have a stable firmware.

Marlin is going through quite some changes, and when I see the number of fixes coming on the last RC it does not seem production ready to me.
I need to be able to use my printer for printing, it is not just a toy.

Obviously everybody has its own view and is free to do what they want, I just want to set expectations from what you can get from me
I definitely want to enhance what we have, but always in keeping a solid base.

Regarding the merge, I spent some time to merge the 3 UMO builds. I proposed that to Daid but his choice was to keep 3 separate source trees.
The UM2 source tree is not much different, there is a significant amount of code for the display and controller, and the other changes are these profiles things.
If you want to run the the UM2 firmware on UMO+ (or even UMO) that should be pretty easy, again from my side it is not something I am interested in, from an operational standpoint I prefer the way the UMO works...

[nilrog]

Thanks for the input. I have so far only taken a brief look at the code trees for the different firmwares so it's nice to get input from someone with more insight

I can understand that Marlin at it's current state is pretty rough since they are still putting out RC's. But once the stable version is out then I think it will be an interesting adventure to try. Surely they must have made some improvements to the core code during the time that has gone by since UM made their version.

[Amedee]

Yes I do agree -- I would rather contribute UM specific things to Marlin, rather than enhance our Marlin fork. It is just to early in my view and I just don't have the time to experiment.

(There are also alternative firmware which could be explored )

[nilrog]

(There are also alternative firmware which could be explored )

Enlighten me

Up till I saw this thread I thought there were only one FW for the UMO+. Yes, I had seen your site where you could build custom versions, including GT2. But I thought it was just a nice configurator around UM's FW.

I have tried to gather info on interesting mods for the UMO+. But trying to find something in their forum is almost impossible. Unless it's for the UM2(+).