Firmware flash failure taz6 bltouch rambo

Printer Customization
1

I’m having trouble flashing firmware to my TAZ6 that I just upgraded with a bltouch. The web browser-based tool gets most of the way through the update before telling me it has failed (most of the way through writing the firmware on R47, and most of the way through verifying the firmware on R40/R41). This has left me with a blank lcd (assuming firmware got overwritten on my machine). I tried updating firmware with LulzbotCura, but no dice: it hangs almost immediately.

I downloaded the hex file of the firmware and installed Rambo drivers (Windows) on my machine and tried this program: Arduino-XLoader (hobbytronics.co.uk) to upload it, but I can’t seem to connect to the TAZ6 as it reports “failed to open port.” The same happens with pronterface (more or less), and vanilla Cura.

And so I come to ask someone who actually knows what they’re doing…

EDIT:

I’m aware that my scattershot approach to troubleshooting means there are probably different issues with different approaches, and I apologize.

2

The good news is I’ve never seen a TAZ6 be permanently bricked by firmware update, so once you find the right firmware, your printer will be back to operation. Flashing failures like what you saw often indicate a particular build of Marlin no longer fits the limited memory on the Rambo. This is becoming a more common issue, especially with the BLTouch variants, so much so, that I might start discouraging that particular upgrade without an Archim board.

A few days ago I removed older FW builds from the flashing tool, because the repo was getting very large, but in retrospect I probably should have kept some of the older releases for situations just like this one.

I’ll go ahead and add some of those older releases back and will try identifying a few releases for you to try out.

3

@trashcat: Try release 39 from the Drunken Octopus Firmware Tool. This one was the latest that I know has worked successfully on Rambo boards.

4

thanks much! I’ll try it out now.

5

Had to go back to release 38. I’m guessing the firmware for the dual extruder head takes up just a bit more space and was part of the issue.

Works now, thanks!

6

…a bit premature it seems…

I had the printer up and running for a bit and was fiddling with settings when I decided to re-flash it because I was not 100% sure I had gotten the right version for the BLtouch and the dual extruder. Basically when I went to set the Z offset with the M851 command to -4 it gave me an out of range error, and it didn’t seem to be accepting the offsets I was setting for X and Y, but was still parking the nozzle over the Z end stop to home the Z axis.

So I tried to re-flash it and it’s now failing with every version that I try, so I downloaded the source for r38 and tried compiling myself in visual studio code, which worked, but when I went to upload I got this error:

CONFIGURATION: Redirecting...
PLATFORM: Atmel AVR (3.4.0) > RepRap RAMBo
HARDWARE: ATMEGA2560 16MHz, 8KB RAM, 252KB Flash
DEBUG: Current (avr-stub) On-board (avr-stub, simavr)
PACKAGES:

  • framework-arduino-avr @ 5.1.0
  • tool-avrdude @ 1.60300.200527 (6.3.0)
  • toolchain-atmelavr @ 1.70300.191015 (7.3.0)
    Converting Marlin.ino
    LDF: Library Dependency Finder → Library Dependency Finder (LDF) — PlatformIO latest documentation
    LDF Modes: Finder ~ chain, Compatibility ~ soft
    Found 6 compatible libraries
    Scanning dependencies…
    Dependency Graph
    |-- U8glib-HAL @ 0.5.2
    | |-- Wire @ 1.0
    | |-- SPI @ 1.0
    |-- Wire @ 1.0
    |-- SPI @ 1.0
    |-- EEPROM @ 2.0
    |-- SoftwareSerial @ 1.0
    Building in release mode
    Checking size .pio\build\rambo\firmware.elf
    Advanced Memory Usage is available via “PlatformIO Home > Project Inspect”
    RAM: [========= ] 90.5% (used 7414 bytes from 8192 bytes)
    Flash: [==========] 99.3% (used 256228 bytes from 258048 bytes)
    Configuring upload protocol…
    AVAILABLE: wiring
    CURRENT: upload_protocol = wiring
    Looking for upload port…
    Auto-detected: COM5
    Uploading .pio\build\rambo\firmware.hex

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.01s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9801 (probably m2560)
avrdude: reading input file “.pio\build\rambo\firmware.hex”
avrdude: writing flash (256228 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 40.80s

avrdude: 256228 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against .pio\build\rambo\firmware.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file .pio\build\rambo\firmware.hex:
avrdude: input file .pio\build\rambo\firmware.hex contains 256228 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 32.79s

avrdude: verifying …
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x3c000
0x00 != 0xff
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:FD, H:D0, L:FF)

avrdude done. Thank you.

*** [upload] Error 1
=========================================================== [FAILED] Took 82.53 seconds ===========================================================

Environment Status Duration

rambo FAILED 00:01:22.535

…so it seems to be failing to verify the firmware which is the same problem that I get the web tool uploader.

Am I running out of memory?
Or is the compile somehow corrupted?

Edit: I’ve googled this issue and found no definitive answers but the non-definitive answers seem to point to something with the board?