Makers by Cory Doctorow

I just started reading Makers by Cory Doctorow and I’m really impressed.  He’s managed to capture the giddiness of the dot-com era in a very plausible-near-future sort of way.  I’m reading the HTML version on my ‘Droid right now, but reading the first few chapters has convinced me to go old skool and pick up a meatspace copy.

Hey Doctorow! Your evil plan of reverse psychology has worked! By handing me a free digital copy I’m convinced to buy an analog copy of your work!

As a sidenote, by making his work open source there’s all sorts of amazing things sprouting out of it – the entire novel printed on a cash register roll?  And other wild stuff you and I never thought of…

How to update your Plastruder/Extruder firmware for the 1mm thermistor

Disclaimer:  This is only for Windows XP.  It worked for me and may not work for you.  I’m a complete novice, so use at your own risk.  That said, this procedure completely fixed the “avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51” errors I was getting in the Arduino environment.

  1. Download and install the Arduino IDE
  2. Download the Sanguino patch
  3. Apply the Sanguino patch to the Ardunio IDE (Directions copied from this page)
    1. Copy “\sanguino-software-1.x\cores\sanguino” to “\arduino-0017\hardware\cores\sanguino
    2. Copy “\sanguino-software-1.x\bootloaders\atmega644p” to “\arduino-0017\hardware\bootloaders\atmega644p
    3. Copy all the folders in “\sanguino-software-1.x\libraries\” to “\arduino-0017\hardware\libraries\” overwriting the existing libraries.
    4. Open the Arduino file located at “\arduino-0012\hardware\boards.txt” and append the text from “\sanguino-software-1.x\boards.txt
  4. Edit the “\reprap-gen3-firmware-1.6\ArduinoSlaveExtruder\ThermistorTable.cpp” file so that it reflects the new table information for the 1mm thermistor. (New table data courtesy of Jet)
  5. Copy the entire contents of “\reprap-gen3-firmware-1.6\libraries\” into “\arduino-0017\hardware\libraries\”
  6. Run the Arduino IDE
  7. Tools -> Board -> “Arduino Diecimila, Duemilanove, or Nano w/ ATmega168
  8. Open “\reprap-gen3-firmware-1.6\ArduinoSlaveExtruder\ArduinoSlaveExtruder.pde
  9. Sketch -> Verify/ Compile
  10. Wait for “Done compiling.
  11. Hold down the reset button on your extruder board.
  12. Click “Upload
  13. Wait for 3 seconds after you’ve clicked “Upload” and then let go of the reset button.

Congratulations!

A huge thank you to Jet and Rick Pollack for walking me through this procedure step by step.