Airwolf3D HD Series Firmware - Customizeable by ITGuru

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

Disclaimer: The following procedures that worked for my equipment may not work for you or your equipment. If you are to attempt and replicate the steps below then proceed at your own risk. I am not responsible if you ruin your machine, hurt yourself, others or damage property and other unspecified damages including loss of data.
Hello everyone, this my series of steps to get my M500 command working on my Airwolf HD series printer.
I noticed many have had trouble with the firmware on this printer line, also by default the M500 command is disabled so PID and stepper tuning has to be placed in the startup script of the slicer for settings to be active. If by chance your M500 saving is working then you may not need this.
This firmware may also be used to modify for E3D Volcano and V6 hot ends.http://www.soliforum.com/topic/12034/upgrading-your-airwolf-hdx-hd2x-hotend-to-e3d-v6-volcano/
For reference, I have the Airwolf HD with single bowden, VIKI 1.0 and 10mm Rod. I noticed my printer was an HD but had the upgraded hot end with dual extruders like the HD2X and I wanted to print higher temps so I test flashed the HDX and HD2X firmware from Airwolf's APEX and the printer worked fine, only difference was hot end and max temps with dual extrusion enabled.
See overview here for model comparisons:https://makezine.com/2014/11/22/review-airwolf-hd-hdx-and-hd2x-3d-printer/
The Airwolf APEX Software has pre compiled firmware included for all the HD series but the m500 command is disabled. The public dropbox and all source files have long since disappeared.
Here are the steps I used to enable my M500 command by flashing the Airwolf HDX factory firmware (kindly obtained by a thingiverse user that I have not named yet until they provide permission).
At this time this firmware is configured for the 10mm rod version of printers with the VIKI 1.0 LCD.
This firmware will not work as configured for the 12mm ROD and / or Viki 2.0 unless you tinker with it.
If you have the 12mm or the Viki 2.0 Please contact me so we can work on how to compile those as they were released later and may need a different version of aurdino to compile.
Airwolf HD printer line variants may include the 12MM rod, Viki 2.0 and the HDR with the direct drive.
How to compile:
Here is the guide using Ubuntu, I used Rufus in Windows and made a persistant boot USB so I could go back and work on it later if I wanted to make project changes.
Rufus USB Bootable Drive Utility Link:https://rufus.ie/
Get Ubuntu 20.04:https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
Installed Arduino v1.05 - arduino-1.0.5-linux64.tgz
Downloaded from here: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/OldSoftwareReleases#previous
I just un-tar’ed it into a folder called: ~/arudino-1.0.5
Install the Java JRE (runtime), if you don’t have it already
sudo apt update
sudo apt install default-jre
Ensure the script that launches Arduino is executable:
cd ~/arduino-1.0.5
chmod 777 ./arduino
Launch Arduino
./arduino
Before I opened the sketch I turned on verbose logging, the completed .hex firmware file will be in a temp folder referenced in the output log.
File->Preferences->Show verbose output during..
Open the sketch: HD_TR_1_10MM_ROD_PC_HOT_END.ino
Tools > Board > Select "Arduino Mega 2560 or Mega ADK"
Downloaded the LiquidTWI2 libraryhttps://github.com/lincomatic/LiquidTWI2
Code > Download ZIP
Note: the libray folder may have a different name so rename the folder, it is important that it’s called LiquidTWI2 (matches the C header filename)
Unzip into a folder: ~/arduino-1.0.5/libraries/LiquidTWI2
Then I edit the configuration.h sketch and modify to to my liking, to enable the M500 found for this setting:
//#define EEPROM_SETTINGS
remove the "//"
Save then
Sketch > Verify/Compile
Now I have my M500 enabled and can custom tune the printer as needed :)
Got my hex file saved to USB, rebooted to Windows and flashed using APEX:
https://airwolf3d.com/3d-printing-software/
Flashed with custom file from:
Machine --> Install Custom Firmware
Eventually I would like to get the configuration.h setup on a newer version of Mariln, right now the printer is working great and there may be no need in tinkering further.