A day of two halves

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Well, it was one step forward, one step back today. Top of the list for the morning was to upgrade Marlin from the current 2.0.5.3 to 2.0.6. I had already downloaded the source files and got everything ready. I have quite a lot of customisation with the changes that I have already made, so I fastidiously worked through each in turn to make sure that the configurations matched. 

On starting, there were a couple of glitches. One of these was a simple mistake where I'd forgotten to save the change to redefine one of the serial ports, so the TFT didn't connect. This was easily fixed with a quick change and recompile. Of more concern was the I2C connected EEPROM module. I could not get the new version to see it. It has been working fine under the current version, but nothing I tried could get it to work under the new one. 


In the end, I threw in the towel and assumed that perhaps it's a bug. On that basis, I'd like to think that it'll get fixed at some point. I had simply run out of options and reverting to emulated EEPROM seemed like too much of a retrograde step for an upgrade.

So, that was most of the morning wasted as I reverted to the previous configuration.

The next task on the to-do list is to mount the case for the main board. The case design I have come up with includes flexible mounting flanges which means that it can be mounted in any orientation. I have decided to experiment with mounting it in the same corner of the chassis as the original, but flat, with a slight tilt to direct the airflow. 

The mount I've come up with is in three parts. The two fixed parts clip together to avoid needing supports when printing. It then uses the same mounting flanges as I'd used on the TFT mount to fix it to the chassis using V-slot fixings. 

I printed a couple of prototypes and they fitted together very well indeed. Each part is quite thin, but connecting all together brings a lot more strength. The main fixing just slots over the rear of the case and clips it into place. 

In parallel, I am now printing the final version of the TFT case so I should be able to fully release this very soon now. 

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