Need help setting up STEVAL-3DP001V1

[Jim1]

Hello,

I got this board and connected power and could not see any activity on the ST-LINK USB port (J11). I installed the drivers and used 115200,8,N,1, no flow control. There's no startup message or response to CR or serial echo.

I can connect to the wireless network (sprinter, I think), on my phone but I cannot access the webserver at 192.168.0.1. I can't connect either my laptop or my iMac to the wireless; it fails to authenticate (I'm using the WEP key 1122334455).

Thinking the board is just unprogrammed, I built the project in AC6 System Workbench. The project builds clean and generates Marlin.elf and Marlin.bin.

I followed the procedure in UM2067 to jumper J22, mount USB drive, drag image in, hit refresh, etc. I waited several minutes but Marlin.bin never disappears from the root directory, and no error logs are created. I then used ST-LINK to load Marlin.elf and Marlin.bin (both file types are supported), but again, no terminal activity on J11 serial and I cannot log into the wireless or access the webserver. I also do not see the change I made to the wireless SSID; it still comes up as "sprinter".

There have been two other threads, one of which nearly exactly describes my issue, but there were no replies and the threads were locked. The only clue I have is (I think) that after adding a resistor to a limit switch port, someone got it working. I am using a bare board with no motors, heaters, or switches connected, only a 12V DC supply.

Is anyone able to offer some assistance? Does any of this sound familiar? Is there a quick way I can verify the MCU and/or wifi are working correctly?

[Jim1]

More info: I've successfully loaded an image provided by another user as a hex file. The web server is working but I don't think Marlin is running, because there's no response to gcodes or temperature feedback, and I don't see a startup/version message when I connect to serial. The serial port does enumerate correctly on USB and it allows me to connect; I just don't see anything. I did say CR above, and I'm aware that the instructions specify CR/LF, but changing that didn't fix my problem either.

At this point I wonder if the Marlin thread is never starting up. I have a sys/m_cfg.g file on my SD card. It's a 2G card, though... do you think that could be the issue?

[Jim1]

Well, I made some headway with the help of google's 3d printing tips and trick community. There are several subtleties to getting this board running, which I'll share here in case someone else comes to st.com looking for help.

My kit did not ship with a jumper. Other users have received kits that shipped with a jumper installed on J22. J22 must be installed for the kit to boot from FLASH, but it's not necessary to load the firmware as is implied in UM2067. If you know STM32 devices you could infer that from the schematic, but I am not that familiar with the product line. Also, the schematic is unfortunately omitted in UM2067. J22 needs to be installed and left in place for standalone operation.

Marlin will not operate properly if no thermistor is installed on J13-pins 3&4. It trips an error handler designed to prevent thermal runaway. If you know Marlin you might anticipate this, there is little to no information about Marlin in UM2067. If you want to test this board on the workbench without a 3D printer, you need to at least connect a 100k resistor to pins 3&4 or Marlin will shut down immediately after starting.

I never got the image to install via mass storage. The easiest way to do this IMO is to use the ST-LINK Utility (STSW-LINK004). Connect USB to J11, and use Target>Connect... and Target>Program; this may not be necessary unless you make code changes, because the board (allegedly) comes preprogrammed with a build using all the default settings. It is possible to use ST-LINK and the serial console simultaneously, which I thought was neat.

The SD card must have a /sys or /SYS directory. That directory must contain a file called M_CFG.G. The filename must be capitalized, even though this appears to conflict with the filename coded in the project. Additionally, M_CFG must not have any lines beginning with comments, and all lines in the file, particularly the last line, must be terminated with DOS-style CR/LF newlines. If there are any lines that begin with semicolons, or if the last line is not terminated with a CR/LF, Marlin will never finish parsing the file, and it will hang on startup.

The web server is not part of the SWSTM32/etc software build and is not executed by the STM32F4. The server and all html documents reside in the wireless module, and changes to the project configuration file (such as altering the SSID or WEP key) will not affect operation. This process is handled using another software tool. I have no explanation for why it is included in the configuration file, unless it's just there as a reference to the STM32 developer troubleshooting the build.

This represents about a week of part-time struggle by several users in getting this product working. I hope that it is useful to someone, and I hope it helps to alleviate the scarcity of information available online. I realize that it's an evaluation kit designed for developers of 3D printer hardware, and not a consumer printer control board, but I feel like more people overall would be attracted to ST products if it was not so challenging to get something like an evaluation kit to work out of the box.

[RDale.1]

Jim,

thanks for posting this. You've saved me a lot of grief trying to figure out the same questions you had. It's disappointing that ST does not support their products better.

-Ray

[Jim1]

I've been using this board in the meantime, and I still really like it. I haven't figured out the wifi yet but if you run into any more obstacles I am happy to share my more recent experiences. I've made quite a bit of progress learning Marlin's features as well.

Also, I discovered a while back that it's also supported by PlatformIO, which is a little less complicated if all you need is to get the thing running.

Best of luck!

[RDale.1]

So far everything is coming together. I have the steppers working but I seem to be having a little trouble reversing the direction. I'm changing the INVERT_X_DIR flag in Configuration.h but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I'm probably doing something stupid but I'm not seeing it yet.

[RDale.1]

Guess I didn't reprogram it. Everything is spinning in the right direction now.