Check if Pi Zero Working (on MINT)

Remove SD card.

Micro USB to USB A male.

Plug in to USB on PC.

Plug Micro USB into USB port (not end of board Power micro USB) the other.

Open Terminal and type dmesg to check USB port connections.

Should see "Broadcom" come up as a connected device.

Wipe brow as not wasted a fiver by blowing Zero up. 

Kill

Just another note to myself.

Using Kill

Noticed my CPU was using 3 out of the 4 cores at 100% and the fan was pretty noisy.

I initially thought it was Cinnamon but it wasn't.

I opened Terminal and used Top

Top

This listed the top three processes being used by FoxitReader. Earlier I had accidently tried to open a file with it that was not PDF.

Top showed me the process PID

So a quick ALT & F2 to open a console and kill followed by the PID shown next to each of the instances killed these processes and my CPU use dropped like a stone.

Uploading Sailfish 3D Printer Software from 64 bit Linux Mint

My God, I've had my 3D printer for a year now and have not been able to upgrade the stock Makerbot firmware to the newer Sailfish firmware until NOW.

My Printer:

CTC 3D Printer (This is a Makerbot Dual Clone) equivalent to a Flashforge Creator)

The control board is a Mightyboard with an AT Mega 1280 Chip (I believe CTC have now updated the chip to the version with more memory)

Print area 220 x 140 x 150



Anyways, after watching video's, reading posts and getting nowhere I had nearly given up.

The problem I and it seems many others have had using Linux (not just Mint) was pressing the upload button to flash the new firmware onto the chip while simultaneously pressing the reset button on the printer.

Nothing was working, however many times I pressed, waited, pressed etc.

Finally I think I have cracked it after reading a post I will link to later for reference.

It seems that the problem on my 64 bit Linux install is avrdude.

So what I did...

1,Made sure I had the last version 7.5 of the Makerbot software.

2, Downloaded and installed all dependencies for ReplicatorG. You need the Sailfish version not the standard version. It can be found on Thingiverse Version 40 r33.

3, I then set up in ReplicatorG from File / Preferences / advanced / the new path to upload the updated firmware Hex files to RepG just as the Sailfish homepage instructions said (the new path is noted on Thingiverse as it has changed since the page was written).

4, I watched as in the command line view at the bottom of RepG uploaded the new software and a list flew by in green text.

5, I followed the instructions again on the main sailfish site until I got to the part where I would be pressing update and the reset button.

(After my previous tries I had opened RepG in Terminal and behind the program in the terminal window I saw the fail was saying something about libusb not working. This new field of enquiry led me to a discussion about Avrdude and the version supplied with sailfish V 40r33 not working correctly on 64 bit Linux Ubuntu systems. A contributor had suggested the OP try calling the newer version installed on their system via the command line to do the flashing and so I followed that advice)

6, I opened up a command line terminal and input:

avrdude -c stk500v1 -P/dev/ttyACM0 -b57600 -D -Uflash:w:/home/my_name/.replicatorg/firmware/ff_creator-Sailfish-v7.7.0-r1432.hex:i  -pm1280

replacing "my_name" with my login of course.

The cursor sat there flashing an underscore. I'm not really sure what I was expecting and I turned, not very fast I admit and pressed the reset button on the back of the printer.

Bang...  The terminal changed

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

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

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9703 (probably m1280)
avrdude: reading input file "/home/my_name/.replicatorg/firmware/ff_creator-Sailfish-v7.7.0-r1432.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (125440 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 30.11s

avrdude: 125440 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against /home/my_name/.replicatorg/firmware/ff_creator-Sailfish-v7.7.0-r1432.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file /home/my_name/.replicatorg/firmware/ff_creator-Sailfish-v7.7.0-r1432.hex:
avrdude: input file /home/my_name/.replicatorg/firmware/ff_creator-Sailfish-v7.7.0-r1432.hex contains 125440 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 25.80s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 125440 bytes of flash verified

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:00, H:00, L:00)

avrdude done.  Thank you.

So the instructions set the USB port output and Uflash was directed to the Hex file to flash.

As you can see it was set for the flashforge Hex file. I believe this is because this is the same as the Makerbot Sailfish software but allows the heater bed on the printer to heat at the same time as the heating element on the head. Some power supplies on the Makerbot were not powerful enough to do both these things at the same time but apparently the Flashforge and the CTC have bigger power supplies.

I'd like to thank the people on this thread for getting me further than anyone else

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ctc3dprinters/IdgMcZT7zVg


Connections for Repetier Host: (Printing software just for my notes !)

serial connection set serial port to /dev/tty/ACM0 and Baudrate to 115200

GPX plugin - Change setting to Replicator 1 Dual NOT replicator 2

Slic3r - set options to printer settings / general / sailfish (makerbot)

Print area  (x)220 x (y)140 x (z)150 Origin 112 x 72 Centre (important for Octoprint)

Also Octoprint /Slic3r info, Set custom Left Tool (T1) Right Tool(T0) and Dual profiles. When slicing with one loaded filement make sure correct one is selected.

tool1 offset x34 y0

Use scrip section to set start and end gcode, If you want to print in dual color/materials remember to remove the tool1 offset from the slicer or from the printer setting or the software will add both.

More Slic3r info here:
https://3duniverse.org/2014/01/05/using-slic3r-with-a-flashforge-creator/

JST -VH (The Jst connector to the heater bed, just a reminder to myself)

System Sounds missing / not working

Yesterday I lost all my system sounds after a new install (done as an upgrade ) of Mint Sarah.

Actually it had been lost in 17.3 and I had done the upgrade after screwing it up there while trying to change the sound inputs to accept a 5.1 surround sound system. I had hoped with the new Kernel it would fix it.

Lot's of complicated advice out there for this issue and ideas for fault finding.

Turns out all I had to do was open Synaptic Package manager and search for libcanberra-pulse, it was not installed so I ticked it and applied the change. Voila I now have desktop sounds again.


Incidentally the issued with the Creative 5.1 surround sound system was a fixed to an extent,  after screwing everything up by following several different fixes first.

My internal sound card on the motherboard  has three, three-pin phono input/outputs.

My Sub woofer was connected to PINK (mic) connection nearest the board.
Next to that was FRONT connecting to the middle LIME (line-out).
Finally REAR was connected to LIGHT BLUE (line-in).

With these connections set up correctly from the manual's of both the ASROCK 960GM motherboard and the CREATIVE Inspire T6300 surround sound system it was just the software to tackle.

It seems like you have to change the options in the /etc/modprobe.d folder. there can be found the text file alsa-base.conf

By changing (as root) and adding the yellow highlighted line to the file I seem to have made the sound chip on the motherboard's connection be recognised as an analogue 3 pin phono connector thus enabling it to send the correct signals out and not expecting a microphone signal in and line in to be received.

# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options snd_hda_intel model=3stack
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options saa7134-alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
options snd-usb-ua101 index=-2
options snd-usb-us122l index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2


I still have some work to do on this as I'm not sure if everything is working OK but I am getting there.

Finally I checked that the option of 5.1 was now there in the sound options of the control panel and moved the option from 2 channel stereo to 5.1 stereo.

I also checked alsamixer from the Terminal which seemed to only show the first 5 channel volume options by moving across with the right arrow the other options appeared from the edge of the screen to check also. I made sure the correct options for volume were set here also.

Thats where I'm up to.

XBOX 360 gamepad Install

Finally found a good driver install for Ubuntu/Mint that works correctly for this gamepad.

From:
http://www.noobslab.com/2014/08/configure-xbox-controller-on-your.html






sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rael-gc/ubuntu-xboxdrv

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-xboxdrv

sudo service xboxdrv restart

Makerbot Desktop Unable to install from instructions on their site

Just trying to install Makerbot Desktop on Mint 17.3 from their website instructions.

Lesson learnt, don't trust cut and paste

This guys answer is a bit over the top but I like that, explained it perfectly

http://askubuntu.com/questions/528051/makerbot-won-t-install

Answer 2

D-Link IP Camera setup on Linux Mint

Well last night I gave in to shopping temptation and got a D-Link DCS-932LB1

It was cheap and on offer and although it only said Windows / Mac use I thought I would take a chance to get it working under Mint. That BUY NOW button eh !

So first I found Zone Minder, which looks a great program but I had real trouble setting it up so I gave up trying after following a few guides. Something to do with systemd and systemctl I could not figure out.
So I looked for something simpler and I found it.

Motion

I've just started to play with it but I need to get this down before I move on to saving video and using it via my android phone & other places, so the basics of setting it up.

First I found a guide on how to just set up the camera with my router at sensor.org

This was basically connect by ethernet cable to my router
plug the camera in
navigate to my router setup homepage where I found the WPS connection button,
then press the button on the back of the camera and the WPS button on the setup page
The router found the IP camera and I was away.

I found the new connection on the list of active connections on the router info page
copied the internal IP address 192.168.x.x
and pasted it into my browser
This brought up the IP cameras setup page where I entered the supplied username and password
from the manual. The first thing I did was change this and follow the setup from there
keeping the simplest options for now.

I was now ready to install Motion

sudo apt-get install motion
sudo apt-get update

apparently this should automatically create a

motion group (I learnt a bit from trial and error about there from installing Plex !)
it should also add a motion user

This info is on Linux.com at how to operate linux spycams with motion

after making sure this was right I started motion

$: motion

mistake it wouldn't give permission to use
silly me

$: sudo motion

and it started up. I then found it had failed to find the video device

I followed the instructions on Linux.com down to the point where the author talked about
permissions again.

Her name was carla so I noticed she gave the instructions

~$ sudo chown carla:carla .motion/motion.conf

Her group name was obviously carla and so was her user name.

I replaced the carla with my group name and user name so it all worked.

I followed the info to make more directories then saved localhost:8081 and localhost:8080 to my browser favourites
The first port 8081 is the feed to see the camera output and the second port 8080 is the configuration
file where you can enter and change different set up options.

I went to config then list and all the changable options were there

To see my camera I then went back to the IP Camera's setup page and found the link to the feed by
right clicking on the video feed and using inspect on my chromium browser to pick up the link as shown on Linux.com.

pasting that link into netcam_url =
and then pasting admin:mypassword
into netcam_userpass =

Bang. the feed came up on the hocalhost:8081 webpage

Now I can mess about with other options another day to add functionality