Stable g2 firmware on Arduino Due

TinyG-Updater is for tinyG only; DUE requires a different tool chain.

The G2 Wiki has straightforward how-to for downloading.

G2 is under continuous development, so I’m not sure what you would consider “latest stable” release. Each new release has bug fixes and new features.

There is not a whole lot of G2 traffic here. You might want to peruse

https://github.com/synthetos/g2/issues

to see what others are up to and are finding.

If you want to play in G2, I suggest you follow the wiki and set up a local build environment. Then you can compile what ever version you might want to try. Building on both Linux (native tools) and on Windows (Atmel tool chain) both work well (past experience).

There are numerous ‘power users’ on the Ox forum and on Chilipeppr that discuss G2 based systems; many of them are heavily customized by the users.

Good Luck with the adventure.

OK, you discovered Issues which might help.

There does not seem to be a large community of MacOS users, and some of the MacOS issues seem to be in OS drivers, etc that Win and Linux folks are unfamiliar with.

The G2 Wiki has several items focussed on parameters and tweaking,
Beyond that, I would say that the Ox forum has a lot of G2 experimenters.
Be sure to describe your machine – (belt, screw, etc.).

cbarbre: It is not clear to me what you are asking about.
It reads like you want to install $fb=078.03 on a DUE, which should be straightforward using bossac tools.
What is your working environment – MAC, Linux, Win?

What is your ultimate goal – build a machine or just experiment with G2core’s capabilities?

$fb=078.03 is dated FW and there are significant updates and enhancements in the most current Edge build, $fb=100.26
The time you spend now to build your own DUE+gShield binary, and to understand the G2core build system, will save you a lot of time in the long run, if your goal is to actually build and operate a machine. There will be no further updates to $fb=078.03 $fv=0.97 code, sooner or later you will want to move to 100.26 or later.

I am considering to switch from a grbl based system with integrated motor drivers to a Arduino Due with Tiny G2core firmware, because I can then use external drivers (read: closed loop).

I assume you mean closed loop drivers; there is no easy way to close loop back thru G2core

Now in researching github and the forums, it seems, that there is very little development going on and there is not a synthetos‘ own board available that lets you use external drivers which would make it easier to get support officially from synthetos.

Not very visible yet; two boards are under development (4 drivers and 5 drivers) as well as FW enhancements/extensions for 3D Printing.
Have a look at https://github.com/synthetos/g2/issues , where alot of early adopters and partners hang out with the developers.

You mentioned an Ox Forum – where there are people using g2core and can report on functionality or stability? Where is that forum? When I go the the OpenBuilds forum and search for TinyG, G2 or g2core, nothing comes up!

Have a look here https://plus.google.com/communities/110852928951643236736
I agree, searching for stuff using Google + can be difficult

I have read every single page in the g2 wiki, but they still leave some questions open, e.g. it is mentioned that the Due/the processor has no eepro storage there is no persistence of settings, so, how does everybody store the machine setting? Do they always re-compile the firmware and flash it, once they have the need to change a setting?

Folks have developed their own strategies. I have relatively stable parameters, so simply built a settings file for my system and recompiled those to be the defaults. You mention Chilipeppr below; it has an ability to download commands (parameter settings) when SPJS first connects. There are some python scripts floating about as well.

I am also looking around, what may be the best way to send gcode to such a setup (chilipeppr is one option I know) – a simple minimal GUI with a few buttons like performing jogging, homing and loading/sending a gcode file would be sufficient.

You can give CNC.js a look too, somewhat simpler than Chilipeppr

If there is anyone around here, that can provide some tipps or a link to the above mentioned forum – many thanks!

Bring back anything else you find, a lot of folks are developing under the covers.

Good luck

Issues – as you can probably tell, the GitHub issues serves as an interface to discuss anomalies that may result in trackable Bugs.
Many of the repeat posters you see are product developers who have proprietary clones of the DUE core machine or are developing new products that will use the new G2core all-in-one boards.

I omitted: unplug the Due after programming and connect the native USB port, then connect using a terminal program using 115200,8,N,1. I use CoolTerm.

tinyg [mm] ok> 
[fb]  firmware build             78.02
[fv]  firmware version            0.97
[cv]  configuration version       5.00
[hp]  hardware platform           3.00
[hv]  hardware version            0.00
[id]  TinyG ID                   02130215d40
[ja]  junction acceleration  100000 mm
[ct]  chordal tolerance           0.0100 mm
[sl]  soft limit enable           0
[mt]  motor idle timeout          2.00 Sec
[pdt] pause dwell time            0 uSec
[ej]  enable json mode            0 [0=text,1=JSON]
[jv]  json verbosity              2 [0=silent,1=footer,2=messages,3=configs,4=linenum,5=verbose]
[js]  json serialize style        1 [0=relaxed,1=strict]
[tv]  text verbosity              1 [0=silent,1=verbose]
[qv]  queue report verbosity      0 [0=off,1=single,2=triple]
[sv]  status report verbosity     1 [0=off,1=filtered,2=verbose]
[si]  status interval           250 ms
[gpl] default gcode plane         0 [0=G17,1=G18,2=G19]
[gun] default gcode units mode    1 [0=G20,1=G21]
[gco] default gcode coord system  1 [1-6 (G54-G59)]
[gpa] default gcode path control  2 [0=G61,1=G61.1,2=G64]
[gdi] default gcode distance mode 0 [0=G90,1=G91]
tinyg [mm] ok> 

It literally took me as long to do as it took to write those two posts – I had a Due on my desk and had never done this before, so it’s not rocket science.

Downside to using the Due? You can’t use a Raspberry Pi running SJPS to run Chilipeppr remotely as there is no USB-B port on the Due.

But, You can use a FTDI-USB module and talk to it through serial, via the Pi.

I will hook up an ESP8266 running as a transparent bridge instead, although my transparent bridge iteration doesn’t have John Lauer’s nice buffering… I need to work on that.