I wanted to share this in case others run into similar issues when installing firmware on their Sovol printers. While following the official Sovol instructions, I discovered two potential problems with modern Windows computers:
When formatting an SD card, Windows creates a hidden folder, “System Volume Information” in the root of the filesystem. According to Sovol, this can cause the board to ignore the firmware.bin file on the SD card.
Windows doesn’t directly format the filesystem onto the SD card. Instead, it creates a partition on the card and formats that. I had to format the card directly without a partition. This might affect compatibility with larger cards, as some Creality boards don’t play nice with filesystems larger than 8GB. That said I did use an 8gb Windows formatted partition on a 32gb SD card to install custom firmware on my Ender 3 S1 Pro.
For me, I could not install Bjoern’s firmware until I resolved both issues. I formatted the SD card directly to FAT32 (without creating a partition) using a Linux machine, made sure firmware.bin was the only object on the card, and I was finally able to update the firmware on my SV04. While this could probably be done on a Windows machine, this how I ended up doing mine.
The display firmware is much less picky. My display accepted updates regardless of how the filesystem was set up.
Anyway, all seems good now. The x, y and z offsets were all zeroed before I flashed, so I will have to manually set those, but that is not a big deal. I have since trammed the gantry to the frame, trammed the bed to the gantry, created a mesh and set a prelimary z offset.
Of course, I am out of town for the weekend so I haven’t been able to finish initial calibration. I have yet to even print anything! I figured for the X and Y offsets, I will tell the printer to go to zero, then to the maximum (302?) then eyeball these positions, checking to see if they are both approximately equidistant from the edge of the build plate and adjust the zero accordingly. This should get me where I want to be, no?
Since we can’t do UBL, tilting an existing mesh, I will probably G29 before every print. This firmware is quite fast single probing the 8x8 mesh anyway, so I will hopefully be happy with that. I usually implement a long 13 (I have a thing for prime numbers) minute dwell after heating the bed just to make sure all warping is done before measuring the bed anyway.
I am sure this is overkill but I really hate coming back after a bit to check on a print only to find the first layer explodicated.
Whoops. I was TOTALLY off base on the autoleveling above. I was thinking this was about extruders in relation to the build plate (my custom firmwared s1 pro has this setting) rather than each other. Anyway, I am should get that dialed in this morning.
Okay fought with it again today to get Bjoern’s 1.15.1 on there. This is also just notes for me so I don’t forget about this some months from now.
As suggested on a reddit forum for another firmware on a different printer, I had to rename the file to something with 4 or fewer characters (fyou.bin), and the firmware went right through. At least, the printer info shows the right firmware version now anyway.
The file was not renamed to fyou.CUR, so hopefully things are okay.
Hi again,
there were issues concerning host printing in firmware v1.15.0 + v1.15.1.
Display software v1.15.0 contains a bug in the presets screen that will freeze the display.
Updated firmware v1.15.2 & display software v1.15.2 have been released today.
/R
Björn
Now it is not reading the SD card. It says there is no SD card inserted, and I have tried three different cards now. All work on my computers and they are all formatted correctly.
I also notice that the printer info screen shows “Supported display version: v1.15.0” whereas the firmware and current display version both read v1.15.2 … I don’t know if that is related to the SD card issue, but I figured you might want to know.
Thanks for letting me know. I missed to update this string - it will be updated this in the next version.
There were no changes with impact on SD card processing. However, it sounds familiar that SD cards working in my PC are not recognized in the SV04. I got all of them back to work by cleaning the contacts with a small brass brush.
I hot-fixed the printer info screen in the updated debug firmware version v1.15.2.1-rts-debug.
Before updating to firmware version v1.15.3 I will wait for more input & feeback.
/R
Björn
I am happy to report that all is well again. I guess I did have one SD card go bad (the printer thinks so) … the problems with the other cards are seem to have been caused by my partition table shenanigans. I won’t say that I DIDN’T experience apocalyptic visions of large hammers and smashed printers atop trash bins …
The version lines match now, except for the debug stuff … I like the new interface and features!
@Bjoern - Thank you for your firmware. I am running 1.15.1 and will watch for 1.15.3
I am not sure you are interested in an opinion as I think you are kindly sharing the firmware that works for you, but just in case, I prefer the non-scrolling Print filenames when searching for a print. I did notice the scroll speed. The two lines when necessary is nice as I noticed in v.1.14.6, / TouchScreen 1.14.3.
I do like the way the filename scrolls while it is printing, though.
Hi urbnsr,
thanks for your feed-back. The driving force was to display larger filenames. 130 chars would result either in a small font size or not more than one or two files in a single page. Therefore I switched over to scrolling text. Filenames that are shorter than 20 chars will be displayed left-aligned without scrolling, but usually slicer output files are much longer.
BTW, firmware v1.15.3 is now available. It will work with display software v1.15.2.
/R
Björn
Hi Björn,
Thank you - thank you. I will install shortly.
I understand the driving force. I have recently switched to PrusaSlicer which outputs file name with estimated print time and other appreciated info. I just have to wait for some filenames to scroll enough to see what they are as I search for the one I want.
I should probably remove most previously printed files, but it’s nice to have them available for re-prints. I could also try to shorten PrusaSlicer’s filename.
Hi again,
there is no sort option active in the firmware - usually the file browser screen locates the most recent files at the end of the last file page.
/R
Björn
Thanks. If the newer files were always at the end, that would work. For some reason, though, I don’t always find them at the end. I haven’t checked why this may be happening.
Hi @Bjoern, there seems to be something wrong with 1.15.3 …
I have tried the same gcode twice now and it prints, then just stops at some random point during the print. It seems to just freeze. The interface still registers touches, but the print itself freezes. The nozzles and bed stay at temperature, but it sits indefinitely like this.
EDIT: Testing a different gcode file. I hope this isn’t the SD card reader on this thing … I suppose I could try printing from USB. Pronterface or something …
Hi aPpYe,
without further information on specific instructions that are suspect cause the freeze I would assume that nozzle PID tuning should help to fix this issue.
/R
Björn
I use a 128GB micro SD card with SD adapter. I created the first partition at 2GB and formatted vfat type (WIN95 VFAT32). I place both firmware.bin file and the directory for the TouchScreen (DWIN_SET) in the root of this partition.
The TouchScreen update goes as expected. When I updated the firmware to 1.15.1, all went well there, too.
When I attempted to update to 1.15.3, the firmware did not update. Using someone’s tip I found before, I renamed firmware.bin to aaa.bin and then the firmware updated. ? - I don’t know why.
I have yet to find a successful firmware update rename the file firmware.bin to firmware.CUR (or any other name). SD cards used were not write protected.
