Connecting an SKR3 H743 Version via an ESP8266 or ESP32 WiFi Adapter in RRF 3.5.0 Onwards

How to connect to an SKR3 H743 Version via an ESP8266 or ESP32 WiFi Adapter

Overview

The SKR3 H743 is an STM32H723 based board.

There have been a number of changes in the way RRF builds for STM32F4, STM32H723 and STM32H743 boards are being produced from 3.5-RC4 and onwards.
The main changes are:-

A build per board rather than all boards being contained in one build
WiFi and SBC mode in one build. If there is an SD card present its in WiFi mode, if there isn’t one installed its in SBC mode. This matches the way the Duet3D boards operate.
A board.txt setting to denote the WiFi module type installed.

WiFi

You will need a BTT or MKS produced ESP8266 WiFi module or a Fly/Mellow ESP32 Module.
TeamGloomy recommend an ESP32 module over an ESP8266 module as WiFi performance with an ESP32 is superior.

Downloading the board firmware

Teamgloomy now generate per board firmware files. The correct file to use for this board is firmware_skr3_h743.bin.

The latest firmware files can be found here

You can choose to download either the latest release or the latest pre-release if available. These instructions are applicable to releases from 3.5-RC4.

Once downloaded, rename it firmware.bin

WiFi firmware preparation

The latest firmware files can be found here

WiFiModule_esp8266.bin for ESP8266
WiFiModule_esp32.bin for ESP32

DWC (DuetWebControl)

The correct version of DWC should be downloaded from here.
The version you download should be of the same version number as the board firmware you downloaded above.
For example, if version 3.5.0 of the board firmware has been downloaded, 3.5.0 of DWC should be downloaded.

Using the Configurator
Manually Editing/Creating board.txt

Generate a config

We provide a handy online tool to assist you in generating a set of config files for your 3D printer. The configurator doesn’t cover all options that RRF can be used for (such as dual motor axis control, which can be manually added later), however it does give a good start.

We also have a collection of user created configs which can be a useful reference. They can be found here

Manual board.txt Changes

If you are using a set of config files provided by someone else or have no need to use the configurator, you may need to create your board.txt file manually. From 3.5-RC4, the majority of the board.txt configurables are pre-configured per board.
The preset configurables for the SKR3 H743 are listed below for reference.

board=skr3_h743
board.longName="BTT SKR3 STM32H743"
sdcard.internal.type=2
SPI0.pins={A.5,A.6,A.7}
SPI1.pins={B.13,B.14,B.15}
SPI2.pins={NoPin,NoPin,NoPin}
SPI3.pins={E.14,E.15,E.13}
SPI4.pins={C.5,B.1,B.0}
SPI5.pins={E.9,NoPin,B.1}
SPI6.pins={NoPin,NoPin,NoPin}
SPI7.pins={NoPin,NoPin,NoPin}
SPI8.pins={NoPin,NoPin,NoPin}
stepper.powerEnablePin=NoPin
stepper.enablePins={D.6,D.1,E.0,C.7,D.13}
stepper.stepPins={D.4,A.15,E.2,D.15,D.11}
stepper.directionPins={D.3,A.8,E.3,D.14,D.10}
stepper.numSmartDrivers=5
stepper.TmcUartPins={D.5,D.0,E.1,C.6,D.12}
stepper.spiChannel=3
power.VInDetectPin=NoPin
sbc.TfrReadyPin=C.14
sbc.csPin=B.12
sbc.spiChannel=1
wifi.espDataReadyPin=B.10
wifi.TfrReadyPin=B.11
wifi.espResetPin=C.14
wifi.serialRxTxPins={D.9, D.8}
heat.tempSensePins={A.1,A.2,A.3}

Unless you are overriding some of the above settings, or adding additional features, such as an accelerometer or 12864 display, a board.txt file is not required.

Sensorless Homing

Follow the instructions as found here

You can now continue getting the SD card in the correct format.

WiFi Type

You will need to add the type of WiFi module you use to your board.txt so the firmware knows the correct firmware file to use for future updates.

ESP32

If the WiFi module is an ESP32, then add the following line.

wifi.moduleType=esp32

ESP8266

If the WiFi module is an ESP8266, then add the following line.

wifi.moduleType=esp8266

Drivers

The following line should be added (obviously with the array entries matching your drivers and their locations):

stepper.DriverType = {Tmc2208, Tmc2240, tmc2209, tmc5160, stepdir}

The DriverType array allows for any driver to be used in any slot so there is no order requirement like the previous detection method. The array must also include an entry for each driver slot up to the last one thats populated.
The following list of entries are valid:

none
stepdir
tmc2208
tmc2209
tmc2660
tmc5160
tmc2240

The entry for stepper.numSmartDrivers is preset in the firmware for the number of drivers your board can handle. The number of drivers only needs to be changed if you are adding more drivers using something such as the BTT EXP MOT.

TMC2240 Driver Temperature

TMC2240 drivers support reporting their own temperature, rather than just hot and very hot like the other TMC drivers. To utilise this, add the following line to your config.g

M308 S11 Y"drivers"

This will return the highest temperature reading from any of the drivers, 2240s will return the actual temperature, other drivers will return 0, 100 or 150 (as before).

If you want to know the temperature of a particular driver you need to add the following line (as well as the above):

M308 S12 Y"drivertemp" p"S11.X"

Where x is the driver number that matches the driver number used by M569

Sensorless Homing

Follow the instructions as found here

SD Card preparation

Now all the required files have been gathered, the SD card structure needs to be created.

SD Card Specification

When choosing an SD Card to use with RRF, we recommend one with the following features:

a branded card with a speed rating of Class 4 or higher
of up to 32GB capacity, formatted as below. RepRapFirmware does not support SD cards formatted in exFAT format.

Formatting

Tip: We recommend formatting you SD card with the SD Memory Card Formatter from the SD Association. Do this regardless of whether the SD Card is brand new or has been used for something else.

If you can’t use the recommended formatting tool, then the following points should be taken into account:

If you need to reformat the micro SDHC card:

If the capacity of the card is 4GB or lower, use FAT16 format
If the capacity is more than 4GB (up to 32GB) then you will have to use FAT32 format
All cards should be formatted with 512 byte sectors
For best upload speed choose the largest cluster size available, which is normally 64kb for FAT16 and 32kb for FAT32

Warning: DO NOT use Windows ‘Quick Erase’. This generally does not create a clean FAT32 partition.

SD Card Structure

The following structure should be replicated on your SD card.

sd card root/
├─ filaments/
├─ firmware/
│  ├─ WiFiModule_esp*.bin
├─ gcodes/
├─ macros/
├─ sys/
│  ├─ bed.g
│  ├─ board.txt $ If required
│  ├─ config.g
│  ├─ homeall.g
│  ├─ homex.g
│  ├─ homey.g
│  ├─ homez.g
│  ├─ pause.g
│  ├─ resume.g
│  ├─ sleep.g
│  ├─ stop.g
│  ├─ tfree0.g
│  ├─ tpost0.g
│  ├─ tpre0.g
├─ www/
│  ├─ contents of DuetWebControl-SD.zip
firmware.bin

In the above example, the contents of the sys folder have come from the online configurator. The WiFiModule file name will either be:

WiFiModule_esp32.bin
WiFiModule_esp8266.bin
WiFiModule_esp32eth.bin

The contents of DuetWebControl-SD.zip should be extracted into the www folder.

Final Setup

Once connected, power up the board using 12-24v and connect to the USB port on the board. Connect to the board using a program such as putty. Follow the instructions here to set it up for RRF. Change the Com port to match the SKR3 H743 and connect. The baudrate doesn’t matter.

Tip: I (jay_s_uk) have a very handy little tool installed on my main laptop thats monitoring for any serial devices as they are plugged in and you get a popup with the Com port number. If you’re interested, it can be found here

Flashing the WiFi Firmware

Type in the following to putty

M552 S0
M997 S1

Wait for the uploading of the WiFi firmware to finish.

Sending your WiFi Credentials

Send the following

M552 S0
M587 S"your SSID" P"your password"
M552 S1

Warning: DO NOT USE PRONTERFACE it will convert all text to upper case. If you really must, please do the following.
If you wanted to use “PassWord”, you would write P”P’a’s’sW’o’r’d” with the ‘ indicating the following letter should be lower case. Explanation here.

Important: Both the SSID and Password used to connect to your WiFi are case sensitive.

The blue light on the WiFi chip shoould then flash blue and will go solid when a connection has been established. The ip address will be shown on the serial connection. It is also possible to type just M552 to get the current ip address reported back.

The final thing to do is add the line “M552 S1” to your config file. This can be done through the web interface. This just ensures that the WiFi connection is started at start up. There is no need to add the M587 command as this is written permanently to the flash of the ESP8266 chip.

Once up and running

You will need to PID tune your tools and your bed. Please be aware that bed tuning may take up to an hour and tool tuning normally takes around 15 minutes. If it takes longer, that is also fine as up to 30 cycles may be ran.

To tune the bed, run the following command, changing the temperature (the S value) if a different tuning temperature is required.

M303 H0 S60

To tune each tool, run the following command, changing the temperature (the S value) if a different tuning temperature is required. This proceedure will activate the part cooling fans during the final phase of the tuning process so their effect is taken into account. If your printer has more than one tool, make sure each one of them is tuned.

M303 T0 S220

Once the tuning is complete, either copy the M307 command into the heater definitions or send M500, ensuring you have M501 at the end of your config.g.
If the tuning fails at the end, carry on saving the values as in most cases the outputted values still work correctly.
If the values still result in a heater fault, please refer to this wiki page for information about how to adjust the values manually.

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