Well, I went ahead and swapped my gen2 electronics with the gen3 electronics I recently built (I was using them to exercise my extruder as a stand alone system.) and lo and behold, I sidestepped my software issues.

I also discovered another problem with my previous set, so my x-axis used to skip steps, and over-heat very easily. I figured that the axis must have had some extra built in friction somewhere. I put a bigger heat sink on and even point a small case fan at it. I decided to change all electronics in this recent switch, not just the motherboard and extruder board, and figured I'd have to tweak the current on that one stepper board. Well, it seems that there must have been something wrong with that particular board, because I have my x and y at exactly the same settings with no overheating problems. Oh well, it is one hurdle that I no longer have to worry about.

Anyway. I had been spending all of my energy trying to get this one sanguino controller to be recognized by replicatorG, and was having a hell of time. The official reprap host software is set for a stepper extruder, and I didn't have that. ReplicatorG is much more of a flexible system, but I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't see my machine. It was giving me errors saying it couldn't see my serial connection, even though I could see and hear that my hapsrap was reseting. Really, quite frustrating. When I first got the new electronics set up and mounted, I tried running the most recent mendel version of the gen3 firmware. Still no dice. Then I decided to try to emulate the cupcake, as there is no reason why the system would know what my electronics were actually hooked up to. RepG has built in firmware and firmware push abilities and had no problems with updating my micros. And there you have it! Working system! It really wasn't a problem configuration wise either, RepG has a machines.xml file where I can put in my axis resolutions, and the firmware has onboard settings to flip directions where necessary (X and Y). I was even able to start some prints! (as you can see above.) So I still need to look into it more, but it seems it was a firmware issue. Seems strange still as there are plenty of people using replicatorG with mendel firmwares.

I still need to work through the normal extruder work-in phase as I recently rebuilt it, but I've done that before and it shouldn't be a problem. I do, however, think I need to adjust my thermistor settings, as I have to run the extruder way too hot (around 235C vs 220C) to get smooth extrusion without stripping my filament. I also came across a problem I had the first time I built the extruder, there is a small gap between the brass heated barrel and the PTFE insulator. After running the extruder for a while (especially with stops) the melted portion of the ABS can reach all the way up to the cool insulator and plastic fills that gap, making a pretty good plug that pushes my force needed way too high. This is why I haven't been able to complete an entire built (only 10 or so layers).

Yeah, so real annoying, but easily workable. I can definitely say I am excited again.