Saphire Pro problem

[Bikeracer2020]

Complete new user here!

I assembled a Saphire Pro corexy printer and I'm wondering if the mainboard is faulty or the problem is me ?

The auto levelling works and the extruder works but when I load the calibration square block from the supplied SD card it shows it's printing but never makes any progress to actually print anything. The hot end and bed are up to temperature.

I installed Mattercontrol on my laptop and it seems that the printer cannot be found using the USB connection.

The documentation supplied with the printer is woefully inadequate and does not cover actually using it or give any parameters or specifications or what the touch screen icons actually do.

Being a complete beginner with no previous knowledge perhaps I expected a bit more useability after assembly.

Allan

[curious aardvark]

hmm, don't the icons on the screen have words ?
Or explanatory pictures ?
Never yet seen any that didn't.
Failing that press them and see what happens :-)

And yep - as a rule you either don't get a manual or the one you get is translated from chinese into portugese, dutch, icelandic and then english.

Normally things not happening when you go to print is down to bad starting g-code. But if it's on card that came with the machine, that would be unusual.
It's far more likely that one of the wires is not fitted correctly - the hotend and bed thermistors would be favourite. If the board can't sense everything is up to temp - then it won't start a print.

[Bikeracer2020]

The icons show somethings which are self explanatory as in ....load and unload,heat bed and hot end etc.

There is one for autolevelling but no instructions as to how to use the supplied push on foam thingy which just falls off unless held on to a cold nozzle with double sided tape, or even where to connect it to the main board, after searching the internet I did discover how to connect it and did a nine point auto level after manually doing bed level.

Bed and hot end heat up and a small amount of pla was extruded so that's working, tried to print from the file supplied on the SD card but after 12 minutes there is no progress or printing started,...so it won't print from the SD card or from a laptop using a USB cable. The screen to print shows the bed temp to be 60 and the nozzle to be 200, so it seems to be reading that everything is up to temp.

TwoTrees customer service is next to useless and have not replied to the not printing and not connecting issue after three days of waiting. Oh, and in a previous email they're sorry for not providing any instructions !

I have contacted Banggood for a return and refund but up to now their response has been that they are "negotiating" with their supplier about it.
I suspect it possibly has a faulty main board.

If I end up getting no result I'll probably put it on Ebay as a cheap project for someone, or try and sell it on here cheap as a project for someone because it's beyond me how to sort it out. Don't know if there is a For Sale place on this forum.

I'm so disappointed with Banggood ond TwoTrees that it could well end up at the local recycling centre. One thing's for sure, i will get a different 3d printer but it won't be a Chinese one.

[curious aardvark]

what slicer are you using ?

Could just be abad sd card and poor g-code in the printer profile you are using.

Pretty much ALL the sdcards that come with cheap chinese printers should simply have the files copied from them to a computer and then bin the card. They are usually clones and exceptionally poor quality.

So this might actually be 2 - unrelated - but apparently identical issues.

What's your startup g-code look like ?

[Bikeracer2020]

Being a complete beginner with no previous experience so no idea what the G code looks like.
I put MatterControl on my computer and connected it via USB. The MatterControl could not find the printer using the connection wizard to get a profile.

Anyway thanks for trying to help, but I can't get any help from TwoTrees customer service and having no knowledge of getting a printer to work I've decided that this particular printer needs too much time trouble shooting and is probably faulty anyway.

Banggood don't seem inclined to honour their return warranty and having looked on Trust Pilot there are nearly a fifth of all reviews only giving them one star and complaining about not being able to return things to Banggood.
It's now dismantled and back in its packaging and in the For Sale section as perhaps a project for someone.

If no one wants it I'll see if I can donate it to a local school or colledge.

I expected to have to tinker, but I thought it would at least work if only in a poor way.

Hopefully my Ultimaker will arrive tomorrow and at least then I'll have some customer service and back up.

[curious aardvark]

WOW !
I've seen some impatience round here, but I think you win the gold medal.

You expected to tinker, but not with the slicer - the single most important part of the whole 3d printing process ?
You tried a single slicer, didn't bother finding out how to use it and then gave up.

Hopefully you'll get on better with cura :-)

As I'm 100% certain there's nothing actually wrong with your printer - where did you list it for sale ?
some of our member would probably be interested.

And yeah, sending stuff back to banggood and aliexpress and smiliar chinese retailers is not an option.
That's one reason stuff is so cheap.

Helluva of price jump to an ultimaker.
But hopefully you won't have any problems :-)

Let us know how you get on - don't think we've had anyone buy a new model ultimaker round here for quite a while.
cheers
CA

[Bikeracer2020]

WOW !
I've seen some impatience round here, but I think you win the gold medal.

You expected to tinker, but not with the slicer - the single most important part of the whole 3d printing process ?
You tried a single slicer, didn't bother finding out how to use it and then gave up.

CA

I did try Repetier Host but that has no profile for the printer.
MatterControl has a connection wizard but that could not find the printer and get a profile after connecting the USB cable. Not a lot of point trying to find out how to use it if it cannot be used with the printer.

So if there is no profile for the software and the files on the SD don't work what does a complete beginner do next, perhaps some basic start up guide supplied with the printer would have helped.

Yes I did expect to tinker, but as I said I am totally new to what needs doing and did expect to actually get at least a print of some sort to start with. It's the total lack of support from TwoTrees and the attitude of Banggood that is the problem.
All the various printer reviews I've seen led me to believe that when a printer started there was the ability to at least do a print of some sorts from the supplied SD card even if the print was not very good.

It's in the For Sale thread on this forum, but I'm in the UK.

[curious aardvark]

but I'm in the UK.

so are a lot of us :-)

I'm not that far from you either - so stick my nname on it :-)
I'll definitely have it.