Command Line Communication

[Mjolinor]

Have you printed with it?

It works fine for 700 bytes on my setup but it seems to have a problem interpreting or capturing the bytes back from the printer firmware, at least for me. For now I have given up trying to get it working right.

[Default]

I haven't printed a full file with it yet. I'm actually working on another project (auto-calibration), so all I need it for is simple move commands.

I might try to print a file to see if I can get it to work. What commands are you expecting to have a return sent back from the printer to the PC (I'd recommend the verbose (-v) flag regardless)?

[Mjolinor]

The printer returns hex numbers to inform the state of the print that is in progress. They are all listed in the source for GPX

[curious aardvark]

so, can you run slic3r or cura directly to the printer from linux ? Given that they won't communicate in windows.

Ubuntu will easily dual boot with windows. so that's not a problem.

Might this be an easier route to breaking free of makerware than the whole slic3r/gcode/gpx/x3g route ?
You got me thinking now :-)

Damn, might have to switch my 64gb ssd for a 128.

[Mjolinor]

so, can you run slic3r or cura directly to the printer from linux ? Given that they won't communicate in windows.

Ubuntu will easily dual boot with windows. so that's not a problem.

Might this be an easier route to breaking free of makerware than the whole slic3r/gcode/gpx/x3g route ?
You got me thinking now :-)

Damn, might have to switch my 64gb ssd for a 128.

No you can't unless you change the electronics in the printer.

[Default]

so, can you run slic3r or cura directly to the printer from linux ? Given that they won't communicate in windows.

You'll need to make sure whatever your printer is receiving is in X3G, so unfortunately you probably cant take output directly from Slic3r/Cura.


I know the guys developing MatterControl are looking at adding X3G support in the future, (and it can use Slic3r/Cura) so the dream may become a reality in the future.

[Default]

Just an update if anyone reads this thread in the future and wants to connect to their FF.


My board is a Flashforge Creator REV C mightyboard (ATMEGA1280), and although the link that Geoff posted suggested 57600 baud rate, it works with the default 115200 through GPX.


$ sudo gpx -s -b 115200 -v move.gcode /dev/ttyACM0

[JohnKlein94]

So I managed to get this to work; all I had to do was install Linux (Ubuntu)...


In case anyone else needs the same functionality, here are the basic steps I went through:
- Install Linux OS (Ubuntu, for e.g.). On a separate note, you can run it off a Live-USB with persistance, which is pretty cool.
- Ensure you can communicate with serial ports. I uninstalled brltty, installed ReplicatorG and Arduino and tested serial comms to ensure it worked with a known-working program.
- Download the latest GPX source (At least 2.0 which support serial communications via the -s flag). 'Install' via make install.
- The commands I ran to test it was working where:
$ echo G1 X10 > move.gcode
$ sudo gpx -s -v move.gcode /dev/ttyACM0


Some points about the serial port:
- You can check which serial port your printer is on with $ dmesg | tail tty
- You'll need to run commands as root (with sudo), or add yourself to the group (dialout) for the tty file. Check it with $ ls -l /dev/tty*


Now to see if I can write a Python program to automate this, and talk with some other sensors simultaneously!

Thank you very much for the information!