Creatbot DX600

[gorillaz]

Has anyone able to disable the auto shutdown feature of this printer? I am trying to connect octopi but everytime I start a print, it eventually times out and shutdown. I was hoping the software was smart enough to detect there is a print job via the serial interface. I can't get any support by the manufacturer as they claim their don't have the firmware. It is is ridiculous that the board is a Rambo variant, and their tools are based on cura and pronterface but rebranded/customize. Kind of defeat the purpose of gpl. The printer is of good quality but it is really annoying you have to transfer the files onto an USB stick and transfer it to the machine. You would expect nowadays everything should be network. It is pain watching the mechanical guys walking from their desk to the printer with a USB stick. I wouldn't have chosen this printer due to the gpl violation but was bought by a previous employee that wanted local support (non existent support).

[curious aardvark]

very nice looking printer.
As far as networking printers go, unless you can upload the gile in one go and then print it exclusively from the machine - why would you bother ?

How far a walk do the mechanical guys have ?
Given how long a 3d print can take - is it really an issue ?

We do have a few members who network via octopi.
Can't find any connection info on the creatbot website.

Is it possible to print directly from the slicer via a usb cable ?
In which case you could build a mini-itx system, connect that to your network and run it via teamvieer or similiar remote software.
I got a mini itx board, i3 chip and 4gm ram last week for ?35 quid. You can get a 120gb ssd for about ?15, windows 7 ultimate off ebay with genuine serial for about ?3, cheap case for ?30 and job's a good un.

If the slicer will run linux or android - use a raspberry pi - which you apparently already have.

By the sound of it you're trying to connect directly to an interface on the printers motherboard. And if the firmware doesn't support that - no it's just not going to work.

Ah - apparently it does have usb connectivity.
So that's the way I'd probably do it. network an attached computer and print directly over usb from that.

Or just let the mechanical guys get the odd bit of exercise :-)

[gorillaz]

I do agree you can install slic3r onto something else but I was hoping whether anyone that has managed to configure the Marlin firmware to get this working. Either I buy a Rambo board to connect to the printer and configure the marlin firmware instead of wiping out the Creatbot variant board. Alternatively I can just bring in my smoothie board or Rambo board from my mendelmax.

It is a well built printer but I guess next time we probably buy something that is configurable like utilmaker or bigrep. The person that bought the creatbot has never used a 3d printer or even built one. It is a shameful that a few manufacturers chose to break the gpl especially when all the hard work put in by reprap/utilmaker.

[gorillaz]

As for connecting a mini PC, a bit clunky compare to an octopi. About installing slic3r on a pi, is an overkill for an embedded SBC running a clunky software on limited resource. The reason for network capability, it allows the mech eng to do other things than wasting time walking back and forth to start a print and monitoring it. The reason for smoothie board and octoprint to allow the flexibility to remotely send a print and monitor it. It is a bit archiaic have to transfer on an USB stick. It is like the dark ages. In this high tech world where you want to work efficiently , and for a company that is working with AI and automation, this is so backwards.

[curious aardvark]

lmao - sorry, but I've been around long enough to have been alive when personal computers did not exist.

When i started out in business I was setting up token ring networks, where if one connection went down so did the entire network. That was fun !
Even today networking isn't particularly reliable.
For something like a 3d printer, you want the most stable data delivery you can get. Which is always going to be reading a file either stored on a printers internal memory, or off a storage device directly attached to the printer.

So why won't octopi connect via the usb port ?

[gorillaz]

I beg to differ when it comes to networking nowadays. The switch and routers are way better compare to the past. Either you have substandard network equipment. I have never experience that issue at home or at work. I also manage the network at work. We do have disconnection from providers but nothing wrong with the internal network. Only if someone decide to flood the network then latency or bandwidth is reduced hence why I have separate switches for different servers. I suggest you should figure out your network issue if you have that problem nowadays. If it is your bandwidth try some of the Linux tools like iperf to diagnose your issue. As for octopi and when a network outage occurs the jobs is still stored and carries on. They would have cover it for uploading when network fails based on file size and the amount of data received. I guess you have to consider the worse case scenario when designing a protocol. I have to when designing comms to talk to a microservices in the cloud.

I have a response from Creatbot and they suggest adding extra commands in the gcode. The mech eng will try it out.

[gorillaz]

As for network outage cause by power outage, you probably need a UPS. I also have that at work and the same at home.

[curious aardvark]

Now why is it whenever an issue is pointed out - people always assume it's because you - specifically have that issue ?

I've been in IT since it was invented. I'm not saying that networking has not improved. Just that it's never going to be as reliable as reading from storage directly connected to a device.

The longer the distance tha data has to travel, the more opportunities are introduced for 'issues'. That's just common sense.
Uploading the entire file directly to a usb connected pi, is a good option. Incrementally adding it to the same pi during the course of the print - over any network - isn't as good an option.

What cell phone do you have ?
:-)

[gorillaz]

I guess you don't know how octoprint works. It uploads the file, and only prints when the file is loaded not the way you describe it. Here is an instructables article.

https://www.instructables.com/id/How...t-with-OctoPi/

I agree it is reliable with physical medium but it is not a solution to my problem. Network is not issue and was never an issue. It is reliable in the office and you seem to be moving away from my actual question. For the USB transfer speed, it will also depends on the touchscreen platform which I assume is a microcontroller with USB 1.0 interface and reading from Fat filesystem. You won't achieve the max usb speed especially on a microcontroller running a LCD and graphics library.

Anyway why are you so against network enabled printers? You think it is efficient for mech eng to pop.every so often to view a print while he could be working on his other task or project. They find the octoprint useful than doing this especially with the webcam attached to it.

[curious aardvark]

not against networked printing, never said I was :-)
As long as it's implemented properly - ie: not streamed across a network.
And as you're not printing directly over the network - there isn't going to be any issue :-)

Your original question was unclear.

Only mentioned a serial interface, not whether that was on the board itself or via the usb interface (yes I know it stands for: universal serial bus) but generally a serial interface is still considered to be something quite different. Although most devices using serial interface do use a simulated port over usb. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a traditional serial port on a raspberry pi. No, I can't be arsed to go find out.

so go on, what phone ?