reprapdiscount LCD display

I just receive my new ROBO R1 PLA & ABS printer about a week ago. It came with the SD slot build into the side of the printer. But I like the XXL controller. But I have a few questions:
1. Where does it plug into the RAMPS card, does anyone have a picture, and does it plug into the same place as the existing SD connection that came with the printer. I'm not even sure where the existing SD connection plugs in.
2. Is there any documentation about what the XXL does, the different menus, where to find settings, etc.
3. Is there anything that the XXL can't do that the PC can.
4. Because I have a new ROBO printer do I need to change any firmware, do I need to flash the card.
5. The new ROBO printer have the bottom enclose, so quess I will have cut a slit to feed the cables thru, does anyone see a problem with this.

 

I just hooked mine up over the weekend.
1) There is a set of cables going from the onboard SD to the main board. That unplugs and the LCD plugs in a similar fashion.
2) I've seen some reports of what's possible, but haven't seen anything official.
3) The nice thing is it can adjust on the fly and doesn't require a PC, which is why I purchased it.
4) Same question myself
5) That's what I did, just shaved a little off the bottom.

 

RokleM, Can you tell me or show me how you attached to controller to the ROBO frame and did you print a case to enclose it and if you did, do you have the slt file. I saw one person who used Velcro and another who printed case that could be screwed on or Velcro attached.
Still not sure where you plug the XXL controller into on the RAMPS board. Does anyone have a picture.

 

This:

Plugs into the two headers on the right corner of this photo:

It really can only to in one place and orientation.

I printed the standard enclosure from Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:79820, and routed the cable through two slots in the back plate that I made in either Sketchup or 123D Design. I then velcroed it to the left arm of the enclosure. If the ribbon cable is routed carefully it will fit nicely.

 

Documentation, who needs documentation? Just browse through the menus and 95% of what you need will be obvious. /Control/Temperature is useful for preheating the bed and extruder. Prepare/Move XYZE is useful. There is a lot of fine tuning under /Control that you will probably ignore for now. Not obvious is that if you rotate the knob while on the main page and while printing it will scale up or down the print speed relative to 100%. For some sections of a print you can speed up to 140% or more and some sections you might want to slow down.

I've used the XXL for 8 months and have not connected the PC since and have not noticed any missing functionality.

 

Steve thanks for the pictures, do you have the new ROBO R1 with the SD slot in the side. It also looks like you have feet on yours, or are they just things you slide under the corners to raise it up. I really do appreciate everyone on this forum getting back to me so quickly, I send questions into ROBO Tech team and I'm still waiting for a response from them.

As long as I have your attention, can you explain to me what software this controller uses. I understand that MatterControl runs on the PC and how you can pick the slicer you want to use. What does the XXL controller use for software and can you change to any slicing software you want to, are there setting for this in the controller. Does the slicing software reside on the PC and the controller and then is down loaded to the printer for each print. This part of the printing is still very confusing for me.

When you run a print job is the slicer code downloaded to the printer and does it reside on the RAMPS card. Same for the MatterControl commands are they downloaded to the printer when the print job is started. Is there somewhere on the forum where this is explained
Thanks again for your help.

 

Robert, you still use your computer in the beginning, it doesn't nee to be connected to the printer but you need a SD card.

You can use whichever print software/slicer you like. Once you slice it , all software will have a save G-code, or save to SD option.

You simply save the gcode on the sd card, and stick it in the printer. The xxl runs off that.

 

I have the original Kickstarter version, no SD card holder. No feet. I temporally had those blocks under it before I added the RAMPS fan and before I replaced the MOSFET and larger Polyfuse. I don't seem to need the extra airflow from the blocks now.

The XXL controller has no software in it at all. It is just dumb like a keyboard and display. All the software is already in the Marlin firmware running on your Arduino/RAMPS boards. The SD card on the XXL or on the newer Robos is also just a dumb peripheral. The XXL functionality is enabled by a #define (like a software switch) in the configuration.h file which is just part of all of the files that make up the Marlin firmware. I think this is already enabled on the more recent Marlin firmware versions that come installed on the Robo. (Someone please correct me if this is wrong.)

As AxisLab mentioned, the slicing is done on a PC. The slicer outputs a Gcode file. This Gcode file is just a text file that contains a list of "toolhead" commands that tell the printer what to do to print your model. This Gcode file then can just be copied onto an SD card. When the SD card is plugged into the XXL a "Print from SD Card" menu selection appears at the bottom of the main menu. When you print the printer just reads that Gcode file from the SD card and follows all the commands. These commands include XY Z motion, Extrusion and Heating.

You can even open up a Gcode file in a text editor and look at the commands:
http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code

There is a lot of information here: http://reprap.org/. The Robo3D is just a commercial version of this open source project.

 

My understanding is that when using the XXL control you don't need to be connected to a computer at anytime.
My question are:
1. What software does the XXL controller use and can you use any slicer available.
2. Is there a place in the XXL controller software that you can pick the slicer you want to use. When you are connect to the printer with a PC and you are using MatterControl software you can pick a slice that you want to use, is this the same for the XXL controller.
3. Can you update the software on the XXL controller and can you update the slicers software that comes with the XXL controller.
4. Is the slicing code uploaded to the RAMPS card before every print.
5. Is the MatterControl code also update to the RAMPS card before every print.
6. When people talk about flashing the RAMPs or Ardunino card, is this something that is done thru MatterControl software or other software. Is there a document that explains how to upload code to the RAMPs or Ardunino card.
7. I also hear people talking about changing Gcode, or running Gcode from the computer to test something, what software are they using to do this

The more questions I ask the more confused I get, sorry about that.
I'm just really trying to understand this 3D printer world???

 

Hi Robert, Looks like our posts crossed. Let me know if I did not answer all your questions.
Steve

 

Steve thanks for the response, I wrote the above question before I got your answer to my first set of questions. I think I'm starting understand a little more of how these 3D printers work.
1. Is the Merlin software what has to be flashed to the Arduino/RAMPS board.
2. Is the Gcode the same as an STL file or is that different.

Thank for being so patient.

 

I also hear people talking about changing Gcode, or running Gcode from the computer to test something, what software are they using to do this

 

I installed the XXL Smart LCD Controller A little while back. Any time I do a standalone print now (say for example the feet that raise the case to allow the screen to be installed on the front) The top layer never seems complete. As in, it will still be "gridded" and not a closed off full layer. Has anyone had this issue? When I drag my files to the matter control software, I export the file as GCode and save it to my SD card from there. If i do not have my printer hooked up to my computer but my SD is plugged in, should I export to "printer SD card" prior to exporting to GCode or will that not make a difference? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

I never have the PC hooked up to the printer and always just copy to the SD card. I don't see how it would make a difference how the file is copied to the card. I use Repetier Host and have never had a problem with saving the gcode to an SD card.

 

I've never tried that from RH. I guess I always delete from the file manager. I have two small cards that I only use for the printer so it would not be a big problem if I accidently did.