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Unresolved Printing with a SD-card

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Jokerk, Dec 11, 2014.

  1. Jokerk

    Jokerk New Member

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    Hi,

    I'm looking all over the internet, but I can't seem to find the answer. I want to use the SD slot on my Robo R1 because the connection fails sometimes when I'm printing via USB(and then I can start over again...)

    Can anyone tell me how this works? (I work with mattercontrol)

    Also, a little off-topic, would I like to know what i could do against the pattern on the bottom of all my prints. It looks like it doesn't fill it up completely.


    Thanks!
     
  2. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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  3. John Burgardt

    John Burgardt New Member

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    Mike I really appreciate all the information you and the others share. When I try to load a g-code file from the micro SD card; I can see the files listed and they load OK, but when I try to view them, it just says no file found. (or something like that) I am trying this with the Matter control. The first link listed above says:

    "There is no easy way to do this in MatterControl right now. You can use Pronterface instead, or you can open the G-Code Terminal in MatterControl and start the print using these commands." tanderson [Moderator] - May 11th, 2015 at 1:21p.m.

    From reading these forums, it sounds like some people are able to print from the card without using LCD and with Matter control. I would rather not download another interface program. I have Repetier for programming, but had difficulty getting it to talk to the printer.

    Also, in the Matter control software; has SD card reader is checked. Thx, John
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Ask the people who support MatterControl:

    https://www.matterhackers.com/community/forum

    They will be the experts.

    I can tell you how to do it with Simplify3D, but perhaps someone else on this forum has done it will MatterControl.
     
  5. John Burgardt

    John Burgardt New Member

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    Mark Thanks again for all you do. The guys at Robo might be more help. The note I posted was from the matterhacker forum. I'll let this thread know what resolved it.
     
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Thanks, yes -- a follow up would be splendid.
     
  7. John Burgardt

    John Burgardt New Member

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    Ok, it turns out when you load the files from the SD card into the queue, and try to view them, you get the alarm or warning "File not found on disk or SD card". The file is there and ready to run, I was just thrown off by the warning. It is almost impossible to monitor the printing from the PC when running from the card though, except there is a "percentage complete" bar that still displays the print progress. I think I need to get the LCD controller for better control in the future. This is using the Matter control only. Thanks again for you help Mark.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Great, glad you got it working.

    You might try repetier and/or cura as well. They may give you more feedback.
    Simplify does give you interactive progress when it launches the print from the SD card (but you can still disconnect the USB if you really want to print headless). repetier and cura might do more than matter control (it really is the lowest common denominator).
     
  9. John Burgardt

    John Burgardt New Member

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    Mark I have started using repetier for programming cause matter kept crashing. I use matter just to load programs cause I couldn't get repetier to talk to the printer. Either way, I am happily printing instead of dealing with win 8.1 issues.

    Side note; the matter control only displays about 6 characters maximum of the file name so they have to be short to be distinguishable.

    Also, do not sneeze while carrying the micro card and inserting it into the hidden slot on the side. If you drop it; you can lose it.
     
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  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  11. mjensen2k

    mjensen2k New Member

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    Thank you for this! Also for the caveats such as the file not found error. In my case, the file name was simply axel....

    I added Axel to the queue from my local drive.
    I exported it to the SD card in my laptop
    I ejected the SD card
    (leaving the Axel print job in the queue...)
    Put SD card into the printer
    Import files from SD
    TWO items in my queue. Axel (from pc) and Axel~1 from SD card. The first ready to print, the second queued.

    I was confused as the video didn't show removing the original file from the queue. The name suggested that there was a collision on naming and the ~1 was added to make it unique.

    After going back and forth, I ended up removing the original print from the queue during the SD transfer. So when I imported from SD, there was only one file.

    It was still Axel~1
    It warned about the file being missing
    It still printed
    When I disconnected from the printer, the software asked if I wanted to disconnect and cancel the print... I didn't want to cancel of course. But I tried it figuring I'd only lose a couple minutes of print time if it really cancelled.

    It didn't. It continued to print, so the warning was wrong.

    So, three things of note for me:
    1 - remove the original file from the queue. It at least appears like it will print twice. One from PC and one from SD.
    2 - ignore the 'file not found warning' on the SD file version
    3 - ignore the warning about cancelling the print when disconnecting (during SD card print).

    Whew.
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    For what it is worth you can avoid the "Axel~1" by using a short filename (8.3) when you save the GCode to the SD card.
     
  13. mjensen2k

    mjensen2k New Member

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    Thanks! I thought Axel was short enough, but to your point, the extension was defaulted to gcode and hence longer than the .3 extension.

    I haven't been living in an 8.3 world recently! :)
     
  14. jacob sayegh

    jacob sayegh New Member

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    I found the simplest way to print from the SD card is to slice with the software of your choice then save the file to the SD card using the name auto0.g Then insert the card into your printer and turn it on. It should begin to heat within a minute or so.
     
  15. fredm

    fredm Member

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    I am having the same problem ...not being able to print from an sd card.
    can someone clarify this:
    Export your Gcode to an SD card and rename it auto0.g

    so the new name is auto0.g but there will be another "." followed by the file extention. sorry I dont remember what that is at the moment.
     
  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No, you want ".g" to BE the extension or it* will not work.



    *the auto printing
     
  17. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @fredm There should not be another '.' at the end. I assume you have Windows and by default it is set to not show file extensions. It is likely that you file is not really named auto0.g but rather something more like auto0.g.gco

    @mark tomlinson beat me to it.
     
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  18. fredm

    fredm Member

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    I re-named the file auto0.gcode. it didnt work.

    not sure what I am doing wrong/

    first I put the file in que.
    export as gcode to the sd card and renamed it auto0.gcode
    clicked que and load files from sd card.

    safely removed it from computer,
    inserted into printer.
    started print from the computer.
    clicked disconnect.
    print stopped.


    not sure what is wrong
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The filename must be: "auto0.g"

    Not auto0.gcode,not anything else.
     
  20. fredm

    fredm Member

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    Mark
    thanks for your reply.
    I will give another try tonight.

    BTW do you see anything else wrong with the process I mentioned. that all seems right?

    Oh, I should pull the usb plug from the printer rather than click the disconnect button in the program?
     

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