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R2 not reading USB drive

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by ballhogjoni, Jun 21, 2017.

  1. ballhogjoni

    ballhogjoni Member

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    I've added some new STL files to the USB drive that came with the printer but I plug it in and it doesn't read the files. What have I done wrong? The only files available to print are the built in STL and gcode files.

    On a side not the iphone app says:
    Error
    Only .stl or .gcode files can be used at this time.

    What is wrong with the iphone app?
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Moved to the correct forum so someone with an R2 can look at this.
     
  3. Ed Ferguson

    Ed Ferguson Active Member

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    I've only used Octoprint so far to manage print jobs.

    But today I plugged the Robo thumbdrive into my PC and added a STL file to the 3D_Prints\STL_FilesFiles folder, where all the demo STL files are stored.

    The R2 display does not show the new file, even after a reboot or a power-down / restart of the printer.

    According to the Robo literature:
    Print files from a USB drive. The USB reader will consolidate all STLs and GCODE files on your thumbdrive and display them on the LCD screen or your browser interface. Files selected for printing are then transferred to Octoprint for job handling.

    When I open Octoprint on the PC the new file is shown: Click USB > 3D Prints > STL_Files

    So, printing directly from thumbdrive, without a PC, does not seem to work for me either. The literature info quoted above is confusing as it implies Octoprint is required.
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I would think that if you hand it an STL then octoprint is indeed required. You still have to slice it to GCode.
    I have done this on a C2 by uploading the file to OctoPrint, but I have not tried with a USB drive.
     
  5. Ed Ferguson

    Ed Ferguson Active Member

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    You're right. I copied a gcode file from my PC to the Robo thumbdrive 3D_Prints\gcode folder. Moved the thumbdrive to the Robo R2 and it did not see the new file. Re-booted the Robo and navigated the LCD to USB > 3D Prints > gcode_Files. File is printing OK. So it appears the thumbdrive is only read during power-up or re-boot.
     
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    That is ... special. Might want to mark that as an issue against the RoboOS: https://github.com/Robo3D/Marlin/issues
     
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  7. JeffreyB

    JeffreyB Member

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    What if you unmount the drive from the front panel and then reinsert?
     
  8. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Is there an option in the menu system on the touch screen to un-mount and then mount the USB contents?
     
  9. JeffreyB

    JeffreyB Member

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    20170623_114522.jpg
    Yes, under "Options"
     
  10. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Does doing that and re-mounting solve the issue?
     
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I would expect it to, but I would need to go find a flash drive :)
     
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  12. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    man flashdrives are so maker bot ;) lol
     
  13. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    I found some discussion that said that Octopi for some reason doesn't automount USB drives. That would explain it.
     
  14. Seamus

    Seamus Member

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    The USB stick that came with my R2 worked fine, but I had a bit of trouble getting my printer to mount, read, or generally do anything at all with a 64GB USB stick that I tried in it. I was happy that the activity LED showed when it was working (no LED on the included USB stick), especially with issues I had with touchscreen sensitivity, leading me to wonder if it was just taking a while to write files to the stick, or if it had failed to register my touch. Unfortunately, it seems to have had trouble dealing with such a large drive.

    I found a small 16GB USB stick with an activity LED, which is short enough that it doesn't interfere with the door's swing, and everything has been working great since then. It reads, writes, unmounts on command, mounts automatically when inserted, and as a bonus, it flashes its LED at me while it works.
     
  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The limit on FAT-32 with Windows is 32gb so you could be running into that. Larger flash drives or SD cards it wants to format with a different file system.
     
  16. Seamus

    Seamus Member

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    Yes, that's the same conclusion that I came to - that the R2 was having problems dealing with the ExFAT format.

    I found it was easier to just dig out a lower-capacity drive that met the physical aspects I was looking for, since 16GB is more than enough space for my purposes.
     
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  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Some utilities (like SD Card Formatter) will do it for you, but for our Arduino/Pi projects it was just as easy to simply stay at 32gb or less.
     
  18. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    [On a Robo C2] I'll add to this if you print a file ABC.gcode in OctoPrint from USB, unmount the USB, slice it again differently using the same name, re-mount the USB and try to select it, OctoPrint doesn't seem to understand that it's a different file. You have to name them ABC_v2.gcode or similar for it to see any difference and not just replay-from-cache or whatever it's doing.
     
  19. Mortal798

    Mortal798 New Member

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    I am having the same issue - I put files on a USB thumb drive, and it does not recognize that it is inserted (this is the thumb drive that came with the R2). I have re-booted, and tried both the front and rear ports. The only option I get on the LCD control panel is "unmount USB," I never get an option to mount it.

    Any ideas? I am brand new to this and just received the printer last week.

    Thanks!
     
  20. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #20 mark tomlinson, Sep 24, 2017
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2017
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