Project of a universal SD card GCode sender

Hi there,

I'm developing a generic hardware module that allows users to send gcode files from an SD card to any Reprap firmware using the hardware serial port.

The origin of this module is that I was using Marlin before, in combination with the reprap discount controller.
It worked well until I decided to replace Marlin with Teacup. The SD and menu management were handled by Marlin itself, so the reprap discount controller was not usable anymore...

I know that Teacup is able to manage printing from an SD card, but I wanted to make something more generic, so it could work with any firmware, simply by sending the G-Code instructions through serial port.
It should be able to work with any 3D printer whose serial port is reachable.

Do you folks find this project interesting?

Cheers

Nico

been done... [github.com]

What would be the data streaming speed then? My RADDS could use a boost ...

Hi, thanks for your interest!

Dust, I know UGCS and used it with my GRBL based milling machine. But it's only grbl compatible and (this is the main drawback for me) needs a computer to send the GCode. My idea is to make any 3D printer autonomous with a single, generic device (no more PC needed during printing).

o_lampe, I tested it successfully on a 3 hours print with Teacup at 115200 baud. I didn't know RADDS. What firmware are you using with this shield? It's already equipped with an SD slot; how do you run a print? do you still need a PC connected during the print?

Nico

WirelessPrinting

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2017 07:15AM by pamalofeev.

Thank you for the link pamalofeev, this project is very interesting and close to what I'm looking for!
I'll get in touch with the developer.

Nico

Quote

o_lampe, I tested it successfully on a 3 hours print with Teacup at 115200 baud. I didn't know RADDS. What firmware are you using with this shield? It's already equipped with an SD slot; how do you run a print? do you still need a PC connected during the print?

I usually print through OctoPi but the USB speed is limited. The local SD-Card is not accessible from Octoprint.
There is another SD-Card header on RADDS, I was hoping you've developed something really fast ( like the Duet boards have )

o_lampe, what would be for you an acceptable transfer rate ?

I don't get it. Arduino/RAMPS, smoothieboard, and I'm pretty sure Duet, can all read files from SD cards. The A/R needs to have an LCD module added, and the smoothie can read from its own uSD card plugged into the board or from an SD card plugged into an LCD panel. Are you trying to make it possible for the controller to read an SD card plugged into the USB port? How would you control it? Maybe just on-boot it runs whatever(or a specifically named) gcode file it finds there? Smoothieboard can do that with the on-board uSD socket...

Are you aware that almost everyone sees reading gcode files from SD cards as backwards? If the gcode isn't tunneled through a Tor link to geosynchronous satellite linked to a submarine, and isn't controlled through a VR interface using brainwaves, almost no one is interested...

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Hi digital dentist and thanks for you reply.

No, the goal is not to connect a uSD card reader into the USB port.
Actually I came into this need because I like to use my reprap without depending on a computer at all.
I had this possibility before with the reprap discount lcd/sd running on Marlin, but since I switched to Teacup it's not usable anymore. In fact I just want to stream the gcode into the serial port.
Well it's working now so I'm pretty happy with what I've done.
Maybe my reprap usage is a bit old school, I didn't follow the trends since 2013; why are SD cards considered backwards? and what is the current state of the art for sending gcode to the machines?

Thanks,

Nico

I use SD cards as much as possible, for reliability, but most people don't seem to care much about reliability. They want to hold up their phone and show people that they can start a print and watch it from anywhere on the planet (as long as they previously prepped the machine by changing the filament, removing the last print, cleaning, and maybe even leveling the bed (oh-nope, everyone wants autoleveling)). Don't ask "why didn't you just plug in an SD card and print while you were at the printer doing all those other things?" That's the wrong question.

It's like 6 minute abs vs 7 minute abs... no one works out in 6 minutes!

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Oh I see
Now I understand your suggestion on Tor, satellites and submarines: local printing is so 2013 !
Maybe we're just considered dinosaurs in the 3d printing world... But yeah I'll keep the SD approach anyway
Thanks for your clarification!

Nico

Oops, missed the link: [www.youtube.com]

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]