Pronterface, Repetier, MatterControl... What to try next ?

Question to the giys who have tried the various host softwares and have a favourite. What would you recommend I try out on a DIY Prusa i3 with Marlin next ?

I used Pronterface and it works fairly well with Marlin and the Melzi 2.0 board on the i3, but print quality (using Slic3r) is only fair (not great). Feedback during printing is a bit hit or miss (temps etc).
I used Repetier and found it prints a little better than above and has nice feedback on what's happening with temperatures during a print, but the SD card management doesn't work for me. It says it's uploading a file etc but actually there is no data transfer. USB printing occasionally stops mid way through, so I'd prefer to use the SD card...
I tied MatterControl lastly and got nicer printing than the two above, but it's not giving me any temperature feedback when printing, or any other feedback really. SD printing works but it SO SLOW to upload a file to it that it's really not usable for me.

So, anybody got the name of something else I could give a go (on a Windows 7 OS) ?

Cheers all,
Martin

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2015 05:15AM by mr.sneezy.

When I first built my printer I had computer issues demonstrate to me that computers are a lousy way to control a 3D printer. 3D printing is an unreliable process and adding a computer to control it makes it even more unreliable. I put an LCD/SD/encoder module on my printer and printed from SD cards and got consistent, reliable results.

I recently upgraded my controller to a smoothieboard and don't yet have an LCD/encoder interface so I've been forced to run pronterface to drive the printer. For me, there is nothing that pronterface does that justifies the added unreliability of using a computer to run the printer. Actually, I can print from the uSD card on the smoothieboard, but I haven't tried it yet...

But that's just me. Maybe I'm missing something.

What does printer control software do for you? What information or control does it provide that you can't get from an LCD panel on the printer? What am I missing?

Interesting thoughts. I have been looking at how to run an LCD (preferably a 128x64) with the Melzi 2.0. Info is a bit thin or a bit incomplete on how to do this with readily available display/controllers.
In the meantime I'm looking for the best functioning PC software solution...

So when you did have a LCD/SD/encoder setup working, what did you slice with that you were happiest with ?

Martin

Interesting points of view. From my perspective, there is absolutely nothing unreliable about a computer - after all, the arduino is a computer. If there is anything that I could deem as unreliable, it would be the USB connection.

For me, the pc interface gives me the ability to watch the print progress. It also give me vastly improved manual control. Also, the ability to see a graph of temperature over time help to iron out PID issues.

These are important features to me. In fact I found the LCD to be so arcane in its use, that I recently convinced myself that it was worthwhile to give it up and move to teacup firmware.

I like the options available via Slic3r but find it a little buggy and occasionally it crashes when exporting gcode files. Next in line is Cura, not as configurable as slic3r, but faster and generally does support material better.

Regarding reliability- the arduino is a computer, it's true, but it is not separate from the printer. It is a necessary part of the printer that makes its operation possible. An external computer, specially if it runs any flavor of MS Windows, is a reliability hazard. An external computer does nothing for a printer that has been set up. Sure, a computer allows you to see how the PID temperature control behaves, but once it is working, why would you ever have to see it again? If you want to see how far along the print is, look at the printer. LCD panels typically display % of completion and maybe elapsed time/time remaining. All the control the printer needs is available via the slicing software or the LCD/encoder/SD card reader in a printer. Most slicing software will provide estimates of filament used and time required to print an object. If you find yourself frequently having to tweak the prints on the fly via the computer that is streaming gcode to it, you didn't set the options in the slicer correctly.

A computer can kill your print when:
1) it goes to sleep due to inactivity
2) it crashes due to excessive activity (someone trying to do something on the computer while a print is running)
3) someone plugs in a USB device
4) the computer decides to reboot to apply a security band-aid
5) a cat or kid decide to press random keys on the keyboard
6) you get a bad USB cable or socket
7) a cat chews through the USB cable
8) someone pulls the USB cable
9) the battery goes dead (did you forget to plug it in?)
10) a screensaver turns on and sucks up available cpu cycles
11) etc.

Yeah, you can fix some of these risks easily, but you can't fix all of them unless you leave the computer out of the equation.

I am still looking to fit a 128x64 smart LCD on the printer, but found that it's not so easy on a Melzi board as it does not have the same external I/O available as RAMPS and Sanguinololu (from which Melzi was based).
I bought a RAMPS style smart LCD but it looks like I have to change it or cobble an I2C I/O expander module in between to drive all the required lines. Frankly after so much research and find misinformation I'm a bit over the DIY LCD idea (at least for now).

I tried the Cura slicer once and can't remember why I didn't keep going with it right now, but I have tried MatterControl and it's slicer a few more times now, and finally concluded that Pronterface and Slic3r is the most reliable combination on my system. Yes I had some slicing lockups etc, but I loaded the latest experimental development version from Slic3r.org and that has stopped. So for now I'll run that combo.

I'll try Cura again though and compare...

MArtin

When I started with 3d printing, I looked over every possible slicer software, I decided for Simplify3d ($150.00) and I have never regret doing so. These people are professionals and they keep updates coming in all the time, the quality of the prints are up to my standards, I have a ton of options to play with to get the best print and if I need to run a printer from my computer, the control panel is full of options to modify the print as it goes.

I know that not everyone wants to pay that price for something that they think they can get it for free, but to me it worth it every penny.