Simplify3D cant conect to my Duplicator i3?

[peps1]

I have a Duplicator i3, and Simplify3D, but being new to 3D printing am having a little trouble.

I would really like to have my i3 hooked up via USB to take full advantage of the controls and setting in Simplify3D.

But, for the life of me I cant Simplify3D to connect to the i3, so am having to put everything on SD card to print.

Is there some firmware/Drivers I need, as the i3 did not come with a CD?

The printer is showing up as FT232R USB UART, and I have the latest FTDI drivers due to Arduino projects and not had any issues with USB to serial.

But every time I try and connect to the i3 in Simplify3D, I get the Following.

Attempting connection at \\.\COM3...
Testing plaintext communication protocol...
Testing binary communication protocol...
Testing alternate communication protocols...
Attempting RTS reset and trying again...
Connection failed.

Any chance of a little help?

[KeyboardWarrior]

I have a Duplicator i3, and Simplify3D, but being new to 3D printing am having a little trouble.

I would really like to have my i3 hooked up via USB to take full advantage of the controls and setting in Simplify3D.

But, for the life of me I cant Simplify3D to connect to the i3, so am having to put everything on SD card to print.

Is there some firmware/Drivers I need, as the i3 did not come with a CD?

The printer is showing up as FT232R USB UART, and I have the latest FTDI drivers due to Arduino projects and not had any issues with USB to serial.

But every time I try and connect to the i3 in Simplify3D, I get the Following.

Attempting connection at \\.\COM3...
Testing plaintext communication protocol...
Testing binary communication protocol...
Testing alternate communication protocols...
Attempting RTS reset and trying again...
Connection failed.

Any chance of a little help?

My tests with the Wanhao i3 board are that it's really, really finicky for USB connecting. I use SD card when printing with it.

[junktronix]

I have the same problem. It seems the i3 controller is very slow to respond after a reset. I was able to connect and print OK by clicking connect, waiting for the Wanhao logo to come on the LCD and then clicking the connect button again.

[junktronix]

I have also found that S3D connects much more reliably to my Wanhao Di3 if I go to Firmware Configuration, Communication tab and deselect 'Wait for startup command'

[peps1]

I have the same problem. It seems the i3 controller is very slow to respond after a reset. I was able to connect and print OK by clicking connect, waiting for the Wanhao logo to come on the LCD and then clicking the connect button again.

Yep, this seems to work, but its a lot of pulling out USBs, turning machine on and off.....id print form SD card if the slot was not so terable. need long figernals to push that card in.

Was thinking maybe a wireless option like Astroprint on Raspberry Pi would be a interesting option.

[JoeJ]

Those won't make any difference. They still need to communicate with the i3 over an identical serial port connection. So if the i3 has trouble talking to Simplify3D over USB, it will also have the same trouble with astroprint/octoprint/etc

[ximox]

This is what I do, works 100% of the times:

Assumed your USB to serial port is up and running (Standard windows driver) Printer on, USB in, Start S3D, go to Tools>Firmware configuration: Untick Wait for Start Command, Untick allow command buffering, untick communication timeout, then connect, for me works every time, unsure it it creates other problems but didnt notice any after many prints (PLA and ABS) I think FLow control setting is irrelevant for the issue so i leave it as it is.

(Please note I also removed the Jumper in the control box named "auto standby"not sure it makes a difference. some says so)

Many people say not to use PC via USB to print but I just think they cant get it to work reliably so they just assume it does not. Well they are wrong.
Its an amazing interface, you can give commands in real time, you see the process of printing in real time 3d and most importantly you don't need that SD card moving around crap that makes you feel you're stuck in 1990. Just chose the file from a folder on your pc and print it. If you are worried about pc switching off or anything like that, you also have the option of printing from SD card within the software in the awesome machine hardware control panel, still retaining the remote control and interface. In my case my pc stays on all night and day so i rather let it process the jobs. Please let me know if it works for you.

WIndows 10 64 bits
WANHAO Duplicator i3 V2

Ta,

L.

[pasaway1]

This is what I do, works 100% of the times:

Assumed your USB to serial port is up and running (Standard windows driver) Printer on, USB in, Start S3D, go to Tools>Firmware configuration: Untick Wait for Start Command, Untick allow command buffering, untick communication timeout, then connect, for me works every time, unsure it it creates other problems but didnt notice any after many prints (PLA and ABS) I think FLow control setting is irrelevant for the issue so i leave it as it is.

(Please note I also removed the Jumper in the control box named "auto standby"not sure it makes a difference. some says so)

Many people say not to use PC via USB to print but I just think they cant get it to work reliably so they just assume it does not. Well they are wrong.
Its an amazing interface, you can give commands in real time, you see the process of printing in real time 3d and most importantly you don't need that SD card moving around crap that makes you feel you're stuck in 1990. Just chose the file from a folder on your pc and print it. If you are worried about pc switching off or anything like that, you also have the option of printing from SD card within the software in the awesome machine hardware control panel, still retaining the remote control and interface. In my case my pc stays on all night and day so i rather let it process the jobs. Please let me know if it works for you.

WIndows 10 64 bits
WANHAO Duplicator i3 V2

Ta,

L.

This process worked for me, Untick Wait for Start Command, Untick allow command buffering, untick communication timeout, then connect, for me . I didn't disconnect any jumpers. I'm using a Mac

[sebastian.heyn]

Same here, I changed my baud to 57600 and everything was fine

[markus71]

"This process worked for me, Untick Wait for Start Command, Untick allow command buffering, untick communication timeout, then connect, for me . I didn't disconnect any jumpers."
Same here, except I was't able to issue commands, I only received messages from the i3 (in the communication tab only, no updating of the other parts of the machine control panel). I had to do two additional things: "Tools/firmware configuration/General": Setting "Tool Change" from "T$" to "" (empty string) AND setting Baudrate (in the machine control panel) to 9600. Either of these two steps allone didn't work.
Now I can issue commands like moving around, setting fan and temperatures and the i3 responds immediatly, also everything in the control panel updates accordingly, it's terrific.

Edit: The next day it worked with all the default settings, maybe something needed restarting, rebooting, not sure. So currently "Wait for startup command" is back to ticked, "Communication timeout" is back to ticked, "Tool Change" is back to "T$". But Baud rate is 57600 currently. I've been printing with these default settings the whole day reliably. It seems sometimes I have to restart the control panel. Basically I don't touch the i3 control box at all besides the on/off switch and when I change filaments.