Weistek printer compatibility

[th_in_gs]

Thank you!

Since I last posted, and before you replied, I've created my own start/end GCode based on a mix of examining the GCode output by Germinate, looking at the profile I found at http://hardy-parts.xobor.de/t62f38-Simp ... er-WT.html - which seems to be the same as yours, and the code from the Cura profile at http://rootprinting.forumotion.com/t13- ... e-for-cura.

I'd like to print via USB and see progress on the computer, so I'm not using GPX. I'm also on a Mac.

Previously, I'd been using Germinate on Windows XP in VirtualBox, but that's so much hassle... What I'm doing now is loading the GCode generated by S3D's "Save tool paths to disk" into ReplicatorG, found at http://www.ideawerk3dprinter.com/ideawerk.html.

Before I started making my own Start/End GCode, I tried just using the .fff, but that resulted in noisy disaster: bed rising too high, crashing of the x axis etc. I'm not sure if there really is more difference between the Root and the WT150 than it appears, or if I inadvertently did something wrong when I was trying it.

Anyway, this is working great now. I threw a stupidly overhangy complex model at it as my first try, and it printed really well. I'm getting feedback from the print in ReplicatorG, which I can scrub through "by line" in the S3D preview.

I'll try to clean up an .fff file and post it here (or maybe just switch to yours if it looks like it'll work if I try it again - I'll report back).

I would _like_ to be able to connect directly to Simplify3D via USB, but I can't get it to communicate with the printer. The printer just repeatedly resets itself while Simplify3D tries to connect. ReplicatorG obviously works fine - though I'm not sure how custom the Wiestek version is.

Does anyone have a WT150 or a Root communicating with S3D by USB?

[th_in_gs]

So, here’s what’s going wrong with the serial connection:

The Root resets itself whenever a Connection is established. It’s then unresponsive to serial input for a few seconds while it reboots. It’s during that unresponsive time that S3D is trying to establish communication - so it ends up thinking it can’t talk to the printer.

If I halt the S3D process (e.g. by Ctrl-Z in a terminal, if I’ve launched it from a terminal), just after S3D starts trying to commicate with the text-based protocol, then unhalt it (‘fg’) after I hear the printers’s startup chimes, communication with the binary protocol will succeed, and printing direct will work!

I wonder if there’s any way to automate this. It’s kind of a finicky thing to have to do every time...

Or am I missing an S3D setting somewhere that will make it pause after connection, before trying to communicate?

[brian442]

Or am I missing an S3D setting somewhere that will make it pause after connection, before trying to communicate?

Just follow the instructions at the link below. You can disable the wait period so that it connections right away even if the printer takes a long time to boot up.
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/faq/#faq-4630

[th_in_gs]

That doesn’t work. I think what happens is that S3D blindly tries to start communicating with the ASCII protocol, when the printer actually needs the binary one.

If S3D just waited after opening the port before starting to try things (as my force pausing the process for a few seconds emulates), it would try ASCII, fail, then try binary and would work.

[th_in_gs]

I've been successfully using my GP3D Root with S3D for a couple of weeks now - with the 'sleep S3D process to allow it to reset' trick wrapped up in a simple double-clickable command file on my Mac.

I've posted my settings and a description of them on GitHub.