How to Print at Ultimaker Without SD Card? But From Laptop Or PC?

[Yohanes 3]

Hallo Everyone,:)

I Want to ask about what the ultimaker can to Printing Without SD Card? So From PC or Laptop use USB Cable to Ultimaker?

[DidierKlein 729]

First question: why?

Ultimaker 2 USB printing is possible but not recommended, there a risk of ruining the print due to USB latency for big gcode.

Personnaly i never tried it. But you can plug the USB cable and print directly from Cura from what i know

[Yohanes 3]

@DidierKlein

Why? Because I think so simple if I print the project directly from a PC or Laptop.Rather than I Print Via SD Card. Hee heee...

O Ya.. What the ultimaker System may be Infected with the virus? If Yes?

How To Solve the Problem?

[DidierKlein 729]

Virus not that i know of...

SD Card printing is safer than USB printing because it's sure that the gcode cannot be interrupted by something else, on a laptop many things can happen: automatic restart due to updates, antivirus, USB communication issues.

So yes you can but it's not recommended

[Yohanes 3]

@DidierKlein

Hmmmmt.... Because I think the SD Card Often we Remove and Plug. So May be SD Card Can infected Virus.

I hope the ultimaker alright about it.

[DidierKlein 729]

Do you think you have more chance of having a virus on your pc or on an SD card?

I'm not aware of viruses targuetting 3d printers, maybe they will be created or already exist? I really don't know.

[cloakfiend 995]

You are being very paranoid.

Just use the SD card, I have loads of viruses, and it still prints fine. Ultimaker is  not running windows, you are not going to get a virus by accident. You will need to get a specific 3D printer virus, and i have not heard of that yet, and then you will also need to go to the exact place where that virus will be, and the chances of that are very small, unless youmagine or thing verse or any other stl providers get infected. Best thing is to just make your own stl and not download the free models if you can. You are worrying about nothing.

And if you go to lots of porno sites, torrent sites and other suspicious sites or you are someone that clicks on advertising buttons a lot and falls for all the phishing sites, then just use a different computer to load your SD card files into.

But the chance you will get a specific gcode altering virus or a virus that targets 3D printers is VERY small if not non-existant. Yiou have more chance of problems by having the printer constantly connected to the computer, so if something happens to you computer because of a virus then your print will stop because your computer will crash, thats why its stupid to print from USB. If you dont have a SD card input just buy an adaptor, its no excuse. There is no reason at all to use USB to print from unless you use octoprint, but again  i think its also pointless, which leaves no reason at all. Just use it to upgrade firmware if you REALLY need to.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Guest

[xxxprod 2]

I really don't understand where the problem with usb-printing is.

You just have to send the data to the sd-card on the printer. After that it can print completely on its own again. Don't see that being too difficult.

[cloakfiend 995]

I don't understand why you'd want to?

Slap in the sd card, copy the stl file over, slap it in the printer, let the printer print. USB is a piece of shit as far as i'm concerned. Its one of the best things about this printer that Its entirely self contained you can fill a room with them and not have to mess about with any computers. You are simply doing things the long way thats all.

[neotko 1,417]

Replying to the topic.

USB connections on Ultimaker 2.1.1 boards isn't reliable because the usb connection can have electrical spike ruining the communication (it would shutdown the print). Ofc it can work, but also it might fail.

@catlord it's trying to install a Xbee on the um2.1.1 boards, maybe he might find a way to connect it.

I find it quite interesting to have a reliable wifi/non sd connection to the printer. Specially when you could command 2-3 machines remotely with a camera to see what it's happening there. Octoprint seems to fail with um2.1.1 boards, there are some posts about it on the forum but noone has posted a 'it works just perfect'.

[neotko 1,417]

ARhgg can't edit my post... ok.. the Xbee post it's on https://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/17534-wifi-thru-xbee-need-schematic-of-the-electronic-board-ultimaker but so far no luck

[xxxprod 2]

USB connections on Ultimaker 2.1.1 boards isn't reliable because the usb connection can have electrical spike ruining the communication (it would shutdown the print). Ofc it can work, but also it might fail.

 

But that's what I was reffering to: if you transfer all the data before the print and send some checksum to verify that the data is ok, then the printer doesn't need any more communication while printing. It would be as reliable as putting the data manually on the sd card.

And I can see that people might think it's not worth the hassle because if you print lots of things that take many hours to finish, the little time spend changing the sd card is nothing compared. But if you are just experimenting, don't have the printer and the sd-card reader right next to you, you run kilometers just for the sake of switching sd cards

[nallath 1,120]

if you transfer all the data before the print

 

The firmware has 8kb memory, of which 75% is used. So a file of about 1,5 kb could be sent this way.

I've never heard of a virus for an Ultimaker. It's actually physically impossible as the firmware is read only. The only thing you could do is manually install malicious hex files, but that requires an action from you (and is only possible through USB)

[xxxprod 2]

 

if you transfer all the data before the print

 

The firmware has 8kb memory, of which 75% is used. So a file of about 1,5 kb could be sent this way.

 

And how about accessing the sd-card (which remains in the printer as storage or "cache")? Since it can read it, writing to it shoudn't be too complicated.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

You could just buy a wifi usb dongle (used on 2d printers) and connect by usb to upload the gcode to the sd file and order the machine tonprint the stored gcode.

[cloakfiend 995]

Considering you actually have to be by the printer to kick it off reliably anyway, whats is the problem with using SD cards anyways? You get one with the printer? I don't understand the fascination with printing from USB. I'm assuming you are only doing it as you have no SD card slot on your machine. They are very cheap.

[tinkergnome 927]

You just have to send the data to the sd-card on the printer. After that it can print completely on its own again. Don't see that being too difficult.

 

 

And how about accessing the sd-card (which remains in the printer as storage or "cache")? Since it can read it, writing to it shoudn't be too complicated.

 

After a short look at the available gcode commands, i assume that the tools you need are already there.

- Connect to the printer via USB

- Create a new file on the sdcard with M28

- Send the content of the gcode file line by line, Marlin will write it to the file for you

- Close the file with M29

- Select the file with M23

- Start printing from sdcard with M24

- Disconnect USB

Test it with pronterface and a simple file content (e.g.. G28 ) an see if it works.

Report the result here.

For convenience:

Write a script that can do these steps at once.

Done.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Guest

[cloakfiend 995]

So much simpler to just chuck the file on an SD card no?

[cloakfiend 995]

But if you are just experimenting, don't have the printer and the sd-card reader right next to you, you run kilometers just for the sake of switching sd cards

 

I always wandered about the questions and all this remote printing business, and remotely writing files to SD cards or printing from USB, was it so you can upload new files to print directly to the sd card? but surely if you remotely manage to print something, isn't the biggest problem taking it off the plate to print the next thing? rather than remotely copying the file you want to print next?

Maybe i'm missing something but if you're not home to take the first print off the bed, why even think about remotely copying a new file to print when you physically can't do it?

[neotko 1,417]

 

But if you are just experimenting, don't have the printer and the sd-card reader right next to you, you run kilometers just for the sake of switching sd cards

 

I always wandered about the questions and all this remote printing business, and remotely writing files to SD cards or printing from USB, was it so you can upload new files to print directly to the sd card? but surely if you remotely manage to print something, isn't the biggest problem taking it off the plate to print the next thing? rather than remotely copying the file you want to print next?

Maybe i'm missing something but if you're not home to take the first print off the bed, why even think about remotely copying a new file to print when you physically can't do it?

 

Sorry to be blunt but he isn't telling us why on his routine he needs this he just asks 'can anyone help me with this'.

[cloakfiend 995]

Fair enough then. I was just curious about why his routine needed this? thats all, if you know why someone needs to do something perhaps you could offer some advice?

Edited September 24, 2015 by Guest

[xxxprod 2]

@tinkergnome: Thanks, this looks like a promising way to go. I'll give it a try tomorrow and will post the results here.

@cloakfiend Why someone would need this? Well, maby I don't and I'm just not used to the way one's supposed to work with 3D-printers but even if you have to clean the bed for the next print it's 1) one way to the printer to get the card +

2) one way to the computer to insert the card and upload the scheme +

3) another way to the printer to finally print it.

if I just want to test a quick change because I made a mistake at the previous design this costs a lot of time and back-ache

If I could send the file directly to the printer I would still have most of the time at least 30 secs if not 1-2 minutes until it really starts because of the heatup in which I can clean the bed easily while still saving one way to go

Edited September 25, 2015 by Guest

[cloakfiend 995]

Im not sure i understand what exactly you are doing and what you want to achieve? But it seems that you do, so good luck.

Im just advising you that doing anything other than copying the file to your SD card and then simply putting it into you printer to print is a longer process. This is why I am wondering why you are choosing to do other things, simply because you can?

Of course you are free to experiment as you please and i have nothing against that, but I always try to find the shortest and simplest solution to any problem, as i believe the quickest and most reliable way is the best. For me that is simply dragging the files from my computer to the SD card and then putting it in the printer, it takes a few seconds only.

It sounds like you need to get a spare SD card and card reader to take to work with you, then you can just copy the files when you are at work and as soon as you get home you can put it into the printer heat up the bed, and you are ready to print!

And I'd add that printing remotely is probably the riskiest and most unreliable way to go. These printers are likely to fail without close monitoring especially at the start as that is the most important part. Usually atomic pulls are needed after each print but again you have to be there to do it, which is why i wouldn't do anything remotely.

But fee free to experiment and play around as I would not want to stop you from tinkering as that is what is great about these printers. Just a bit of advice.

[tinkergnome 927]

Mmmhhh,

i'm wondering if there are potential mechanical issues with sdcard slots that have to maintain permanently "hop on - hop off" of sdcards...?

Will it last ...forever... or will the flimsy "springy mechanical thing" give up sooner or later? Which one lasts longer - the PC or the Ulticontroller...

There's always a way to find a reason...

Doesn't matter - i'm still curious if it works...

[meduza 191]

You can upload to the SD card like @tinkergnome describes (i belive that octoprint has the function built-in) but it takes forever because of the slow transfer speed over the usb-serial...

Edited September 25, 2015 by Guest