Create .bfb files with Cura

[Kraud 0]

Hello! I'm sorry if this is not the correct place to ask, but it's my first time in this kind of forums:

 

I have an old Bits From Bytes (BFB) 3D Touch printer that I'm trying to make useful again. Since it uses a proprietary format instead of Gcode, I been using its own slicer (Axon 2) that hasn't been updated since 2012 and barely has any features, unlike from what I've seen so far in Cura. Luckily, I read online that Cura also supports BFB printers, but sadly I haven't been able to make it work yet.

 

I have selected BFB as the manufacturer in the "Add printer" menu, and also specified "Bits from Bytes" under the "G-code flavor" drop-down in the "Machine Settings". The problem is that when I slice it and try to save the file, it only lets me save it as .gcode (and also .stl, .obj, .3mf, .ufp) instead of .bfb, which is the only format the printer reads.

 

I looked everywhere, but I can't find any option to change this behavior. I even tried changing the extension to .bfb afterwards to no success.

Getting to use Cura instead of Axon would breathe new life to the printer, so I would really appreciate any help with this.

 

Thank you!

[ahoeben 731]

57 minutes ago, Kraud said:

I have an old Bits From Bytes (BFB) 3D Touch printer that I'm trying to make useful again

 

You might consider replacing the controller with something that speaks gcode instead of bfb, like a Duet board.

 

Have you tried the legacy version of Cura (15.04)? I don't think anybody has tested the BFB support in the newer versions of Cura.

 

[Kraud 0]

4 hours ago, ahoeben said:

 

You might consider replacing the controller with something that speaks gcode instead of bfb, like a Duet board.

 

Have you tried the legacy version of Cura (15.04)? I don't think anybody has tested the BFB support in the newer versions of Cura.

 

Thank you for answering, Ahoeben! 

 

Replacing it with a G-code compatible controller would be a dream, but I'm not sure if I could pull it off, since there's no community for this printer, so I would have to do this without any assistance, which seems unlikely to work out well :/ (and the printer is borrowed, so I'm not even sure if I would be allowed).

 

I didn't try the legacy version of Cura, but I'll will do it as soon as a I get back home. Maybe some features like this stopped working in later releases, but never fixed, since nobody was using them?