USB connect pc/Ender 3 Pro

[gbear 0]

I am a new user. I've only had my printer for about a month. Currently I us an SD card to transfer file from my laptop to the 3D Printer. An interesting concept appears to be the capability of direct transfer via a USB cable. I'd like a couple of replies from experienced users with pros/cons. Have you tried it? Did it work out well? Look forward to replies.

 

[gr5 2,067]

The first time I tried this, windows went into screen saver mode 1 hour into the print and it was ruined.  I turned the screen saver off and was successful.  Another time I hit the power saving thing where it spins down the hard drive and goes to sleep.  Face palm.  Okay, another print ruined this time 3 hours into the print.  Then later a print was ruined because windows decided to update some BS windows office things but I don't even have windows office???? WTF.  That was the last straw.  Never again.

 

that's the biggest "con".  Then there's the issue you are afraid to do anything with your computer.  If you load some web page with too many videos and advertisments it can slow down the printer enough to lower the quality for a few seconds.  So basically you will be afraid to do much of anything on that computer while it's printing.  So now con #2 is that it completely ties up your computer and you can but shouldn't use the computer for anything else.

 

I can't think of any pro's.

 

 

[gbear 0]

Thanks for the reply. It looks like the negatives out weigh the positives. Think I'll keep it simple!

[GregValiant 1,110]

I wrote a piece of software to run my Ender 3 Pro from the laptop.  Everything is done by sending commands to the printer.  I don't have to use the knob for days at a time.  It also prints by sending commands to the printer which sends back the SD card file list to the laptop so I can pick which file to print.  I send the command and it prints from the SD card.

No Ultimaker printers use USB printing anymore and as a consequence the USB Printing plugin hasn't been updated in a long time.  There are also problems because it sends M115 to check the temperature every 3 seconds.  Sometimes that can get truncated to M1 which is a stop command.  The LCD button has to be clicked to resume.  Throw that in with Microsoft pushing middle-of-the-night reboots and I absolutely agree with gr5...I can't think of any pros either.