Has anyone gotten the stock Cura working with the Kodak Portrait printer?

[smorgana 0]

The Kodak Portrait comes with a custom version of an old version of Cura.   I'm on a Mac, and that app stopped working on my first OS update.   The makers of the printer have no plan that I see to update their version, so I'm basically orphaned now.

 

I'm hoping someone here has had some experience getting current versions of Cura working for it.   Their support tried to have me set Cura up with their parameters.  It did not work.

[GregValiant 1,269]

Hello @smorgana.  I'm a Windows guy so you will have to translate this a bit.

Other manufacturers have gone the same way and included their own version of Cura for their printers.  Sometimes it's impossible to get around because they added commands for their proprietary firmware, but sometimes you can get something to work.

In that old Kodak version of Cura there may be a folder called "Resources".  Within that folder will be one for "Definitions", one for "Extruders", and one for "Variants" (the nozzle definitions).  The files for your printer will have filename prefixes that are similar.  If that "Resources" folder doesn't exist then I don't know what you can do, but I'll go on...

If you can find your definition file(s), the extruder file(s), and the nozzle files, and copy them to the respective folders in Cura 4.xx then you may be able to install your printer in the newer version of Cura.

 

My printer has two definition files so I would need them both.  The first is Creality_Base.def.json and the second is Creality_Ender3Pro.def.json.  It's possible yours would also have more than one definition file.

A single extruder printer will have one Extruder definition file.  Mine is "creality_base_extruder_0.def.json".

I have seven nozzle files (in the Variants folder) from "creality_ender3pro_0.2.inst.cfg" to "creality_ender3pro_1.0.inst.cfg".

 

It is also possible for you to add a Custom FFF printer, rename it, and adjust the build plate and other parameters to match your Kodak printer.  The main issue will be the "Gcode Flavor".  It has to match your printer or Cura will be speaking Dutch while the printer only understands Swahili.

 

Good luck.

 

[LordMM 0]

Hello,

today i tried to get my kodak protrait work with cura 4.13.
I got it to work ... but had problem to get cura start code to work.

 

I tried printing with second extruder ... but the printer heats up hotend two ... but print with hotend one.

 

This seems to be problem using the cura start code from old kodak slicer.

 

Jürgen

Edited January 15, 2022 by LordMM

[LordMM 0]

Meanwhile it print with correct hotend.

 

The printhead seems to crash on y on left side. I checked all settings ... but until now i didn't find the error.

[smorgana 0]

2 hours ago, LordMM said:

Meanwhile it print with correct hotend.

 

The printhead seems to crash on y on left side. I checked all settings ... but until now i didn't find the error.

I spent days on this.  it appears the printer firmware is not compatible with the current cura. for one thing in the version of cura they made they configured in a 40mm offset in the printers config file. the current version of cura doesnt support that.  thus the head crashes to the left because cura is unaware it needs to offset x by 40mm

 

another thing. the current cura behaves differently as far as which tool to use initially