SS USB A port (3.0)

WarDaddyM4E8 · February 16, 2023

Hi everyone!! this might be a dumb question .. I have been using my Anycubic mega pro using Cura for slicing and building for a few years now.. I needed to get a new laptop (windows 8.1..ya i know)

so now my new LT has windows 11.. I went to connect my USB A 2.0 cable to my laptop and my 3d printer.. 3d printer has a female 2.0 B port and then nothing.. Cura (monitor) setting says NO printer.. My question is ... is it the SS USB A 3.0 port on my laptop ..... that's not letting the 3d printer connect?

GregValiant · February 16, 2023

There are no dumb questions. I strive not to give dumb answers.

The entire USB Printing thing isn't very sophisticated. Cura looks for a port it can open and then tries several baud rates and sends M105 each time. When it gets a response that it understands, then it uses the port.

The printer isn't very complicated either. It will accept most any connection (whether it understands it or not is another question).

As you probably suspected, that leaves us with your new laptop. The screenshot below is the Windows 11 device manager. If you squint you can see that "Ports Com and LPT lists a single port as "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COM3)". The COM number will change depending on which port I have the printer plugged in to. But the port driver (in my case it's the "USB-SERIAL CH340" driver) is what allows the computer to "see" the printer. If the driver included with Cura isn't right for your hardware then that is likely the problem. Do a internet search for "USB to SERIAL" port drivers and you should come up with something that will work. My laptop is a couple of months old and has the 3.0 USB ports and I haven't had a problem.

The "USB Printing" plugin isn't maintained as no UM printers use it and no contributors/collaborators have attempted to try and bring it up to date/fix it. A main reason is what you are running into and that is the ridiculous amount of hardware and driver combinations out there both in the computers and in the printers. Printing via the cloud or Octoprint seems to be much preferred (I'm an SD card guy). For the most part - if USB Printing works that's great. If it doesn't then it doesn't.