RS... Sooo close!

Montypaks

Hi guys, so I just discovered RS and have been blown away by the features and flexibility of it all.
So I took the plunge, got a couple more RPis so I could connect 2 printers to one pi. I have 6 printers in total.

But... It turns out that I could only get two of those connected.

I have in my collection/farm:
2x Wanhao Duplicator 4x (can't connect)
1x Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus (Works perfect)
1x Flashforge Dreamer (can't connect)
1x Flashforge Creator 3 (can't connect)
1x Anycubic Chiron (Works perfect)

So... Only 2 of my 6 printers is supported which is a bit disappointing

Is there a way to add additional firmware to this?
Sailfish firmware is an open source firmware that's been around for years so I'm really surprised there's no support especially considering the huge amount of replicator clones out there.

The dreamer firmware I believe is based on marlin as it uses gcode. Surprised there's no support for this as well. Another very popular printer.

I can understand the Creator3 not being supported (yet) as it's a very new printer but it looks like it's the same marlin variant as the dreamer.

I'm really hoping there's a way to add these printers to the server.
Besides, I believe it's a fairly significant chunck of the market that's being excluded here.
If octoprint and astroprint can support these printers with free offerings, then RS/RH should as well with its premium offering. Especially as it already blows the other two out the water in virtually every other area.

LOL, apologies for the overly long post.
tl:dr - how can I add other printer firmware to repetier server?

Repetier

We in deed do currently not support X3G format I think it is called. Adding that might in deed be a good idea for a future realease. Need to learn more about how to convert gcode etc to it.

Marlin should be no problem and all reprap like communication can be more or less defined in a xml file for each firmware. It is important when you configure to select the right firmware e.g. marlin and not repetier if it is marlin as repetier uses the faster binary format which marlin does not understand. A frequent error when adding Marlin printers.

Some printers have a non usual handling of RTS/DTR. In that case RTS High, DTR Low, and Malyan fix unchecked would make them connect. Not sure if creator3 is one of them, but worth a try. You can change it in printer settings.

Montypaks

I think you just hit the jackpot there.... So finding the gcode flavour for these replicator clones I think should be the same as marlin. The main difference is converting to x3g format. There are different plugins, or small scripts that has been written to convert this. I know that's what simplify3D does. Output the gcode and have this plugin/script run immediately which then outputs the x3g. So in the end, you get both files.

I'm not sure if I can link here but there are a few resources online where you'll find it. It's open source as well and it was released to be integrated into software

With regards to the flashforge printers, (Dreamer and Creator3) I'm not sure what flavour FW they use, simplify3D reports it as Flashforge firmware. Octoprint just connects, so I can't figure it out. But, it reads gcode fine in addition to their propriety format which is *.gx that only their flashprint slicer supports. I do suspect it's a flavour of Marlin considering how old the dreamer is and the fact that back then, virtually all printers ran on Marlin, sailfish and reprap firmware. The dreamer still being relevant today is testament to how solid it is as a printer

I could shoot Flashforge an email and see if they'll give me that info as I have a good relationship with them.
The creator3 is an IDEX printer so I can understand supporting that will be a task, but that's the way things are going now

I'll keep playing around with it... Seems like it almost connects (turns orange) but then it doesn't

Montypaks

The sailfish firmware is available open source online. Let me know if you'll want me to link you to it

Repetier

I also googled it a bit. looks like Dremel/Flashforge have a own firmware. They claim to have written it anew according to the threads I found. What Octoprint has is a plugin layer for communication and a GPX plugin that converts gcode to x3g so to say. So you can print directly but sd uploads won't work. What is quite clear is that we would need a printer for testing and a good portion of time. So can't say when this will be the case. These are the only printers I found apart from old replicator printers that seem to use same format. Newer seem to be incompatible. So it looks like there are not many printers with this firmware type.

Montypaks

Repetier said:

I also googled it a bit. looks like Dremel/Flashforge have a own firmware. They claim to have written it anew according to the threads I found. What Octoprint has is a plugin layer for communication and a GPX plugin that converts gcode to x3g so to say. So you can print directly but sd uploads won't work. What is quite clear is that we would need a printer for testing and a good portion of time. So can't say when this will be the case. These are the only printers I found apart from old replicator printers that seem to use same format. Newer seem to be incompatible. So it looks like there are not many printers with this firmware type.

unlucky...

Thanks for looking it up tho

Montypaks

Hi,

So my trial ended and decided to bite the bullet and purchase the Pro version. This is an excellent software and I don't know why it isn't a lot more popular. (Octo and Astro get all the headlines)

So in my bid to now make all my printers wireless, my workflow is Repetier takes care of the i3 style printers (Anycubic Chiron and Duplicator i3 Plus), Octoprint takes care of the two sailfish printers (Duplicator 4x)
and the two Flashforge printers have wifi built in already so I just use Flashprint for that... Limited but still better than using SD Cards

BUT... I really do hope that you incorporate at least the Sailfish firmware in the future. If you need a printer to be loaned to you, I'm sure that can be arranged. But Sailfish is open source already so please please please... make it happen.

Thanks again for an awesome application

BCreative

Nudge all! What is the progress on this, I bought the pro version not realising it wouldn't connect to my creator pro and dreamer..... Sure keen to see it work

LeSeule

I have same PROBLEM with my Wanhao Duplicator 4s.
If Sailfish would work as I suggested I will buy Pro immediately.
But so I think about to switch to Octoprint when there all printers work like at Monty.