Wanhao duplicator supported?

[peteruithoven]

We're not sure whether the Wanhao duplicator is supported. Basically we don't know what firmware they use, if it behaves like Makerbot's firmware we should support it. If they use a Marlin based firmware we support it as well. If anyone has any information on this, please let us know. Information on how users prepare prints (gcode) would be helpfull.

[TecDesign]

Hi Peter,

Firmware is: The Replicator Firmware Version 7.5

For generating a gcode it uses ReplicatorG

[weiin]

We had a maker here who used Makerware with his Wanhao Duplicator 4. Since the Duplicator 4 is a clone of the Replicator 2, I believe it would work the same as the Replicator 2

[peteruithoven]

Then Doodle3D should communicate happily with the Wanhao duplicator. We'd love to hear from someone who has tried it.

[peteruithoven]

I was able to try this myself shortly during an event, but it didn't get further than "connecting". Sadly it wasn't the occasion to look any further. What we need is someone to send us the logs after connecting the printer, this way we can investigate what happens. How: http://doodle3d.com/help/faq#113 If that not enough we'll try to enable extensive logging: http://doodle3d.com/help/debugging#extensivelogging And if that's not enough we hope someone can visit us in Utrecht so we can really test it.

[peteruithoven]

I just received the logs of a Makerbot user and looking at those I'm afraid we broke Makerbot support with the recent update. I'll try to fix this and upload beta version today.

[peteruithoven]

I recently switched to OS X Mavericks which means I have to rebuild everything and work around some changes in Mavericks. And today one of the git repositories is down, which means I can't build. https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=228502#p228502

[peteruithoven]

Apologies for the delay. I've updated a beta version which should fix this problem for Wanhao and Makerbot users. You can update the box by going to the settings window, enabling Include beta releases and pressing Update. Please let us know how it goes and share the logs (really don't forget to send us the logs).

[peteruithoven]

We've had one confirmation from a Wanhao user that the beta update solves this issue. Please send us logs so that we can integrate this into the next stable update.

[peteruithoven]

Thanks to a cooperation with Ridix (the first 3D printing shop in the Netherlands) we now have a Wanhao 3D printer. So now we can properly support this printer. It seems to work with the current beta version (0.10.2-makerbotfix), but it looks like we need to tweak the start gcode a bit.

[peteruithoven]

Without enabling the heated bed the Wanhao printer works as expected.

But it looks like something goes wrong when sending the target bed temperature to the Wanhao printer. It's interpreted like the toolhead / nozzle target temperature, so the printer first waitings untill the toolhead is for example 110 and then heats up to 220 for printing.

I've tried to experiment with the start gcode but I keep getting the same result; the bed doesn't heat up.
Current makerbot start gcode:

;@printer {printerType}
M136 (enable build)
M73 P0
G162 X Y F2000(home XY axes maximum)
G161 Z F900(home Z axis minimum)
G92 X0 Y0 Z-5 A0 B0 (set Z to -5)
G1 Z0.0 F900(move Z to '0')
G161 Z F100(home Z axis minimum)
M132 X Y Z A B (Recall stored home offsets for XYZAB axis)
G92 X152 Y72 Z0 A0 B0
G1 X-112 Y-73 Z0.5 F3300.0 (move to front left 'zero' position)
G92 X0 Y0 Z0.5 A0 B0
G1 X0 Y0 Z0.5 F3300.0 (move to waiting position)
G130 X20 Y20 A20 B20 (Lower stepper Vrefs while heating)
{if heatedBed};M109 S{printingBedTemp} T0
{if heatedBed}M140 S{printingBedTemp} T0
M104 S{printingTemp} T0
;M134 T0
M135 T0
M104 S{printingTemp} T0
M133 T0
G130 X127 Y127 A127 B127 (Set Stepper motor Vref to defaults)
G1 F100 A10 ;extrude 10mm
G92 A0 ;reset again
G0 Z20

• Removing M140, which is actually a marlin command to heatup the bed doesn't help.
• Using only M140 doesn't help (it's ignored).
• Enabling the wait for bed heatup (M134) command doesn't help.
• Removing first toolheat heatup (M104) command doesn't help.
• Switching bed heatup and toolhead heatup doesn't help.
• I've tried changing the printerType to r2x and r1d to see if that helped sending it from the WiFi-Box but it doesn't.
• When I send a print using Makerware from my computer it does work, first the bed heats up, then the toolhead.
• When I export Makerware's gcode and use this as start gcode in Doodle3D it doesn't work.
• A new version of GPX) includes serial communication functionality, but I seem to experience this issue: https://github.com/whpthomas/GPX/issues/3. So I could not try this.
• I converted a Doodle3D generated gcode file to x3g using the GPX version included in our print3d repository. When I put this on an SD Card also works fine.
• The Wanhao Duplicator 4 I tried this with had firmware version 1.0, but upgrading it to 7.5 didn't help.

All these results makes me think it's has to go wrong in how we buffer or send it from the WiFi-Box. I'll need to dive into the communication between the WiFi-Box and the printer.

But I don't understand why it did work on the Makerbot Replicator 2X we used in the past.

[dtimmermans]

when i use the replicator 2x setting on my Wanhao printer the bed works.

here is the GCODE ;@printer r2x M136 (enable build) M73 P0 G162 X Y F2000(home XY axes maximum) G161 Z F900(home Z axis minimum) G92 X0 Y0 Z-5 A0 B0 (set Z to -5) G1 Z0.0 F900(move Z to '0') G161 Z F100(home Z axis minimum) M132 X Y Z A B (Recall stored home offsets for XYZAB axis) G92 X152 Y72 Z0 A0 B0 G1 X-112 Y-73 Z0.5 F3300.0 (move to front left 'zero' position) G92 X0 Y0 Z0.5 A0 B0 G1 X0 Y0 Z0.5 F3300.0 (move to waiting position) G130 X20 Y20 A20 B20 (Lower stepper Vrefs while heating) ;M109 S50 T0 M140 S50 T0 M104 S220 T0 ;M134 T0 M135 T0 M104 S220 T0 M133 T0 G130 X127 Y127 A127 B127 (Set Stepper motor Vref to defaults) G1 F100 A10 ;extrude 10mm G92 A0 ;reset again G0 Z20 .................... M73 P100 G92 A0 B0 ;reset extruder position to prevent retraction M18 A B(Turn off A and B Steppers) G1 Z155 F900 G162 X Y F2000 M18 X Y Z(Turn off steppers after a build) M140 S35 T0 M104 S180 T0 M73 P100 (end build progress ) M72 P1 ( Play Ta-Da song ) M137 (build end notification)

[peteruithoven]

Hi @dtimmermans, Interesting! I'll try as soon as possible. What firmware version are you running? Version 7.5 for the MakerBot Replicator (MightlyBoard)?

[dtimmermans]

Hi @peteruithoven I'm running version 7.5 for the MakerBot Replicator MightyBoard

[peteruithoven]

@dtimmermans Using your code it worked, but when I retried again with the regular gcode it also suddenly worked. I don't get it... There is no difference between your gcode and the gcode we generate. The gcode you shared was downloaded through the Download GCode button? Or is this from the start and end gcode fields?

I think I'll do some quick tests and I'll try to upload a stable version.

[peteruithoven]

[peteruithoven]

I released the fix that was included in beta in a new stable release.