I am a complete noob when it comes to the 3d printing world. I just finished assembling my printer and I plug it into my computer with the included usb cable and nothing happens. My computer does recognize the printer being plugged in but it just says "unrecognized device in com 4". Nothing else past that. Somebody please help me with the following steps that need to be taken to get my CPU talking with my printer.
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1$\begingroup$ Did you install the CH340 driver? It is on the SD card supplied with the printer. $\endgroup$– 0scar ♦May 8, 2018 at 14:55
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$\begingroup$ I did not see that. I did look on the card but didn't see a driver, but I will check as soon as I get off of work. Thanks a bunch for trying to help. So once I install the driver, is there anything I need to know from there. I have an autolevel sensor, so is that when I run "Ardruino", I'm sure that's not spelled right. That's how I knew I had a problem because as it was trying to upload, an error message kept coming up saying unable to synce $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 8, 2018 at 16:24
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$\begingroup$ Is the printer delivered with the sensor working? Otherwise you may need to flash new firmware, I recommend flashing to Marlin anyways as the stock firmware has no thermal runaway control (provided you are able to flash new firmware). $\endgroup$– 0scar ♦May 8, 2018 at 16:57
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$\begingroup$ It was shipped with the autolevel sensor so I would assume that it is already, but I'm referencing a youtube video on setting that up. So I wouldn't think that approaching it as if it didn't have the firmware already wouldn't damage anything by writing over it. $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 8, 2018 at 17:48
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3 Answers
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Your question addresses (USB) computer connection, so that will be addressed in this answer. For connection to the printer, you need 2 things (apart from the apparent things as computer, printer and cable):
- A working CH340 driver installed on the computer for USB communication with the board,
- a piece of software to talk to the computer at a bit transfer rate the printer understands.
The cheap Arduino based boards rely on the CH340 chip for USB communication. You should check whether you have correctly installed this driver. These drivers are erroneous and prone to cause problems. Sometime re-installation works, once did work for me.
The SD card supplied by Anet contains a folder (on my SD card: .\A8\A8资料\Software\CH340G Drive) with the installer file of the driver. Once installed properly, you should be able to connect various applications to the A8, provided you use the correct baud rate of 115200.
All this said, are you asking the correct question? Why do you need to connect to a computer, as you can print just fine by putting sliced .stl files (.gcode files) onto the SD card (when inserted in the computer using the adapter) and reinsert the card again in the printer to select the file using the menu buttons of the printer. Printing from SD card is considered safer then printing via the computer over USB as the print will stop when the PC is shut down or crashes.
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$\begingroup$ as there is com4 attached that means the usb2serial driver is installed. $\endgroup$ May 8, 2018 at 15:12
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$\begingroup$ I'm sorry @profesor79 I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to pretty much anything you responded with :). Could you dumb that down a tad. Even tho I don't understand, I get a feeling that it might be helpful. Are you saying that because it is recognized as COM4 that it means that the driver is already installed? $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 8, 2018 at 16:43
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$\begingroup$ @0scar you definitely make a good point, it's just that I'm trying to get my auto level sensor calibrated and the video I'm watching to get it properly working required me to get Skynet3D or Marlin uploaded to the printer. And I would just like everything to work as it should. Even though I'm glad you reminded me that to print all I need to do is download to SD card and transfer card to printer. That is definitely the method I'll use to print in case of crashes, just as you said. Thanks for the advice and help. $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 9, 2018 at 14:15
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Try using the provided SD card and SD adapter with Cura to give the printer gcode. If your computer isn't communicating properly with your printer, you can just download Cura 14 (it comes on the SD card) and upload the configuration file (also on the SD card). You can then plug the SD card into your main board and access it via the LCD screen.
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$\begingroup$ I believe I did that much already, but I didn't put the sd card into the board. But before I do that, I need to install the CH340 driver like "Oscar" advised right? And thank you for your help btw. This is going to be corny but I really am touched that I'm getting this much help from this forum. You guys are some stand up guys and I really appreciate it. $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 8, 2018 at 18:02
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$\begingroup$ @JoshR. No, you can print by copying files to SD card, and transfering the SD card to the printer. No need to use USB at all, and no need for drivers. Drivers and software for USB are a non-trivial thing to setup $\endgroup$ May 8, 2018 at 22:12
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$\begingroup$ @SeanHoulihane. Yeah I'm aware that I can do that but I really want to get my Printer communicating with my CPU. I found a really good video with a guy that explains very clearly and shows his process on his desktop. He's uploading Skynet3D to it tho, in the video. Is that obsolete now and maybe that's why I'm having a problem? I open Arduino and make sure the right board is selected, btw my card does not say V.1 is says V.1-5. but this is the message I get when I try to upload Skynet3D $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 9, 2018 at 13:53
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1$\begingroup$ @JoshR.It sounds like you need a lot of help with this one, at the level that won't work too well on a Q&A site. We still don't know if you're talking gcode, or arduino firmware download. $\endgroup$ May 9, 2018 at 13:57
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$\begingroup$ Sketch uses 114,230 bytes (87%) of program storage space. Maximum is 131,072 bytes. Global variables use 4,470 bytes of dynamic memory. avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xd6 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x6f avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x80 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xbf avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xae .....and so forth all the way to attempt 10. $\endgroup$– Josh R.May 9, 2018 at 13:57
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Most of the latest Windows 10 systems with high speed USB (USB3.0) fail to recognize USB to Serial connector (which is here: CH430).
Try with a decent self powered USB 2.0 hub that has been seen to fix a majority of USB 3.0 port issues, or try by disabling driver signature enforcement on Win10.
