Topic: Using Cura with Da Vinci 1.0
Hi All,
*** Just wanted to be sure this get's noticed... I'm not a programmer, have little to no experience with 3d Printers, so anything I post may have glaring issue's with it's accuracy. Bear this in mind if you try anything that I mention in this post. I am currently using the cartridge resetter so I can set temps to 230 for extruder and 100 for bed, and the modded version of XYZware to send things to the printer over USB.***
Ok, with the disclaimer out of the way...
I have been attempting to print with something other than XYZware or Slic3r and failing miserably. KISSlicer "air printed" as did Cura, so I took a look at the Gcode that the modified version of XYZware outputs. I noticed that unlike KISSlicer or Cura, it contains no "G0" commands. After doing a bit of research on the internet, I found out that G0 commands are used for fast travel, while G1 commands are used when the extruder is supposed to be doing something. I also tested Slic3r output and just like XYZware (not surprising since they use a version of it to slice with) it only uses G1 commands for everything.
This made me decide to do a simple test under the assumption that XYZ's version of the firmware ignores G0 commands. I sliced a small file in Cura, then I simply used notepad++ to replace all G0 commands with G1 and saved the output to a Gcode file. I then loaded the same file up in XYZ modded version and sliced it from there also saving it to a Gcode file, then loading it into another pane in notepad++. Then a copy and overwrite of the Cura header with the one from XYZmod, then save the output as a file to attempt to print.
The object is currently cooling on my Da Vinci and while I don't know yet if it's "perfect" it is assuredly not a total failure by any means. I did notice several "issue's" while it was printing. First is that the printer was running at a MUCH faster speed than I normally use. I use the excellent setting in XYZware and at most normal speed setting. This was running considerably faster than that, so I need to slow that down. Second thing is all the display showed when printing was the bed and extruder current temperature. I was somewhat surprised that the printer did do it's normal "shutdown wipe head parking and bed lower" procedure after I hit the down arrow twice to not wait for cooldown once it was done printing.
While I may at some point in time decide to try out the repetier firmware that was modded for the Da Vinci, I truly do like the cartridge "feature" of knowing what color is in the machine and how much is left on the spool. But while it may still need some tweaking, I can at least get prints out of other software than Slic3r or XYZware now.