USB stick printing

soare0

I was wondering (even if in documentation, the answer seems to be a pretty clear NO), it is possible to print from a USB stick on a DUET3 6XD board? Probably I will not need this, but as I am retrofitting a printer wich had that possibility, I would like to keep it...

droftarts

@soare0 You are correct, in that the answer is unfortunately no, in standalone mode. You can plug in a USB drive to the Raspberry Pi, and mount it so it shows up in DWC, when running in SBC mode.

The reason is that the microcontroller on Duet 2 doesn't support USB Host mode, so it would not be possible to support USB sticks directly. The microcontroller on the Duet 3 6HC and 6XD (not sure about the Mini 5+) does support USB host mode, but needs some development time to enable, but there are other priorities at the moment. Surprisingly, I don't think there is a feature request for this on the RepRapFirmware Github repository.

Ian

soare0

@droftarts Indeed, searching a little more, I found the answer too, here:
https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/3941/paneldue-usb-host/4
and here:
https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/796/silly-paneldue-connection-idea/4

Still, these ATSAMs on DX6 are more capable than older chips, so hence the question.

Thank you for answering though, and maybe such feature request will be added. It is not a simple task though, even there should be some routines for USB host support, as this is only the beginning of the job.

Working through a SBC, looks promising for the future, but as the printer I am working now, needs to do long printing times (most of them days in a row), I am concerned of the reliability of such a solution, this being a known problem, if I understood right. I may dabble a bit with a SBC though, after finishing the raw printer, and let you people know about.

dc42

@soare0 we're hoping to support printing from USB sticks on the more recent versions of the 6HC (the versions with a USB-C connector). However, in most situations it's more convenient to upload job files through the web interface or directly from the slicer. I guess your printer wasn't originally network-enabled so it didn't have that option.

soare0

@dc42
Yes, it had a CHEAP marlin board, on a (would be) professional printer - 600x600x800 actively heated closed printer, wich I am refurbishing now: DOWELL DH8.

Translated in english language, it's name would be: ”it almost works” or ”by me if you love tinkering”, or ”please don't be mad because so many failed big prints”, albeit this last one was most because of the strange filament (like ABS clogging the throat at 39C ambient), or because of the shitty belts (36h at 60C did't help them). Oh, and I forgot one important name: "please look for support elsewhere". Now, this was disturbing at this price, but then, a man got to do what a man got to do, and being the last straw ... DUET.

For 5k, this is what you get, but it needs only to add maybe 1k and some work to make it a reasonable good printer, so I can't complain too much.

Bottomline, it is true that, right now, USB stick is not needed anymore, but it may be in the future, from time to time. Not a big issue, anyway.

Thank you for your answers.
All the best,
Paul