Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 12 April 2021 09:17:11 Bob Weber wrote:

> On 4/11/21 23:55, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > Greetings all;
> >
> > Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
> > printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
> > Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
> > printer.
> >
> > conman seems helpless, as does cutecom.
> >
> > cura has a monitor that can drive an ender 3 over this same cable
> > but I've not been able to establish a connection to cura, for
> > whatever reason.
> >
> > Perhaps conman or cutecom is not the correct way to do it. IDK, and
> > the docs for this printer are as non-existant as the chinese company
> > that made it. Its labeled as a NEWEREAL M-18-S, and is nearly twice
> > as big as an ender 3. Work envelope is 310x310x400mm, and is the
> > same bed-slinger style as an ender 3.
> >
> > What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
>
> I have used putty to connect to my ender 3 and a CNC3-3018.  I used
> /dev/ttyUSB0, 115200 baud and type serial.  Its half duplex so you
> don't see what you type unless you turn on echo mode.  As mentioned
> before you need to be in the dialout group for this to work.  I have
> connected bCNC to the 3018 so I know that works.  I usually just
> transfer the gcode over memory cards from my desktop host.  I run
> freeCAD, slic3r, lightburn all in a VM (I don't trust appimages etc)
> on my desktop to do the design work.  I have cura but I haven't tried
> to connect it via usb yet.

That does work, AppImages work just fine, but my cabling is both long and 
slow, so its not as usefull as I thought it would be.

Using AppImages of both openscad and cura, I've made ball bearing 
assemblies nearly 6" in diameter, stuffed with neasrly 100 crosman BB's 
for balls, they work very well indeed.  All to be part of a new design 
of harmonic drive for some of my cnc controlled machines in the garage.

Clearly, I have too many expensive hobbies.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 12 April 2021 05:29:42 Christian Seiler wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> Am 2021-04-12 05:55, schrieb Gene Heskett:
> > Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
> > printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
> > Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
> > printer.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?
>
> Do you actually have permissions for the device? Typically serial
> devices have permissions such that only root and the group 'dialout'
> can access them. You can check that via:
>
> ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
>
> That will typically look something like
>
> crw-rw 1 root dialout 4, 64 Apr 12 08:54 /dev/ttyUSB0
>
> You can use id to determine if you are in the 'dialout' group. If
> that doesn't appear (but your user and other groups do appear), then
> you may add your user to that group via
>
> gpasswd -a USERNAME dialout
>
> (Replace USERNAME by your username, run this command as root.)
>
> (Note that I've used ttyUSB0 here, because CH341 devices typically
> appear as such, but other USB to serial converters may also appear
> as ttyACM0 instead of ttyUSB0.)
>
> Additionally, even if the permissions are OK, if you have ModemManager
> installed (which is typically the case on desktop systems), for the
> first 30 to 60 seconds it will try to detect if the device in question
> is a model, and only once that fails will it release the device. So it
> could be that the device is "stolen" by ModemManager directly after
> pluggin it in and/or powering it up, and you have to wait a bit until
> ModemManager releases it.
>
> Furthermore, if you have software installed that is used for devices
> that help people with vision impairments, it could be that that
> interferes with USB serial devices, as some such devices also use a
> USB serial interface.
>
> You can check if another software (ModemManager, or something else) is
> currently using the serial device by calling:
>
> lsof /dev/ttyUSB0
>
> (Run the command as root.)
>
> Hope that helps!

Maybe. Since I am a C.E.T., I took the bottom off, finding an apparently 
well regarded 32 bit board by Makerbase, a Robin MKS Nano V1.2 

Carefull inspection seems to indicate a lot of heat telegraphed out of 
one of the 4 pwr transistors adjacent to where the bed heater wires are 
attached. And since it heats the bed first, nothing else but homing  
works.  Since I've $400 with taxes in this thing, and it has a BIQU H2 
printhead, which I can get steel nozzles for, and I just ordered 2 rolls 
of carbon fiber reenforced PETG for my ender 3 with a fixed microswiss 
extruder kit with steel nozzles, I have ordered the whole kit, touch 
display and interconnect cable and everything to replace it with. Around 
$75. Maybe I can salvage it yet.

But it will be the middle of May arriving.  Same as the H2 I have coming 
for the ender 3. The ender 3 can be picky, but I have the dregs of the 
6th roll of PETG on its peg right now. Considering PETG is the topend of 
its temps range, surviving for 6 rolls is great.

Thanks Christian, stay well now.

> Regards,
> Christian


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Bob Weber]

On 4/11/21 23:55, Gene Heskett wrote:

Greetings all;

Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
printer.

conman seems helpless, as does cutecom.

cura has a monitor that can drive an ender 3 over this same cable but
I've not been able to establish a connection to cura, for whatever
reason.

Perhaps conman or cutecom is not the correct way to do it. IDK, and the
docs for this printer are as non-existant as the chinese company that
made it. Its labeled as a NEWEREAL M-18-S, and is nearly twice as big as
an ender 3. Work envelope is 310x310x400mm, and is the same bed-slinger
style as an ender 3.

What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?

Cheers, Gene Heskett


I have used putty to connect to my ender 3 and a CNC3-3018.  I used 
/dev/ttyUSB0, 115200 baud and type serial.  Its half duplex so you don't see 
what you type unless you turn on echo mode.  As mentioned before you need to be 
in the dialout group for this to work.  I have connected bCNC to the 3018 so I 
know that works.  I usually just transfer the gcode over memory cards from my 
desktop host.  I run freeCAD, slic3r, lightburn all in a VM (I don't trust 
appimages etc) on my desktop to do the design work.  I have cura but I haven't 
tried to connect it via usb yet.


--


*...Bob*

Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Christian Seiler]

Hi there,

Am 2021-04-12 05:55, schrieb Gene Heskett:

Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
printer.

[...]

What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?


Do you actually have permissions for the device? Typically serial
devices have permissions such that only root and the group 'dialout'
can access them. You can check that via:

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0

That will typically look something like

crw-rw 1 root dialout 4, 64 Apr 12 08:54 /dev/ttyUSB0

You can use id to determine if you are in the 'dialout' group. If
that doesn't appear (but your user and other groups do appear), then
you may add your user to that group via

gpasswd -a USERNAME dialout

(Replace USERNAME by your username, run this command as root.)

(Note that I've used ttyUSB0 here, because CH341 devices typically
appear as such, but other USB to serial converters may also appear
as ttyACM0 instead of ttyUSB0.)

Additionally, even if the permissions are OK, if you have ModemManager
installed (which is typically the case on desktop systems), for the
first 30 to 60 seconds it will try to detect if the device in question
is a model, and only once that fails will it release the device. So it
could be that the device is "stolen" by ModemManager directly after
pluggin it in and/or powering it up, and you have to wait a bit until
ModemManager releases it.

Furthermore, if you have software installed that is used for devices
that help people with vision impairments, it could be that that
interferes with USB serial devices, as some such devices also use a
USB serial interface.

You can check if another software (ModemManager, or something else) is
currently using the serial device by calling:

lsof /dev/ttyUSB0

(Run the command as root.)

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Christian

Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 12 April 2021 00:27:12 Mirco Piccin wrote:

> Hi,
> Have you tried uploading the firmware to the board again?
>
No, haven't got it and the makers site may as well be the install 
boilerplate, nothing is available under the support button, and the 
email address, while valid, is not accepting email, I have at least 5 
bounces because it was undeliverable. IOW, I got screwed for another 
$400 again. Dremel has no support for their digilab stuff and I bought 
thier best at $1900. So its out of the way and my ender 3 is back on the 
table. Its sorta working, but this printer has about 4x the working 
volume of an ender 3.

I've looked up the codes and written a 30 line program that may help 
troubleshhot, when I have both eyes open at the same time much later 
today.

The power supply is good, but its not now heating anything and throwing 
errors 4 and 5 because of that. OOTB, it worked once but didn't make a 
good print because the Z offset was about 3 or 4mm below the bed. If I 
could log into it with cutecom or such, I might be able to get a little 
shmartder ;-)

Thanks Mirco Piccin.

> On Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 05:55 Gene Heskett  wrote:
> > Greetings all;
> >
> > Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
> > printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
> > Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
> > printer.
> >
> > conman seems helpless, as does cutecom.
> >
> > cura has a monitor that can drive an ender 3 over this same cable
> > but I've not been able to establish a connection to cura, for
> > whatever reason.
> >
> > Perhaps conman or cutecom is not the correct way to do it. IDK, and
> > the docs for this printer are as non-existant as the chinese company
> > that made it. Its labeled as a NEWEREAL M-18-S, and is nearly twice
> > as big as an ender 3. Work envelope is 310x310x400mm, and is the
> > same bed-slinger style as an ender 3.
> >
> > What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > --
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> >  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law
> > respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
> > Genes Web page 


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Mirco Piccin]

Hi,
Have you tried uploading the firmware to the board again?


On Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 05:55 Gene Heskett  wrote:

> Greetings all;
>
> Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to
> printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer,
> Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the
> printer.
>
> conman seems helpless, as does cutecom.
>
> cura has a monitor that can drive an ender 3 over this same cable but
> I've not been able to establish a connection to cura, for whatever
> reason.
>
> Perhaps conman or cutecom is not the correct way to do it. IDK, and the
> docs for this printer are as non-existant as the chinese company that
> made it. Its labeled as a NEWEREAL M-18-S, and is nearly twice as big as
> an ender 3. Work envelope is 310x310x400mm, and is the same bed-slinger
> style as an ender 3.
>
> What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> --
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
>  - Louis D. Brandeis
> Genes Web page 
>
>

going beyond a ch341 uart-usb convertor

[Gene Heskett]

Greetings all;

Building a design/builder for a 3d printer, which when a std usb to 
printer cable is connected between the computer and the 3d printer, 
Identifies as a ch341 convertor cable once it is plugged into the 
printer.

conman seems helpless, as does cutecom.

cura has a monitor that can drive an ender 3 over this same cable but 
I've not been able to establish a connection to cura, for whatever 
reason.

Perhaps conman or cutecom is not the correct way to do it. IDK, and the 
docs for this printer are as non-existant as the chinese company that 
made it. Its labeled as a NEWEREAL M-18-S, and is nearly twice as big as 
an ender 3. Work envelope is 310x310x400mm, and is the same bed-slinger 
style as an ender 3.

What would the next thing to try and discover why its not working?

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page