Cuts 4.8.0 USB not connecting

I have an ANET A8 which is working over USB with MatterControl. I installed Acura 4.8.0, added the ANET A8, and it will not connect over USB. I checked the Marketplace and USB is installed. Anyone have any ideas?

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Typos…
this is Cura Slicer 4.8.0

First, I can confirm that I’m using Cura 4.8 successfully to communicate from a Windows 10 computer to my Ender 5 Pro printer.

Second, I’m disappointed you already corrected your Acura typo. I was going to tell you that you can’t control a 3D printer using a car, not even an electric one :smiley:

Hey, I can try.:slight_smile:

so we meet again under a different thread. What I’m seeing is that Cura does nothing when I connect the printer. I see nothing on the Monitor tab, except the bar across the too showing the ANET A8 is selected. There are no controls on the right side. Is there a way to set the BAUD within Cura? This sounds similar to the BAUD issue I experienced with MatterControl.

I don’t recall having to set the BAUD in Cura. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why it takes sooo long to connect – maybe it keeps trying different rates until it finds 1 that gives a response it recognizes. If so, that’s really a dumb way to do it.

How long does it take to connect? What do you see until it has connected? I waited about 2 minutes, but may need to give it more time.

I’ve never timed it, but it takes a minute or 2. The Monitor window is basically blank until it connects.

Okay, thanks. I’ll try giving it 30 minutes just to be sure.

That’s more than enough time. It has never taken anywhere near that long for me. If it takes more than 5 min. I would say something’s wrong. Neverless, 30 min. would certainly be definitive.

In general I have found the Cura 4.X USB direct connect support to be inconsistent. It works with some printers but not others. I think better alternatives for sending files to a 3d printer are Octoprint or MatterControl from Matterhackers. Both are free. Octoprint is normally used from a Raspberry Pi box – which is how I have used it, but it does support Windows, which I have not tried.

MatterControl is quit easy to use and I use the terminal part of MatterControl quite often.

A new option I will be reviewing in the next few weeks is the new Creality Wifi Box which sells for $40. Here is a link to the description.

I have not tested this yet but expect to do some texting early next month.

Thanks for the pointer Irv. I just looked it over on the link you sent and there are lots of folks complaining that it does not work as advertised. Perhaps it has matured some since those comments were posted, but I also did not see a way to control the printer from a PC, only mobile devices. The device is supposed to support IOS and Android, but comments are reporting issues with IOS. I look forward to your review of this device in its current state.

I already have MatterControl working, but wanted to move to Cura as a more full featured slicer for future use. I’m moving away from MotterControl since it seems inadequate for CAD anyway (perhaps just needs more time to flush out everything). For example, I was not able to accurately stack one primitive shape on top of another, such as align bottom of one to top of another, or even align bottoms with an offset. I plan to use this to teach my 15 year old grandson, and don’t want to start him down a path with dead ends or required work-arounds for functionality not yet available. So my plan at this pint is to go with Cura and FreeCad (after he conquers the slicer and printer basics).

At this point I am trying to dry out the laptop and get it booting again. My grandson seems to have spilled something on the keypad so I washed it out, and now it fails to boot. Got a fan on it now, so I am shut down waiting on it. to dry out completely. I may have to disassemble it.

If you don’t disassemble that laptop, you may well have to let it dry for weeks rather days. Also, I really hope you quickly removed the battery.

There have been complaints in the Cura forums about its poor USB performance. I think the developers are big Pi/OctoPrint users, so they don’t think USB support is all that important. They even posted that they don’t think many people print over USB from Cura; something that seems to defy reality.

The battery did not get wet, and I have placed a small space heater blowing on it. Hopefully it will dry soon.

I had an older version of Cura (2 years ago) working with this printer when we first got it. I may try and go back to that version, assuming I can figure out which version was current at that time and it is still available. And OctoPtint is always an option, just prefer to keep it simple if I can. I could also just use MatterControl for a slicer, worse case.

It doesn’t matter at all whether the battery got wet. If it isn’t removed, it could feed current into wet parts of the circuitry and short them out, leading to permanent damage.

Good point I failed to consider. I’ll remove it now, but may already be too late. I may end up looking for a replacement laptop soon. :frowning:

I hope it isn’t dead, but it very well could be. Did you see any magic smoke leak out?

You know, as an electrical Engineer this is something I should not have overlooked. Really stupid, eh?

No smoke. And I really didn’t believe that anything under the keyboard got wet, but that was obviously not correct.

Hey, we all do it from time to time.