usb connection

You can use the printer without the SD card and control via S3D like you do today. It is better using the card as if your computer crashes you will not halt the print and have to start over. I was the same as you, but quickly learned the benefits of the SD card.

 

The same goes for S3D: you may or may not learn to like it (I do, though it took a while), but you can use any slicer you please.

 

I'm currently using Repetier with no problem. If your current printer firmware is Marlin, it will be seamless. The differences will be in how you level the bed, and also making a Big Box Profile with all the right offsets and dimensions. I'm still tweaking mine.

 

How do you connect the bigbox directly to the computer and use S3d to print? Like bigbox doesnt have a usb output correct?

 

Assuming you have the Raspberry Pi, which substitutes an Ethernet connector for a USB socket: simply remove the electronics cover, unplug the Raspberry Pi from the Rumba, and plug in the appropriate USB cable. You'll have to run it out through the electronics cover opening, so be sure to lay the cover with its cooling fan back in place, though you won't be able to screw it down.

 

Oh ok. Thank you soo much Hans. Once I connect the Rumba to my computer, can I no longer use the camera on my printer?

 

So the challenge is while you can use the camera to monitor (it is always streaming while octoprint is running) you can't use the raspberry Pi to time-lapse (since that is keyed to the z-change or timed for the print).

 

so henry, do you mean that I wont be able to live stream if I directly connect my rumba to my computer via usb? I would just like to have control over my printer using my computer and live stream my part developing using the camera (since our lab here at the University of Toronto has a dedicated computer, and I can remote access that computer). Because setting up the octoprint for connection over the internet is a lot of hassle since we have a enterprise network, and finding the printer on the network is almost impossible.

 

At that point your RPi of course has no connection to the printer and simply is acting like a webcam. It can't do time lapse (well there is a timed only mode but I believe this still requires a job to be running). At that point you might just be better off getting a regular webcam.

 

You cannot view the camera with a usb connection to your computer. You will need a network connection to the Rpi for that.