rsoares / 3DPrinterInterface

3D Printer Interface

3D Printer Interface

3D Printer Interface using Node.js!

ChangeLog

Status: Initial structure ideia ... still a long way to go! Draft: https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/4f5c-1f6c-50baa492-9d74-10150a442276

• Update1 (06-Nov-2012): Initial ./modules/core.js module is now working with writable stream interface, serialport communication support completed and also internal minimal cache/stream data parser engine in place.

• Update2 (29-Nov-2012):

  • Ported and re-factored R2C2 webinterface (including client javascript helper file)
  • Added app.js code to deploy initial WebInterface for UI testing
  • Added rest.js module code to deploy REST API
  • Created mainapp.js to bind upper rest.js module requests with lower level modules (core.js serial communications module, slicer.js, downloader.js, etc)

It is now possible to test the WebInterface and send a simple GCODE command to printer. There is also an initial support to print data from .gcode files located at /bin/gcode/ .

// update node required packages

$ npm update

// launch demo WebInterface (will run on port 8080, REST API on 8081 and using /dev/null to emulate printer serial port - printer response emulated by timer)

$ node app.js

Testing core.js module via command line

The ./modules/core.js base module is responsible for managing all the 3D Printer configurations/communication and abstract all the underlaying functionality in a usable generic stream interface. To test this initial work there is a simple appcmd.js file with the minimal necessary required configurations to launch a simple 3d printer interface that can receive GCODE data from file/stream/STDIN and start printing the 3d object.

Install project npm package dependencies:

npm update

1- send gcode data to printer from file using command line ARGUMENTS

node appcmd.js ./bin/gcode/demo.gcode

2- send gcode data to printer from STDIN pipe (file content stream using cat)

cat ./bin/gcode/demo.gcode | node appcmd.js

3- send gcode data to printer from STDIN: manual GCODE data insert on the console + ENTER (interactive/manual control)

node appcmd.js

(enter commands): 
// M104 S200\n
// G28\n
// G90\n
// G21\n
// G92\n
// M82\n
// G1 Z0.200 F7800.000\n

3d Printers/electronic boards/microcontrollers tested hardware

• Currently using an Ultimaker 3d printer

• Also testing with R2C2 electronic board from this project: https://github.com/nneves/R2C2_WebInterface

• Using MBED microcontroller (could also use an Arduino) for a 3d printer emulator (without any logic, just receives USB serialport data and responds back with an 'ok' when it finds and ENTER - no gcode validation nor other logic): http://mbed.org/users/botdream/code/3dprinter_usbserialport_emulator/

• Also using /dev/null interface for dummy tests.

License

Copyright (C) 2012 Nelson Neves

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html