Connectivity

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We often receive inquiries regarding the connectivity of our models, USB or SD? By focusing on the user experience our decision was clear.

Why USB hidden?

Our Printbox models allow you to connect the machine via USB, but in reality, the access is hidden simply to discourage the use of it. We want to limit the function of this access to firmware updates. Hiding it makes sense. We are proud to have developed robust and bulky 3D printers that have had complex parts with up to 128 hours of continuous printing. If one wants to print these parts through a USB cable and a dedicated PC, the chances of failure are too high for our taste, depending on the PC. Not only this, the print quality would be affected by the processing variation of the PC.

SD, Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages: For working with a 3D printer we consider this to be the most comfortable. It is practical, fast and simple. A Pendrive would fulfill the same function but would generate that many connect the PC, which we prefer to avoid for the reasons explained and thus ensure excellent print quality.

Disadvantages: Here's the biggest problem. The SD card market has developed some malevolent clones called fake SD cards (usually "Kingston" brand). Just to clarify, I am not saying that Kingston cards are bad, but that most of the SD cards sold in Argentina are from China and counterfeit. An SD of these characteristics corrupts the files that I load, and lies about the space it really has (eg. It claims to be 8 GB and has 220 MB). These cards cause the 3D printer to go crazy.

The symptoms, from our experience, are as follows:

Printing normally starts like any other

After having made a few layers of print, at a random height, the print head starts to print all over the surface of the hot bed without any sense.

From time to time he prints the piece again and then returns to pure anarchy.

While fun to watch, we had to find a solution to the fake SD cards. We decided the best solution was to ..... throw them in the trash. The next question is...

How do we recognize them?

And for this we do have a better solution! To identify a fake SD card we have to use the following software (.exe, Windows only) called FAKE FLASH TEST. Download here. 

IMPORTANT: The test is destructive, it deletes any files stored on the SD card.

Steps

Step 0

Saving important files on the PC

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Step 1

Select the SD card in question

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Step 2

Click on Quick Size Test(Destructive)

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Step 3

After a few seconds you will see the software diagnostics.

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