C.2.1 Cable direct connection

1.

Obtain an appropriate cable, either a type-A-male-to-type-B-male USB cable of the type described above in Section C.2, or an Ethernet cable.

2.

Plug the cable into the printer and into your computer. A window should pop up that says it is installing drivers; see Figure C.6. Do not close that window!

Figure C.6: Cable direct connection to printer: installing device

3.

Now, download and install Repetier-Host.

4.

Start up Repetier-Host. You should see a screen such as shown in Figure C.7.

Figure C.7: Repetier-Host start-up screen

5.

Once the drivers from step 2 have finished downloading, unplug your printer. Then click Printer Settings on the top right of the screen. You should now be looking at a window such as shown in Figure C.8:

Figure C.8: Repetier-Host Printer Settings screen

First, set the Baud Rate to 115200.

Next, click on the down arrow in the box labelled “Port” and make a note of the values shown in the drop-down menu. This will show you what ports you currently have on the device and will help you determine the port used by the Polar3D printer. Click “Cancel” to close the Printer Settings window.

6.

Plug your printer back in. Open Printer Settings again. Select the new value in the drop down menu. In the example shown below in Figure C.9, that new value is COM13, but the actual new value may vary.

Figure C.9: Repetier-Host Printer Settings screen: Port

Click the “OK” button to save the changes.

7.

Click the red “Connect” button (towards the top left of the Repetier-Host window). If it turns green, that means you are connected; see Figure C.10.

Figure C.10: Repetier-Host Connect button

8.

Now, configure Repetier-Host to work with your Polar3D printer. Under “Printer Settings”, enter the values shown in Figure C.11 below:

Figure C.11: Repetier-Host Printer Settings: Printer Shape, etc.

Click the “OK” button to save these settings.

9.

Now, configure the CuraEngine slicer settings. (CuraEngine is the slicer program that converts the 3D model – the .stl file – to Gcode that the printer can read.) Click on the tab that says “Slicer”, towards the right of the window; see Figure C.12.

Figure C.12: Repetier-Host Slicer tab

10.

Make sure that the Slicer choice is set to CuraEngine:

Figure C.13: Repetier-Host Slicer: CuraEngine

Then, with the slicer set to “CuraEngine”, click the “Configuration” button; see Figure C.14.

Figure C.14: Zoomed in view of Slice with CuraEngine: Configuration button

11.

You will need to download two files from the Polar 3D support page. The files to download are named “Polar Cura Settings.rcp” and “Polar PLA Settings.rcf”. They are available at the Polar 3D support website:

Polar 3D support: Repetier-Host/USB printing

Save the two files to your desktop.

12.

Still under the CuraEngine “Configuration” window from step 10, navigate to the “Print” tab, click “Import”, and then load “Polar Cura Settings.rcp”:

Figure C.15: Repetier-Host Configure Settings screen: Import button

13.

Next, navigate to the “Filament” tab, click “Import”, and load “Polar PLA Settings.rcf”:

Figure C.16: Repetier-Host Configure Settings screen: Filament, Import

14.

Navigate back to “Printer Settings” (see for instance steps 4 and 5), click on “Scripts”, then select “Run on Kill”; see Figure C.17.

Figure C.17: Repetier-Host Printer Settings: Run on Kill script

Copy the text as shown into the box as in Figure C.17 – or you may copy the text from this link and paste it into the box. Click “OK” to save.

Everything is set up and configured properly, and now it’s time to print! See Section C.2.2!