Hello. I have set up a new iMac to use for 3d printing (the win10 pc died). I have a USB to USB-C cable plugged in. Not seeing the Sovol show up anywhere on the Mac. If i load Cura and try to detect the printer from there it does not see it. I am assuming there is no wifi connection to the printer because “Printer info” does not show an ip. How do i get the two to talk to eachother so i can print ? I shouldn’t have to load every job on that SD card . I see others have had similar issues. Anyone able to solve this puzzle ?
I installed the CH340 driver. reseated the cable. rebooted the iMac. rebooted the printer. same issue. no matter which slicer i try there is no printer detected. i have tried Ultimaker Cura, Orcaslicer (though i could not figure out how to use that one), Prusaslicer, Flashprint (which only works with Flashforge stuff ?) and i tried to see the printer in Meshmixer. None of the slicers saw the printer. it is a brand new usb cable. everything is brand new.
However, if i turn off the printer with the computer still on, the lcd panel on the printer flashes constantly. so there is some connection ? usb power maybe ?
my last printer - a cheap wanhoo - was up and running in a couple of hours. this has been a week and no progress yet. very frustrating.
what can i try next? i assume if i stick a usb wifi adapter in the printer it will not work ? the main board and or firmware dont support wifi ?
Hi PAK5000,
asking an experienced Mac user/administrator might be a good idea in order to get the CH340 driver running, but that’s out of my scope…
My SV04 identifies via USB to my Laptop running Linux (Ubuntu) as follows: ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics CH340 serial converter
An other PC running Windows 10 was able to connect once the CH340 driver was installed.
Your thoughts are correct: The SV04 mainboard & touch display can be powered via the USB connection, but if the display is flashing, there is not enough power (which might be a setting of your BIOS / operating system). Or just turn on your SV04…
Inserting any other device in the SV04 USB port that is not a serial connection won’t work as long a the firmware has not been altered to support it.
Besides from missing drivers the USB cables are causing the most problems, lots cables are just connecting power or are made with inferior quality. I would try other ones - perhaps your friends or neighbors could borrow you them for a quick test.
Good luck
Björn
PS: @beemergb: You can probably get targeted help in the SV05 area of the forum. A CH340 driver is a piece of software that allows the PC’s operating system to communicate with the CH340 serial controller on the Sovol SV04 mainboard.
also, tried a windows 7 laptop and a linux laptop. the slicer does not detect a printer. the windows laptop did install a usb serial port driver. that was encouraging. finding an old enough version of cura was hard. but once installed, same issue. the lcd screen flashes. there is power there somewhere. but no printer detected.
wondering if the hole in the front of the printer for the micro usb port is not large enough for the cable to seat properly ? and needs to be larger ?
wondering also if the firmware is corrupt. i booted the printer and 1 of the icons was missing. went into printer info and all the text was there but the numbers (firmware versions, etc) were not. rebooted the printer and it was back to normal.
here is the lastest. tried several computers, several slicers and several cables. could never get the printer “detected”. decided it had to be the micro usb port on the printer - either due to software or hardware. i was hoping it was not hardware as that would mean boxing the printer up and sending it back. and being elderly and disabled that would mean getting someone over here on their day off to help. software would be an easy fix, right ? just flash the firmware ?
quick formatted an SC card and dropped the firmware off the site on to it. stuck it in the printer and booted up, nothing. ran a 7 level secure erase on the SD card (took about 2 hours) and downloaded a fresh copy of the bin file. still nothing. tried another SD card. nothing.
at this point i was thinking the firmware on the sovol3d.com/support site might have gotten corrupt and tried a backup copy from the original SD card. nothing. wound up watching a john carlsonn video on YT and tried his firmware. it did not change the “bin” to “cur”, but it did change the firmware version number. success ?
tried to print benchy.stl … looks like i have to go back through the leveling process again. aaarrgghh. but a week and a half in and i did get some plastic spaghetti to print.
i was really hoping a brand new printer out of the box would work right away. guess not. still i do appreciate the advice i have gotten here. hope my posts help someone else.
Hi again,
usually the firmware version won’t make any difference in getting your SV04 detected via USB.
In case the firmware file has not been renamed, it is highly unlikely that the update was successful. There are lots of threads in this forum how to update SV04 firmware & display software.
You could try installing Printrun/Pronterface in order to check your USB connection. This software suite supports host USB communication to the SV04 & is also available for MAC OS.
i looked at that, they have a mac version for the intel mac’s not the new iMac with a “apple silicon” cpu. sovol cura does not have a mac version either. had to use ultimaker cura.
