A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
Sorry everyone, alittle rant.
Why oh why has prusa taken the step to prveent a usb hub from connecting to the LCDx board and only allowing the USB to be formatted with FAT instead of xFAT ( far better format). The usb port is very tight when plugging in and out and it would help to add a simple USB port hub, but when using the hub the usb stick is not recognised and before you say the hub will require power, the answe is not for this cheap hub it as four slots and is powered by the port connector.
Also formatting to anything apart from FAT does not work. I incorrectly said that xFAT would a nice suggestion, but no Prusa progrqmmers have done something in the code so on;y FAT works which is silly. AND NO F**king Camera.
Rant over.
RE:
Use FAT32.
I use a USB to SD Card adapter instead. This stays permanently inserted into my printer, and I just remove the SD Card from it - I find this easier as my laptop has only USB-C ports, but a native SD Card Reader slot, hence I stick to using SD Cards.
As for the camera - agree with you there. Would be nice to be able to connect a USB camera natively to the printer (not their silly smartphone solution either!), even if its just for remote monitoring.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
What does xFAT give you that FAT doesn't that would be useful for the printer? Are you really wanting a gcode of over 4gb? Or are you using a USB that's over 8TB and needs partitioned?
Of all the issues, the file format on their usb is super low on the list. If their developers waste time on getting a different usb format to work rather than getting MK4 and Octoprint to work as it did with MK3 (for example), many more people will be cranky.
Sorry everyone, alittle rant.
Why oh why has prusa taken the step to prveent a usb hub from connecting to the LCDx board and only allowing the USB to be formatted with FAT instead of xFAT ( far better format). The usb port is very tight when plugging in and out and it would help to add a simple USB port hub, but when using the hub the usb stick is not recognised and before you say the hub will require power, the answe is not for this cheap hub it as four slots and is powered by the port connector.
Also formatting to anything apart from FAT does not work. I incorrectly said that xFAT would a nice suggestion, but no Prusa progrqmmers have done something in the code so on;y FAT works which is silly. AND NO F**king Camera.
Rant over.
RE:
Hi Mysticgringo, i do agree partially, but xFAT is the newer filesystem and multiplform no size limits and who knows we may get larger than 4GB Gcode one day. I don't want large Gcode files but we now have a 32bit mother board , sorry buddy board then USE IT! expand the firmware increase the functioanlaity and stop thinking in a 8 bit. The rant was my frustration and wanting to have a elite file system with elite functionality. Better drivers, more flexibility coding etc.
You're right the dev team is very busy..that's why it's a rant and hope.
What does xFAT give you that FAT doesn't that would be useful for the printer? Are you really wanting a gcode of over 4gb? Or are you using a USB that's over 8TB and needs partitioned?
Of all the issues, the file format on their usb is super low on the list. If their developers waste time on getting a different usb format to work rather than getting MK4 and Octoprint to work as it did with MK3 (for example), many more people will be cranky.
Sorry everyone, alittle rant.
Why oh why has prusa taken the step to prveent a usb hub from connecting to the LCDx board and only allowing the USB to be formatted with FAT instead of xFAT ( far better format). The usb port is very tight when plugging in and out and it would help to add a simple USB port hub, but when using the hub the usb stick is not recognised and before you say the hub will require power, the answe is not for this cheap hub it as four slots and is powered by the port connector.
Also formatting to anything apart from FAT does not work. I incorrectly said that xFAT would a nice suggestion, but no Prusa progrqmmers have done something in the code so on;y FAT works which is silly. AND NO F**king Camera.
Rant over.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
Which brand / model of the adapter do you have? Apparently not all of them work.
I use a USB to SD Card adapter instead. This stays permanently inserted into my printer, and I just remove the SD Card from it - I find this easier as my laptop has only USB-C ports, but a native SD Card Reader slot, hence I stick to using SD Cards.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
it's a very cheap one I got as a gift USB/1 x 4
Which brand / model of the adapter do you have? Apparently not all of them work.
I use a USB to SD Card adapter instead. This stays permanently inserted into my printer, and I just remove the SD Card from it - I find this easier as my laptop has only USB-C ports, but a native SD Card Reader slot, hence I stick to using SD Cards.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
Would be nice if it could read different formats not just FAT. I had the supplied ADATA stick fail within 30 days of using the machine. Found evidently printer reads and writes to card while printing... had a 12 hr print fail at 10 hrs ... frozen display... I did a power cycle... no restart ...GRRRR thought was supposed to recover from failed prints. (since it can know where bed is, it would be nice if it could measure last layer height and resume printing file, starting a last layer by ironing that last layer and then continue to end of file)
ANYWAY....Ended up re-slicing object to print the unprinted part and glueing it together so the filament and previous 10hr wasn't a waste of life.
this was a print before the ADATA stick crapped. I contacted support about the stick... gave me a voucher for $10.00 well that barely covers a memory stick at local retail outlets . I found another memory stick it worked, then had to use on a pc as a "Windows repair" bootable drive, because during attempt to use ADATA and trying to erase it chose wrong drive, NOW PC BOOT PROBLEM!!! So got on mac to get windows iso to fix, to make bootable USB to fix PC and worrying about all lost data. SUCCESS !! PC Fixed back to print GCODE, erased usb got file on usb..
NOT RECOGNIZED Empty folder with return... WTF shows on PC but not on MK4 ... (Are you still with me???)
After awhiled I figured out it must have a hidden boot partition, and the unused area was formatted as FAT but the MK4 couldn't read or see the data... drove me crazy, until i used a drive partitioning software totally clear all partitions on the stick.
Now formating was next fun Windows wants you to format FAT through a command prompt (NTFS or exFAT was only choices without command prompt formatting)... I ended up using a MacBook to format it FAT and now working again. Really ??? needed an apple to do a windows FAT for the usb to recognize in PRUSA MK4.
Well didn't realize that I could almost write a college level thesis on file woes of interoperability.
Yes it's another RANT here but it would be nice if it could recognize other formats.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
As I understand it, a license fee must be paid to include exFAT on devices. Since exFAT is not needed, it makes sense to me for Prusa to not include it, to keep costs down.
To support hubs, cameras, and additional usb devices, a Linux computer could be included with the MK4. But that would probably raise the price by $100, which I don't think is an option at all for the MKx line of printers.
Once printing via usb/octoprint support is added to the firmware, we'll be able to add our own Linux computers to extend the MK4's functionality to include better storage options, cameras, etc., just as can be done with the MK3.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
That's the issue. exFAT is Microsoft proprietary. Microsoft somehow strongarmed USB storage vendors to use their filesystem by default.
Just use a Mac, reformat as FAT. Or use the command prompt - "FORMAT x: /FS:FAT32/Q" . I have a 64G compact USB storage device on my MK4 that works fine.
The only value of exFAT is the ability to have files greater than 4GB and handle very large media.
As I understand it, a license fee must be paid to include exFAT on devices. Since exFAT is not needed, it makes sense to me for Prusa to not include it, to keep costs down.
To support hubs, cameras, and additional usb devices, a Linux computer could be included with the MK4. But that would probably raise the price by $100, which I don't think is an option at all for the MKx line of printers.
Once printing via usb/octoprint support is added to the firmware, we'll be able to add our own Linux computers to extend the MK4's functionality to include better storage options, cameras, etc., just as can be done with the MK3.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
You can use an usb extension cable
Sorry everyone, alittle rant.
Why oh why has prusa taken the step to prveent a usb hub from connecting to the LCDx board and only allowing the USB to be formatted with FAT instead of xFAT ( far better format). The usb port is very tight when plugging in and out and it would help to add a simple USB port hub, but when using the hub the usb stick is not recognised and before you say the hub will require power, the answe is not for this cheap hub it as four slots and is powered by the port connector.
Also formatting to anything apart from FAT does not work. I incorrectly said that xFAT would a nice suggestion, but no Prusa progrqmmers have done something in the code so on;y FAT works which is silly. AND NO F**king Camera.
Rant over.
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
So I don't think Prusa has anything to do with filesystem support. The firmware builds on FreeRTOS, which it seems does not support exFAT. Honestly, Id like to see Prusa engineers stick with what they're good at and not delve into the dark art of file system drivers. It is kinda annoying though.
But seriously I want a camera attached to the printer, either USB port will do. Not a phone though. That's just a wonky idea.
And how about some REAL Octoprint support. This cockblocking Octoprint to coerce users over to PrusaLink/PrusaConnect ecosystem is an Apple-level trick
PrusaLink lacks maturity and security.
When someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "YES!"
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
That is what I’ll be using
You can use an usb extension cable
RE: A Rant - Fed up with Prusa USB's not allowing small hubs to work no Camera and using FAT
That worked great, thanks for the suggestion and help