¶ What's in the box
¶ 1. Package of Node Max
In the Node package you received, the following parts belong to Node:
- A Node Max module
- A Type C data cable
- A micro USB cable
- A 5V charging adapter
¶ 2. Node Max Layout
❶ Reset button.
❷ USB Host. (Printer)
❸ USB-C power port.
❹ SD socket slot.
❺ GPIO expansion port.
❻ I2C expansion port.
❼ AP Mode Button
❽ Extend Button
❾ sD card plug
❿ LED screen
¶ Preparation for installation
¶ 1. Upgrade Node Max's firmware
Please confirm the firmware version of your NodePro before you start using it.
Please update to the latest version: 2023-04-20-2010-xxx.bin
Please refer this doc to update your firmware.
If your Node Max's firmware is already relatively new, please ignore this step
¶ Setting up wifi
Node Max can configure the network in two ways:
- Configure the network through the sd card, edit the config.txt file in the sd open
- Configure the network through the AP mode of Node Max
Next, we will introduce the network configuration through AP mode.
If you want to configure network via SD card, please refer to this link.
¶ 1. Set Node Max to AP mode
Press and hold the button on the left as shown in the figure to let Node Max enter the AP distribution network mode.
When you see:
- The status light turns white
- LCD display "AP Mode Ready"
Indicates that Node Max has entered AP mode
¶ 2. Mibile phone serach Node Max wifi
Open the wifi search interface of your mobile phone, click on the wifi host"NodeMax_ap" and connect, the wifi password is: fiberpunk
¶ 3. Config the Wifi via your mobild phone's browser
Open the mobile phone browser, enter: 192.168.4.1 in the browser, you will enter the config network interface shown on the below.
Give your Node Max a name, this is especially useful when you have multiple Node Max
Click "Refresh Wifi List" to refresh the SSID list. After the refresh is completed, a pop-up window will prompt completion
As shown on the below, select the wifi network that Node Max will connect to, and then set the wifi password.
After clicking "Connect", Node Max will turn off the AP mode, and then reconnect to the previously selected Wifi SSID
¶ 4. Node Max connected successfully
In the previous step, when you click "connect", the status light of Node Max will turn red and blink.
If it successfully connect to wifi, you will see
- The status light turns green
- LCD prompts "Please reboot Node Max"
After the connection is successful, power off and restart Node Max
¶ 5. Node Max LED Status
Node has a status light (highlighted on the right) that will tells you
- Blinking red: SD card not found
- Steady red light: wifi has not been configured
- Steady green light: wifi configuration complete
- Steady blue light: printing
You can also find the name and IP of Node on the screen. In this example, IP is 192.168.8.121
¶ Connect Node Max via browser
Next, we need to connect the USB-A of NodePro to the USB port of the printer, and at the same time insert the SD card plug of Node Pro into the SD card slot of the printer.
Please note that the baud rate of the USB communication between the Node Pro and the printer is 115200. If your printer has changed the firmware and changed to another baud rate, then the USB of the Node Pro may not be able to communicate with the printer normally.
¶ 1. Confirming Node’s firmware version via browser
Open the browser and make sure that your computer or mobile phone is connected to the same local area network as Node. Enter in the ip on the Node display into the browser.
Using previous page example:
It would be http://192.168.2.12:88/version
Check the version number on the top left corner
(Suppose your version is: 2022-6-8-2005)
Note the use of http, not https when input your ip in the browser.
¶ 2. Connect Node Pro by browser
When the Node is powered on and the network configuration is completed (the green light is always on), we can control the printer through the web page under the same local area network. First, find the IP address displayed on Node’s OLED panel , then enter IP in the browser: http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx:88
Using example from previous page. It would be http://192.168.2.12:88
If you are unable to connect. Make sure it is http protocol,not https.
¶ 3. Control printer by browser
The interface shown below will then be displayed. You can try clicking the home button in the web page to control actions such as printer reset.
Note that a Node currently only supports access to less than 5 webpages/terminals at the same time. Please try not to open multiple browser windows at the same time to control the same Node.
¶ Test print
¶ 1. Upload file to Node Pro
You can upload gcode files to Node Pro in many ways, including the following:
- Web upload
- Upload via Nexus PC
- Upload via Cura plugin
- Upload via PrusaSlicer web tool
Here we only demonstrate the example of using web page upload
You can upload the Gcode file generated by any slice software to Node. Select the Gcode file on the web page and click “Upload”.
Note: There should be no spaces in the file name, otherwise the printing cannot be controlled normally!
¶ 2. Choose file and print
After the upload is complete, in the file list in the lower left corner, click: “print”, and you can see that the printer starts printing.
At this point, you can see that the printer starts to print, and you can also see the log returned by the printer on the right side of the web page