Installing Drivers

Install the Drivers
The Solidoodle runs on open source electronics, so you'll need to install drivers. The kind of driver that a Solidoodle requires in order to operate properly is called a USB Serial Driver. A USB Serial Driver is software that establishes a COM port.

Windows

Plug the Solidoodle USB cable into a USB port on your computer. Windows Update should automatically find and install the drivers. You're done with installing the drivers!

Windows 8

When you attempt to install the unsigned 3rd party driver on Windows 8, you will most likely not be able to install because the file is not digitally signed. To get around this restriction, you must temporarily remove this restriction by following the instructions here.

Once you have followed the directions to disable driver signature enforcement, download the driver and click to install. This is only a temporary change, however, and restarting your computer after you have installed the driver will return your computer to its normal state.

Note that this involves restarting your computer, so make sure to close out all other windows. You may want to print out these instructions so you can refer to them while your computer is restarting.

Windows Manual Install

Note: In some cases the drivers will not install on their own. The Solidoodle drivers for Windows can be found in the following link: Windows Driver (7/2/2013)

If the driver was not automatically installed, you may see this screen:

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In this case,

a. Click "Change Settings…"
b. Select "Install driver software from Windows Update".

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c. Click "Save Changes". The FTDI drivers should now install successfully.

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If Windows is still unable to install the drivers, take a look at the Arduino guide to installation. If that does not work, send an email to support "at" solidoodle [dot] com

Attention: For those having difficulty selecting your COM port

If you have installed the USB serial driver successfully and you are still not able to connenct to your printer in Repetier Host, then windows has not recognized the newly installed driver.
In Repetier Host, you may even notice an error message that is similar to this one:

Serial com error:System.IO.Ports.SerialErrorReceivedEventArgs

In some situations, a computer running windows will not automatically recognize a newly installed Serial driver. This means that you will have to update your newly installed driver manually.

To manually update the driver, you will first need to plug the USB cable into your printer and attache the other end directly to one of your computer's USB ports. Now, enter the 'Device Manager' in Windows and navigate to the hardware category called Ports (COM & LPT) and then left click on it once. You should notice the Ports category expand to reveal a Sub-Category called USB Serial (Communication Class, Abstract Control Model) (COM X); where X is the COM port number. You should be looking for that COM port number in Repetier Host after this procedure is completed; which can be found in "Printer Settings."

Device-Manager-and-Update-Driver-1.jpg

You will need to right click on the USB Serial Sub-class and select proprties. In the drivers tab you will find a selection to update drivers, click on Update Drivers to access the next menu.

Now that you have selected which driver to update, you will have to tell Windows where the "updated" driver can be found. You should be presented with two options. Select "Browse my computer for driver software" to locate and install the driver software manually.

Device-Manager-and-Update-Driver-2.jpg

Next, you will be greeted by a menu that allows you to "Browse for driver software on your computer" You will be presented with two choices, select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer." Now select the Serial port device and proceed with the installation.

Device-Manager-and-Update-Driver-4.jpg

That is pretty much all there is to it. You will then see an installation indicator bar.

Device-Manager-and-Update-Driver-5.jpg

Once the installation is complete you will be notified that "Windows has successfully updated your driver software." You will be prompted to restart your computer; you should do so.

Device-Manager-and-Update-Driver-6.jpg

Once your computer restarts, try selecting the appropriate COM port and baud rate in Repetier Host and then connect. For assistance with this, please review the following supportive documentation: How to connect

OSX

The Solidoodle drivers for Apple's OSX can be found in the following link: Apple OSX Driver (5/9/2013)

Simply download the driver, mount the disk image, and follow the instructions on your screen.

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