Marlin 1.1.8-20171227 Simple Firmware Available

[cbxbiker61]

[PxT]

Nice work. Where can we find the source code for these changes? The terms of the Marlin license (GPL) require you to post source & not just binary blobs, so that others can build on your work.

[cbxbiker61]

[DavidYon47]

Can you summarize some of the advantages of using a more up-to-date Marlin build over what Printrbot ships with an F6 board?

I presume some of the things you list as supported are items you had to re-merge into the mainline Marlin (the LED's, improved Z rod, X/Z upgrades, etc). It also seems like that some of these were simply a matter of #defining the proper defaults (like the correct stepper values for the Z-rod, correct X-axis dimension, etc). Not to minimize the amount of work you've done, maintaining such a... ummm... "mature" code base is not for the faint of heart, and it's often the seemingly simple things that prove the most vexing (30-year Software Veteran speaking).

I'm all for having better firmware and therefore better prints. If the G2 board supported a heated bed it might have crossed over my pain/gain threshold, for example. And the stock firmware in my F6 board is noticeably smoother than what was in my old D board from 2013, so having the D's USB connector finally implode was a blessing in addition to a hassle.

Giving up the LCD will be painful. I do plan on building one of those Pi-with-touchscreen OctoPrint setups to put on the printer, so that will probably alleviate some of that pain. But that won't be on my radar for awhile.

[PxT]

[cbxbiker61]

20170621:
Fixed wrong z-rod calculation for those with 8mm 4-start zrods

[cbxbiker61]

Github is great for certain cases. In this case, a patch actually makes it more obvious what has been changed.

[DavidYon47]

[cbxbiker61]

OK, I put a legend in post #1

Unless you have changed to 16t pulleys, you would want:
extgh-origz-origx-fs8-20t.hex

It's a pre-req for the UBIs 13S and heated bed, so those are not options.

The led should be wired exactly as described in the guide. FYI, I pulled in an external library to handle the RGBA leds, and I haven't actually tested it yet, we'll just have to see if it works. I will have RGBA leds this week so I'll have something to test with.

[cbxbiker61]

Also keep in mind that I use the Marlin standard M851 to set the probe offset rather than the old PrintrBot gcode (can't remember what it was, it's been a long time since I had a stock firmware installed).

[DavidYon47]

Yay, I guessed right. Thanks for posting the legend. Most of it was fairly obvious, though I had no idea what the stock tooth count is (had to Google that), guessed that "fs8" meant Four Stop 8mm, and had no idea what "gh" meant. I figured it was more likely the right thing than something labelled "old".

I also noticed the M851 command from the M501 report, so immediately switched to that when I had to recalibrate Z. One thing that would be nice for your build is to allow a positive Z offset rather than -1.5 -> 0.0mm, as sometimes the overshoot on the probe nuts is in the opposite direction. When Googling the problem I saw it's a simple #define in the code, though I don't know whether there are undesired side-effects by allowing a positive Z offset.

I really like the improved Z-homing, and the four-point bed leveling whether the Z-stop is tested several times to help average out the inconsistencies.

[cbxbiker61]

David,

There's actually a reason why I didn't allow a positive Z axis offset and it's probably better to leave it as it is. If your probe is set too high, i.e. such that it requires a positive Z axis adjustment, the hot-end would touch down during probing which is something we don't want. In that case physically adjusting the inductive probe to a "normal" height with the original black 1mm acrylic test shim would be called for.

[cbxbiker61]

Something you may want to try out when you get a chance is the M420 (set z fade height) followed by M500 to write it to EEPROM. I have mine set to 3mm. The advantage to setting a z fade height is that bed leveling is tapered off as it move to the z fade height at which point it is totally disabled. The main perks with this are that the lead screw isn't constantly making z height adjustments on each layer and you save cpu cycles, which should improve the print smoothness of curves (faster and lack of stuttering on short radius curves).

[DavidYon47]

Cool on the Z-fade, had no idea what that was. The other thing I have to play with more seriously at some point is firmware retraction.

Though it may be hard to tell how much the Z-fade will buy me. Over the winter I did a fine-tuning pass shimming the bed, and when I was manually checking Z probing, the four corners of the bed were within 0.1mm of each other when I was done. Even when the extruder makes a long diagonal pass across the bed, there is only barely perceptible movement of the Z-coupling (like less than 5 degrees).

That said, it's worth a try when I have the time to go into fiddle/fine-tuning mode. I had my hands full just getting the fan shroud situation back to where it used to be.

[cbxbiker61]

Bumped version to 1.1.4-20170704.

[cbxbiker61]

20170707:
Fixed the led code, it now works. If you are using a camera, you will get much better results with the led strip mounted at the camera rather than by the hotend. This allows you to run "lights-out" and monitor/timelapse through OctoPrint.

[cbxbiker61]

BTW, you will get better results at fine print resolutions (0.05, 0.1, 0.15) with the 8mm lead-screw rather than the original SAE lead-screw. I would venture a guess that this has to do with SAE to metric conversion and uneven stepping at those resolutions. With the original lead-screw I was getting banding at 0.15 resolution, that is gone with the 8mm.

Prusa has been saying about the MK2 that you will be impressed by the print quality at 0.15 resolution. Now that I have a 8mm lead-screw (also 16t pulleys) on my PrintrBot I can say that my Simple Metal is achieving print results very much the same as my Prusa.

[cscott]

Thanks a lot! I used this as a base and added extrudrboard support. My current version is here: cscott/Marlin/tree/xilka2 on github.

I also factored out a number of patches to upstream: MarlinFirmware/Marlin/pull/7284 (neopixel rgbw support) and MarlinFirmware/Marlin/pull/7286 (updates to pins_PRINTRBOARD_REVF.h) on github.

I hope to clean up the rest of the changes so that I can submit a PR which adds the Printrboard to the "example_configurations" directory.

[Sorry, the forum won't let me post linked URLs.]

[Vapor]

I keep getting gateway timeouts when trying to get to the firmware. Is there somewhere else I could get it from?

[cbxbiker61]

[cbxbiker61]

I designed a PiCam 2/RGBW LED bed mount that will facilitate the RGBW firmware support.

viewtopic.php?f=113&t=11498

[cbxbiker61]

Bumped to Marlin 1.1.5.



cscott: I PM'd you about a fix to the merged 1.1.5 code.

[cbxbiker61]

Bumped to Marlin 1.1.6.

http://www.xilka.com/printrbot/marlin/1.1.6/20171013/

[dp250f]

Does this firmware work on a Printrboard REV D? (Printrbot Metal Simple with gear-head extruder, E3D V6 using original UBIS thermister, and heated bed)

I just installed a BuildTak FlexPlate build surface and I don't imagine it will ever be perfectly flat.

[cbxbiker61]

It's not built for the older boards.

You can apply the patch (it has bug fixes and improvements) and tweak the configuration files for your setup. Look in build-printrbot.sh to see how I'm passing options into the build.

[dp250f]

Thanks for the reply. I've never compiled a firmware before, so I'm not familiar with the workflow you describe. I sent you a PM so I don't clutter up this thread with all my questions.

[knightrider]

any chance you will be updating to 1.1.7?

also how do we apply the patch ourselves? I have the larger Matrix bed and Z upgrade so I need to edit the build size before compiling.

[cbxbiker61]

The patch applies to the official Marlin source code - from the source directory : patch -p1 -i patchname.patch.

I have started updating the patch to 1.1.7, quite a bit of code has changed in 1.1.7 so I have to be a bit careful in my update. I would suggest going ahead with the 1.1.6 patch, I want to make sure I get a good patch for 1.1.7 before I release it.

[cbxbiker61]

http://www.xilka.com/printrbot/marlin/1.1.8/20171227a/

20171227:
Bumped to Marlin 1.1.8.
This version enables LINEAR_ADVANCE for much improved high speed printing. Slic3r Prusa Edition 1.38.5 supports this nicely. There is a "Printrbot Simple.ini" in the directory that works with Slic3r PE 1.38.5.

[cbxbiker61]

This a snippet from a PM.

What heated bed are you using?

Glad you like linear-advance, it's been very good for me.

The "official" PrintrBot heated bed is quite thick aluminum which keeps the temp stable regardless of bang-bang or PID.

As for compiling Marlin... My patches are in the source tree with the hex files and you just apply them to the appropriate Marlin version with the patch utility.

Thomas Sanlanderer (good channel) has a youtube video on compiling Marlin.

[0Aicher]

I am using the Printrbot upgraded x and heated bed. I am also using the printrbot power supply to power it if that matters.
And this is the problem I am experiencing.
IMG_0742.jpg

[cbxbiker61]

If you're using OctoPrint you can watch the temperature graphs. In my case I see a nice straight line on both the extruder and heatbed temps.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that the heatbed is causing enough current draw when it's on that it droops the voltage going to the hotend which would cause the hotend temp to vary. You should easily see that with the graphs. Using PID on the heatbed would no doubt lessen the effect, since it would switch much quicker. But I have a feeling that would only be masking the problem.

Make sure the 6 pin connector is pushed all the way on...they can fool you into thinking they're seated when they're not.

In my case I'm using a beefy Seasonic power supply, so I know mine can keep up with the current draw.

[0Aicher]

This may be an obvious question, but I am finding it hard to find the answer to.
I just got a new e3d style hotend and need to reconfigure the 1.1.8 firmware to match the new thermistor. I am trying to apply your patch to the firmware I downloaded from Marlin's website. I have both downloaded on my computer, yet I cannot figure out how to apply the patch. I understand how to edit the firmware as it stands ,but so far, I have found no documentation online on how to apply the patch. Would you be able to boil it down to a step by step on applying a patch to an arduino library?

Also follow up question. Since there are so many printrbot configurations that this patch is used for, What do I need to do to your patch in order to select the right settings for my hardware configuration to compile to the base firmware?

[cbxbiker61]

"patch" is a GNU utility, native on Linux, but I'm sure there must be a Windows version. It is used like this:

patch -p1 -i PatchFile.patch

As for the configurations for PrintrBot, look in build-printrbot.sh, that shell script loops through the config options, writes them out to PrintrBotConfig.h and then runs a build. You just need to craft a PrintrBotConfig.h that matches your setup. Once you have the PrintrBotConfig.h setup and your thermistor setup in Configuration.h you should be able to build from Arduino IDE.

[RetireeJay]

[0Aicher]

Thank you very much!
Luckily I dual boot-Linux, but didn't realize I'd have to use it here
I thought it would be a patch tool within Arduino.

[Mooselake]

It might be easier to just replace the thermistor with the same one most other vendors use

Kirk

[RetireeJay]

[Arcmatt]

I have been learning tho negotiate the configuration, well, trying anyway. Would you be so kind as to post your source code for the 'extold-origz-origx-fs8-16t.hex' and the 'extold-origz-origx-fs8-20t.hex'? It would be greatly appreciated. I would like to compare your implementations to what I have been working on.

Thanks-
Matt

[Arcmatt]

[cbxbiker61]

[Mooselake]

[Arcmatt]

[RetireeJay]

[Arcmatt]

I agree, but we are all 'under no obligation' to do anything, including being here. It just seems that lessons could be learned from those who actually wrote Marlin from the ground up, or as some say, from the metal. With some code editors, you can place two files side by side and enable a compare function that will highlight differences between the two, as an example. There are lots of choices, and I am not necessarily suggesting the easiest, but the most efficient and logical, patterned after the pros own choice of github and full source documentation. Not to mention, the current forms most post config changes doesn't allow anyone else to switch from linear ABL to bilnear ABL without redoing the entire process... not efficient.

But, I totally get the 'under no obligation' premise.

BTW, I have already gone through and noted his changes. There are a lot of entirely custom definitions, that how they are actually implemented would only be revealed with a full set of source files. Providing only a .hex limits the set of tools Marlin firmware is meant to provide. Nice custom build though, I won't deny that, props!

[cbxbiker61]

[cbxbiker61]

[cbxbiker61]

One more thing to note. Git is excellent software, I use it all the time. Since it is based on diff and patch....the same amount of effort is required when merging patches to new versions...you will see the same conflicts.

[Arcmatt]

As I have said, I am not a programmer. Even retireeJay said he isn't completely sure how to use a patch file.

So I appreciate your rough explanation of the patch file. Please, if you could help me and probably a lot of us better understand how to fully use the patch file if you could. Note, one of the best advantages of github is it is OS agnostic, so if you could, which I am sure you can, explain in such a way that it won't matter what OS an individual is using. I admit, I have 3 regularly used OS's, but this is not true for most of the world.

I appreciate it, admittedly perhaps my statements were unfounded, but I admitted that from the beginning. For the average user of git, not a developer, these nuances of the platform are not obvious.

I admit, I am impressed with your implementation and would like to understand it more so I can get the most out of my printer. I like how much you have customized it specifically to the PB Simple as apposed to the general printer template, and the thought you put into the typical modifications that individuals have made. I would just like to open up some of the other ABL options as well, while retaining some of your great implementations.

Thanks-
Matt

[cbxbiker61]

I searched "using patch on windows"

The answer is in there.

https://www.drupal.org/node/60179

[RetireeJay]

The common (default) IDE for people using Marlin on Printrboards is Arduino.
An alternate editor & compiler is Notepad++ and PlatformIO (viewtopic.php?f=22&t=10160). I found that combination to have a very nice balance of power vs complexity.

It seems like the patch tools in the drupal site require the user to be using some other IDE like Eclipse or NetBeans. I've used Eclipse a bit to try to study Java, and it's so powerful that it has its own learning curve that is not negligible. It took me days to get it working for the Java online course. I shudder to think what I'd have to do to beat Eclipse into shape to work on Marlin. For starters, I don't even know if I'd have to have a totally separate installation of Eclipse!

Maybe it's worthwhile to install a whole new set of software and learn a whole new way of managing software projects in order to use the patch file. Or maybe not.

It's interesting... Some people are such dedicated software geeks that they are constantly tinkering with their Printrbot firmware. Some of these are so deep into tweaking the source code that they'd rather change the steps per millimeter for their extruder in source code rather than use the simple built-in utility of changing the value in EEPROM. In fact, they don't even think about the EEPROM. I kid you not; when I complained on the Github site that flashing new firmware changed the values in my EEPROM (which should not have changed) - that's what they told me! On the other hand, I think the majority of Printrbot users are not firmware geeks. Only a minority compile their own firmware. And only a very small minority go beyond making changes in Configuration.h. And only an even smaller minority use Unix all the time.

Don't get me wrong; I'm thankful for the geeks. We wouldn't be where we are without them. But I'd still love to see this new version of Marlin have its own branch on Github so I could just download working source code.

[cbxbiker61]

[Arcmatt]

Thanks for the info, I am sure I will have more questions. But for now, I am going to jump down the rabbit hole and see if it sinks in.

[Arcmatt]

This is EPIC !!!! cbxbiker61 I used this article:

https://www.drupal.org/node/60818

I can not believe this is so easy. I admit, you are right, this is a much easier way to do it. Thanks for the lesson, and sorry for my matter of fact personality. I really do appreciate the lesson and pointing me in a new direction. I never knew typing 'cd' drag and drop and 'patch <' drag and drop could do so much!

EPIC !!!! THANKS !!!!

[RetireeJay]

[cbxbiker61]

RetireeJay,

hehe, you would suggest that distributing an ASCII text file that opens in every text editor ever created, is somehow akin to distributing a proprietary binary CAD file implemented by one piece of software?

The issue really is that Windows was conceived as a binary only platform and has never been friendly to tools designed to empower source code development.

What I really hate here is the inefficiency....distributing a zip file costs 2.9M per download...distributing a patch file is 40K per download. All of this because it's hard "on Windows" to run a simple patch utility. BTW, even MAC OS supports patch natively.

In any case I have capitulated and will make a zip file available:

http://www.xilka.com/printrbot/marlin/1 ... 171227.zip

I'm not sure I'll do it again, but there it is.

[Arcmatt]

Posting a .zip was very nice of you cbxbiker61. I am however happy with the new found knowledge, thank you. Also happy that MAC OS supports patch natively, so easy.

RetireeJay, the article that cbxbiker61 posted has instructions for NetBeans which seem as if they may be the easiest solution. In the instructions where it discusses open the 'project', this is referring to Marlin, on my Mac I just directed it to the entire folder, not a specific file. Some instructions refer to 'modules', this seems to me to be another term for the same thing. Here is the article, again:

https://www.drupal.org/node/60179

Once you get this figured out, you won't want to go back. The patch file literally does everything for you. You can also run a diff, which will actually show you the difference between the original and the patch version, similar to reading the patch file and manually entering the changes. When I ran the patch on my Mac, my terminal displayed what changes were made so I could follow along. After patch is complete you will have a set of Marlin files with all of the updated files, same as cbxbiker61's, it takes less than two seconds, and no manual transposition of values other than customizing the configs before you build for you specific Bot. cbxbiker61's files have some additions that aren't in the original files to configure upgrades and such for a Simple Metal, or even other Printrbots, I added a screenshot from my terminal to reference the changes made.

Figuring out how to do something new is the hard part, but honestly, cbxbiker61 is right... this is the easiest way.
Good luck.
Cheers-
Matt

[alberto2000]

I installed the firmware, works fine. But: can't seem to get any info about z-axis compensation when entering M501 anymore... why is that?

[cbxbiker61]

M501 here:

Z-Probe Offset (mm):
Recv: echo: M851 Z-0.42

[alberto2000]

[revnull]

I just came across this awesome thread! Thanks for your work on bringing modern firmware to my aging printrbot. I can't wait to give this a try. As someone that works with both windows and *nix platforms, I'll see if I can write up a how-to patch doc for the folks that find this process intimidating.
It's been more than a year since I was playing with adding full graphic LCD support, but what I learned at the time was the version of the AVR tool chain that ships with the Arduino IDE can drastically affect the size of the build. That being said, you may be able to add basic LCD support back by disabling SD card support (octoprint FTW!) and testing builds with different versions of the tool chain.

Thanks again!

[revnull]

[cbxbiker61]

You can define NO_VOLUMETRICS in Configuration_adv.h. Volumetric extrusion's usefulness is questionable. Unfotunately as the code has improved in features/functionality it became a bit too much for the PrintrBoard to support all of the features. It's really amazing how much better the new code performs compared to when I bought the Simple. 40-50mm/sec was realistically as fast as it would go. 100mm/sec linear advance works well with current code.

If you can't get it down to a usable size, you do have the option of upgrading to the Einsy board, since the Einsy has twice the flash capacity, it's working amazingly well for me, smooth and quiet. See my Einsy board thread, I'll make more information on that conversion available if/when someone decides to go that route.

[revnull]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it tonight. On a side note, when upgrading to 1.1.x, do I need to discard my eeprom settings?

[revnull]

[cbxbiker61]

[Arcmatt]

I was trying to configure cbxbiker61's Marlin 1.1.8 firmware for my Printrboard RevF6. What I finally figured out was that if using PrintrBots firmware, the Fan 2 connections on the Printrboard will turn the fan on for the hot end when it heats at or above 50ºC and off when it cools to or below 50ºC. I also wanted this behavior for cbxbiker61's Marlin firmware. So I went to https://github.com/Printrbot/printrboard and downloaded the schematics for the Printrboard. I then opened them in Eagle CAD to get the following information:

Printrboard RevF6 Pinout.png

Looking in the upper left hand corner, there is a pin labeled PWM-FAN 2 with pin #55. Using this pin # in the Marlin firmware throws a bunch of errors. So not the right pin #. In the 'Configuration adv.h' file for the Marlin firmware this pin is by default listed as pin #37, which does not work.

ConfigAdvPin37.png

But there is a website listed for the Printrboard (AT90USB1256) : https://labitat.dk/wiki/Panelolu_and_Pr ... e_easy_way

Printrboard Pin Config.png

The website shows that pin #55 should be pin #46 (highlighted in green), but this also does not work. The website also lists that this pin should be pin #44 for an Arduino, which the Printrboard is an Arduino Mega 1286 basically, and indeed pin #44 produces the same behavior as PrintrBots own firmware, turning the hot end fan on at or above 50ºC, and off at or below 50ºC. As you can also see from my screen shot, the 50ºC setting can also be changed to whatever temperature you choose to use, I left it at 50ºC.

ConfigAdvPin44.png

So, for future reference, with a Printrboard RevF6, if you want to use custom firmware but still have the hot end fan turn on and off automatically from the Fan 2 connection on the Printrboard, this pin needs to be set to pin #44.

[cbxbiker61]

arcmatt,

Yeah, The pin I used toggles a pin on the EXP headers for the F4 and F5 boards. The pin used on the F6 is not broken out on F4 and F5 boards, hence I used a different pin. BTW, if you wire up a MOSFET on the F4 and F5 boards to the correct EXP header pin, the auto fan works on both of those boards.

[Arcmatt]

Nice, well now we have the F4, F5 and F6 covered!

I saw another post about this, so I posted the pin # for the F6.

I do have an old F5, I may just get a MOSFET and try it out.

I am really liking the Bilinear Auto Leveling with fade! Very nice. Thanks for all your work cbxbiker61 !