RepRapFirmware config files

Unlike Marlin and most other firmwares, RepRap Firmware does not require recompilation for different printers. The changes that you would normally make to configuration.h in Marlin are now all made with gcode. At the most basic level you can type gcode commands into pronterface each time you want to setup the printer - however that would quickly get very tedious. Instead the printer configuration is set within /sys/config.g on the SD card.

This tutorial will walk through the common parts of config.g for a Mendel90 style printer with dual extruders. If you have a single extruder printer then the comments will highlight what to leave out. It is assumed you are using DC42's fork of the RepRap Firmware and was written while version 1.00f was the most current version.

It is helpful if you refer to the gcode page on the reprap wiki as you follow along.

The order of the commands is not always strictly important however in some cases it is, for example you should define your tools before setting their offsets.

Gcode format

in general gcodes are formatted in the following manner:

[gcode_letter][number] [switch][information] [switch][information]

example

G1 X10 F3000

So its a "G" command, number "1", with the first switch being "X" with the information "10", the second switch being "F" with the information "3000". This command moves (G1) 10mm in X (X10) at 3000mm/m (F3000)

Another example is

M550 PMendel90 

Where The command is an "M" command, with the switch "P" and the information "Mendel90". This sets the printer name to "Mendel90".

Name and Networking

Much of this is similar to the RepRap Ormerod at this point as it is the same for most machines:

; Configuration file for Mendel90 Example

; Think3dprint3d.com

;

M111 S0                             ; Debug off

M550 PMendel90                      ; Machine name (can be anything you like)

M551 Preprap                        ; Machine password (currently not used)

M540 PBE:EF:DE:AD:FE:ED             ; MAC Address

M552 P192.168.1.14                  ; IP address

M553 P255.255.255.0                 ; Netmask

M554 P192.168.1.1                   ; Gateway

M555 P2                             ; Set output to look like Marlin

G21                                 ; Work in millimetres

G90                                 ; Send absolute coordinates...

M83                                   ; ...but relative extruder moves

You should set the IP address to be within the same subnet as your network, and not to an address that could be allocated to something else (eg, outside of your DHCP range). The MAC address should not be the same as one already on your network.

M83 sets the extruder to relative extruder moves which is intuitive when sending gcode commands by hand to move the extruder - for example when doing calibration. Cura (and Slic3r by default) expect gcodes to be absolute, rather than relative so I add M82 to the start.gcode to ensure when printing the firmware is in absolute gcode mode.

Set Axis and drives

;axis & drives setup
M906 X800 Y800 Z800 E800:800  ; Motor currents (mA) (Extruder set below)
M92 X80 Y80 Z4000             ; axis steps/mm
M92 E649:639                  ; Set extruder steps/mm
;set axis/drive directions
M569 P0 S1                    ;x axis +'ve
M569 P1 S0                    ;y axis -'ve
M569 P2 S0                    ;z axis -'ve
M569 P3 S0                    ;E0 drive -'ve
M569 P4 S1                    ;E1 drive +'ve
M201 X800 Y800 Z15 E2000            ; Accelerations (mm/s^2)
M203 X15000 Y15000 Z180 E3600       ; Maximum speeds (mm/min)

M566 X600 Y600 Z30 E20              ; Minimum speeds mm/minute

The Duet and Duex4 have digital control of the stepper current - this is set with M906, note the extruder parameter is delimited with a colon ":", this allows for different currents to be set of each extruder drive. This same delimitation is used for M92, allowing different extruder steps/mm to be set for each drive.

M569 sets the axis direction, in this example the printer is wired up in such a manner that X and E0 move in the +'ve direction when a positive movement is send, however Y,Z and E1 move in the negative direction. To correct that the switch "S0" is used, after this command a positive movement to Y,Z or E1 will move them in a positive direction.

M566 is the minimum or instantaneous speed change numbers, they are referred to as X,Y or E Jerk in Marlin. In all these cases I have used a single number for E, that sets the same for all extruders. if your extruders have different designs then you may want to set different speeds and accelerations for each one.

Thermal Settings

;Thermal Settings
M305 P1 R1000 B4267.0          ;1K bias resistor, B value  for Semitec 104-GT2
M305 P1 T100000                ;100K thermistor
M305 P2 R1000 B4267.0          ;1K bias resistor, B value  for Semitec 104-GT2
M305 P2 T100000                ;100K thermistor       
M305 P0 R1000 B4540            ;1K bias resistor,B value for Epcos B57861S104F40
M305 P2 T100000                ;100K thermistor  
M140 S0 R0                     ;set the bed to "0,0" at start up

M305 sets the heater thermistor information. P1 = hotend 0, P2= hotend 1, P0 = Heated bed. R1000 = a 1K bias resistor, if you are using a RepRapPro Duet then use R4700 as they use a 4.7k bias resistor. T100000 = 100K @25C thermistor. Finally all heaters are set to -273C by default so the M140 sets the bed to 0 active, 0 standby at startup which helps when using a control panel such as the PanelDue to control the printer. The hotend stat values are set later.

Define Tools

M563 P1 D0 H1                       ; Define tool 1
M563 P2 D1 H2                       ; Define tool 2
M563 P3 D0:1 H1                     ; Define tool 3

RepRap Firmware modifies the concept of a "Tool". No longer does the tool change commands "T0", "T1" etc, select an extruder drive and hotend combination that is designed into the printer with no easy way to change it, other than change the hardware. A tool now consists of any number of extruder drives, and heater combinations. The first line above

M563 P1 D0 H1                       ; Define tool 1

defines a tool (number 1, "P1")  that uses drive 0 (the first extruder drive, E0), and the second heater ("H1"). It is important to remember that the Heated Bed is the first heater configured in firmware, so the extruder 0 heater is H1. In a similar manner the second line

M563 P2 D1 H2                       ; Define tool 2

defines tool number 2 which uses the second drive (D1) and the third heater, which is the E1 heater (H2).

The third tool define is where it gets interesting and shows off the potential power of this method of defining tools.

M563 P3 D0:1 H1                     ; Define tool 3

This defines tool 3 to use both drive 0 and drive 1, but just heater 1. This sort of tool would fit a hotend like e3d's Cyclops.

Set offsets

RepRap Firmware can use G10 to set temperature and position offsets.

G10 P1 S0 R0                        ; Set tool 1 operating and standby temperatures
G10 P2 S0 R0                        ; Set tool 2 operating and standby temperatures
G10 P2 X18                          ; Set tool 2 offset on X axis

The first line sets the active and standby temperature of Tool 1 to 0, the second does the same for tool 2. The third sets the X offset to +18 for Tool 2, the second nozzle on an e3d Chimera is in line on Y but +18 on X, an alternative would be:

G10 P2 X-9                          ; Set tool 2 offset on X axis
G10 P2 X9                          ; Set tool 2 offset on X axis

Which would keep the hotends centered around 0,0 - better for a delta printer.

That concludes the config.g settings required for a standard cartesian printer.

Other files within the /sys/ directory

The concept of using gcodes to perform all printer functions, rather than precompiled routines extends to homing, probing and tool changes. Also within /sys/ on the SD card are the following files as standard

homeall.g
homex.g
homey.g
homez.g
tfree1.g
tfree2.g
tpost1.g
tpost2.g
tpre1.g
tpre2.g

Homing routines are galled in the notmal manner (G28 X for home x for example) however when that command is set, the RepRap Firmware uses the gcode within the relevant "home__.g" file to perform the homing. For example homex.g:

G90                 ; absolute movement
G92 X0              ; set X to 0
G1 X300 F6000 S1    ; move  fast to a large +'ve value, stop when an endstop is hit
G92 X200            ; set X to value of X max
G1 X195 F200        ; move back 5 mm
G1 X205 F200 S1     ; move forward again, slowly stop when endstop hit
G92 X200            ; set X to value of X max

This routine will home quickly until the endstop is reached, the back away and home slowly until its reached again. It makes use of the addition "S1" to the G1 command which stops when an endstop is triggered. Note that our mendel90s home to Max on all axis.

"homeall.g" would normally be a combination of homex.g, homey.g and homez.g:

G90                 ; absolute movement
;home X
G92 X0              ; set X to 0
G1 X300 F6000 S1    ; move fast to a large +'ve value, stop when an endstop is hit
G92 X180            ; set X to value of X max
G1 X175 F200        ; move back 5 mm
G1 X185 F200 S1     ; move forward again, slowly stop when endstop hit
G92 X180            ; set X to value of X max

;home Y
G92 Y0              ; set Y to 0
G1 Y300 F6000 S1    ; move fast to a large +'ve value, stop when an endstop is hit
G92 Y190            ; set Y to value of Y max
G1 Y185 F200        ; move back 5 mm
G1 Y195 F200 S1     ; move forward again, slowly stop when endstop hit
G92 Y190            ; set Y to value of Y max

G1 X100 F6000       ; center the X carriage before homing Z to clear the bowden tubes

;home Z
G92 Z0              ; set Z to 0
G1 Z300 F200 S1     ; move fast to a large +'ve value, stop when an endstop is hit
G92 Z200.85         ; set Z to value of Z max
G1 Z195 F200        ; move back 5 mm
G1 Z205 F60 S1     ; move forward again, slowly stop when endstop hit
G92 Z200.85         ; set Z to value of Z max

Note the "G1 X100 F6000 line before the Z home. This means that the X carriage will be centered before homing Z, ensuring that the bowden tubes pass easily out of the enclosure. 

The "Tfree1.g" etc are called on tool change in the following way:

TfreeN.g is run when tool N is freed

TpreN.g is run before tool N is set active

TpostN.g is run after tool N is set active

so for example in Tpost1.g you may have:

M116 P1

to wait for tool 1 to get to temperature before continuing with the print.

Or you may have

G1 X10 Y10 F6000

in Tfree1.g to move the extruder outside of the object being printed before changing tools. 

DC42 is working on further macros, specifically for Delta printers and probing. Examples of these can be seen here.

Web Interface Upload

You can use the web interface to upload all the modified files so changes are very quick and easy to make and save:

You can also view the current config.g contents in the web interface.

Kossel Mini - Heated Bed

We are finally ready to release the Heated bed kits for the Kossel Mini. It has taken a bit of time to confirm our preferred design and source the components in bulk. We have been running two test printers for almost two months now with this solution and will be writing to those who have already bought a kit shortly to offer them the upgrade first (as promised!).

Heated Bed

After investigating a number of options (PCB, Silicone heater, kapton heater on borosilicate glass, kapton heater on aluminium plate) we went for a Kapton heater on an aluminium plate.

The heater is rated at 10 A, giving an output of 120W at 12V, and supplied complete with a MF58104F3950 thermistor taped to the centre of the aluminium plate (thermistor table  on chirpy's blog) .  Wires are prepared for fitting to RAMPS. We have run these heaters continuously at 125ºC for 24 hours on our Kossel prototypes without any problems, and find that they heat up significantly faster than standard PCB heatbeds because of the higher power density (6kW/m2 vs 3kW/m2)

The aluminium plate acts as an excellent heat spreader for the Kapton heater and is easier to mount than borosilicate glass as it can be drilled and countersunk.

This is mounted in a "sandwich" with an aluminium-foil-tape covered cardboard insulator below (thanks to nophead for this design of heat insulator from the mendel 90).

This allows for various print surfaces to be clipped onto the aluminium plate, e.g; mirror glass with glue stick for PLA, Tufnol for nylon 618 or mirror glass with ABS juice or kapton for ABS. Best of all you can use multiple mirror plates plates to quickly swap on a new one while the other one cools.

In order to keep the electronics cool we have added a fan under the heated bed, complete with splitter cable:

And redesigned the bed mounts and z-probe retractor:

In order to power the bed we decided to add a second, 10A, laptop power supply:

And a matching second socket to the USB/Power plug plate. Because some customers have decided to use an ATX or similar power supply to power the printer and the heated bed, the second 10A power supply will be an optional extra in the kits.

The Mini Kossel Documentation has been updated to describe how to fit the heatbed either during initial build or as an upgrade. It's straight forward (mostly described by the pictures above).

Calibration

The T3P3 github has a slightly updated version of Marlin that we distributed with the kits so far, to include a thermistor table for the heated bed thermistor (number 11)

There are a few of things to consider when calibrating; the bed is now higher by ~10mm, and different bed (and nozzle) temperatures will lead to slightly different  Z = 0 positions due to thermal expansion. For example with a cold bed and cold hotend the Z-height was ~0.2mm lower that with a 80C bed and 225C nozzle.

The easiest way to handle this is to carry out the calibration steps (as described in my previous blog post) with the bed and hotend cold. Once the bed is level and there is no doming then you can measure the difference between Z = 0 on a cold bed and with the bed and nozzle at the centre print temperature for various materials. I measured my test printer with the heatbed between 60C and 110C and the hotend between 185C and 240C and there was <0.1mm of difference in Z height: all were ~0.2mm above the cold bed height.

I used the standard method of a piece of paper as a feeler gauge under the nozzle, stepping down by 0.1mm in Pronterface until I could feel the nozzle dragging. Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot bed! Once you have confirmed the difference (probably 0.2mm) then edit configuration.h :

#define MANUAL_Z_HOME_POS = 238.4 //cold = 238.6

and re-upload Marlin.

Z-probe retractor

The Z probe retract position will have slightly changed in X and Y and gone up in Z due to the new Z-Probe retractor

The documentation describes how to modify the Z-probe retract position in Marlin to compensate.

Extruder steps for different materials

Another thing to consider is that when using different materials, the extruder hobbed insert will bite into the filament more or less, changing the exact extruder steps per mm. With our standard mini extruder we use ~650 steps/mm for PLA. I found the following for different materials on a test printer:

ABS	660
PLA	650
Ninjaflex	700
Lawoo3d	650
T-glase	660
Nylon 618	660

The easiest way to handle these changes is to use:

M92 E650

in your start g-code and have different start g-codes for different materials in Slic3r.

Getting one!

We will be contacting those who have already bought a Mini Kossel kit from us first and offering a discounted upgrade kit, once these orders have shipped the upgrade will be available for general purchase.

All kits sold from now will have the option of a heated bed.

OpenSCAD - Intro and Example: Designing a filament holder

Over the last few years I have increasingly used OpenSCAD for creating designs of 3D objects. Like many others I was initially put off by the lack of a WYSIWYG point and click interface - it takes time to get used to this scripted method of working.

OpenSCAD - scripted 3D CAD

A common question in forum posts is "why bother", a point and click CAD program is easier to use. For me the advantages come down to these key reasons:

• Parametrization - Scripted CAD is at the core of the Thingiverse customiser and working with parameters is easy and natural to do when using a programming based approach.
• Code re-use - Useful elements of designs can be used again and again, as you would with a library of functions in a program. A change to the library can easily be cascaded down to designs which use it.
• Collaboration - The key advantage, tools like Git can be used to fork and merge the code. Many people can work on the same project in a robust way a method proven in software development.

Like everything its not perfect, I can see the following disadvantages in comparison to a point and click CAD program:

• Not intuitive to start with - If you are used to learning a program by clicking on stuff to see what happens, as I do for most programs, it can be frustrating.
• There is no simple way to import or export model files to other non scripted CAD programs other than as an .stl file - fine for 3d printing but not for people who want to use these other tools.

The rest of this (long!) post is a worked example using OpenSCAD to design a filament spool holder for the Lasercut Mendel90. I hope this will help to ease the transition into scripted CAD for those just starting out. This is not meant to replace the manual, or even be a tutorial of all functions. The OpenSCAD documentation is a comprehensive reference and links to a number of tutorials and other worked examples. The final filament holder code is available on github, and its a thing in the thingiverse.

A preview of what the spool holder looks like mounted on the printer:

On to the example!