I’ve made the mistake of trying to set up klipper and I think it can smell weakness because it does not want to play ball
I’m using a bigtreetech board that houses a raspi compute module on the printer board so you don’t need separate power supplies or cables. I’ve got Klipper itself running, it’s on my network and works over SSH and Fluidd and its own display out, but I can’t for the life of me flash the MCU (the part that would traditionally be your “printer” board). I think there’s an issue with detecting the unique MCU ID instead of the generic one? Idk, any Klipper wizards have suggestions, or anyone used a Bigtreetech Manta M4P before?
I’ve been using Marlin on this base model Ender 3 and don’t hate it or anything but this seemed the cheapest and (in theory) most sensible way of upgrading a few quality of life things. I want to run octoprint or some other print server so I don’t have to ferry microSD cards around (my new laptop doesn’t have an SD slot), I want to get silent stepper drivers because it’s a loud boi, input shaper seems really cool, remote monitoring or at least some error detection slightly more intelligent than 8 bit Marlin would save a lot of heartache. I can’t find a pi for love nor money and this board was <$80 including the decent STM32 board integrated with the Pi module and trinamic drivers, and a lot more flexibility than my old Ender board
Or am I missing the point and you can just use basic marlin FW with Klipper? Idk if that would work here because of the integration, like the manufacturer never intended this to operate without the Pi
Hoo boy if you have questions about klipper I have been through the ringer, so feel free to ask away.
If you are having trouble flashing the MCU I remember when first setting my ender up with an skr mini e3 it couldn’t be flashed over USB from the pi, you had to manually setup an SD card and flash it that way. Not sure how you were doing it the first time but I would give that a shot if you haven’t yet.
I’ve had a lot of success with PETG on a 0.4 mm nozzle but with a 0.56mm extrusion width (extrusion, perimeter, layer1, infill and support). 90C print bed temperature.
Leveling the print bed was my biggest issue, doing it by eye with paper didn’t work. Now I print 5 squares, 4 at each corner and one in the center to regularly check for being level. Good luck! 3D printing is certainly a test in patience.
Ahh thanks, I actually got (most of the way) there in the end by just starting fresh and re-reading the scattered documentation. No prints yet, but it looks like at least the core components of Klipper and mainsail are talking to each other
On the pi that you have klipper installed on, do you have KIAUH installed? That is the first thing I recommend to anyone trying out klipper for the first time, it helps sooo much with the installation and keeping everything updated.
If you have any config questions feel free to ask here or shoot me a DM, klipper is confusing on first setup but ultimately way easier to maintain in the long run IMO. Not to mention being able to run my Ender at 120mm/s with 3k accel.
Yeah thankfully the instructions say to use KIAUH, in the end the issue is poor documentation from Bigtreetech. I’m mostly explaining so if someone else is stuck that Google might turn this up but; there’s a micro SD and a full size SD slot on the board, one for running the Pi and one for the STM32. But they never mention that distinction or label either of them, and the process of setting up the OS is sort of mixed in with flashing the firmware, and it’s similar but not exactly the same as using a standard Pi because it’s their own homebrew CM4 variant that requires Pi flashing but doesn’t fully support all the features. I only found the info I was looking for because in the instructions for a different model they phrased it differently and between the two descriptions I got the full meaning.
Anyone else stuck on a Manta M4P, watch the BTT video 4 times, and read the documentation entirely first because it’s slightly out of order. Micro SD is for the Pi, big boi is for the MCU. If your MCU is returning a generic serial instead of a unique one, you probably don’t have the MCU firmware flashed to a FAT32 SD card and recognised by the MCU
A cr10 gave up its guts for the e3v2 that will never be completely tinkered.
I don’t need mains powered bed heating… yet. Got recs for a 310x320 24v heating element? A solid state relay and a mains PCB are very close in price to the 24v parts I found.
I’m using the “professional firmware” for the e3v2 that lets me edit bed size on printer interface.
Had a thermal runaway on my Ender 3 Pro yesterday. Was by my printer for 2 hrs of a 2h30m print, stepped out for the last 30 mins to pick my kids up and came back to the error and print stopped Not sure the issue though. Ran a print this morning and temps were stable the whole time.
Not a bad pickup, my X1 is still going strong after 3 years of printing. My bed doesn’t really have leveling issues but it’s still the old fashioned way, so you know how that is.
Dunno about any quick and dirty upgrades. I haven’t touched a single thing on it yet, but have a new hotend I want to put in
I’d recommend grabbing a thriftstore/ebay laptop to be a slicer machine. Doesn’t have to be powerful or recent, as long as it runs a desktop-class OS (windows, linux, mac OS). Should be able to get something halfway decent for like $50 or less.
Not sure the issue though. Ran a print this morning and temps were stable the whole time.