note: I created a repo with the firmware I generated at the time I wrote this gist. If you want to see the config, try out the firmware, or have a go at building your own, you can check it out at https://github.com/stonehippo/printrbot_simple_maker_1405_firmware
The first 3D printer I acquired is a PrintrBot Simple Maker, a little 3D printer kit from the early days of DIY RepRap. I've had this little mostly plywood printer for years, and it taught me a lot about additive manufacturing and 3D design. I have updated and upgraded it multiple times, and like a robotic Ship of Theseus, I've replaced enough components that it's fair to say the device I'm using now is barely the same machine I put together the first time I opened that box of parts. The extruder now is a pretty nice aluminum unit (the second metal version I've installed) and a far cry from the laser-cut plywood assembly I started with. The chassis was upgraded from the original Maker design to the newer 1405 version, and the PrintrBoard is a Rev F5 (I still have the Rev D PrintrBoard I just as a replacement when the original died).
I have a lot of affection for my PrintrBot, even though I have now got a far more modern and capable printer, and I still use it from time to time (for small stuff, since it's only got a 100^3 build volume). One component of the printer that could use some love is the PrintrBoard firmware. I have the last version of the original PrintrBot fork on there now, which dates back to 2015. Marlin has come a long way in the past seven years, and I could get better prints out of the Simple Maker if I upgraded.
Of course, this is easier said than done. ;-)
- Marline Firmware - The firmware that makes it all go
- Original PrintrBot Marlin firmware repo - the Marlin 1 fork that originally shipped with PrintrBot units
- Modern Marlin for PrintrBots repo - configurations for newer versions of Marlin
- Marlin Config - A useful tool for configuring and compile Marlin
- PrintrBot FirmwareUpdatr - a macOS tool for uploading firmware to PrintrBot printers (this is my fork of the original repo)
The repo that has modern Marlin configs does not have a configuration for the Simple Maker 1405 (not really sure why). However, it does have the Simple Metal, a closely related printer, and I could use that as the basis for creating a config for the 1405. I started with xxx.
FirmwareUpdatr is a simple enough tool to use, but it's been a while since it was updated, and it's kinda broken now. When I first went to try it with the newly built firmware, it seemed to pop up for a second, and then shut down. A check of the macOS console confirmed that the app was starting up and then failing. I realized that it was probably pretty badly out of data and no longer fully compatible with recent macOS versions.
FirmwareUpdatr has a few dependencies. Two of them, cocoaDialog and dfu-programmer, turned out to be the issue. The version of cocoaDialog bundled into the app no longer worked. Fortunately, the last beta seems to work, so I just swapped it out in the bundle.
The version of dfu-programmer was also broken. To fix that took a little more work, since I had to compile a new version of that cli tool (with changes reflected in my fork). Once again, a little surgery on the FirmwareUpdater package, and I had a working tool again.
Hi George,
Would you be able to provide more information about how you built/configured a new version of Marlin for your 1405? Which version of Marlin did you end up using? I've been playing with the Marlin configurator with the goal of transferring over the information found in printrboardmodernmarlin/Simple_Metal/source/Configuration.h. I am wondering if I need to remove the extraneous settings (mainly regarding the extra I, J, K, U, V, and W axes) before flashing the firmware onto my printrboard (also ref F5).
Happy Holidays!
David