Marlin 1.1 Final Stretch (Patreon)

Marlin 1.1.0-RCBugFix

have been slowing to a trickle. This doesn't necessarily mean the firmware is free of issues, but it's a strong indicator that the most glaring bugs have been fixed. If the positive reports continue, version 1.1.0 could be ready within a week or two! (I'm confident it will be ready before July 1.) We have just a few minor behavioral bugs to patch, and then we'll tag a release 1.1.0-RC7 for public review.

Testers! Testers! Testers!

As always, we're looking for users to test and report their experiences. We need testing on a wide variety of robots, and for various updated features:

• Delta, SCARA, CoreXY, CoreXZ … and, yes, CoreYZ too!
• Updated Probe and Endstop configuration options
• Automatic Bed Leveling with a variety of probes
• Homing with a variety of probe and endstop setups
• Mesh (Manual) Bed Leveling
• M600 Filament Change

The more testing we can get on these features, the better! We've reworked several configuration options for this release, so we want to make sure that they're not too confusing (especially as we've been trying really hard to make them easier).

What We're Working On…

Roxanne is working on Unified Bed Leveling. This feature is a little too raw and untested to include in 1.1.0, but we're very excited to get it ready for 1.1.1. UBL will bring a convergence to all the leveling functions, so not only can we have Automated Mesh Leveling (which you can find today in Josef Prusa's Marlin for Prusa i3 MK2 code), but Manual Grid Leveling and Manual 3-Point Leveling as well!

Tool Change is another area where Marlin has long needed some fixing-up. With a recent patch the carriage now moves so the newly-selected tool is aligned to the current position. We're adding a new flag to the `Tn` command to leave the tool where it is. To select T1 without moving the carriage, just use the command "T1 S1". In other news, Tool Change will now properly correct the Z position when Mesh Bed Leveling is in use.

Andreas (aka Doctor Marlin) has been working hard on graphical display optimizations, one of his specialty areas. We should see some noticeable improvements in this release, which should be especially helpful for DELTA robots, which are especially demanding on the CPU.

The father-son team of Petr and Petr Zahradnik have been rewriting M600 Filament Change to bring some much-needed improvements to this procedure. The feature is completed for LCD displays with 4 or more lines. But it needs additional work to support smaller displays. I'm confident we can fix it up in time to include in 1.1.0.

Github user Sebastianv650 has been working on a new Advance Algorithm we're calling LIN_ADVANCE to replace our current "broken" ADVANCE feature. If you don't know what this does, a brief explanation. Basically, it decouples the extruder from the XY movement, so that extrusion can occur based on pressure and volume. The end-result is that you end up with less ooze at points of direction and speed change, such as sharp corners. This also means less ooze when stopping for layer changes, eliminating the "Z seam" that you often see in perimeters at points of layer change.

And Thinkyhead…?

Lately my pet projects have centered on supporting the new generation of Multi-Extruders (SINGLENOZZLE), Single Stepper Dual Extruders (SWITCHING_EXTRUDER), and Mixing Extruders (MIXING_EXTRUDER). I'm especially excited about the Switching Extruder, which uses a single stepper motor, but switches which side of the stepper is being used to push filament. So the stepper just switches direction for the other extruder. Pretty cool.

Aside from that I'm spending most of my time fixing reported bugs, cleaning up the code, and helping to integrate patches. There's plenty to do, so I'm putting in about 5-8 hours each day to keep up with reports and make sure that pending patches don't fall too far behind as other patches get merged. It's almost like a real job….

That's all for this update. See you next time!