Ender 5 Plus + Klipper

From munkjensen.net/wiki

Purpose

I would like to unleash the power of my Ender 5 Plus(here after referenced as E5+) by removing the "bottleneck" that the weak mainboard processing power introduce. I also need to keep the cost as low as possible. Klipper supposedly should do just this, by moving all data processing from the E5+ mainboard on to the Raspberry Pi 4 i got connected already anyway.

First try/step will be a combo of Klipper and Octoprint. This makes it easy to flash the Klipper firmware onth the E5+ and I already got OctoPrint running at a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to my E5+ so...

Later i might try the Klipper + Moonraker + MainSail combo.

Klipper + OctoPrint

An installation guide is avilable on the Klipper website. I will follow that now.

make menuconfig will ask for microcontroller - the E5+ uses atmega2560. See printer-creality-ender5plus-2019.cfg 

You(and I) MUST read, understand and perform the Config checks - Manual Leveling - Probe Calibration & Bed Leveling BEFORE trying to print!!

The overview page is a valuable resource of information so i got a lot of reading to do ;-)

Depending on the result of the first Benchy test print I believe that the next tuning should be done in this order:

  1. Resonance compensation: A tool to reduce ringing in prints. This was a challenge to my 50 year old eyes but it actuallt helped a lot so do not skip this - find a magnifying glass ;-)
  2. Calibrate Klipper extruder rotation_distance - I skipped this because the test prints didn't show _any_ signs of over- or under-extrution.
  3. Extruder nozzle temperature - I skipped this because i already know what temperature the PLA i use need to be printed at on my E5+
  4. Pressure advance: Calibrate extruder pressure.

Problems I ran into

  • The touch display on the printer does not work with Klipper and some search results suggests that the display on E5+ is not supported by Klipper :-/... i will keep look for solutions, but it is not essential to me because I use the OctoPrint webinterface. The stock 4.3 inch TFT LCD display is marked "DMT48270C043_06WT". Maybe that can help in the searce for solutions.
 THIS FIXED THE DISPLAY --> https://www.reddit.com/r/ender5plus/comments/kx9hsy/klipper_screen_on_ender_5_plus/
  • OctoPrint reported errors in the Gcode that turned out beeing related to hidden ascii codes in the start_gcode. Solution was found somewhere on the Intarwebs i cannot recall. I copied the Start and End G-code from Cura int Notepad++ and manually replaced all spaces with new ones. I could not see any difference on the spaces before and after BUT it worked so who cares ;-)
  • I lost http and ssh connection to the Raspberry Pi 3/4 into the Pressure Advance cube test print. The test print finished anyway so it was only network connections that died. I powercycled the Pi and everything seemed okay again!? It happened again and i suspect it is the WiFi connection that somehow locks up so I disabled the WiFi interface and connected the Raspberry Pi with an ethernet cable.

Reference pages

  • My cry for help in the Danish Facebook group Den seriøse Ender-3/Ender-5 gruppe
  • Klipper is a 3d-Printer firmware. It combines the power of a general purpose computer with one or more micro-controllers.
  • OctoPrint provides a snappy web interface for controlling consumer 3D printers.
  • Moonraker is a Python 3 based web server that exposes APIs with which client applications may use to interact with Klipper.
  • Mainsail is a lightweight & responsive web interface for the Klipper 3D printer firmware.
  • Printer.cfg reference.
  • This document describe the G-Code commands that Klipper supports.

Notes for the future

  1. During Probe calibration it may be necessary to set the printer’s Z position_min to a negative number (eg, position_min = -2).
  2. Adjusting bed leveling screws is nessesary to do now and then ;-)
  3. Calibrating PID settings is a wise thing to do everytime the environment around the printer changes 'significantly'.
  4. Calibrate Klipper extruder rotation_distance.
  5. Pressure advance: Calibrate extruder pressure. !!! Disable any PA setting already present in your config file before you run the PA test !!!
  6. Resonance compensation
  7. ALWAYS slice as described in the tips for configuring a “slicer” application for use with Klipper.
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