Marlin firmware explained: What it is and how to use it

[@c0ulter]

I’m new to the hobby. Firmware is the most nervous part for me and I know I’m going to have to dive in to it. My new Ender 3 Pro doesn’t have thermal runaway protection, I tested for it last night. Quite frankly it scares the hell out of me. Thank you Michael, this was the video I needed to build my confidence.

[@johnnickerson9037]

Thanks to Marlin I have branched off to learning ardiuno, whitch inturn has given me a better understanding of Marlin and it all started with you boot loader firmware videos. Thank you

[@spikekent]

Great explanation for new users, this is gonna be invaluable to them. I particularly like the analogies, it can be a challenge to explain some concepts to non nerds. I'm sure I'll be using your Hex/Pie analogy myself.

[@buruzn09]

I am an absolute novice when it comes to 3D printing. I was only able to make Octoprint because of your videos and that was really important because I wanted to monitor and be able to abort bad prints while I’m away. (Thank you for that!) I want to add a BLTouch but that leads me to mainboard and firmware questions, which leads me here. I have no idea if I can handle all of these things, especially mixing them together. If I manage to pull it off, it will be largely due to your guides and advice.

[@feldon27]

Thanks for these videos and providing the courage to try things. With your previous videos and advice, I helped a friend with an Ender-3 whose mainboard failed. For just a few dollars more, we jumped up to the MKS Gen L board. I really wanted to go to TH3D firmware and fortunately, one of the people who works at TH3D has an Ender-3 + MKS Gen L configuration. I found this in the files, copy and pasted settings from different places and cobbled together a printer profile that works perfectly! Once you start digging in the files it starts to make sense.

[@keithkamps77]

Great job explaining how Marlin works and how it can be manipulated to suite specific needs

[@neilsiebenthal8696]

Your explanations of things are always easy to understand. Thank you for taking the time to make it easier for people to get into 3d printing.

[@emfmuffin1153]

I appreciate the depth of the marlin videos

[@als1023]

Excellent video, I'm a new Ender 3 owner, looking now ( already? , yep ) to upgrade the board. Thank you for all your great content !

[@pigmanuk]

Great video .. explained what I needed to know without waffling on.

[@imscratchingmyass]

The clear explanation is so helpful Thanks. The effort is well appreciated!

[@marianasaenz6258]

I love the examples. The one with food was great and fun. Thank you

[@Deverydoo]

your video was great and lead me to a ton of resources. Seems the CR10 Max is the hardest printer to find Marlin support for. I just need to increase heat to 300+ and be done with it.

[@shutlexpc]

You deserve far more followers than you have, really nice video again.

[@zanpekosak2383]

This was awesome but I have to give some credit to Creality. The article on GitHub seems to be updated constantly. Apparantly the newer CR10S's come with mesh bed leveling :O. Its awesome that they listen to their clients.

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

A good primer for newbies, I ran into a bit of a bizzare issue after changing out the default cr10 board for something with a bit more oomph! I've just shoe horned a ramps/mega in my Cr10's box ( not recommended for the faint of heart) , one snag I had was the 1.1.9 & bugfix cr10 config files would throw an out of memory error on compilation when the config was changed to reflect the ramps instead of the stock creality melzi board, however the TH3D release didnt suffer from this issue, but I wanted to stick with the official release - long story short - I found that the Bugfix 1.1.9 CR10-S config works a treat on the stock cr10 with a ramps board with some minor tweaks including one for my lv8729's @ 1/32 steps ,the filament sensor is also simple too as it just plugs into X max- I'm that happy with it that going to use the exact same files for my ender 3 after some adjustments for print volume and PID settings when I switch its board out for the GEN L

[@NilsKullberg]

Thanks! - A straight-forward explanation. Very valuable for 3D-noobs like myself. :-)

[@high-fivehigh-tech3884]

Helpful video - thanks for posting

[@Kimentor.]

Awaiting my mks gen l board and this vid comes, excellent!

[@sandrarusso1136]

Great video for a new user like myself.

[@Worelock1966]

very informative Michael, well done

[@pitts8rh]

You are very good at this, and the background work that you put into research and testing, as well as the production of these videos is greatly appreciated. It is easy to forget how fortunate we are to have information like this so easily available. You are a great teacher!

[@Dimi_29]

Extremely useful content Michael!! Thank you so much Greetings from Copenhagen :)

[@projector7141]

Tysm, this is helpful, TH3D has come a long way.

[@DiscoStu30]

Someone has upgraded their lighting and camera :D ... informative as always.

[@stevep6133]

Helpful as usual!

[@anenkris]

Interesting as always.

[@colinfindlay4790]

Before anyone else says it - can we expect a Klipper video? I switched to try out the speed and stayed for the quality (and stayed at 60mm/s!). Not sure I'll keep it forever - but really liking the results

[@GeneralKetchup57]

I just bought a Tiny Machines CR 10 S Pro and was notified it needs a firmware update. Do I just put the hex file on an sd card and then do something? If so, what? Will that permanetly update the printers firmware or only if I have that SD card in the slot? Also, I just bought an Ender 3 from amazon and want to update the firmware to the tinymachines fire protection one. I watched your other firmware video. What do I need to buy to do that? Your videos are a great help, but a lot of us need more detail. I feel like I'm 80% there, but still scared to mess with the firmware.

[@TeachingTech]

I have a whole video on updating the firmware on the cr-10s pro. Please look it up

[@GeneralKetchup57]

@@TeachingTech I watched it in the past and was getting the Ender 3 bootloader section confused. I rewatched today and a couple of others and realize my error. Thanks for the videos!

[@thesimbon]

Don't forget klipper that at first it looks more difficult but it is actually much simpler to use 😉

[@serhatgalipsalman7845]

Helpful video, thanks. I have two questions to u. I use the TH3D firmware [U1.R2.9b (3/14/2019)] on my Ender 3 PRO. And now I see the original vanilla marlin firmware. First question 1) Which one is better and has more features? Second one 2)Can I update this firmware (marlin vanilla) directly, without burning the bootloader again?

[@projector7141]

2) Once your board has a bootloader installed, you never need to install it again unless you want a better one. But that is highly unlikely. Yes.

[@carguy7884]

I Think this video is just what i need cause i just Got my first 3d printer its an ender3pro

[@RonFloyd]

Very well explained - Thanks!

[@lyndarlehane582]

Excellently clear. Thankyou.

[@DavesDriving]

Excellent job of explaining, well done and thanks.

[@tubejim101]

Nicely done video.

[@josephjaffe4740]

Excellent! Thanks so much for doing this video. Happy holidays

[@SgtTaz]

Always great explanations! Thanks for all the help :)

[@Kevin-gh1cn]

just picked up that MiniDelta as a second printer, would love to see some upgrade/options on that

[@SkyborneProductions]

Me too!

[@TeachingTech]

I'm enjoying that printer. Simple but good print quality. Review to come.

[@mrozay5532]

@@TeachingTech Check out github.com/mcheah/Marlin4MPMD/tree/experimental_G33 It's a native stm32 port of Marlin specifically for the MiniDelta

[@Kevin-gh1cn]

@@TeachingTech print quality is amazing for the price. I've had minor issues with the bed leveling and supports. Using cura profiles I found on the wiki site and the .14mm z res blows away the ender 3 at .1mm. I have more tweaking to do there apparently.

[@megaobi]

best channel ever

[@robertavery8897]

So let me ask u this. If I want to make Chang’s to Marlin for the CR10S Pro. Are they using the newest version of Marlin and modifying it and creating the Hex code and using a boot loader like Xloader. What ver of Marlin is used when they do that.

[@zvizionaero]

Excellent! Very instructive video! I've got an issue on my Ender-3, it displays 100°C for the nozzle even when it is at room temperature. I've allready checked the thermistor and the pull up 4k7 resistor, everything seems to be fine, so I guess the nozzle thermistor adc port seems to be faulty. I've come to this video to see if I can reconfigure the Marlin to read the nozzle temperature in an unused port. Despite the great information you provided I couldn't be sure of where the pin assignment can be changed (in programming I've never gone much further than the "hello world" lesson). I've looked at the pins.h and MELZI_CREALITY.h and there are some lines related to pins there but I couldn't be sure where to change. Could you give me a tip about it? I'm aware of the hardware changes I'll need to make. Thank you again for the great explanation.

[@alaaessam5545]

Nice work, I have a question, can I use Marlin and customize it to an injection molding machine ?

[@vlfreak]

top video. easy to understand, love the analogy's :)

[@bennguyen1313]

I'd like to interface to TH3D's Unified Marlin Firmware for a non-3d printing application. For example, I'd like to move the motors (execute different g-codes) based on the state of the input pins to the microcontroller. But could this be done solely via pronterface's printrun library (printcore.py) that interfaces to the Marlin firmware via serial... or would it be necessary to modify the Marlin firmware itself?

[@stevenarkon7718]

I don't know if you will see this, but I will try it with one question. I need to change the E-Steps for my Excruder because I changed it from a Boden tube to a direct drive. I do it by using the G29 command and then the M500 to save it. But, every time I change the Marlin software and upload it I have to change the E-Steps to the Excruder again. I can't find in the Marlin software where or how to set the E-Stps for the Excruder. BTW I have an Ender 5 Plus and the new E-Step value is 494.9.

[@rickharms1]

The definition of firmware has changed over the last 35 years. To me, what you describe is a program that is being executed. Firmware is burned into rom and cannot be changed, hence "firm" ware. Oh well.

[@neonteepee8453]

Wikipedia says - In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware can either provide a standardized operating environment for more complex device software (allowing more hardware-independence), or, for less complex devices, act as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. So Firmware sounds about right in this case

[@avejst]

Nice, thanks for sharing 😀👍

[@TheMartialMix]

+Teaching Tech ,Hey can you provide the thingiverse link for your capricorn ptef tubing for the ender 3? I can't find the spacer for the bowden tube so it does not fall out anywhere on thingiverse or on your videos.

[@mananimal7512]

While you cannot decompile the .hex file, it WOULD be nice if at least the manufacturer's firmware along with their checksums were stored online. That way, you could download your stock firmware, compute the checksum and then look up the features which were enabled as well as map your stock firmware to a baseline set of features.

[@TeachingTech]

Totally agree.

[@ltnthacker]

Great informative video thank you. Is there a way to try your hand at tweaking the Marlin firmware without the risk of losing the original configuration that came with my printer. Kind of hoping for a fail safe option. Thanks again.

[@BuZZarDFPV]

Hey man, I have a prusa i3 clone that doesn't have a configuration h example file in the marlin vanilla code. Did I understand correct that I only have to figure out the settings needed in the configuration H and adv h files with a complete vanilla marlin? Where would you suggest I start? I'm not a complete noob, just need to be pointed in the right direction here.

[@tienievanrooyen1580]

Thanks for the videos I learn lots from it only one thing my artillery sidewinder I did a firmware up loud to it about a week ago and after the firmware was flashed my screen dose not come on I have been watching numerous videos to find out how to fix it The the guys go to fast for my understanding all kind of software and links that I have to use do you have advice how to fix my printer screen please

[@troybabcock3290]

Im installing the Octo print on my Ender 3. I have a question about updating Marlin while having the Pi set up on the printer. Is it possible to flash the MB with Marlin through the Pi? I have the upgraded MB with the boot-loader built in. It would be nice to know if this is possible or if we have to unplug the Pi from the printer MB and connect direct to the PC.

[@TeachingTech]

There is a marlin flashing octoprint plugin that I haven't used but it may be what you're looking for.

[@troybabcock3290]

@@TeachingTech thanks for getting back to me. Your videos have made it fun to learn my printer.

[@peterberendsen9236]

hi, I was wondering if it is possible to use the second roll off filament with a dual extruder setup as a backup .when the1st runout censor detects run out off filament that the printer engages the second roll to resume the print . was thinking off this and didn't come across a tutorial for this possibility . would you think this is a option ,a specially for big prints this would be a great solution

[@6BlackWings]

Can you do one of these on Klipper firmware?

[@HagerHay]

Could Marlin modify my 3 year old Maker select plus 3D printer. I want to be able to correct the steps per for X Y Z calibration?

[@AminJorge]

Great video and awesome channel 👍👍👍. Thank you!!!

[@ManuelMcLure]

It's not quite accurate to say that Marlin 2.0.x is optimized for 32 bit boards. It runs just as well on 8-bit AVR boards as 1.1.x does and the developers are very careful to keep it that way. The 1.1.x branch has pretty much closed to all but simple bug fixes at this point - there will be no new features added to the 1.1.x branch and it is likely that 1.1.9 will be the last official release on the 1.1.x branch.

[@TheRainHarvester]

If I want to use marlin on diy 3dp, are there ideal components (thermosistor, hot end etc) I should use to get best results from marlin knowing the PID / behaviour etc? Thanks!

[@davidtingle6]

I would really like to see where you take a cheap chinese 40w laser engraver/cutter. You've done such an awsome job taking the ender3 to dang near its limits. I just think the way you approach things, you would take that laser to the next level. Yeah your gonna hear they suck but i've had 0 issues with mine.

[@TeachingTech]

Planning to do this in future, just not sure when. I've had good success with cheap eBay Chinese stuff so far.

[@davidtingle6]

@@TeachingTech there is a guy doing stuff with a 50 or 60w co2 laser but the average person is gonna settle for that $350 40w co2 laser. but check out rdworks learning lab vidieo's. just a heads up he is very informative but also very long winded. typical video of his is about 45 minutes. I just have a feeling you would do this in a quicker format and more concise and go places this guy hasn't even began to touch on.

[@RavenousDestruction1]

great channel thanks for all your hard work!

[@ronjones4069]

Now that Marlin is loaded, I don't have a clue how to use it. What do all the various commands that show up on the screen mean? I just don't get it at all.

[@Derekisastro]

Great video but I still have a question ... the TH3D firmware version of Marlin ... it does not seem such an easy plug and play for me with my Ender3 as I have upgraded the board to the MKS Gen L ... am I missing something in the TH3D firmware or is there simply not support for the Ender 3 WITH MKS Gen L board yet?

[@AERuffy]

There is, you just set your board type. Specifically around line 57 in configuration.h Change it to BOARD_MKS_GEN_L

[@TheRoon4660]

I am trying to implement the M600 command on my Ender 3 pro with marlin 1.1.6 installed and which already has a boot loader. I followed a video showing how to do this by going into the Advance_pause_feature in configuration_adv.h and then the configuration file. When I tried to compile it in arduino ide I received this error message..."Error compiling for board sanguino 1284P boards". I know nothing about Arduino so I am stumped and am not quite sure what to do now. My friend helped me the first time when we flashed the boot loader but isn't available because of the Covid 19 "Plandemic". Do you have any suggestions what I should do now? They would be gratefully accepted. Sorry if I'm off topic.

[@abdulazizalanazi6974]

I have uploaded the mariln firmware to my 3D printer but I found out that I need to make some changing to configuration can I do that or I have to upload the firmware again?

[@Czteryk]

Hello. I have a big problem with my Anycubic Kossel Linear plus and I can't find anything that can help me to resolve it. Today morning I turned on the printer and everything was ok on the beginning. After some time I wanted to do bed leveling because I found some printing issues. Automatic bed leveling system do not working, nozzle are moving on the air slightly for few seconds and that's all. Basically looks like level of the bed is now very high and extruder don't wanted to go lower of it. Printer is printing only in air. For the info, last week after bed leveling in two cases I've forgot to disconnect the bed leveling sensor before printing and my nozzle pushed strongly to the bed. But when I've disconnect it off Printer was working properly. If you can show me the way what I should go now, but in simple words, as I'm not programmer and when I've looked on those Marlin files and cura settings I know it is black magic for me. Thanks and hopefully you will find a time to reply for my question and help me. Thank you. Regards.

[@Czteryk]

If could be a way to give a Information about proper bed level to the printer and store it somehow I think that auto leveling will run normally :(

[@adityahegde02]

Hi bro, I want to build a 3d printer But before buy hardware parts I want to all the software part,but I am unable to find which Marlin firmware I have to download and upload to Arduino I hope you reply Thank you

[@jarisipilainen3875]

3:34 bootloader stop print when you connect it while printing thats why its not there

[@scottdickerson830]

updated to tinymaches firmware on my cr 10s pro, now its all messed up how do i go back to my original firmware?

[@CordineX]

what's the simplest way to have Ender 3 V2 support change filament mid print using SD card. Which Firmware would you recommend( . I don't know how to compile etc so I am hoping to get the .bin that I just put in the SD card

[@mynameis______392]

Get an Skr mini e3 v2 board

[@asulliv1954]

When I go on Arduino IDE and open Marlin and go to Config it doesn’t let me do any changes I can’t hilight erase // or add values what am I doing wrong I follow instruction down to a tee,what am I doing wrong?

[@igotsth]

Do you have reference data for that 99%?

[@anonimuso]

Can you put Marlin on any 3D printer? I have a Monoprice MP10, but there is not much information about it. I contacted support and they said it runs a closed version of Marlin. Do you think I can load plain Marlin on it?

[@jonztube]

Me too - I have MP10 Mini - I want to update the firmware. I managed to connect to the MP10 board using arduino ide and send G-codes to extract all the MP10 settings. Now I want to know if I can update Monoprice's closed stock (Marlin) firmware with an open Marlin version. I wish Monoprice would be more helpful.

[@4funrc11]

Hey, :) Thx.

[@jmatiass]

Hi! Does anybody know if I can recover the Marlin source code installed in my printer? I need to do some changes, but I formatted my computer and I lost the code :(

[@my.username]

So what does the "eeprom chitchat" do exactly? i have it disabled in my config file? I tried to turn it on but there was no space for it to be enabled. I have M503 enabled though.

[@valshaped]

EEPROM chitchat puts status and error messages on the screen when saving and loading your config data

[@ronald44181000]

Is there a way to use say TH3d Files within say the Marlin 1.1.9 Bugfix Firmware?

[@jarisipilainen3875]

2:48 if something work no need upgrade.

[@Explore531]

I need help I have downloaded Arduino for loading up Marlin.ino but when I did and try too editing I went too Configuration h , I havent see any number list like I have too goto row 200 but there isnt no 200 instead of find what im looking for I cant find level setting too edit sorry for not understanding me

[@abrahamherzog7493]

I've come across the problems in which he tells me that I do not anyway now it's everything ok

[@nassvandrunen6020]

Youre the focking man❤🔥🔥🐊

[@tablatronix]

Be warned usbtiny can not flash these ( or anything above 64k ), and avrdude will not complain, but you will get verifiy errors after its done.

[@jeffbeck6501]

The answer is when he said that he likes to configure vanilla Marlin himself.

[@NORMIES_GET_OUT]

Jesus. I'm already pulling my hair out trying to figure this stuff out, and now that I've finally found someone helpful to watch that has information relevant to my issue, I've noticed that the framed tt logo on the wall is crooked and I can't stop staring at it in frustration. People with ocd should be banned from owning 3d printers due to an increased health hazard. I can't even right now... Somebody help me please before I throw this damn printer off my balcony.

[@marcojimenez9327]

Cheap 3d printers are all about patience, chill down, don't rush anything, if you want to print right out of the box then you can pay for that, if you are buying a cheap printer, be ready to be fiddling with it. Also, stay away from Marlin 2.0, that made me waste an entire day until I tried installing Marlin 1.9 and many issues I was encountering went away.

[@NORMIES_GET_OUT]

@@marcojimenez9327 I just had to walk away and come back to it. Here I was digging into custom firmware and all kinds of other things trying to find my solution and it turned out I had a 4pin dupont connector on backwards that was causing all my issues. Live and learn I guess. That, and Occam's razor is a real thing.

[@jarisipilainen3875]

they are all marlin. just use marlin not other that use them lol and dont use bootloader on printer.flash it without and you have room for more and strip all gcode and mcodes you NEVER use

[@nunopereira6092]

Great video, thanks. Please be aware that the link you've provided for the TH3D Unified Firmware is incorrect. You should try this one on github: github.com/houseofbugs/TH3D-Unified-U1.R2/releases

[@budlightning4186]

🤯

[@1S4Per]

Constructive feedback: It would've been useful to cover WHY someone would want to load a different vs stock firmware on their printer in the first place. That seems to be missing, I'm left asking myself, "Why should I care about this?"

[@TeachingTech]

The part where I explained that creality is using firmware several versions behind in features addresses this.

[@1S4Per]

Teaching Tech I just gave you feedback, that’s all. I will read your response to mean “that part MEANT to address this”.

[@AWildNoodle]

// I left a comment

[@themadman6100]

TH3D sucks,worst customer service ever...They don't support end user support for their versions of firmware...

[@jarisipilainen3875]

7:42 and you have very unreadable and long source.marlin way is better.and all define should be listed on top so not need scroll. these are what i want.bang. flash it

[@carguy7884]

First

[@TomaszDominikowski]

You don't fork a project just by uncommenting some lines for your printer before building, the same way you don't fork the Linux kernel by configuring before building it for your hardware configuration, or any other open source project. TH3D itself can also hardly be called a fork, it's a custom distribution of Marlin. You fork a project when you take the original code, develop your own features and bugfixes and deviate from the original project. And you do that usually if you can't or don't want to get your own stuff into the main project, because of quality or policy or politics or all of the above.

[@WhereNerdyisCool]

Very well explained. Thanks!

[@kh6qmchristophercolquhoun695]

Great Job!

[@dtizet6275]

This was very helpful thanks!

[@zvizionaero]

Excellent! Very instructive video! I've got an issue on my Ender-3, it displays 100°C for the nozzle even when it is at room temperature. I've allready checked the thermistor and the pull up 4k7 resistor, everything seems to be fine, so I guess the nozzle thermistor adc port seems to be faulty. I've come to this video to see if I can reconfigure the Marlin to read the nozzle temperature in an unused port. Despite the great information you provided I couldn't be sure of where the pin assignment can be changed (in programming I've never gone much further than the "hello world" lesson). I've looked at the pins.h and MELZI_CREALITY.h and there are some lines related to pins there but I couldn't be sure where to change. Could you give me a tip about it? I'm aware of the hardware changes I'll need to make. Thank you again for the great explanation.