Adventures in Klipper

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I’ve been investigating Klipper. I put together a printer development hardware from spare parts, and loaded Klipper on a netbook. Post link can be found at bottom.

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While old netbook worked, CPU resources intermittently peaks to near 100%, when viewed from Mainsail. I would like to install more printers, so decided to try a mini PC, a HP EliteDesk 800 G2. The G2 has an Intel i5-6500 CPU, 6 USB 3.0 ports, USB type C, Wifi/BT, 8GB RAM, 2 DisplayPorts, and VGA port. It was purchased for about $70 shipped, without OS, and SSD. I purchased a 240GB SSD for under $20. The G2 is well constructed and is easy to upgrade, just one thumbscrew to open case and install drive, and memory upgrade. It measures only 7"x 7" x 1 1/2". Ebay has many vendors for these used PCs.

I saw YouTube video by ModBot installing Klipper on i5 Notebook running Linux Mint, so tried that. Please see link below. The G2 was extremely fast, Mint 21.2 was much easier to install than Raspberry Pi Desktop used with netbook. Klippler install using Kiauh, was many times faster too.

I had a problem, development printer would not connect on USB. Kiauh could not read MCU id. I discovered that there is a kernel bug in Debian Linux. There is a fix, but it might not be permanent. I will list YouTube video link below. I discovered ModBot installed Mint 20.3, so I installed that, and Klipper worked! The Linux update system wanted to update kernel after a day or two, and doing that broke it, reverting to prior kernel fixed it.

I also tested a ADXL345 with Raspberry Pi Pico, for Klipper input shaping measurements. The Pi Pico firmware is built with make utility found in Kiauh. There is a good Klipper discourse on that, url shown below.
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ModBot Klipper install:

Linux Bug Fix involving dev/by-.id/

Klipper Discourse ADXL345 Pi Pico:

Netbook Klipper with KlipperScreen Install:

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Wow. Thanks for sharing. I am hoping to do a new series called “Pimping Your Ender 3” where I will go over upgrades to bring an Ender 3 up to current specs. One of my videos will cover Klipper.

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Irv,
I’m looking forward to your new series. I hope to learn more, and actually start printing with Klipper. While my tests with axis motion, heater PIDs seem to work, I’m not ready to take the plunge. It was that way with my first printer. Watching your videos helped me get to printing.

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I’ve been considering buying a Creality Sonic Pad after my current 3D printing project is done (I don’t want to risk bricking my printer in the middle of a project :D). I am also looking at using a Bigtree pad 7 so that I’m not locked into Creality’s firmware, but I have read a lot of mixed results about that pad. Some really like it, but others have said that there’s essentially zero customer support, which is a problem if you run into troubles. Of course the other alternative is something like a Raspberry Pi 3 or greater + power supply, case, etc. Which seems to end up costing about the same as the Sonic pad, and you don’t have a nice touch screen.

I’m also hoping that something like the Beagle 2 (or a follow-on) will be able to run Klipper natively, which adds a camera capability as well. I feel like I don’t really need the local screen, but it would be a nice feature. If I had to choose between camera and screen, I’ll take the camera.

So I’ll be interested to see what variations you try and what you end up recommending.

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A while back I put Klipper on my Ender 3 V2 using a Raspberry Pi 3+ I already had. I too wanted a screen so I bought one and mounted it on the printer. Once I got the screen figured out it worked fine. I did most stuff on the PC that was across the room. At the time I set mine up up Ender5r was around and was the local Klipper expert. I liked Klipper but not well enough to put it on on the S1 Pro when I bought it. Currently not running Kilpper on anything. If you have an old Netbook that should make a good candidate for Klipper and I think you can pickup used ones pretty cheap. Anything that will run Linux should run Klipper.

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I added a second SSD, a 512GB m2280 PCIe , to make the HP EliteDesk 800 dual boot for Linux and Windows. Cost less than $20. When not using for Klipper, the PC will be used for model development with FreeCad and slicing with Cura. Windows was installed by going to MS, downloaded boot media creation tool for USB pen drive. I pulled out SATA drive used for Linux install. Then installed creation tool USB, and installed off line. The EliteDesk 800 already had onboard Windows authorization for W10 Pro, so install automatic. After install, I powered down and reinstalled SATA drive. By pressing Esc key to enter BIOS, and selecting boot option, I can choose OS. From Linux, it is possible to get to Windows files for printer use.

Here is how Kilpper works on Linux:

  1. Starting KlipperScreen from desktop, Applications>Graphics>KlipperScreen.
  2. KlipperScreen is in full control, navigating to WiFi shows IP. That IP can be used in local browser, or another PC to run Mainsail. Chome and Firefox work.
  3. To exit KlipperScreen, the only option is to shutdown PC via exit.
  4. Mainsail direct on Klipper PC will likely be choice controlling printers.
  5. Add Printer in Mainsail is where multiple printer are configured, after multiple printers installed with Kiauh. IP for multiple printers have port numbers starting at 7125.