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T250 Launch Incoming
Hey everyone,Over the past three weeks, I took some time off—not just to relax, but to prepare. Prepare for what’s ahead. Because the T250 is finally ready to be shown to the world.The design has been built and tested by over ten Alpha testers, and their feedback made its way back into the printer. THEOS got a major polish too—many of the early quirks have been ironed out, and I was able to squeeze in all the features I had planned. Even the slicer profiles have matured to a point where most prints work straight out of the box with little...
Updates from the Software Front!
Over the past week, I've mainly been focused on making improvements to Klipper. I absolutely fell in love with the real-time bed-level scanning that the BDSensor provides. Seriously, when it works, it's incredible! It nails the tolerances so perfectly that the first layer sticks flawlessly, even without any adhesive—yes, even at full-blown BSO speeds! Honestly, this is the first printer I've had that pulls this off so effortlessly.But, of course, nothing's ever perfect. There are definitely a few annoying caveats. Here's a...
Small Details matter....
Over the past week, I focused on enhancing the resolution and quality of fine details in certain prints. Printing Minatures on an FDM Printer is hard. You're facing issues like:Cooling:Precise cooling is crucial to quickly solidify each extruded layer, preventing deformation.Pressure Control:Maintaining consistent pressure inside the hotend is essential to avoid issues such as underextrusion or overextrusion.Gantry Stability:The gantry must exhibit high rigidity to prevent flexing, especially noticeable when printing very small details like...
Adaptive Z-Offset Measurement
Hey everyone! Sorry things have been a bit quiet from my side this past week. I was still recovering from COVID, and trust me—running a loud CPAP printer right next to you with a pounding headache isn't fun.So I was focusing on some enhancements to the THEOS firmware. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that the BD sensor occasionally produces false-positive readings during the second homing cycle. Although these errors seemed sporadic, there was actually a consistent pattern whenever they occurred. After some digging, I suspected t...
Printing and Printing and Printing....
Last week was Carnival in my hometown, so productivity took a bit of a hit—too much celebrating, and I ended up getting sick. But that didn’t stop me from printing!For the next few weeks, my focus is on real-world prints to fine-tune the setup and slicer profiles with actual user feedback. Expect a bunch of short videos showcasing high-speed prints, starting with this puzzle:This puzzle was printed with an outer perimeter speed of 360mm/s and an acceleration of 70,000mm/s². Since the parts are hollow, most of the print was completed at the...
Optimizing Input Shapers for High-Speed 3D Printing: Insights & Best Practices
Today, I want to share some of the insights I've gained over the past few years about Input Shapers and their impact on high-speed printing. And to make things easier, I’ve prepared something for you:Over the past three days, I’ve printed a variety of test objects to show the effects of different Input Shapers at various speeds and accelerations.But before we dive into the details, I want to give you a quick introduction to the implementation of Smooth Input Shapers in THEOS and explain why they outperform the standard Input Shapers in ...
Why the 3D Benchy Isn’t the Best Test Print for Tuning Your 3D Printer
Many people in our community showcase how they achieve a high-speed, high-quality 3DBenchy. While I genuinely appreciate seeing these fast Benchy shredders, I’ve learned that the 3DBenchy isn’t the best model for tuning a high-speed printer. Consequently, I stopped using it once I began fine-tuning my T250 slicer profiles.So what's my issue with it? Here's a sliced benchy on my current fast quality profile:It only takes about 1.6 to 2.8 seconds to print each hull layer, leaving almost no time for them to cool. As soon as a layer sta...
Why do we need Sideblowers?
Over the last four or five weeks, I’ve been asked twice whether the side blowers are truly necessary for the T250, or if removing them would be a good way to save some money. The answer isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, but it’s definitely worth discussing—so I decided to cover it here on Patreon.To explore this topic, I’ve set up the following test scenario:It’s basically a 3 cm-wide cylinderwith a single walland no infill, which results in a consistent minimum layer time of 0.6 seconds. I used Klipper’s TUNING_TOWER mac...
AliExpress Gem of the Month - February 2025
A new month brings another confession. I seek forgiveness for spending numerous valuable Patreon euros on low-quality Chinese products. However, I have found something that might be intresting for all of us.Those who have followed my work over the past six months know that I have gained extensive knowledge about TMC driversand stepper motor tuning. I have translated most of these insights into best practices, implementing them into my TMC drivers within THEOS. These enhancements automatically configure the optimal parameters to extract maximum ...
Enhancing Thread Scheduling of Klipper
One of the most frustrating issues I’ve faced over the past few years is the “mcu: timer too close”error. It occurs sporadically whenever a high enough CPU spike happend for a long enough time.Today, I want to break down why this error happens, share what I’ve done to fix it in THEOS🔥 Why Does This Error Occur?The way Klipper communicates with the MCUis based on a bus system that sends and receives data every 25ms. Klipper keeps a close eye on the timing, and if the time deltabetween these packets becomes too short, the print stops w...
THEOS 1.1.0 Release
Dear Supporters,Over the past four weeks, I worked on integrating some pretty advanced klipper features into THEOS. Some of them you already saw here on Patreon in Action. Below is an overview of the latest developments:🚀 New THEOS FeaturesThis Release I focused on enhancing the Documentation to make it easier to install THEOS, Flash the Firmware to all MCU's and Connect THEOS to your Wireless Network. Also I've added an Feature overview section on github to give new users an overview of all the Features THEOS is capable of over a St...
Toolhead Cable Management
Last week, my productivity took a hit as I spent most of my time nursing a Covid infection with tea and binge-watching shows. However, by the weekend, I began to feel better and was able to resume work on the printer.One long-standing task on my to-do list was to develop a holder for managing the toolhead cables. I’m quite proud of the solution I developed: a clip positioned at the front through which all the cables can be threaded. This clip is secured by simply pushing in the Bowden Tube from the right, eliminating the need for any screws w...
Tuning... and tuning... and tuning... and non-linear pressure advance
Over the last days I was struggling getting non-linear pressure advance working on my T250. For those who don't know about it it's basic a way of defining a PA value that behaved stronger at lower flows and gets less and less the higher the printing flows get. It's completely bleeding edge, no documention, no best practices but im confident that with non-linear PA the boundaries of high speed printing will shift further. But since there's not much documentation and things develop really slowly so today there is no fancy announch...
Always use proper Filament!!!
About a week ago, I calibrated my T250 to a level where I felt confident fine-tuning a quality profile for it. I began my initial prints and noticed a fuzzy orange skin effect along the outer perimeter of all the prints:My initial hypothesis was that the issue was related to VFA. I knew that low inductance motors tend to exhibit stronger VFA, and since the hysteresis settings I’m currently using are quite aggressive, I experimented with finding sweet spots that would reduce the vibration of my motors. Additionally, I printed a VFA test patter...
Printing an new Set of Z-Joiners on my T250
I was incredibly lucky with my Z-Motors—the embedded leadscrews were 100% straight, resulting in flawless prints without any print bed-related artifacts. However, some of my alpha testers weren’t as lucky. Taking their feedback into account, I decided to design an option for Oldham couplers to accommodate those with bent leadscrews or who use motors without integrated leadscrews.Since my T250 gets to a point where it's mostly tune, I chose to print these couplers on it. This allows me to provide you with an exclusive inside look at how ...
AliExpress Gem of the Month - January 2025
Today, I am starting a new series where I will make a confession and seek forgiveness for past mistakes—especially for the numerous valuable Patreon euros I spent on low-quality Chinese stuff. But as always, when digging, you might find a lump of coal or perhaps a diamond. In this series I want to share one Diamond I found every month! Lets get started:LM2596 DC-DC Step-down Power Supply ModuleMost DIY enthusiasts are familiar with buck converters, but for those who aren't:The LM2596is an affordable and widely used circuit for reducing hi...
Finding the Ideal SoC Board for Pushing the T250 to Its Limits
Over the last 3-4 days, I’ve run into 2-3 sporadic MCU shutdowns with the Error Message: MCU shutdown: Timer too close. The reason for that error is in most situation a bottleneck caused by the Host CPU. I suspect the combination of speeds exceeding 1000mm/s, High Precision Stepping enabled, Polynomial Input Shaping, PA synchronization, and microstepping set above 16 is simply too much for the SoC on my Orange Pi Zero 3 to handle.So I thought, this might be a good opportunity to evaluate an SoC with a bit more horsepower.To kick things off, I...
Tuning Pressure Advanced at 1200mm/s
Today I want to share with you one Step of my tuning process of my new T250 3D Printer.One of the biggest headaches we all face: achieving consistent extrusion—or any extrusion at all—when pushing speeds over 300mm/s.The reason why most printers struggle here is because the pressure of inside the hotend is too big causing oozing in both sides of the hotend, one side you see as oozing on the print but the other side that is more critical is that molten filament climbs up the melting zone through the heatbreak and finally cloggs the hotend.An...
Working on an Integration of Dmitry Butyugin Advanced Klipper Stuff
After more than a day of programming, I successfully ported Dmitry Butyugin's advanced Klipper features to my own Klipper fork. It was somewhat challenging because his developments were based on a very old version of Klipper, and numerous changes have been made to Klipper since then. As a result, I had to rewrite significant portions of his code to ensure compatibility. But enough of the programmer's struggles—so, what's in it for us?🛠️ Smooth Input ShapersThe Smooth Input Shaperfeature uses polynomial smooth functions to eff...
Enhanced THEOS Documentation
Over the past few days, I've received several private messages on Discord regarding THEOS, and I like to share some important updates that address your feedback:✨ What’s New:🔧 New "Firmware Flashing" SectionTo help you eliminate the frustrating red error message that appears after THEOS's first boot, I've added a "Firmware Flashing"section to the documentation. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to flash the firmware for your board so that it gets detected as managed device📶 Enhanced WiFi Configu...
What makes my TMC Driver so special?
Today, I embarked on fine-tuning my extruder motor to achieve peak performance while maintaining minimal heat generation.Once the tuning was complete, I asked my self what whould Klipper Stock provide me instead:As illustrated, there's a noticeable drop at the peak of the sine wave. This dip is a result of the default behavior of Klipper's global scaler. By default, Klipper sets the current scaler to its maximum value of 31, which causes the sine wave to extend beyond the optimal range for the driver's RSense. To protect the driver ...
THEOS 1.0.0 Release: Putting all pieces together
Dear Supporters,Over the past two weeks, I’ve made significant steps forward in developing our 3D Printer Operating System, THEOS. Thanks to your support, I’ve implemented new features in Klipper, enhanced configuration options, and expanded device support. Below is an overview of the latest developments:🚀 New THEOS Features1. OrangePI Zero 3 Image Based on Armbian/BookwormMy primary goal with THEOS has always been to maintain simplicity and efficiency. Originally, I built THEOS on a multi-distribution foundation (MainsailOS, OrangePI-OS...
Advanced Config Parser for Klipper & THEOS
Hey everyone,The year may be winding down, but the new THEOS features aren’t! I managed to squeeze in some coding time over Christmas to overhaul the Klipper Config Parser and add a handful of new capabilities. These upgrades will make printer configuration much easier going forward. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new:Before we jump into the new stuff, let’s recall two features that current THEOS users already know—understanding them will help clarify my goals for extending the Config Parser.[constants] NamespaceThe purpose of the [...
Klipper: New TMC Driver Modules!
🎄 Merry Christmas, Everyone! 🎄I hope this holiday season brings you joy, warmth, and plenty of tinkering time! Over the past four weeks, I’ve been working on something truly special, and today, I’m thrilled to share it with you for testing.Introducing the New TMC Driver Modules!These drivers have been completely redesigned from the ground up, incorporating insights from six months of experimenting with TMC parameters. The goal? To make every driver capable of tuning itself automaticallyusing just a few key parameters. In essence, I’...
Improved Homing Process
Over the past four weeks, I’ve made significant changes to the homing process of the T250, and I think it’s time to share the current state with you. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what happens during the homing sequence:0. Standardized AccelerationEvery step of the process is performed with an acceleration of 10,000 mm/s². This ensures consistency across various printer configurations.1. 0:04 - Sensorless Homing for X/YWith the improvements in my custom Klipper branch, the impact during X/Y sensorless homing is drastically reduced. List...
🎉 New Klipper Module: Rapid Macro Development Made Easy! 🎉
Hey everyone!I’ve been tinkering again, and yesterday I developed a small yet powerful Klipper module that, combined with my existing RELOAD_GCODE_MACROS function, makes Rapid Macro Developmenta breeze! 🚀How does it work?Simply add the [auto_reload] section to your Klipper configuration to load the module. Once set up, it automatically watches for changes in your printer.cfg file. The moment you save your changes, it triggers RELOAD_GCODE_MACROS to reload the configuration on the fly.This means no more manually restarting Klipper or reload...
🚀 Automated Software Updates in THEOS
Today, I started designing the update process for THEOS, and while it might seem a bit overwhelming at first glance, I promise—it’s not as complicated as it sounds! 😊What’s the plan?The goal is to integrate a new THEOS Moduleinto the MainsailOS builder. This module will:1️⃣ Download the THE100 Configurationdirectly onto the operating system image.2️⃣ Set up Git Hooksfor key software components like THEOS, Klipper, and Moonraker.What are Git Hooks? 🤔Git Hooks are small scripts that run automatically after a Git operation is c...
Native Sensorless Homing
If you’ve been following my T250 build, you know I’ve spent considerable time fine-tuning a sensorless homingprocedure for the TMC5160 drivers. Achieving consistent results wasn’t easy, but after much experimentation, I’ve developed a over 300 lines long macro that delivers constant results.The Challenge of Sensorless Homing on TMC5160In theory, sensorless homing is relatively straightforward: as the stepper motor moves the axis toward its home position, the printer controller monitors the motor's electrical current. A sudden spike ...
First Steps on Firmware Flashing
Today, I began implementing my firmware flashing tool with the goal of simplifying the process for users. This tool is designed to make flashing the initial firmware effortless while also automating firmware updates whenever Klipper is upgraded. It requires only two configuration parameters:serial: A static pointer indicating where the board is mounted (or will be mounted if it's a first installation)cpu: The type of CPU equipped on the board.Example Workflow:The tool intelligently determines the type of board based on the serial and select...
New THEOS Features and Klipper Enhancements 🎉
This week, I made significant progress on THEOS, focusing on implementing new features and migrating all the Klipper enhancements from my local build to the THEOS image. Here's an overview of what’s been accomplished:🚀 Completed Features:1. BDSensor IntegrationI removed the BDSensor files from my custom Klipper build and fully integrated them into the THEOS installer. By leveraging their installation scripts, any updates or changes made to the original scripts are automatically applied without requiring manual intervention on my side. ...
