Marlin Firmware For Mac

Artillery Sidewinder-X1 and Genius

firmware flashing guide

Investigate on both Mac and PC by reinstalling drivers, re-compiling and re-flashing Marlin 2.x firmware. Still same issue, not sure at this point if I have a faulty. The firmware for the Original Prusa i3 printers is proudly based on Marlin 1.0.x by Scott Lahteine (@thinkyhead) et al. And is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL 3 license. Table of contents Linux build.

Written by Gavin Balcomb

Marlin Firmware For Mac

So, the time has come for you to upgrade the firmware on your printer, at first, this may seem like a daunting task, however, this guide will take you step by step through the process.

There are a few things you need to know before we dive right into it.

When flashing any mainboard with firmware, there is always some level of risk involved, so proceed at your own risk. We will also need to remove the bottom cover, voiding your warranty. We need to be able to unplug the TFT board (the screen) in order to free up a communications port on your motherboard. Lastly, you need to understand that the firmware you put on your board controls how your machine behaves, for better… or worse…

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO MARLIN UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DO!

Marlin

This guide assumes that you have already opened the bottom panel and disconnected the TFT.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's begin.

Downloading and extracting the firmware

The first part of the process is to get some firmware to flash, I would recommend sticking to the firmware provided by artillery or the precompiled firmware available from the downloads section of the forum.

(for advanced users, if you wish to start with a fresh build of marlin you can download their latest release branch from https://marlinfw.org/meta/download/)

1. in your browser, navigate to http://www.artillery3d.com/

2. On the Artillery website, navigate to “Support” and click on “Downloads

3. Click on “Sidewinder or Genius Firmware” for your respective printer.

4. Click the button to download the file.

Please note, you are also able to download the firmware for the TFT from this same location.

Now we need to extract the downloaded files

1. Open up file explorer (finder if on mac) and navigate to your downloads folder and find the files we downloaded previously, please note they will be compressed files with the extensions “.rar” or “.zip”

2. Cut or copy the files to a location or folder where you will be able to find them easily.

3. If the file has the extension “.rar”, change the extension to “.zip”

4. We can now extract the Zip file to be able to explore and use the content, right-click the “.zip” file and select “Extract to”.

Downloading and installing Arduino IDE

In your browser, type the below into your address bar, or enter the Arduino site and navigate to software/downloads.

1. You can download Arduino IDE from the link below, alternatively type the following into your URL bar

2. Select and download the correct build for your operating system

You will then be prompted with a screen where you can choose to donate to development or just download, the choice is yours.

3. Once the software is download, navigate to your downloads folder, right-click on the .exe and run as “administrator”

4. Select Yes to the prompt to allow changes to the computer

5. Proceed through the installer and press the install button

6. Once the program is installed, navigate to where you kept the firmware downloaded previously and open the folder.

7.

Double click on the folder called “Marlin”, scroll through the content until you find the file “Marlin.ino” Double click this to open the file. This will open Arduino IDE with the files in it ready to go.


Arduino IDE

When the IDE Opens after following the steps above you will be presented with the following screen. With a bunch of different tabs open.

The two tabs that we are interested in though are the “Configuration.h” and “Configuration_adv.h” files

These two tabs contain all the settings that we can configure to turn on/off features in the marlin software, such as;

1. EEPROM – in Config.h

2. Linear Advance – in Config_adv.h

3. Mesh levelling and Auto Bed Leveling – in Config.h

4. BLTouch – in Config.h

And many, many more. If you wish to find a setting press “CRTL + F” on your keyboard and search for it, note the default search will only search within the tab you have open.

Compiling and Uploading your firmware

Once you have made all the changes that you wanted to make, we now need to compile the firmware to make sure it works, and if that succeeds we need to upload it to the mainboard

1. When you are happy with your changes we will press the verify button in Arduino to see if it will successfully build, this is the button in the top left-hand corner, this will begin the build and check for any errors.

2. If that completes successfully we can now plug our printer into the computer

3. Once the printer is connected to the computer we need to go into the “tools” menu and change the board to “Arduino Mega or Mega 2560”

4. Next, we will set the Com Port to connect over, please note COM1 is usually system reserved and unlikely to be the correct port.

5. Lastly, we will press “Get Board Info” and it should return something similar to below

6. We can now press the “Upload” button to begin uploading our software

7. The status of the upload will show up in the terminal window at the bottom with the results of the upload. The below is what you would expect to see if the upload is successful

CONGRATULATIONS! You just flashed the firmware on your printer, now you just need to reassemble everything and flash the TFT if you are doing that as well and you are good to go!(please remember you will need to redo/reset any calibrations you had set in the EEPROM, such as ESTEPS, or linear advance etc…)

ERRORS

As with anything, sometimes things don’t go according to plan, below is a screenshot of an error during the upload, in this case, the machine was unable to communicate with the printer over the selected COM port, this was due to having Cura4.5 open which was using that port. To resolve the issue, I closed Cura4.5 and attempted the upload again. Keep in mind that if there are any errors with your build or your configuration, they will show up in this window which will tell you what you need to go back and change.

The Artillery Sidewinder X1 is awesome and the firmware it comes with is properly configured, but unfortunately it uses an older variant of the Marlin firmware and it lacks some features.
It is recommended to upgrade the Artillery Sidewinder X1 to Marlin 2.0.5.3 in order to get all the features it offers.

Why should you upgrade to Marlin 2.0.5.3?

Mac

Compared to the original firmware, the firmware I compiled has the following features implemented:

  • Save to EEPROM
  • Manual Bed leveling
  • Linear Advance 1.5 enabled and configured K Factor to 0.13
  • S Curve Acceleration and Adaptive Step Smoothing is enabled
  • Added preheat presets for PLA and PETG
  • Babystepping Z enabled
  • Quick Home enabled for faster homing
  • Changed Feedrate and Acceleration values for smooth and silent operation
  • BLTouch functionality (for BLTouch users)

Please read the full article before starting the flash. More information is covered, to better understand the process.

Firmware flashing prerequisites

The stock TFT touchscreen cable needs to be removed in order to get a connection from the computer and flash the board firmware.

As you can see, my TFT connector was full of glue so I had to remove the cable including the connector. Carefully remove any glue that might be around the connector, then using the included USB cable, connect your printer to the computer.

Bonus tip! You can also remove this red and black wire from the screen. By removing this wire you will be able to flash the screen without needing to open the printer again. If your main TFT cable is full of glue like mine, you can just remove this wire and continue with the firmware flashing.

With the firmware flashed, you can now connect the TFT cable back to its original position and put the bottom cover back.

How to flash Artillery Sidewinder X1 with Marlin 2.0.5.3

First, you need to flash the board firmware. I am using Prusa Slicer to flash.

1. Download the Marlin 2.0.5.3 for Sidewinder X1
2. Open Prusa Slicer
3. Go to Configuration -> Flash printer firmware
4. Select the Marlin-2.0.5.3_Sidewinder_X1_3DPrintBeginner.hex file provided, and choose the correct serial port for your printer

5. Click Flash! and wait for the process to finish.

After flashing the firmware, make sure you first run the G-Code provided, to reset to factory defaults and clear EEPROM. Copy the .gcode file on your SD Card and “print” it.
You can also run the following commands in sequence:

M502
M500
M501

Flash Artillery Sidewinder X1 custom LCD Firmware

Please note that this version of custom LCD firmware is not the same as stock. You can read more about it here: Custom Screen Firmware for Sidewinder X1 and Genius.

In order to install the new screen firmware for the Sidewinder X1, follow the steps listed below:

  1. Download the Sidewinder X1 screen firmware.
  2. Unzip the archive and copy the contents to the SD Card.
  3. Plug in the SD card into the printer.
  4. Turn on the printer and wait for the firmware to finish flashing.
  5. Touch the calibration points on the screen
  6. Restart the printer

That’s it. Now you can enjoy the new functionality offered by the new firmware.

If you want to revert to the stock screen, follow these steps:

  1. Download the stock Sidewinder X1 TFT screen files
  2. Format the SD card.
  3. Unzip the archive and copy the contents to the SD Card.
  4. Plug in the SD card into the printer.
  5. Turn on the printer and wait for the firmware to finish flashing.
  6. Restart the printer.

Artillery Sidewinder X1 BLTouch Firmware

Download Marlin Firmware

Due to popular request, the Sidewinder X1 Firmware containing the BLTouch settings is currently available.
You can use the Waggster Mod video for information on how to install the pins.
The firmware including BLTouch can be downloaded from here. If you want a better cooling duct that works with the firmware settings and BLTouch, you can download my remix from Thingiverse.

Sidewinder X1 Auto Bed Leveling with Stock Sensor

You can also achieve Auto Bed Leveling on your Artillery Sidewinder X1 using the stock Z endstop sensor.
Read mode about it in the Sidewinder X1 Auto Bed Leveling with Stock Sensor article

Disclaimer

Use at your own risk! The firmware and Config Files are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.

Marlin Firmware For Monoprice Maker Select V2

If you want to customize your own version of Marlin, you can visit my Github repo where also uploaded the source files.