Interfacing Marlin 3D printers

Interfacing Marlin 3D printers

Unfortunately, there's no way yet to interface with 3D printers based on the Marlin firmware.

The main reason is, that the Marlin firmware would need a software extension which enables Marlin to send the tool change commands over a 2nd serial port as needed.

Well, this was my initial thought on this topic.

I've checked out the Marlin GCode and figured, that Marlin supports the M260 GCode ("Send to I2C") as well. Although, the documentation says requires EXPERIMENTAL_I2CBUS (whatever that means).

Based on this information, I think it could be done almost in the same fashion as the communication happens on the Duet3D boards. Since Marlin hasn't the same macro capabilities as the Duet3D (afaik), I guess the GCodes needed have to be sent from within the slicer. Since all slicers I know support sending GCodes for tool changes and such, this task seems to be achievable.

If you're willing to give it a try and you know how to set up your preferred slicer in that way, please leave me a message. I will try to assist you in order to accomplish this task.

Meanwhile, have a look at the Interfacing the Duet boards chapter, which will explain what additional hardware is needed to make this whole stuff work.