Using Marlin 2.0 on Minitronics v2

About Marlin Firmware

The Marlin firmware for 3D printer is a very popular program that runs many 3D printers world-wide. A firmware is the software that is embedded in the 3D printer and accepts commands which it translates to actual movements of motors, as well as controls temperature and all other functions the machine performs. Created in 2011, Marlin is a solid choice when it comes to powering your 3D printer. Version introduces many enhancements and improvements, especially in supporting 32-bit hardware. 

 Minitronics is now supported by Marlin v2.0, meaning you can enjoy using it on your Minitronics board for optimal 3D printing.

Installing software

To be able to use Marlin 2.0 on your Minitronics, you need to download a few pieces of software. First there is Visual Studio Code (VSCode), which is the tool used to code Marlin. You can download the latest version from:

VSCode Downloads 

Once installed, open VSCode and find extensions on the left side. Enter "platformio" into the search bar and click install on the "PlatformIO IDE" extension. After everything is loaded, open PlatformIO on the left and find 'Libraries'. Use the search bar to find U8glib-HAL, click it and click add to project. Select Marlin 2 in the window that pops up as project to add it to and click Add.

Next is to download the latest Marlin version from Marlin Download page. Extract the zip file into a location of your choice. In VSCode, click File -> Open folder and select the folder extracted in the previous step. Install any recommended extensions suggested by VSCode.

Changing the firmware

You will need to adjust the firmware to your specific 3D printer, but many printers configurations can be found in the repository 

To use Minitronics V2, open the explorer section in VSCode and locate the file configuration.h within the Marlin sub-directory. Open the file and locate the line #define MOTHERBOARD BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB. This is the default board and need to be changed to Minitronics by changing BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB to BOARD_MINITRONICS20. Once this is done you should be able to compile and upload the firmware to the board.

For more information on configuring Marlin see the documentation

Compiling and uploading the Marlin firmware

If everything is installed, proceed to find the PlatformIO on the left and under Project tasks locate 'SAMD21_mninitronics20". Connect the Minitronics through USB and click upload to start the compilation process and start uploading the firmware. If there is an issue where the upload is not working, press the reset button on the Minitronics twice, the blue LED should start fading, indicating it is in programming mode, and try again.