Is klipper for me and my printer?

General Discussion
1

Basic Information:

Printer Model: China kit I3 from around 2017 - Reports as Rainbow I3 upon M115
MCU / Printerboard: Looks like a mega 2560/compatible without taking it apart.
Host / SBC: Pi Zero 2 W

Hello all!

Ill start with a couple of pics to give an idea about the printer im asking about:

1080Ă—1920 518 KB

1080Ă—1920 574 KB

And continue with a: Send: M115
Giving: Recv: FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin V1.0.2; Sprinter/grbl mashup for gen6 FIRMWARE_URL:www(dot)seenlong(dot)com/ PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:Rainbow I3 EXTRUDER_COUNT:1 UUID:00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

It has been serving me well ever since i bought/built it back in 2017, only breakages have been the bed rod holders, the extruder to x-carriage mount and the springy bearing holder pushing the filament against the extruder gear, all of which ive been able to bodge together using steel wire enough to be able to print replacements.

Im obviously capable enough to build a printer after managing to put this one together, even with an instruction booklet in a language i dont read, by supplementing its pictures with videos of other similar being built.

And ive done some arduino things, no programming, just setting some config flags and uploading sketches, which i guess is enough to install another firmware.

But as time has moved on since then and klipper is often mentioned nowdays i thought id ask if im likely to get better results with a newer firmware.

2

Generally, your Marlin version is quite outdated, and Marlin has significantly evolved since then.

Of course, we are Klipper fan-boys and will defend Klipper as the superior firmware, even with a knife between our teeth.

Especially with old 8-bit boards (like yours), Klipper can achieve much higher step rates and thus faster prints. However, the mechanics of your printer must be able to handle this (no software can turn a Fiat into a Ferrari).
In addition, Klipper has advanced features that can improve the quality of “lower-end” hardware at higher speeds.

For some general information, you might want to refer to:

At a quick glance, there’s nothing against running Klipper on your hardware. Of course, it has a learning curve, but it is absolutely manageable.

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