Macro Creation Tutorial

This is a series of lessons geared to help people understand macro writing in Klipper with the Jinja2 template system.

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Part 1: Basic Programming Concepts

Klipper macros are quite powerful, but at the same time can be limited in their
scope. The idea for macros is to be able to make some basic decisions and act
on them by substituting various values with other values. To understand macros,
though, we must first understand some programming basics

What is a function?

A function is a bit of code that produces output based on the input. Typically
decisions are made inside of a function via expressions that determine what the
function should do. Functions can also be called methods, routines, procedures.
They all do basically the same thing: Take a block of code and give it a name
so it can be reused to produce output based on input.

What is a literal?

A literal is a value that is effectively hard coded and cannot be changed
throughout the execution of a program. For instance, a integer value of 42 is a
literal. The value of 42 is literally 42.

What is a comment?

The intended use of a comment is for the person writing code to leave
notes for themselves or anyone else should they come back and try to understand
the code later. Comments are denoted by a special character or set of characters
specific to each programming language. In the case of Klipper config files and
macros, there are two such characters used to denote a comment. # and ; . When
Either of these appear on a line, anything after them will be ignored.

	#Move the toolhead to the middle of the bed
	G1 X150 Y150
	
	#Move the toolhead up slightly
	G1 Z1

Comments can also be beneficial for debugging or changing code around. If you
have a bit of code that might not be working right or you want try to make it
do something else, but don’t want to delete the original bit in case it doesn’t
work, you can “comment out” that bit of code

	#Move the toolhead to the middle of the bed
	#G1 X150 Y150
	
	#Move the toolhead up slightly
	G1 Z1

In the example above, the newly commented line will be ignored when it comes
time to execute the macro.

What is a variable?

A variable is a value that can change throughout the execution of a program.
Variables are typically represented by names or letters. The name is associated
with a value because the value can change. When the variable name is referenced
during the execution of a block of code, the name is substituted for the
value of the variable at the time the expression is executed. So if we take
our literal 42 and assign it to a variable called e whenever e is
referenced, the value 42 will be used.

What is an assignment?

Giving a value to a variable is done by assignment. This can be a literal value, the
value of another variable, or the result of an expression. An assignment is done by
setting the variable equal to a value. In Jinja2 syntax, this is done with

	{ set x = 42 }

What is an expression?

An expression is a programming command that does something. A simple example
would be a gcode command. M105 is a gcode expression that reports the various
temperatures. A variable assignment is also an expression. A comparison of
two values is an expression. In the simplest terms, an expression is a bit of code
that produces a result or value.

What is an object?

An object is a collection of variables, states, functions, and possibly more
objects. Objects are used to organize and access entities in a program. For
instance, in Klipper macros, there is a printer object which has another
“fan” object attached to it. The fan has a “speed” variable which is used
to both get and set the fan speed. To get the fan speed, one would use

	printer.fan.speed 

What is a parameter?

A parameter is a value that is used as the input for the execution of a
function. In gcode, the function would be the gcode command and the
parameters would be the axis positions and speeds.

	G1 X100 Y24 Z1 F2000

In other programming languages like python, functions are represented by a name
and the parameters are enclosed in parenthesis after the name.

	action_respond_info("String Literal")

What is a conditional?

Similarly, expressions can also evaluate two things. Conditionals answer a
Yes or No, True or False, 1 or 0 question by evaluating one variable or literal
against another variable or literal. This is “boolean” logic and it is at the
core of all programming.

	Is 15 equal to 12? 
	False

	Is EXTRUDER_TEMP > 100?
	True

Similarly, functions can return a value after they execute and that value can
be compared in an expression as well.

There say you have a function called EXTRUDER_PERCENT_TO_TARGET() and it takes
two parameters. It returns the percentage of the CURRENT_TEMP to the TARGET_TEMP
Is EXTRUDER_PERCENT_TO_TARGET( CURRENT_TEMP, TARGET_TEMP ) > 70? False
What is a macro?

A macro is a stored set of commands that can be called from a single
gcode command. Macros can call other macros or even themselves. Macros can
be treated like functions. For all intents and purposes, a klipper macro is
a function.

What is a Jinja?

Jinja is an engine for python (Klipper’s primary language) that can
take a block of text and read programming elements out of it. In the case of
gcode macros those programming elements are applied as a command template.

A command template could be looked at like a paragraph of fill in the blanks.
Like Mad Libs meets Choose Your Own Adventure. When the gcode macro is called,
the entirety of the command template is read in and evaluated. The gcode that
is expressed back to klipper is the result of whatever decisions were made
inside of that macro.

What is delayed gcode?

Delayed gcode is a macro that cannot be called directly, but is instead called
and executed from a timer at a set interval. Delayed gcode can run once or
repeatedly

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Part 2: Anatomy of a Macro

Defining a macro.

Now that some core concepts are out of the way, we will make a common start
print macro that is called by the slicer when a print starts. It will move the
nozzle to the corner of the bed and draw a priming line.

In the config file we first need to define the macro. Macros are prefixed with
gcode_macro followed by a space and then then name of the macro.

	[gcode_macro start_print]

The next thing that is needed is the actual gcode to be executed. After the
macro declaration, we need to define a gcode: section for the macro. Once the
gcode: section has been added, we can put the gcode into the template.

The actual gcode commands must be indented otherwise the config file will fail
to load. You can see in this macro, each line has been commented so that it’s
purpose is understood.

	[gcode_macro start_print]
	gcode:
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis to travel height
		G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.2 F5000.0 		# Move to start position
		G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.2 F1500.0 E15 # Draw the first line
		G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.2 F5000.0 	# Move to side a little
		G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 	# Draw the second line
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis up to travel height

We can then call the macro at any time from the terminal or from a gcode file
by simply adding start_print. This could also be included in the slicer’s
start-gcode section so that it is called when the machine starts executing the
file. When the file is being read by Klipper or Octoprint or whatever, it will
come to the line start_print and that command will be substituted for the
set of commands in the macro.

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Part 3: Parameters and Basic Conditionals

If the axes aren’t homed or the nozzle is not to temp, it will fail like
anything else because of safety checks.

What if we wanted to incorporate some of that into my start_print macro? We
would need to get values from the slicer, such as extruder and bed temperature
back to our macro somehow.

We can use parameters for this.

To add a parameter for a macro, all we have to do is reference it. Within
Jinja2 templates, programmatic actions need to be encapsulated within curly
braces. In this case, we are simply substituting the name of the parameter
for it’s value. Parameters passed to a gcode macro are contained within the params collection. Due to how parameters are handled in the gcode parser, they must be capitalized when referencing them in a macro.

	[gcode_macro start_print]
	gcode:
		M109 S{ params.TOOL_TEMP }		# Heat the tool to temperature and wait
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis to travel height
		G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.2 F5000.0 		# Move to start position
		G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.2 F1500.0 E15 # Draw the first line
		G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.2 F5000.0 	# Move to side a little
		G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 	# Draw the second line
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis up to travel height

From now on, whenever start_print is called, { params.TOOL_TEMP } will be replaced
with whatever value the tool_temp parameter is assigned.

	start_print tool_temp=200

If our slicer supports variables in its gcode templates like Slic3r variants,
for instance, we could substitute the 200 for whatever that variable is in the
slicer. So in the start gcode, we could put something like

	start_print tool_temp=[first_layer_temperature]

when the gcode file is written out, the slicer substitutes the variable
[first_layer_temperature] for the temperature that was specified in the slicer
settings for that particular filament. This would produce gcode in the output
file similar to

	start_print tool_temp=200	

When the macro is called, the 200 is being assigned to the tool_temp,
parameter. When the tool_temp variable is referenced, it is substituted
for 200.

	M109 S200				# Heat the tool to temperature and wait

This still doesn’t solve the problem of axes that aren’t homed. We could just
call G28 at the start of the macro, but that would result in the axes homing
again even if they are already homed. With macros, we can actually check to
see if we need to home by using a conditional and referencing the toolhead
object.

In Jinja2, a conditional is prefixed with {% followed by the type of conditional
to use followed by the expression to be evaluated closed with %} In this case,
we would want to use an if statement. An if statement is a conditional
that compares two things and results in a true or “false” answer. If the
resulting answer is true then the code in the if statement is executed,
if it is false then the code is ignored or the else is executed. More on that later.

Klipper has certain “virtual” objects exposed to the macro ecosystem so that
this sort of thing can be accomplished. In our macro example here, we are
looking to figure out which axes are currently homed. To get there we need to
reference the printer object. The printer object has a field called
homed_axes which is a string of characters that represent each axis that
is currently homed. So XY would mean both X and Y are homed, but Z is not.

The printer.homed_axes object will always contain the axes in the order of XYZ
so to check to see if all 3 axes are homed, we merely need to make sure the
value of printer.homed_axes is equal to XYZ. Since we want to perform an
action if they are not homed we need to use the not equal comparision
operator, != .

In plain English, we are trying to say “If all 3 axes are not homed, home them”

In Jinja2, we express that as

	{% if printer.homed_axes != 'XYZ' %}
		G28			#Home All Axes
	{% endif %}

The condition is typed on the first line encased in the curly braces with
percent signs. The code to execute is on the next line. Finally, the {% endif %}
tag is added to close the statement. Anything in between the if and endif is
executed if the if statement evaluates true.

So when the macro is called, if one or more of the printer’s axes are not homed,
G28 will be called to home them.

	[gcode_macro start_print]
	gcode:
		M109 S{params.TOOL_TEMP}		# Heat the tool to temperature and wait
		
		{% if printer.homed_axes != 'XYZ' %}
			G28							#Home All Axes
		{% endif %}
	
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis to travel height
		G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.2 F5000.0 		# Move to start position
		G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.2 F1500.0 E15 # Draw the first line
		G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.2 F5000.0 	# Move to side a little
		G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 	# Draw the second line
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis up to travel height
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Part 4: Default Parameters

One drawback to supplying a parameter arbitrarily in a macro is that it can
be referenced without a value. This could result in undesirable behavior or
and error at runtime if it is not handled. One way to check to see if a
parameter exits is simply to evaluate it.

	{% if PA %}
	{% if params.PA %}

Gcode parameters are accessed in macros through either directly referencing
the parameter name or by using the params collection. There are some
nuances to using the params collection in that, it will only have values that
are passed in through the gcode command. Whereas directly referencing
the parameter name can allow us to get a default value for ‘default_parameter_PA’

Jinja affords us the use of certain filters for things like rounding and typing (more
on that later). There is also a default() filter which can be used instead of
declaring a default_parameter_PA.

	{ params.PA|default(.06) }

So if we pass the a parameter through for PA and we want to set pressure
advance in our start print macro, we can check for the parameter and then
call the SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE command.

	SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE ADVANCE={ params.PA|default(.06) }

Alternatively you can give it a default value using the default_parameter
config option for the gcode macro.

	[gcode_macro start_print]
	default_parameter_PA: 0.06
	gcode:

For this example, we are adding a Pressure Advance setting to our
start print macro so that the PA can be set based on a particular filament

	[gcode_macro start_print]
	default_parameter_PA: 0.06
	gcode:
		M109 S{params.TOOL_TEMP}		# Heat the tool to temperature and wait
		
		{% if printer.homed_axes != 'XYZ' %}
			G28							#Home All Axes
		{% endif %}
	
		SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE ADVANCE={PA}
	
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis to travel height
		G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.2 F5000.0 		# Move to start position
		G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.2 F1500.0 E15 # Draw the first line
		G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.2 F5000.0 	# Move to side a little
		G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 	# Draw the second line
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis up to travel height
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Part 5: Data Types, Assignments, Casting, and Scope

Data Types

Previously we have discussed variables and objects and “types” have been
mentioned. In the world of programming, everything that has a value has
a type. The type refers to how that value is stored in memory and how it
is used within the program. Individual characters and words are called
strings. By default, any parameters being passed into a macro are created
as strings. Many values accessed within a macro are also string types.

When using a string in a comparison or assignment, the value must be
encapsulated in quotes. Single or double quotes are allowable to be used
as long as the beginning quote matches the end quote. So

	{% if printer.homed_axes != 'XYZ' %}

and

	{% if printer.homed_axes != "XYZ" %}

are both valid, but

	{% if printer.homed_axes != "XYZ' %}

is not. String comparisons are always case-sensitive, meaning

	'My Value' is not equal to 'my value'

In addition to string, there are also float, and int types (plus many
more, but that is another topic).

A float is any numerical value that is not a whole number (has a decimal point).
It is called float as shorthand for “floating point”. Floating point means
that the number of digits before and after the decimal point varies.
This is really important for the program but not so much for us. All we
should concern ourselves with is that it is not a whole number.

If we need only need whole numbers we can use an int data type.

Assignments

Sometimes it may be necessary to create a variable inside of our macro
that is not being supplied by a parameter, or if a parameter is supplied
and we want to access it as particular type for the scope of our macro.

To create a new variable, we use the Jinja2 set expression. So if we
wanted to create a variable called “toolTemp” and have it be the value of
the parameter ‘TOOL_TEMP’ we would do

	{% set toolTemp = params.TOOL_TEMP %}

This would create a a variable called toolTemp and it would be equal
to the value of the TOOL_TEMP parameter at the time the set operation
was performed. As previously mentioned, parameters are always a string,
so before we can do any math or comparisions on it, we need to make it
into something a bit more numeric.

Casting

Casting refers to changing one type to another. Going from an int to a
float is fine. An int value of 42 cast as a float would yield
42.000... Going from a float to an int, however, “truncates” the
digits after the decimal point, so 42.9999 would become 42 in many
cases you will want to round the number up to the nearest whole number
before casting.

So how do we cast types? Jinja2 has what are called filters. Filters
are applied by supplying a | (pipe) followed by the filter type. So
to cast our TOOL_TEMP parameter string as an int, we would do

	params.TOOL_TEMP|int

in order to round a float to the nearest whole number in order to cast
it as an int we need to apply the round filter the round filter takes
a parameter that specifies how many digits after the decimal point to
round the number to. So to get the variable a rounded to the nearest
whole number and cast it to int, the filters would look like this

	a|round(0)|int

Why are types important? Say in our start print macro we want to preheat
our bed and hotend at the same time but we want to add a sort of wait timer
at the end so the bed temperature has time to “soak in” to the entire bed.

We want this time to be calculated based on the temperature the bed was
when the start print macro was called vs the target temperature of the
print. If we do something like

	{% set dwell = params.BED_TEMP * 3 %} 

If our BED_TEMP parameter is 10 then BED_TEMP * 3 would be 101010
because the * operator when applied to a string value duplicates that
string value a number of times. So to multiply bed temp by 3, we have to
first cast it as an int.

	{% set dwell = params.BED_TEMP|int * 3 %} 

Scope

Any variable we create within a macro only exists within that macro and
can only be accessed within that macro. This is called scope. There are
some cases where a variable can only be accessed from within a control
structure (such a for loop) and those will be discussed later.

Bringing it together

So let us apply the delay to our macro. If my starting bed temperature
is already at the target temperature because we have been preheating things,
we can say that we only want to “soak it” for 1 minute.

If the bed temperature at the start of the macro execution is less than
20 degrees below the target, we want to “soak it” for 5 minutes.

	{% set target  = params.BED_TEMP|int %}
	{% set current = printer.heater_bed.temperature %}
	
	{% if current < target - 20 %}
		G4 P{ 5 * 60 * 1000 }       #Milliseconds to dwell
	{% else %}
		G4 P{ 1 * 60 * 1000 }
	{% endif %}
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Part 6: Collections

What is it?

Programming languages have long supported basic collections in the form of
arrays. An array is a single variable that represents a location in memory that
has been divided up into chunks that can be accessed with an index. So if for
instance we needed to store 3 points of data, like a single RGB color, we could
do so by making am array that contains 3 elements. The order of the colors in
this array would be Red then Green then Blue. Accessing the value for each is
done by specifying the index for each.

	red   = myColor[0]
	green = myColor[1]
	blue  = myColor[2]

With arrays, it is also possible to specify additional dimensions. If we wanted
to store multiple RGB color values in a single array, like for a bitmap image,
we could define that array with a second dimension that represents a row of
pixels and the color values for each column pixel in that row. A third dimension
could be added that holds all of the rows together.

						Row
						|  Column
						|  |  Color
						V  V  V	
	pixel = bitmapArray[2][1][2]

Each programming language has its own specific way of dealing with things. It
is beyond the scope of this tutorial to go into great detail with those things as, in
many ways, arrays are rather primitive by todays standards. It is important to mention
them though because they are the underpinnings for more advanced “collection”
types. Many high level programming languages support these in various forms and
python is no exception.

Jinja2 supports 3 collection types out of the box: List, Tuple, and Dictionary.
By extension, Python supports these collection types as well since it is written
on top of Python and there is a lot of overlap.

Lists and Tuples

Lists and tuples are an ordered series of values stored in a single variable,
much like the array discussed before. They are more advanced than an array,
however, as they contain additional methods and functionality beyond assignment
and access.

In various programming languages, we have what are called Mutable and Immutable
objects. Mutable, is one of those :atin words smart people like to use. It means
something along the line of “subject to change”. Mutable objects can be changed
once they have been created. Immutable types, cannot be changed.

A List object in Jinja2 is a mutable type, this means it can be changed after it
has been created. Tuples on the other hand cannot be changed after they are
created. Both types are iterable and ordered in that, when you access them the
element at position [n] will always be the same.

Defining a list is as simple as providing a comma separated list of values that
are wrapped in square brackets.

	{% set myList = [ 2, 4, 6, 8, 10] %}

Tuples are declared the same way, but use parentheses

	{% set myTuple = ( 2, 4, 6, 8, 10) %}

Dictionaries

Dictionaries are a little more advanced. These types use key-value pairs to
represent their data elements. Each element in the dictionary has 2 items
associated with it, they key and the value. They are very useful in that you can
have a single variable representing a number of different things with a number
of different values.

Collections can also be collections of other collections or types and objects
organized into a large data structure.

Why is any of this important?

Klipper exposes the printer object to the macro system. This
object is very useful for obtaining various values related to the current state
of the printer. It has been referenced several times already in this tutorial,
but up until now it hasn’t really been explained.

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Part 7: The Printer Object

Many Klipper modules have what is called a get_status() wrapper these wrappers
are functions that report the state of the module. For instance, the toolhead
get_status wrapper reports things like position, max_velocity, and
max_accel. The get_status wrapper is added to the printer object
when Klipper starts up. By navigating the printer object’s hierarchy, we can obtain
all manner of useful information that can be used in macros.

The tree structure is a mish-mash of types organized in various collections. These
collections frequently have more collections nested within them. It is quite complex.

I wrote a macro to help search for values within the printer tree
(Example: Search Printer Objects) since
I can never remember the exact names of anything.

You can see by the output of it, the printer object carries booleans, floats,
strings, tuples, and even a list of lists.

printer.firmware_retraction.retract_length			: 0.75
printer.firmware_retraction.unretract_extra_length 	: 0.0
printer.firmware_retraction.unretract_speed 		: 20.0
printer.firmware_retraction.retract_speed 			: 30.0
printer.probe
printer.probe.last_query 							: False
printer.bed_mesh
printer.bed_mesh.mesh_max 							: (275.0, 275.0)
printer.bed_mesh.profile_name 						: default
printer.bed_mesh.mesh_min 							: (25.0, 25.0)
printer.bed_mesh.probed_matrix : 
	[[-0.16875, -0.16375, -0.151875, -0.165625, -0.168125], 
	[-0.1125, 0.04125, -0.063125, -0.05, -0.13875], 
	[0.020625, -0.015, -0.009375, -0.04625, -0.013125], 
	[0.023125, 0.095625, 0.0475, 0.165625, -0.041875], 
	[0.070625, 0.06375, 0.043125, 0.01625, -0.03375]]

The printer object is the cornerstone to writing useful macros because of the data
contained within it.

Say we don’t really want to have put that default pressure advance number in
there since it is already defined on the [extruder]. We can reference that
value from within our macro like so.

[gcode_macro start_print]
	gcode:
		{% if not params.PA %}
			{% set PA = printer.configfile.settings.extruder.pressure_advance %}
		{% endif %}
	
		M109 S{params.TOOL_TEMP}		# Heat the tool to temperature and wait
		
		{% if printer.homed_axes != 'XYZ' %}
			G28							#Home All Axes
		{% endif %}
	
		SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE ADVANCE={PA}
	
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis to travel height
		G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.2 F5000.0 		# Move to start position
		G1 X0.1 Y200.0 Z0.2 F1500.0 E15 # Draw the first line
		G1 X0.4 Y200.0 Z0.2 F5000.0 	# Move to side a little
		G1 X0.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 	# Draw the second line
		G92 E0 							# Reset Extruder
		G1 Z2.0 F3000 					# Move Z Axis up to travel height

It should be noted, the configfile tree contains both config and
settings branches. Both trees will have all the values that were read from
the config file the last time klipper read it from the disk. The settings tree
will have all of the currently configured values as typed values where the
config tree will have them as strings only.

It should also be noted that you cannot change any of the values found in the
printer object. The only way to change anything is if there is an available gcode
to do so.

Our start print macro is going to start looking cluttered pretty quickly,
especially if we start doing comparisons and math on various values obtained
from the printer object. One thing we can do to help with this is to assign
the printer object or a specific section of it to a local variable that can
then be referenced instead. This can be done anywhere in the macro prior to
its first use, but to keep things concise, I personally prefer to put it at the top.

[gcode_macro start_print]
	gcode:
		{% set config = printer.configfile.settings %}
	
		{% if not params.PA %}
			{% set PA = config.extruder.pressure_advance %}
		{% endif %}

This is especially helpful when macros begin to get more complex like when
comparing the position of the toolhead to the axis maximum

	{% if printer.toolhead.position.z > ( printer.toolhead.axis_maximum.z - 40 ) %}

This could be made a bit tidier by assigning the position and axis limit
values to a variable and then evaluating them.

[gcode_macro end_print]
	gcode:
		{% set axismax = printer.toolhead.axis_maximum %}
		{% set pos     = printer.toolhead.position     %}
	
		#Move toolhead away from finished print
		{% if pos.z <= ( axismax.z - 40 ) %}
			G1 X10 Y10 Z{ pos.z + 40 }
		{% else %}
			G1 X10 Y10 Z{ axismax.z }
		{% endif %}
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Can you discuss techniques for debugging macros. I am interested in ways to view variable values (perhaps by sending output to the Mainsail console). Also how to view the output of a macro without the need to send it to the 3D printer to see if the result is correct (it’s a pain to warm the printer up and start a print to see if the output is correct, yes that’s my current technique). I would also like to find a way to show the parameters (params) being provided by the caller to the macro and a convenient way to test Jinja expressions. I am an experienced programmer and my interest is in how to debug macros in the context of the Mainsail environment.

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Thank you, very useful for a beginner like me.

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ello, i’m trying to figure out how to capture the variables from “get_position”
so i can auto calculate lost steps.

i’m getting rather lost as my research on how to do it isn’t getting anywhere.
it doesn’t look like i will be able to do it in a macro, can you please assist?
https://www.klipper3d.org/Code_Overview.html?h=stepper.get_mcu_position#coordinate-systems

thanks.

In your printer.cfg file, add an empty config section like this:

[respond]

This enables the M118 command which essentially enables you to echo things to the Klipper console. Once that’s enabled you can run M118 commands in the macro that can include variable outputs. For instance, in some of my macros I have lines that output the current extruder temperature from an object (variables work too) like this:

M118 Extruder temp {printer.extruder.temperature}

As the macro runs, monitor the Klipper console and you’ll see the output there.

Can you modify values via the printer variable in a macro?

In the documentation sounds like you possibly can:

It is possible to inspect (and alter) the current state of the printer via the printer pseudo-variable.

But in this thread you cannot:

If you can modify values via the printer variable, how?

Can you list an example of the jinja format to check the status of endstops? I have a remote probe and I want to know if the probe is connected to use boolean in a macro.

Here it is:

[gcode_macro A_PRBDROP]
gcode:
  QUERY_PROBE
  M400
  QUERY_PROBE
  M400
  _probedropstatus

[gcode_macro _probedropstatus]
gcode:
     {% if "xy" not in printer.toolhead.homed_axes %}
	    G28 YX
	 {% endif %}
	 
	 {% if printer.probe.last_query %}
        RESPOND TYPE=echo MSG="Probe dropped"
		P_Good
		G4 P1000
		M400
				
	 {% else %}
        RESPOND TYPE=echo MSG="Dropping off probe!"
	    A_ProbeDrop
	     
     {% endif %}	   

[gcode_macro A_PRBPICK]
gcode:
  QUERY_PROBE
  M400
  QUERY_PROBE
  M400
  _probepickstatus

[gcode_macro _probepickstatus]
gcode:
     {% if "xy" not in printer.toolhead.homed_axes %}
	    G28 YX
	 {% endif %}
	 
	 {% if printer.probe.last_query %}
        RESPOND TYPE=echo MSG="Picking up the Probe!!"
		A_ProbePick
		
     {% else %}
	    RESPOND TYPE=echo MSG="Probe connected!!"
		P_Good
		G4 P1000
		M400
			 
	 {% endif %}

I had to add 2 query_probe as I was getting miss-fires! (thought probe was attached and was not!) No problems since adding.

Thank you for taking the time to write this tutorial.
-Beau

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I use delayed_gcode macros in some cases, I can’t find information anywhere :-(. Is there any way to know if delayed_gcode is now running with a specific ID? I.e. some query which will return me True or False depending on whether delayed_gcode is running now or not.

i dont think (but thats assumption at my point) that there can be 2 macro’s active at ones. also i dont think interrups are a thing (might also be wrong here). the reason because it’s based arround gcode instructions.

something to add to the tutorial:

The SET_GCODE_VARIABLE and SAVE_VARIABLE commands in klipper require that you pass them Python literals. Simple strings and numbers are pretty easy but what about complex types like arrays or objects? This has been a stumbling block for more ambitious macros. If you have tried the tojson filter you have probably not had a lot of luck. Here is a way to do it using the pprint filter:

[gcode_macro TEST_STUFF]
variable_hello: None
gcode:
    {action_respond_info(printer['gcode_macro TEST_STUFF'].hello | pprint)}
    {% set my_array = [1, 2.0, "heater_bed", None, 3] %}
    {% set my_object = {"name": "Hello World it's \"Fred\" calling", "some_data": my_array} %}
    {action_respond_info("my_array: %s" % (my_array | pprint | replace("\n", "") | replace("\"", "\\\"")))}
    {action_respond_info("my_object: %s" % (my_object | pprint | replace("\n", "") | replace("\"", "\\\"")))}
    SET_GCODE_VARIABLE MACRO=TEST_STUFF VARIABLE=hello VALUE="{my_object | pprint | replace("\n", "") | replace("\"", "\\\"")}"

Output of 2 calls:

$ TEST_STUFF
// None
// my_array: [1, 2.0, 'heater_bed', None, 3]
// my_object: {'name': 'Hello World it\'s \"Fred\" calling', 'some_data': [1, 2.0, 'heater_bed', None, 3]}

$ TEST_STUFF
// {'name': 'Hello World it\'s "Fred" calling',
// 'some_data': [1, 2.0, 'heater_bed', None, 3]}
// my_array: [1, 2.0, 'heater_bed', None, 3]
// my_object: {'name': 'Hello World it\'s \"Fred\" calling', 'some_data': [1, 2.0, 'heater_bed', None, 3]}
  • pprint converts Python objects to their Python Literal format but it adds newlines when the object is too large to comfortably read.
  • replace("\n", "") deletes the newlines
  • replace("\"", "\\\"") escapes double quotes in the string so it can be passed to a klipper command wrapped in double quotes.

The end result is a valid Python literal that you can pass to the macros:

SET_GCODE_VARIABLE MACRO=TEST_STUFF VARIABLE=hello VALUE="{my_object | pprint | replace("\n", "") | replace("\"", "\\\"")}"
SAVE_VARIABLE VARIABLE="my_saved_variable" VALUE="{my_object | pprint | replace("\n", "") | replace("\"", "\\\"")}"
3 Likes

Is it somehow possible to use bitwise operators in Klipper macros?