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With the power of Linux installed on a Nintendo Switch, and open-source firmware called Klipper, YouTuber Cocoanix has figured out a way to speed up their 3D printing by 1000%. A model that usually takes 90 minutes to print took a mere eight in their latest video.
Klipper is an interesting bit of firmware. Where standard 3D printing firmware like Marlin runs on the 3D printer’s microcontroller, Klipper is designed to let you offload that work onto a separate device. As Cocoanix puts it, Marlin is “a bit like asking a calculator to run a spreadsheet”.
In this case, the Switch can handle the math and G-code processing, sending precise instructions to the printer in real time, and this not only improves speed but quality too. “The result is a cleaner, faster print with less ringing and ghosting”
Another benefit of Klipper is that it makes it easier to adjust code and edit files on the fly; you don’t need to recompile firmware or save and restart. Using Linux on the Switch, they connected the handheld to the 3D printer, found its unique serial ID, connected the two devices, and “then I started pushing the printer to find its limits”.
Those limits were 400 mm/s at 17,000 mm/s2 of acceleration. Cocoanix say this is very impressive for the hardware, and a test print was only held back by the lack of better cooling and a stock hotend and extruder in the 3D printer.
Cocoanix argues that “Klipper is one of the best things you can do for an old printer” and they note “it’s free, it’s powerful, and apparently you can run it on a gaming handheld”.
It’s just a shame that upgrading to a Nintendo Switch 2 wouldn’t get you shinier 3D printed models—Gotta use that ray tracing-capable chip for something.
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