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Anet A8 (Plus) Marlin 2.0 Installation Upgrade

Installing Marlin 2.0 Firmware on Anet A8 (Plus)

  • In this video, the narrator demonstrates how to install Marlin 2.0 firmware on the Anet A8 (Plus) 3D printer.

  • The video aims to help viewers be more successful with 3D printing and provides detailed instructions for the firmware upgrade.

"I would like to help you being more successful with 3D printing."

Why Upgrade to Marlin 2.0

  • Upgrading to Marlin 2.0 firmware offers several benefits, including thermal runaway protection, activation of new features, and better print quality.

  • Thermal runaway protection should be a main concern for safety, as many printer manufacturers do not activate this feature by default.

  • Upgrading allows for features like mesh bed leveling, power loss recovery, support for bed leveling sensors, and linear advance.

  • Affordable 3D printers often come with outdated firmware and are unlikely to receive future upgrades from manufacturers.

"Anet thermal runaway protection should be your main concern regarding safety features."

Prerequisites for Flashing Marlin 2.0

  • To flash Marlin 2.0 firmware to the printer, a bootloader needs to be installed on the Anet A8 (Plus) mainboard.

  • Preferably, the OptiBoot bootloader is recommended as it provides more available program memory for flashing larger firmware files.

  • It is not possible to determine if the mainboard already has a bootloader installed until it is tested.

  • If unable to flash firmware using a USB cable, a bootloader needs to be installed first.

  • Videos are available in the description of this video that explain different methods for installing the bootloader, such as using an Arduino Uno or a cheap programmer device.

"If you find out that you're not able to flash firmware using a USB cable, go and install a bootloader first."

Downloading Marlin Firmware and Configuration Files

  • Marlin firmware can be downloaded from the official Marlin GitHub repository.

  • The GitHub link can be found in the video description.

  • After downloading the firmware, it needs to be unpacked into a folder on the computer.

  • The printer-specific configuration files have been moved to a separate GitHub repository.

  • The link to the configuration repository can also be found in the video description.

  • Unzipping the configuration files will provide access to the necessary examples for the Anet A8 (Plus).

  • Copy all files from the example folder into the Marlin folder located in the main Marlin repository, overriding any existing files.

"The printer-specific configuration files have been moved to another GitHub repository."

Setting Up Visual Studio Code and Platform IO

  • The recommended method for compiling and flashing Marlin firmware is using Visual Studio Code with Platform IO.

  • Visual Studio Code can be downloaded from the official Visual Studio Code website.

  • Make sure to select the correct version for your operating system.

  • After installing Visual Studio Code, open it for the first time and navigate to the Extensions tab.

  • Search for "Platform IO" in the extensions search field and install the Platform IO IDE extension.

  • There might be a prompt to restart Visual Studio Code after the installation is complete.

"Make sure you don't accidentally select the full-blown Visual Studio for PC or Visual Studio for Mac."

Installing Auto Build Marlin Plugin

  • After installing Visual Studio Code and Platform IO, install the Auto Build Marlin extension.

  • Open the Extensions tab again in Visual Studio Code and search for "Auto Build Marlin".

  • Click on the Install button next to the Auto Build Marlin extension.

  • Wait for the installation process to complete.

  • If prompted to restart Visual Studio Code, close the program and open it again.

"Install the Auto Build Marlin extension by clicking Install."

Configuring Marlin Firmware in Visual Studio Code

  • Open the Marlin folder in Visual Studio Code by clicking the folder icon in the left menu bar and selecting "Open Folder".

  • Navigate to the folder where the Marlin files were unzipped.

  • Do not navigate further into any subfolders and select the folder to open it in Visual Studio Code.

  • Test if everything is set up correctly by clicking the large "M" button in the left menu bar.

  • This will open the Auto Build Marlin extension.

  • Click the "Build" button in the header of the upper section to start the build process.

  • The build process might take a few minutes, especially on the first run, as it needs to install necessary software packages.

  • After the build is finished, the terminal tab will display the results.

"Test if everything is set up correctly and you're able to build the firmware."

Flashing Marlin Firmware to the Printer

  • Connect the printer to the computer using a USB cable and turn it on.

  • In Visual Studio Code, go to the Auto Build Marlin tab and click the "Upload" button.

  • This will upload the firmware to the printer.

  • The terminal tab will show the progress and notify when the firmware has been successfully flashed.

  • If there are port detection or bootloader issues, consider reinstalling the bootloader using the methods described in the linked videos.

  • After successful firmware flashing, the printer might reboot.

  • If an error message regarding EEPROM version appears on the printer's display, it can be resolved by entering the printer menu and going to the configuration menu.

"After successful firmware flashing, the printer will reboot."

Entering Advanced Settings Menu

  • Go to the "Advanced Settings" menu.

  • Scroll down to the bottom.

  • Select the "initialize EEPROM" item.

  • Use the up/down buttons to highlight the item.

  • Click the middle button to confirm.

"And finally, entering the Advanced Settings menu, scroll down to the bottom until you select the initialize EEPROM item. You then have to highlight the item using the up/down buttons and finally click the middle button to confirm it."

Power Off and On

  • Unfortunately, power off your printer and power back on.

  • Check if the initialization was successful.

"Unfortunately, power off your printer and power back on to see whether this was successful. Now you should get a need a 8 ready instead of the error message. Great, this is already a very important milestone."

Making Configuration Adjustments

  • Navigate to the folder menu in Visual Studio.

  • Expand the Marlin subfolder.

  • Open the "configuration.h" file.

  • Enable "Mesh Bed Leveling" feature around line 1215.

  • Enable "Restore Leveling after G28" around line 1333.

  • Enable "LCD Bed Leveling" to add a menu item in the printer's menu.

  • Make necessary changes to the configuration file.

"Now we will make adjustments to the configuration. We will start doing this right now. Navigate to the folder menu in Visual Studio, expand the Marlin subfolder. You should see the configuration.h and configuration_adv.h files. Open the configuration.h file. I want to suggest to enable a feature which I use all the time on printers that don't have a bad leveling probe and that is mash bed leveling. However, this guide will not explain how to use mash bed leveling."

Searching for Configuration Options

  • Write a search option using the "Edit find" menu or the corresponding shortcut.

  • Enter the term you are looking for, e.g., "mesh bed leveling."

  • Use the arrow keys to navigate if there are multiple hits for the search term.

"If you can't find the option that I am referring to because the line numbers might have changed in the meanwhile, let's write a search option using the Edit find menu or the corresponding keyboard shortcut. Enter the term you are looking for in the pop-up, so for example, mesh bed leveling, and use the arrow keys to navigate around if there's multiple hits for that search term."

Customizing Configuration File

  • Save the changes to the configuration file.

  • Upload the new version of Marlin firmware to the printer using the Auto Build Marlin menu.

"Say few changes to this configuration file by using the file safe menu item or the corresponding shortcut. You will see that once you have unsaved changes in a file, there will be a white dot nearby the file name in the open tabs. As soon as the file is saved, this dot will disappear. Let's try to upload this new version of Marlin firmware to the printer by using the Auto Build Marlin menu again."

Dealing with Memory Size Issues

  • If you encounter memory size issues, refer to a blog post linked in the video description.

  • The blog post provides troubleshooting tips on fixing the program size greater than the maximum allowed error.

"However, there might be situations where you run into memory size issues, where all the features that you would like to enable will cause the firmware to grow to such an extent that it will not fit anymore into the available program memory. This can happen, for example, when you like to install a bed touch probe with auto bed leveling and probably another better display. I have written a blog post that I've linked in the description of this video where I break down all the potential features that you might at some point want to enable in more than 2.0 and what other features you could potentially disable to free up enough memory to be able to compile the firmware. So if you encounter an error that tells you the program size is greater than maximum allowed, refer back to that blog post for more information on how to fix it."

Summary from youtubesummarized.com