5.9 KiB
Klipper is currently in an experimental state. There are several features still to be implemented. In no particular order:
Host user interaction
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Improve error reporting:
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Improve error checks on config file values. If a parameter is incorrect or missing a more friendly error message should be presented to the user.
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Warn on any unused config settings (to catch spelling errors or fields defined in an incorrect section).
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Find a better way to report errors. Octoprint sometimes doesn't highlight an error (one has to look in the terminal tab to find the error) and errors written to the log can be non-obvious to a user.
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Route errors from the host C code to the main log file.
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Support clearing MCU shutdown events from the host without having to restart the firmware.
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Provide startup scripts so that Klippy can startup at system bootup.
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Support ASCII based commands in addition to common gcode commands. It would be useful to support high-level commands such as "query_endstops", "pid_autotune", and "help" instead of having to invent cryptic gcode commands (eg, "M119" and "M303").
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Provide a better way to handle print nozzle z offsets. The M206 command is cryptic to use and it is too easy to set the value incorrectly or to forget to set it.
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Provide a way to temporarily disable endstop checks so that a user can issue commands that potentially move the head past position_min/position_max.
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Implement timeouts on homing. The host currently waits forever if an endstop is not hit during a homing operation.
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Allow loading of a new config without having to restart the mcu.
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Possibly rework the startup order of Klippy communication with octoprint and the mcu. Currently Klippy only starts communication with Octoprint after it connects with the firmware. However, this limits the ability for Klippy to communicate connection errors to the user. It also makes it difficult for Klippy to reconnect to the firmware and/or restart the firmware if it needs to.
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Automatically roll Klippy log files. The default log file should have the current date in the log file name.
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Report the Klippy git version in log file.
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Possibly collate and report the statistics messages in the log in a more friendly way.
Safety features
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Support loading a valid step range into the firmware after homing. This would provide a sanity check in the firmware that would reduce the risk of the host commanding a stepper motor past its valid step range. To maintain high efficiency in the firmware, the firmware would only need to check periodically (eg, every 100ms) that the stepper is in range.
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Possibly support periodically querying the endstop switches and use multiple step ranges depending on the switch state. This would enable runtime endstop detection. (However, it's unclear if runtime endstop detection is a good idea because of spurious signals caused by electrical noise.)
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Support validating that heaters are heating at expected rates. This can be useful to detect a sensor failure (eg, thermistor short) that could otherwise cause the PID to command excessive heating.
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Possibly implement host based checking on the ratio between extrude amount and head movement.
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Enforce acceleration and speed limits on extruder stepper motor.
Testing features
- Complete the host based simulator. It's possible to compile the firmware for a "host simulator", but that simulator doesn't do anything currently. It would be useful to expand the code to support more error checks, kinematic simulations, and improved logging.
Documentation
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Document and test running the host software on a Beagle Bone Black.
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Add documentation describing how to perform bed-leveling accurately in Klipper. Improve description of stepper phase based bed leveling.
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Document the kinematic formulas in Klippy. Document how acceleration and jerk limits are enforced.
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Document the host/firmware communication protocol.
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Document how one can tune the pressure advance setting.
Hardware features
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Support ADC on Arduino Due.
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Port firmware to more architectures:
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Beagle Bone Black PRU
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Smoothieboard / NXP LPC1769 (ARM cortex-M3)
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Unix based scheduling; Unix based real-time scheduling
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Support for additional kinematics: delta, scara, corexy, etc.
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Support shared motor enable GPIO lines.
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Support for multiple extruders.
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Support for bed-level probes.
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Possible support for touch panels attached to the micro-controller. (In general, it would be preferable to attach touch panels to the host system and have octoprint interact with the panel directly, but it would also be useful to handle panels already hardwired to the micro-controller.)
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The raspberry pi has the ability to cut power to its USB ports. This feature is useful for resetting micro-controllers that are powered over USB. It would be useful to have a high-level command interface in Klippy to request a micro-controller reset via this mechanism.
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Possibly support printers using multiple micro-controllers.
Misc features
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The "pressure advance" algorithm does improve extruder functionality. However, it's interaction with lookahead is not ideal as it can cause rapid jerks of the filament when the head speed changes briefly during cornering. Ideally, pressure advance would interact better with lookahead to avoid advance during transient speed changes.
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Possibly use cubic functions instead of quadratic functions in step compression code.
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Possibly support a "feed forward PID" that takes into account the amount of plastic being extruded. If the extrude rate changes significantly during a print it can cause heating bumps that the PID overcompensates for. The temperature change due to the extrusion rate could be modeled to eliminate these bumps and make the extrusion temperature more consistent.