Feature idea: Silent mode

Hi.
I had the idea to add a "silent mode" to OctoPrint.
Meaning, an option to reduce the printing speed on demand, while printing, to reduce the noise from the printer. (In case a print once again takes somewhat longer than planned, and your husband/wife/parent/child/sibling/roommate wants to sleep)

I thought of writing a plugin, that will parse the gcode, and reduce all speeds.
But then I thought, hey, why not letting the slicer do this? It already has all the mechanisms for that.

I could just generate two or more gcode files, one with original speed, and one or more with reduced speeds, let OctoPrint track the positions, and switch between them on demand.
But would this really work? When I reduce the speeds, does the output of Slic3r stay identical, just with reduced speeds, or does it do some magical optimizations?

If so, would it be possible to add an option to generate identical files with reduced speeds?
Ideally, it would generate one gcode file with the alternative speeds commented out, like:

G1 F1800 X65 Y60 E40
;RS1 G1 F900 X65 Y60 E40
;RS2 G1 F450 X65 Y60 E40
...

This would make it easy for the plugin to change speeds, it would just have to switch from the original command to one with reduced speed.

Comments, ideas, rants?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2015 01:49AM by uhrheber.

Quote
uhrheber
Hi.
I had the idea to add a "silent mode" to OctoPrint.
Meaning, an option to reduce the printing speed on demand, while printing, to reduce the noise from the printer. (In case a print once again takes somewhat longer than planned, and your husband/wife/parent/child/sibling/roommate wants to sleep)

I thought of writing a plugin, that will parse the gcode, and reduce all speeds.
But then I thought, hey, why not letting the slicer do this? It already has all the mechanisms for that.

I could just generate two or more gcode files, one with original speed, and one or more with reduced speeds, let OctoPrint track the positions, and switch between them on demand.
But would this really work? When I reduce the speeds, does the output of Slic3r stay identical, just with reduced speeds, or does it do some magical optimizations?

If so, would it be possible to add an option to generate identical files with reduced speeds?
Ideally, it would generate one gcode file with the alternative speeds commented out, like:

G1 F1800 X65 Y60 E40
;RS1 G1 F900 X65 Y60 E40
;RS2 G1 F450 X65 Y60 E40
...

This would make it easy for the plugin to change speeds, it would just have to switch from the original command to one with reduced speed.

Comments, ideas, rants?

Sounds like it would work. Alternatively you could see whether there is any firmware available for your printer's controller that allows speed change on the fly. I use the Duet controller with DC42's firmware, which allows both speed and extrusion factor to be changed on the fly.

Dave

Or just use the M221 gcode.

Quote
Mikk36
Or just use the M221 gcode.

ITYM M220 (for speed adjustment), M221 changes the extrusion factor. That was what I was referring to with my suggestion - it depends whether the controller firmware supports that command.

Dave