repetier-firmware vs marlin vs sailfish

So I was looking into available firmwares and im kinda lost in all that is out there.

I use marlin right now and found out about repetier-firmware which looks intenresting and Sailfish just came out, the guy claims its faster and gives better prints than marlin.

If someone has experiance with 2 or more of these firmwares please share your experiance

Marlin: [github.com]

Repetier-firmware: [github.com]

Sailfish: [www.thingiverse.com]


Looking forward to a good discussion!

I have a printer running Repetier and another running Marlin.
To my mind there is nothing in it, Repetier has a couple of nice features when paired with Repetier Host, I can't see I've observed better motion planning or printing when comparing them.
Having said that I haven't been very scientific about the comparison.

Ok so you are not seeing the kind of quality difference seen between sprinter and marlin (smoother finish for example)

I've not used Sprinter, only Repetier and Marlin, and no, I haven't noticed significantly better prints from either.
Theoretically Repetier has a marginal advantage if you are printing over USB, because if you use Repetier host it send binary versions of the GCode over the link theoretically reducing the chance of pauses when printing quickly.
In practice I've never noticed a difference.
As I said Repetier has some nice features when paired with repetier host, an interface to change EEPROM values, it has its own built in suck and prime that can run in parallel with none printing moves.
But saying all of that the printer I use most commonly is running Marlin.

I've used sprinter, marlin, and repetier. I noticed a dramatic improvement when I switched from sprinter to marlin. But with marlin I noticed the printer would slow down on some portions of models with large numbers of polygons. The printer would also crash intermittently with a line number error and this would occur more frequently the more complex the model I tried to print. I then tried repetier and this gave print quality similar to marlin, but the printer no longer slowed down on complex prints and crashed much less frequently. Being able to change firmware variables from the host software instead of having the edit, recompile, and re-upload the firmware is also a very nice feature. At least in my experience, marlin and repetier have similar print qualities, but the combination of repetier firmware and repetier host has improved communication protocols between the computer and the printer that keeps the printer from slowing down or crashing with complex models.

I just came accross the sailfish posting on Thingiverse and decided to look into it a bit. I found a "lively" debate about the topic on google groups.

As far as I can tell, sailfish and marlin both use the same basic formula to calculate how to accelerate the print head, but sailfish uses a faster algorithm to perform some of the calculations and this would improve things in situations where marlin has to pause and wait for the calculations to finish before the next command to the stepper motors is sent.

However, it sounds like we may never find out how much of a difference this makes in practice because sailfish is only compatible with makerbot electronics:

>Marlins appear to consume g and mcodes
>Sailfish appear to consume s3g
>
>Put differently, Sailfish runs on MBI hardware (you, know that formerly open
>hardware And since MBI hardware is fed s3g, that's what Sailfish consumes.
>
>Dan

Well then I guess we dont really care about sailfish then, I dont see pauses when printing anyways. Most likely the autor of marlin will take a peek at sailfish and if there is anything really good he will take note of it.

BTW Wraithnot if your still having crashes when printing over usb, change your usb cable for a shielded usb cable. I used to have problems printing 10mins without a crash, now I can do a 12 hour prints without any problem.

Since switching to repetier, I've only had two communication errors in ~100 prints. But that is still 2 too many. I was using the USB cable that came with the RAMPS 1.4 kit from ultimachine so I assumed they would have included a high quality cable with their kits. But the specs don't say anything about it being a shielded cable so I'll probably add a shielded USB cable to my next order from amazon and see if that can get me down to 0 communication errors. Thanks for the tip.

I put Sailfish on a Thing-o-Matic I've been repairing and upgrading for someone. It now runs circles around my MendelMax and I don't understand it. One thing Sailfish does is handle retraction as a part of the firmware and does so very well. The outer shell of my prints from the TOM since Sailfish are just perfect. No banding, no blobbing, no gaps or holes anywhere, really impressive. I hope the Marlin developers figure out the Sailfish mojo, and I hope that mojo isn't just a result of the limited range of hardware it has to handle.

BenitoSanduchi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I put Sailfish on a Thing-o-Matic I've been
> repairing and upgrading for someone. It now runs
> circles around my MendelMax and I don't understand
> it. One thing Sailfish does is handle retraction
> as a part of the firmware and does so very well.
> The outer shell of my prints from the TOM since
> Sailfish are just perfect. No banding, no
> blobbing, no gaps or holes anywhere, really
> impressive. I hope the Marlin developers figure
> out the Sailfish mojo, and I hope that mojo isn't
> just a result of the limited range of hardware it
> has to handle.

If you are seeing banding and blobs on prints from your MendelMax, the firmware might not be the issue. Here is an image of the squirrel model I printed on my standard linear bearing SAE Prusa (0.35mm nozzle, repetier firmware, repetier host, slic3r 9.3, PLA @ 165C, 0.25 mm layers, 45 mm/s perimeters).



I couldn't spot any banding or blobs on this print (I also tried it at 90 mm/s and the PLA warped so badly that I had to stop the print- but that's not really the firmware's fault).

I did notice some banding the first time I tried to print this model, but then I noticed my Y-axis drive belt was pretty loose. I tightened up both drive belts and the banding went away. Once I did notice same banding due to a slight bend in my Z-axis threaded rod. But once again, this went away when I replaced the bad part.

In the past, I sometimes noticed blobs on prints when I was printing really complex models with lots of polygons. The printer would also stutter and pause when it hit especially complex parts of the model and I assume this is what caused the blobs. I thought this might be due to a communications bottleneck and sure enough the blobs and stuttering/pausing went away when I switched from Marlin to Repetier firmware and Repetier host (Repetier can send instructions to the printer in binary format that is more compact than the standard ascii instructions pronterface and Marlin use). I've heard others on this forum say they also see a noticeable improvement when they print from an SD card rather than over a serial connection and this is also consistent with removing a communications bottleneck.

Anyway, this is a rather long-winded way of saying that the differences you are seeing between your MendelMax and your TOM could be due to factors other than the firmware. Of course, I'm still fairly new to 3D printing and some of the locol gurus may have a different take on things.

only to kick up this old subject from the dead

why wouldnt this work on a for example sanguinololu board i have, or would it work?
i hav sanguino and have good results with marling but would like the upgrade test to sailfish if posible.

@weedz from what i understand sailfish is only compatible as is with makerboth hardware. It would have to be ported to work on our reprap electronics.

thecrazy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well then I guess we dont really care about
> sailfish then, I dont see pauses when printing
> anyways. Most likely the autor of marlin will take
> a peek at sailfish and if there is anything really
> good he will take note of it.
>
> BTW Wraithnot if your still having crashes when
> printing over usb, change your usb cable for a
> shielded usb cable. I used to have problems
> printing 10mins without a crash, now I can do a 12
> hour prints without any problem.
+1 to this!
I am running about 8 feet! of USB cable to my printer from my PC...
But, I made sure to use my best cables, the thickest shielded USB cables I have. They are twice as thick as standard cables, and twice as heavy, but I havent had any connection issues or slowdown with Marlin/Pronterface, even on a complicated 7 hour print.

How would i convert my marlin firmware to repetier firmware the easiest?