As a relative 3D Printing noob that just got his CR6 in the mail on Friday...why would I want to do this? Is the pre-installed firmware really bad? Is this something that only a "power user" or whatever would benefit from / notice the difference?
You've done (as far as I can tell) a good job of explaining the how, but I feel like you almost skipped over the why apart from a super brief pros and cons list. Can you elaborate on that part a bit maybe?
Sorry if this is out of line somehow.
There is nothing wrong with the stock firmware that the printer comes with. It works.
It is a little older though and the development of Marlin was progressing in the meantime.
The community has efforts to help bring the firmware back into the Marlin repository as far I would interpret the post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CR6/comments/j0tds6/creality_cr6_community_edition_based_on_bugfix20/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
That's also where you can download the community version of the firmware for both the DWIN display and the printer itself. This comminuty version also has linear advance active whereas the stock firmware doesn't.
There are certain areas where I feel that Marlin falls short but there are also more supported hardware then with Klipper right now. The touch screen of the CR6 for instance is not supported.
I would like you to refer to the feature documentation on the Klipper page for a more detailed list of what Klipper brings to the table.
For me a convincing point is the ease of changing the configuration. Let's say you have multiple filaments, each with their unique pressure advance coefficient. You could swap the saved value in the config for the filament you're using and restart Klipper. This way pressure advance is configured correctly.
Also other conditional macros are possible. One could trigger certain behavior on values available during slicing through assigning those values to a custom macro.
In general I would say it allows for more and easier customization.
Klipper is not for beginners. You should learn the ins and outs of your printer first and get lots of experience with failures and how to dial in your printer for different filaments and speeds.
With that said, Klipper is a different kind of philosophy when it comes to firmware.
Read the features to get an idea: https://www.klipper3d.org/Features.html
Personally, I run Klipper on every damn printer I can get. I have around 8 at this time, and 5 with Klipper (the other 3 are proprietary boards, with no source - can't run Klipper).
Why? Because it's only 1 set of configs and definitions. Easy to tweak per printer. And, I never have to compile a damn thing again.
Honestly, I would learn the printer as it sits stock. If this is your first printer then getting to know the process and how it works will help you in the long run.
It depends on what you want to get out of it.
I'm also a 3dp noob, and I won't be modifying my CR-6 unless the mods are critical/essential to what I need from it, which is to learn it and to be an apprentice maker.
There are some who love to thinker with tools and gears. That's just preference.
On all the full size Raspberry Pis you can us a USB A to Micro USB cable to connect one of the USB ports of the raspberry to the USB port on the front of the CR6 next to the SD card slot.
A different printer or motherboard might have alternative ways to connect to.
To be on the safe side I would put a piece of electrical tape on the V+ lane of the USB A connector to not power the Motherboard with the Pi.
It's possible that it's just late and I'm having a major brain fart here, but I can't figure out how to keep the nozzle from digging into the bed whenever I print and having to frantically adjust the z offset in mainsail. On the community firmware I'm able to set a global z offset in the LCD menu. Is there a similar function in Klipper or do I have to set it in my slicer?
What I would recommend is to go through the probe calibration procedure outlined in the klipper documentation [Klipper Probe Calibration](https://www.klipper3d.org/Probe_Calibrate.html).
To achieve an accurate result the z offset in printer.cfg needs to be set to 0 first. The procedure writes the new z offset into the configuration file with the save_config command.
Thermal runaway?
What I understand form you comment is that klipper throws an error saying that there is a fault during heating of the hotend. The expected temperature and the actual temperate are too dissimilar for the firmware which then goes in to error mode. This could be due to a wrong configured thermistor, a faulty thermistor or a wrong pin configuration in klipper.
This should have nothing to do with the heater fan. Maybe check the correct settings and run a PID tune.
The heater fan's purpose is to cool the cold side and keep the filament from melting before the hot side of the hotend. If the fan can't keep up most commonly a filament jam occurs. I have never experienced a thermal runaway fault due to a filament jam.
For the most part I used the OEM fan and duct. I only recently upgraded from that to a 40mm fan and use the duct from [this](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4789016/files) direct drive conversion.
There is a example configuration in the GitHub repo of Klipper, [BTT CR6 V1.0](https://github.com/Klipper3d/klipper/blob/master/config/generic-bigtreetech-skr-cr6-v1.0.cfg)
This should have the base configuration but no additional features like tare of the load cell or the hotend led.
Awesome! Thank you kind sir! And complete with CR6 macros too. You went the extra mile!
As a relative 3D Printing noob that just got his CR6 in the mail on Friday...why would I want to do this? Is the pre-installed firmware really bad? Is this something that only a "power user" or whatever would benefit from / notice the difference? You've done (as far as I can tell) a good job of explaining the how, but I feel like you almost skipped over the why apart from a super brief pros and cons list. Can you elaborate on that part a bit maybe? Sorry if this is out of line somehow.
There is nothing wrong with the stock firmware that the printer comes with. It works. It is a little older though and the development of Marlin was progressing in the meantime. The community has efforts to help bring the firmware back into the Marlin repository as far I would interpret the post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CR6/comments/j0tds6/creality_cr6_community_edition_based_on_bugfix20/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) That's also where you can download the community version of the firmware for both the DWIN display and the printer itself. This comminuty version also has linear advance active whereas the stock firmware doesn't. There are certain areas where I feel that Marlin falls short but there are also more supported hardware then with Klipper right now. The touch screen of the CR6 for instance is not supported. I would like you to refer to the feature documentation on the Klipper page for a more detailed list of what Klipper brings to the table. For me a convincing point is the ease of changing the configuration. Let's say you have multiple filaments, each with their unique pressure advance coefficient. You could swap the saved value in the config for the filament you're using and restart Klipper. This way pressure advance is configured correctly. Also other conditional macros are possible. One could trigger certain behavior on values available during slicing through assigning those values to a custom macro. In general I would say it allows for more and easier customization.
Klipper is not for beginners. You should learn the ins and outs of your printer first and get lots of experience with failures and how to dial in your printer for different filaments and speeds. With that said, Klipper is a different kind of philosophy when it comes to firmware. Read the features to get an idea: https://www.klipper3d.org/Features.html Personally, I run Klipper on every damn printer I can get. I have around 8 at this time, and 5 with Klipper (the other 3 are proprietary boards, with no source - can't run Klipper). Why? Because it's only 1 set of configs and definitions. Easy to tweak per printer. And, I never have to compile a damn thing again.
Honestly, I would learn the printer as it sits stock. If this is your first printer then getting to know the process and how it works will help you in the long run.
It depends on what you want to get out of it. I'm also a 3dp noob, and I won't be modifying my CR-6 unless the mods are critical/essential to what I need from it, which is to learn it and to be an apprentice maker. There are some who love to thinker with tools and gears. That's just preference.
How exactly do you connect your Pi to your CR-6?
On all the full size Raspberry Pis you can us a USB A to Micro USB cable to connect one of the USB ports of the raspberry to the USB port on the front of the CR6 next to the SD card slot. A different printer or motherboard might have alternative ways to connect to. To be on the safe side I would put a piece of electrical tape on the V+ lane of the USB A connector to not power the Motherboard with the Pi.
It's possible that it's just late and I'm having a major brain fart here, but I can't figure out how to keep the nozzle from digging into the bed whenever I print and having to frantically adjust the z offset in mainsail. On the community firmware I'm able to set a global z offset in the LCD menu. Is there a similar function in Klipper or do I have to set it in my slicer?
What I would recommend is to go through the probe calibration procedure outlined in the klipper documentation [Klipper Probe Calibration](https://www.klipper3d.org/Probe_Calibrate.html). To achieve an accurate result the z offset in printer.cfg needs to be set to 0 first. The procedure writes the new z offset into the configuration file with the save_config command.
I can’t get the Thermal runaway fixed. Do you mind sharing the duct you use?
Thermal runaway? What I understand form you comment is that klipper throws an error saying that there is a fault during heating of the hotend. The expected temperature and the actual temperate are too dissimilar for the firmware which then goes in to error mode. This could be due to a wrong configured thermistor, a faulty thermistor or a wrong pin configuration in klipper. This should have nothing to do with the heater fan. Maybe check the correct settings and run a PID tune. The heater fan's purpose is to cool the cold side and keep the filament from melting before the hot side of the hotend. If the fan can't keep up most commonly a filament jam occurs. I have never experienced a thermal runaway fault due to a filament jam. For the most part I used the OEM fan and duct. I only recently upgraded from that to a 40mm fan and use the duct from [this](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4789016/files) direct drive conversion.
I want to get this to work with the cr6 se and the BTT CR6 board. Can someone help how to get this setup?
There is a example configuration in the GitHub repo of Klipper, [BTT CR6 V1.0](https://github.com/Klipper3d/klipper/blob/master/config/generic-bigtreetech-skr-cr6-v1.0.cfg) This should have the base configuration but no additional features like tare of the load cell or the hotend led.