MicroPython Forum (Archive)

Hi all, I'm looking for info about the possibility of using micropython instead of marlin 3d printer firmware.

There is currently no support for the STM32 F1 series in the main MicroPython repo. It would be great to support the F103 because it's so ubiquitous, but unfortunately it is on the small end of what MicroPython can support, and equivalent functionality is available in the F0 and L0 series.

There have been at few attempts at ports though, and there has been some discussion about it in this forum. I'm fairly sure a minimal port based on the bare-arm or minimal ports would be quite straightforward, but things like peripheral support (especially USB would be something you'd want on the F103) is a lot more work.

For the cost of STM32F4 vs STM32F1 it doesn't make sense to try to run MP on such a restricted environment as a F1 series.

There is a lot of sTM32F4 3Dprinter control boards around now. See this 1 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3281906 ... st=ae803_5 it uses a STM32F407 and have a really nice IPS touch screen as a UI

To write 3d printer firmware in python you will still have to write the motor step pulse generation in C. Although python is a little slower to execute a function than C, python's main problem is that it takes a long time to look up and load a function compared to C. This is problematic for step pulse generation as it requires executing a very small function at a high freq in very time critical manner.