Is Marlin really the best firmware?

If you’ve got a 3D Printer, you probably know Marlin. In fact, this is the most popular firmware as it fits on a large number of printers and it supports many sensors.

Being the most popular doesn’t necessarily make it the best firmware for your 3D printer. In this post, we’ll see some alternatives to marlin that you can use freely on your printer.

The first alternative we’ll see is Teacup. It is really simple to configure thanks to the configurator TeaCup Configtool. The configurator allows you to set up the firmware without modifying directly the source code, so everyone can do it even without the Arduino IDE.

TeaCup is compatible with most of the boards (Ramps included) and it supports the most common accessories like SD and double extruder.

The second alternative is Repetier Firmware. Highly recommended if you use Repetier Host. Repetier Firmware supports a high quantity of functions (even more than Marlin).

An example is a dry run: a function that allows us to start a simulation of the printing, moving all the axes but extruding anything and without heating. It also supports the pressure control on the extruder (only with Ramps) and the Path planning to print at a higher speed.

In the last position, we have Sprinter. It’s compatible with a little variety of boards (it’s compatible with Ramps). Sprinter is a light firmware, capable of handling an SD Card and a heated bed. The interesting feature is the acceleration control in the axis, which can be Constant or Exponential.

The constant acceleration is the one every firmware supports. Exponential acceleration is supported only by Sprinter and a few others. The advantages? The stepper motors start slowly and accelerate gradually and not suddenly. This little change can reduce the vibrations and the misalignment of the axes.

These are the firmware we believe are the best but there are lot’s of other firmware. You can find the complete list here.