Miron Vranješ Product Manager 💡 ⋅ Pilot ✈️ ⋅ Tinkerer 🔬

Installing Klipper on Ender 3 v2 with BLTouch

I recently switched to Klipper on my Ender 3 v2 and it took my printing to a whole new level of speed and quality without any hardware changes. Klipper may seem intimidating at first, but it’s quite easy to install. In some ways, it’s easier than Marlin. In this post, I go through how to install Klipper and talk about some of the most common customization options including pressure advance and ringing compensation.

Compiling Custom Marlin Firmware for Ender 3 v2 with BLTouch

It’s hard to find good tutorials online for how to roll your own Marlin firmware for the Ender 3 v2. It’s actually so easy that anyone can do it! This is a quick guide that takes you through the entire process step-by-step. If this feels overwhelming, I recommend using some of the excellent pre-compiled firmware available.

8-Bit CPU Part 2 - Stack, Control Lines, and Assembly

In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to enable the 8-bit CPU to support more traditional programming with subroutines and assembly, dramatically increasing its capabilities. I go through adding a stack pointer and stack with 74LS193 counters, interfacing with an Arduino to stand up an assembly toolchain, and add more control lines by using 74LS138 decoders instead of more ROMs. As a bonus, I also enable B register output and add a Schmitt trigger to clean up the clock signal.

8-Bit CPU Part 1 - Upgrading the RAM

During quarantine, I found some fantastic videos by Ben Eater walking through the process of building an 8-bit CPU on breadboards. This was based on a simple CPU design outlined in Digital Computer Electronics. Getting the basic CPU up and running was a lot of fun, but I wanted to go further and make the CPU more capable. In this post, I’ll share some tips on building and upgrade to 256 bytes of single port RAM, expand all the registers to a full 8 bits, and improve the microcode to add more instruction steps and a reset microcode.