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Simple AF for RPi

Work is being done to bring Simple AF to the RPi (and other rpi like sbc)

Warning

This feature is being actively worked on and has not been officially released so its bound to be broken from time to time as I add required features and sometimes existing stuff breaks, over the next few weeks I hope to polish it sufficiently that it can be officially released, but we are not there yet.

Outstanding and solved issues for RPi variant here: https://github.com/pellcorp/creality/issues/702

Supported OS

Simple AF for RPi requires a version of debian 11 or 12 and has only been tested in raspberry pi 3, 4 and 5, it does not matter whether you use 32 or 64 bit OS. It is recommended to use the Rpi Imager and choose Raspberry PI OS Lite (64-bit) or Raspberry PI OS (Legacy, 64 bit) Lite

Simple AF for RPi will be tested on Orange Pi and other devices in the future, but for now I can only guarantee function on official Rpi devices.

Danger

Do not try and install Simple AF for RPi on Mainsail OS or onto an existing klipper environment which has been setup using kiuah

Installation

Cloning repo

The following commands should be executed to get the repo locally:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --yes git wget
git clone https://github.com/pellcorp/creality.git ~/pellcorp
~/pellcorp/rpi/installer.sh --branch jp_simpleaf_rpi

Installing

The installation command is very similar to K1 series:

~/pellcorp/rpi/installer.sh --install --printer <ThePrinter> <TheProbe> --mount <TheMount>
  • Where --printer <ThePrinter> is a predefined or downloaded printer definition
  • Where --mount <TheMount> is only required for some predefined printer definitions
  • Where <TheProbe> is one of bltouch, microprobe, cartotouch, beacon, klicky, btteddy or eddyng.

Predefined Printer

You need to figure out what kind of mainboard you have because that will dictate whether you can use a predefined printer cfg file or you need to provide your own. The easiest way to find out what predefined printers are available is to run the command:

~/pellcorp/rpi/installer.sh --install --printer

image

Note

For the --printer argument specify the ID of the printer so for instance --printer creality-ender3-v3-se

Downloaded Printer Definition

Otherwise you will need to download a basic printer config, this definition should not include any kind of probe configuration, this should just have the basics:

  • extruder
  • heaters
  • steppers
  • the [printer] section
  • fans
  • filament runout

You can download a definition from https://github.com/pellcorp/klipper-rpi/blob/master/config/ with wget, something like:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pellcorp/klipper-rpi/refs/heads/master/config/generic-bigtreetech-skr-pico-v1.0.cfg -O ~/bigtreetech-skr-pico-v1.0.cfg

Note

For the --printer argument specify the path to the file, so --printer ~/bigtreetech-skr-pico-v1.0.cfg

Choose a Probe

You need to choose a probe one of:

  • Cartotouch
  • Beacon
  • BlTouch
  • Microprobe
  • Klicky
  • BttEddy
  • Eddyng

Warning

Refer to the other guides for probe specific config, but keep in mind that any references to /usr/data/ in those guides should be replaced with your PI users home directory (so /home/pi, home/orangepi, /home/whatever)

Choose a mount

If you have chosen a predefined printer its possible it will require you to choose a mount, just like for K1 series, you can run the installer with the --mount option without an argument to get a list of possible mounts:

image

Post Installation issues

Rpi Camera

I've not found a way to get the V1 cam working with rasbian 12, only with 11 and enable classic legacy cam support and then it just works.

KlipperScreen

The installer will automatically install KlipperScreen on Pi4 or above, there are concerns of overloading a pi3 or less with klipperscreen so the installer will install grumpyscreen for lower specced devices, you can actually force the installation of KlipperScreen afterwards by running:

sudo systemctl stop grumpyscreen
sudo systemctl disable grumpyscreen
~/pellcorp/rpi/install-klipperscreen.sh

Grumpyscreen

BTT HDMI Screen

For whatever reason Grumpyscreen does not work nicely with a HDMI screen its on my list of TODOs to fix this, if possible setup Simple AF on a Pi4 or above to get KlipperScreen.

BTT DSI Screen

Support for grumpyscreen will be provided for BTT DSI screens but you need to setup the screen to be correctly configured.

https://github.com/bigtreetech/TFT43-DIP

By default when grumpyscreen starts its probably going to look like:

image

The following changes are required to fix that:

Need to download the dtbo file:

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bigtreetech/TFT43-DIP/master/gt911_btt_tft43_dip.dtbo -O /boot/overlays/gt911_btt_tft43_dip.dtbo

Needs this in /boot/firmware/config.txt (for bookworm) or /boot/config.txt (for bulleye)

[all]
gpu_mem=160

dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dpi-generic
dtparam=rgb666-padhi,clock-frequency=32000000
dtparam=hactive=800,hfp=16,hsync=1,hbp=46
dtparam=vactive=480,vfp=7,vsync=3,vbp=23
dtparam=backlight-gpio=19
dtparam=rotate=0

dtoverlay=gt911_btt_tft43_dip
dtparam=rotate_0

And please make sure you disable this line:

# dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d

Note

The gpu_mem=160 is really important otherwise Grumpyscreen won't display correctly.