Advanced 3D Printing

Klipper Kit Installation Guide

v1.1 16 – June – 2021 advanced3dprinting.com
 Kit contents
1. Panel Due Harness. Used to connect Raspberry PI (RASPI) running Klipper to your Troodon printer Panel
Due (controller) board via Panel Due board connector. This harness has a 5x2 Dupont connector on the
RASPI end – this one will be connected to the RASPI GPIO pins. The other end of the harness has 2 Dupont
connectors: 3x3 data connector to be connected to the Panel Due board connector of your printer and 2-
pin power connector that will power your RASPI. This one will be connected to the cable that was
(previously) connected to the Panel Due board connector. Please note that colors of the wires may vary.

2. Accelerometer harness. Used to connect an accelerometer to your RASPI for the purpose of acceleration Panel Due Harness
tuning. This installation of this harness is optional and is required only if/when you want to tune
acceleration for high-speed printing. This harness has a 4x2 Dupont connector on the RASPI end – this one
will be connected to the RASPI GPIO pins. The other side has the accelerometer board pre-connected.
Please note that colors of the wires may vary.

Both harnesses have an “arrow” (triangle) sign on one side of every connector. These arrows
indicate the exact placement of the connector on the RASPI GPIO pin board or Panel Due board or
cable. Please locate the arrows and if required highlight with a white marker.
Accelerometer Harness

3. RASPI camera. Stock RASPI camera with ribbon cable and additional extension ribbon cable (stock cable
may be too short for the application). The cable will connect to the camera slot of your RASPI board.
Camera is used for remote monitoring of your prints and is also optional (highly recommended). You can
opt not to install it or install a 3rd party camera of your choice, however the included camera suits Troodon
printers very well.

4. SD Card. Micro SD (HC) card with pre-configured Mainsail and Klipper image for your printer (Troodon 300
or 400). The card needs to be inserted into your RASPI card reader slot. It also (optionally) contains settings
allowing it to connect to your Wi-Fi network.

We recommend creating a backup copy of the card image using PC card reader and
Win32DiskImager or similar. Note that the card contains Linux OS image and will produce some
warning message wen inserted into you Windows computer. This is normal and can be ignored. RASPI Camera and extension cable
Please do not attempt to update or copy this card manually.

SD card
 What you need
1. Raspberry PI Board (RASPI). Both RASPI Model 3 and 4 will work. GPIO Board

This installation does not require any case or fan; however, we recommend placing heatsinks on
your RASPI board components. We also recommend an optional RASPI power supply to test your USB Ports
RASPI before installing into the printer.
SD card reader

2. USB cable. Must be USB (A to B) data cable to connect RASPI to your printer mainboard (Duet). Length
should be at least 6 inches/15cm or longer.

3. Printer. Stock Troodon printer (300 or 400mm model) with optional DDE upgrade.
Power socket Camera Slot
(micro USB)
We recommend ensuring that the printer is operational in its stock configuration before
commencing the installation of the kit.
RASPI Board

4. Computer. Windows, Mac or Linux workstation connected to your network, with card reader, web browser
and terminal software/SSH client (Windows SSH, Mac Terminal, Putty, etc.).

5. Tools. Screwdriver, tweezers, etc.

USB Cable

Printer
 Installation process overview
Assemble and Set Up Printer.
Your printer should be assembled and fully operational before the installation of the kit. This manual does not
cover assembly and initial set up of Troodon 300 or 400; it is simply listed here as a prerequisite step. Assemble and set up printer
Step 1. Prepare Raspberry PI.
This step gets your RASPI ready to be installed into the printer. It involves connecting Panel Due and
Accelerometer harnesses to your RASPI board, connecting provided RASPI camera and verifying that your RASPI
is working properly before being connected to your printer. a. Connect Panel Due harness.
b. Connect Accelerometer harness.
Step 2. Connect Raspberry PI to the printer. c. Connect camera. Step 1.
This step involves opening your printer, disconnecting Panel Due board connector, connecting RASPI Panel Due d. Insert SD card. Prepare Raspberry PI
harness data and power connectors and connecting RASPI to the printer mainboard via USB. e. Power up RASPI.
f. Connect to RASPI
g. Test Camera.
This step should be done strictly with the printer powered off and disconnected from the main
power.

a. Open the printer. Step 2.

b. Connect Panel Due harness .
Step 3. Configure Klipper. c. Connect RASPI to the mainboard. Connect Raspberry PI to the
This step involves connecting to your RASPI remotely from your browser and flashing Klipper firmware to the d. Alternative powering options. Printer
printer mainboard (Duet).

This step does not involve installation of updates to your RASPI . Some of these updates may
require configuration changes that are not covered in this manual. There is an automatic update a. Power up printer and reset printer mainboard.
script built in under the “ Settings – Machine” tab. b. Prepare printer mainboard for flashing.
c. Prepare mainboard firmware. Step 3.
d. Flash printer mainboard. Configure Klipper
e. Configure printer connection.
Step 4. Finalize Installation.
f. Create SD card backup.
This step involves routing accelerometer and camera cables to the main printer enclosure, mounting RASPI
board inside the electronics enclosure of the printer and closing the front panel.

a. Route cables.
Test Printer Operations and Install Accelerometer and Tune Acceleration. b. Mount RASPI.
After successful completion of steps 1-4 above, you may want to test printer operations (pre-heating, loading c. Close the front panel.
Step 4.
filament, homing, bed levelling ) and/or install accelerometer on your print head and perform acceleration d. Next steps. Finalise Installation
tuning to further improve your print quality and speed.

These steps will be covered in a separate guide.

Install Accelerometer and

Test Printer Operations
Tune Acceleration
Step 1.
Prepare Raspberry PI
 1.a – 1.d: Get RASPI ready
a. Connect Panel Due harness.
Connect Panel Due harness (the end with a single 5x2 Dupont connector) to pins## 1 – 10 on the RASPI GPIO
board. These are highlighted with the red box on Diagram 1.1 (courtesy of raspberrypi.org). To connect the
Panel Due harness properly, please locate an arrow (triangle) on the 5x2 Dupont connector of the harness and
ensure that it is connected to the pin# 2 of the GPIO board (highlighted by the red arrow on the Diagram 1.1). In
other words, Panel Due harness connector should cover top (from the SD card slot end) 5 rows of pins of your
RASPI GPIO board.

b. Connect Accelerometer harness.

Connect Accelerometer harness (the end with 4x2 Dupont connector) to pins## 17 – 24 on the RASPI GPIO
board. These are highlighted with the green box on Diagram 1.1. To connect the Accelerometer harness
properly, please locate an arrow (triangle) on the 4x2 Dupont connector of the harness and ensure that it is
connected to the pin# 18 of the GPIO board (highlighted by the green arrow on the Diagram 1.1). In other
words, there should be 3 rows of free pins (total of 6 free pins) between the Panel Due and Accelerometer
connectors on the GPIO board.

c. Connect camera.
If required, replace stock ribbon cable on the camera with the extended one. Camera ribbon cable should be
connected to the camera slot on the RASPI board. There are plenty of videos and manuals available to guide you
through the process. We should only note that the contact plates on the camera ribbon cable should be facing
micro-HDMI connectors side of RASPI when inserted into the slot as highlighted by the yellow arrow on Diagram Diagram 1.1
1.1.

d. Insert SD card.
Before inserting provided micro-SD card int your RASPI, please ensure that the Klipper image on the card
contains correct Wi-Fi settings (SSID and security token/password) for your Wi-Fi network. Your kit may have it
already pre-configured; otherwise please insert the SD card into the SD card reader on your PC and enter your
Wi-Fi settings into the “mainsailos-wpa-supplicant.txt” file. There are plenty of videos and manuals available to
guide you through this procedure.
Finally, insert provided micro-SD card into the SD card slot of your RASPI.
SD Card

Diagram 1.2 illustrates the end result of these steps. Arrows that indicate proper positions of
connectors are highlighted by red and green circles. Please note that “Acc” (Accelerometer) and
“Pdue” (Panel Due) markings on the connectors are for illustration purposes and will not appear on Camera
your kit. Please also note that RASPI board in Diagram 1.2 has heat sinks installed, please refer to
your RASPI manual for the heat sinks installation instructions. Accelerometer Panel Due
Harness Harness

Diagram 1.2
 1.e – 1.g: Verify RASPI is working
e. Power up RASPI.
Power up your RASPI using compatible power supply. We recommend using official Raspberry power supply to
avoid damage to your board. Allow couple of minutes for RASPI to boot up for the first time and connect to your IP Address
WiFi network.
Diagram 1.3
f. Connect to RASPI.
Find out the IP address of your RASPI – the best way to do it is to access DHCP status page of your router and/or
WiFI access point and look for a newly assigned IP address. Diagram 1.3 provides an example or that – the exact
configuration depends on the make and model of your router/WiFi Access point. Depending on your DHCP System Menu
settings it may be named Troodon300 or Troodon400. You may also try to use ping Troodon300 or ping
Torrdon400 command to find out the IP address.

Once you know the IP address, type it in your browser and you should see the Klipper (Mainsail) dashboard
page, similar to the one on Diagram 1.4. Webcam
widget
If you cannot reach this page or don’t have a proper IP address assigned, please check your WiFi
settings (Step 1.d). You may also try to connect your RASPI to your router with network cable.

Diagram 1.4
g. Test camera.
If your dashboard page does not have a Webcam widget visible, click Settings, then Interface on the left side
menu and enable “Webcam” under “Dashboard “ options (Diagram 1.5). You may now click back on the
Dashboard - if you have an image from your Webcam, it has been properly connected, otherwise please check
your camera connection (Step 1.c). You may need to refresh your browser or restart RASPI by pressing System
menu (the top right button labelled with 3 dots on the Dashboard page) and selecting “Host - Reboot”.

Now your RASPI is ready to be installed into the printer. Disconnect the power supply as it will not
be required for the installation.

Dashboard
options

Diagram 1.5
Step 2.
Connect Raspberry PI to the
Printer
 2.a – 2.b: Open the printer and connect Panel Due
a. Open the printer.
Open the front panel of the printer to access the electronics and locate the Panel Due board (Diagram 2.1),
which is located on the front panel of the printer. Loosen screws holding the front panel – please note that the
screws should not be removed completely as they are secured with T-nuts. Just loosen the screws enough to
turn the T-nuts (you may need to slightly push the panel in and turn the screw back and forward one more time
Right Panel
to have T-nuts released). Now remove the panel carefully (so cables connecting it to the rest of Troodon
electronics are not damaged or disconnected) and lay it flat on a steady horizontal surface (e.g., on a table).
Front Panel
You may find convenient to also open the right panel of the printer – please follow the same
procedure as for the front panel. This provides better access to the mainboard USB connector,
erase pins and reset button.
Diagram 2.1
These steps should be done strictly with the printer powered off and disconnected from the main
Panel Due
power. board Gap

b. Connect Panel Due harness.

Locate Panel Due board connector and connected Panel Due cable on the Panel Due board and mark the top left
pin on both the cable and connector while they are still connected (Diagram 2.2). Top left refers to the pin in the
top row on the side closest to the printer, as highlighted with the red arrow on the Diagrams 2.2 and 2.3 (when
Retaining Tab
you disconnect the cable it will be on the right side of the cable when facing you as per the diagram). From now Panel Due
own the target pin on the Panel Due cable will be referred as “top right pin” and the target pin on the Panel Due cable
board connector as “top left pin”. Now disconnect the cable from the connector by first pulling two retaining
tabs to the side
Diagram 2.2 Diagram 2.3
On your Panel Due harness (attached to the RASPI in Step 1) locate the Power connector – the one with two
male pins. One of these pins is marked with a triangle/arrow – connect it to the Panel Due cable so that this pin Panel Due board
is connected to the top right pin of the Panel Due cable (highlighted with the green arrow on Diagrams 2.2 and Power connector
Power
2.3). Connector
Power Data
Now locate the Data Connector of you RASPI Panel Due harness and the pin on it that is marked with
triangle/arrow. Connect it to the Panel Due board connector on the printer Panel Due board (where the cable
used to be connected) so that the harness pin marked with arrow/triangle goes to the top let pin of the Panel Panel Due Data
cable Connector
Due board connector (highlighted with the red arrow on Diagrams 2.2 and 2.4).

Panel Due
Diagram 2.4 illustrates the result of these steps. Essentially, the power pins of the harness Power harness
Connector need to be connected to the power sockets on the Panel Due cable and power and data
sockets of the Panel Dues harness to the power and data pins of Panel Due board. Accelerometer Panel Due
Note that the power and data pins of Panel Due board are shifted towards the center of the Harness board
connector, note the proper gap on Diagram 2.3.
RASPI
Diagram 2.4
 2.c: Connect RASPI to the mainboard
c. Connect RASPI to the mainboard.
Insert one end of the USB cable into one of the USB ports on RASPI and another end into the USB port on your
printer mainboard (Diagram 2.5).

d. Alternative powering options.

In default configuration described above, RASPI is getting its power (5V) from the Panel Due cable that was used
to power Panel Due before clipper installation – e.g. from the stock Duet mainboard. While this configuration is
working in most of the cases, in some rare circumstances Duet mainboard may not provide enough power for
Mainboard
both RASPI and Panel Due: (Duet)
• If an older version of Duet mainboard is used (or it does not provide enough power for any other
reason), and/or. RASPI
• You are running Octoprint on the same RASPI (assuming you have received an appropriate SD card
image for that from Advanced 3D Printing) – as Octoprint is power sensitive and may throw an Diagram 2.5
error.

If that is the case, there are two alternative options for RASPI to get enough power:

Option 1. Use the default RASPI power adaptor (may be provided with your RASPI or you can obtain from any
seller or Raspberry PI hardware). You must not connect the harness Power Connector to the Panel Due cable
(and we recommend to protect the connector on the cable with electric tape). Instead, you will connect RASPI
power adaptor cable to the power socket on RASPI (Diagram 2.6) – route the cable through on of the ventilation
holes on the side panel.
Isolate Power
Note that is this configuration RASPI will feed 5V back to the Duet mainboard. This is undesirable,
so you should either obtain a USB power termination device (e.g. Power Blough-R) or isolate the RASPI
power (5V) contact on the USB cable connector – carefully place a strip of thin tape over it Power
(Diagram 2.7). Diagram 2.6
Adaptor

Option 2. Use 24V to 5V buck converter and free 24V output on Duet mainboard. You must not connect the
harness Power Connector to the Panel Due cable
Please contact Advanced 3D Printing for details.

Tape

Diagram 2.7
Step 3.
Configure Klipper
 3.a – 3.b: Power Up and connect
a. Power up printer and reset printer mainboard.
Power on your printer. Ensure that RASPI receives power from the harness and booted up properly (you should
be able to access it via web interface as described in Step 1.f)

The display panel of your printer should now be working (Diagram 3.1).

Now access the printer mainboard (Duet WiFi clone) and locate two erase pins on it (highlighted with red circle
on Diagram 3.2) and reset button (small button near the USB port highlighted with green circle on Diagram 3.2).
With printer still powered on, shorten two erase pins by connecting them with tweezers, a screwdriver or a
jumper connector (if available). Wait for 3 seconds, remove screwdriver or jumper and press (tap) the reset Diagram 3.1
button.

b. Prepare printer mainboard for flashing.

This step is performed by sending commands to your RASPI via SSH (command line interface). Please login to
RASPI via SSH from your PC using “ssh” command on Windows, ssh client like Putty or Terminal program on
Reset button
Mac and IP address or host name as determined in Step 1.f (e.g., 192.168.1.26 or Troodon300):
C:\> ssh [email protected]
Erase pins
If this is the 1st SSH session with RASPI you may get a security warning (Diagram 3.3) please confirm by typing
yes and then <Enter>. The default password for RASPI is raspberry , please consider changing it when the
installation is finished.
Once logged in, enter the following command to enter klipper directory:
pi@Troodon300:~ $ cd klipper

Next step is to detect an id of connected printer mainboard – ensure that only the printer mainboard is
connected to RASPI$via
pi@Troodon300:~ USB (e.g., no USB camera or other peripherals) and enter the following command:
ls /dev/serial/by-id/*
Diagram 3.2
The response from the command (USB id of the printer mainboard) should be in the following format (actual
numbers and character after ‘usb’ may vary):
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-03ab_6124-if00

Please record this id somewhere as it will be used in the next step.

Please note that is the id above contains word “Duet” then the mainboard has not been properly
reset, please go back to Step 3.a. If you get ‘No such file or directory’ error, check the USB connection
between RASPI and the mainboard.
Diagram 3.3
 3.c: Prepare mainboard firmware
c. Prepare mainboard firmware.
Continuing the same SSH session (established as part of Step 3.b) enter the command to stop klipper service:
pi@Troodon300:~ $ sudo service klipper stop

As this is the first time sudo command is used (for this session), it will ask you for password (raspberry).

Now enter the following command:

pi@Troodon300:~ $ make menuconfig

This will bring up the Klipper Firmware Configuration menu (Diagram 3.4). Please select the “Micro-controller
Architecture” menu (current selection will be “Linux process”) and press Enter. In the next menu that appears
on the screen please select “SAM3/SAM4 (Due and Duet)” and press Enter (Diagram 3.5). Diagram 3.4 Diagram 3.5

Now as your Micro- Micro-controller Architecture is set properly, select the “Processor model“ menu, press
Enter, then select “SAM4e8e (Duet Wifi/Eth)” and press Enter (Diagram 3.5).

Go back to the main menu, ensure that please ensure that “Use USB for communication…” option is active
(highlighted with [*]) and press ESC. You will be prompted to save the configuration (Diagram 3.7), please
confirm by pressing Y (Yes). This will return you back to your SSH session.

After that, the firmware for your printer mainboard (klipper.bin) needs to be complied – please enter the
following command
pi@Troodon300:~ $ make

When the process finishes (it will indicate it is creating the klipper.bin file), the firmware is ready to be flashed
to your printer mainboard.
Diagram 3.6 Diagram 3.7
 3.d: Flash printer mainboard
d. Flash printer mainboard. Re-Flashing printer mainboard.
Continuing the same SSH session (established as part of Steps 3.b and 3.c) flash the mainboard firmware
(precompiled as a part of Step 3.c), by entering the following command: You may need to repeat the same procedure (steps 3.b to 3.d) later after the installation, as some
of the future updates to Klipper may require re-flash of mainboard firmware (there is no need to
pi@Troodon300:~ $ make flash FLASH_DEVICE=/dev/serial/by-id/usb-03ab_6124-if00
user erase pins and/or reset button anymore). You will get a warning on Mainsail dashboard if this
is the case. In some circumstances, re-flash may fail, if that is the case, please perform an extended
Note that FLASH_DEVICE needs to be in uppercase and the id you enter after the ‘=‘ sign should be re-flash procedure listed below:
exactly the id that was noted as part of Step 3.b (ideally this should be just copied and pasted if
your terminal software supports copy & paste). 1. cd klipper
2. make clean
Check the output of the command, it should end with: 3. make menuconfig
4. Select sam3/sam4 and duet wifi, press Esc then Y
Verify successful
Done in 0.575 seconds
5. make
Device reconnect on /dev/serial/by-path/platform-….usb….. 6. ls /dev/serial/by-id/*
7. Copy and record the serial (e.g. usb-Klipper_sam4e8e_00313953324A46533037303431303034-if00)
8. sudo service klipper stop
If there is an error message, just repeat the last command (make flash FLASH_DEVICE=…). 9. make flash FLASH_DEVICE=<Serial recorded above>
10. Note there is a chance that flash may fail again (usually because the board went into a bootloader mode). If
this is the case:
After successful flashing enter the same command, that was used in Step 3.b: 1. ls /dev/serial/by-id/*
pi@Troodon300:~ $ ls /dev/serial/by-id/* 2. Copy and record new serial and repeat step 9 above with new serial
11. make clean
The response should be different this time, e.g. : 12. make menuconfig
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Klipper_sam4e8e_00313953324A46533037303431303034-if00 13. Select linux process, press Esc then Y
14. make flash
15. ls /dev/serial/by-id/*
16. Ensure you have the serial matching your printer.cfg (Step 3.e)
Please record this id as it will be required to establish the connection to the printer later on. 17. Restart the Klipper service from Mainsali

Finally, start klipper service by entering: These steps may be automated in future releases of the Klipper kit. Please contact Advanced 3D
Printing for details.
pi@Troodon300:~ $ sudo service klipper start
 3.e – 3.f: Configure printer connection
e. Configure printer connection.
Go to your Klipper (Mainsail) dashboard page in your web browser (as described in Step 1.f) and select
“Settings” (on the left side menu), then “Machine” and then click the “printer.cfg” file in the “Config Files”
widget (Diagram 3.8). System Menu

The file will be opened for editing, please locate the” [mcu]” section, which should have a single “serial” entry
(Diagram 3.9). printer.cfg

Please ensure you are not editing the “[mcu rpi] section at the top of the file.

Replace the value in the “serial:” entry with the id of your printer mainboard after it has been flashed with
klipper firmware (Step 3.d) – it should be exactly as recorded, e.g.
Diagram 3.8
serial: /dev/serial/by-id/usb-Klipper_sam4e8e_00313953324A46533037303431303034-if00

If possible, please use copy & paste command to ensure the correct id is entered. Please click “SAVE &
RESTART” button in the top right corner of the web page.

After the restart, navigate to the Dashboard – you will likely see “Printer is not ready” message. In this case,
please restart Moonraker by pressing System menu (the top right button labelled with 3 dots on the Dashboard [mcu] section
page) and selecting “Restart Services - Moonraker”. You can also use the “Host – Reboot” command for a
complete reboot.

You should have a printer connection (Diagram 3.10).

Diagram 3.9
f) Create SD card backup.
Power off the printer, remove SD card from RASPI and create a backup copy of the card image using PC card
reader and Win32DiskImager or similar.

Insert SD cart back into the SD card slot of your RASPI.

Diagram 3.10
Step 4.
Finalize Installation
 4.a – 4.c: Wrapping up
a. Route cables.
Power off printer. Select the location where RASPI will be mounted within the electronics enclosure of the
printer and temporarily place your RASPI there. Route accelerometer cables to the main printer enclosure so
that the accelerometer board can be placed on the print head in the future. You may need to temporarily
disconnect accelerometer harness from RASPI or (preferably) disconnect at the middle connector of the
accelerometer harness to route the cable. Route the camera ribbon cable into the main enclosure of the printer.
Diagram 4.2 shows suggested camera location, 3d-printed camera mount is used.

b. Mount RASPI.
Securely mount RASPI in the electronics enclose of your printer (near the Panel Due board). You can use a 3D
printed RASPI mount or use two screws from the Pane Due mount as shown on Diagram 4.2.

c. Close the front panel.

Close the front panel, please refer to Step 2.a for details.

d. Next steps (not covered in this guide): Diagram 4.1

1. Verify your printer.cfg file and check bed dimensions, start and end print macros, etc.
2. Tram the gantry and calibrate bed mesh.
3. Calibrate Z-Offset.
4. Adjust your slicer settings.
5. Test printer operations.

Diagram 4.2