Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
printer is different, you cannot simply take a G-code file and send it to any printer. The
G-code has to be generated with the specifications of your printer taken into account.
Replace the RAMBo with a Raspberry Pi?
You might wonder why we don't talk about replacing the RAMBo electronics with
the Raspberry Pi. While the Raspberry Pi is a lot smarter than the RAMBo board
and is capable of sending instructions to the 3D printer and manipulating and
“slicing” models into G-code, the RAMBo board is specialized for performing real-
time control of the stepper motors (and heating units) that make up the heart of
the 3D printer. The Raspberry Pi would be a poor substitute for this without ex-
tensive (and complicated) modifications. Even when hacking, we prefer to let the
Raspberry Pi and the RAMBo live in harmony, taking advantage of each other's
strengths.
Using a 3D printer from Linux is a multiple-stage process. First, you need to have a 3D
model that you want to print. This could be something that you built yourself using
free software like Blender or OpenSCAD, or it could be something you downloaded off
the Internet. Thingiverse is dedicated to the sharing of user-designed files for 3D
models, and it's a great starting point if you're looking for something to print.
Once you've got a 3D model that you want to print, the next step is to convert that
model into the G-code for your printer. There are several available software packages
that do this, but our favorite is Slic3r .
On Pidora, slic3r is packaged up, so you can install it with yum :
$ sudo yum install slic3r
On other distributions, you'll need to download and install slic3r from source:
$ git clone git://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r
$ cd Slic3r
$ sudo perl Build.PL
$ sudo perl Build.PL --gui
Once slic3r is installed, you can run it in GUI mode. It will prompt you to configure
your printer. The Lulzbot website includes slic3r configuration files for their printers .
Add your 3D model to slic3r (scaling and copying as desired), then click the Export
G-code button. This is a resource intensive process, so it will take quite a bit longer on
your Raspberry Pi than it would on your laptop, but it will eventually complete.
When you have your .gcode file, you'll need to send it to the printer to print. The rec-
ommended printer control software for the Lulzbot AO-101 is called Printrun . Printrun
is a set of Python applications for sending G-code instructions to the printer, including
 
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