Currently i’m working on designing and building my own brand and type of Delta 3D Printer that will soon be on the market, but through my research i have found boards and displays that work fantastic with the Smoothieboard and thought I would share my findings with everyone. I wasn’t happy with how crappy the user interface was on most printers so I decided to work to fix that.
I purchased an MKS TFT Display, 3.2" touchscreen from amazon with the intent to modify the GUI to my liking. Since then I have completed the GUI and really want to share it with the community as currently in my opinion it’s the best looking and easiest way to control your printer/smoothieboard on the market.
I am making my custom GUI completely opensource for anyone to use or modify, and all of the files will be downloadable from the links below.
All you have to do to get this GUI is to copy the GUI files to an sd card, then plug it into the MKS TFT. After that the TFT will automatically install the GUI and you’re done!
All of the GUI was made using After Effects and Photoshop, so if you want to modify the original files you will need those pieces of software. All of the buttons are individual images that are exported as a binary file and saved on the sd card. Once you insert the SD into the screen it recognises the files by name and copies the data into it’s internal SPI Flash memory, so you do not need to keep the sd card in. To modify the GUI yourself all you need to do is look at the included PDF with the download that shows how to modify the GUI. It also shows what it looked like before my modification (It was awful). Have fun!
If you have any comments or questions put them below!
It’s fantastic that finally more color displays are coming onto the market as it is truly time that we all upgrade our interface. I also badly wished the display was open sourced, and would of never gone that direction if there was anything of the same caliber currently available that was. Thanks for your kind words, and I hope as many people benefit as possible!
This support different custom menu options and prepare menu options? And can you still add to the custom menu if you wanted to? Just curious how it works! I have seen this display before, but not sure if it could work.
You can certainly add custom menus still, but if you want the buttons to match the new GUI you would have to open the button designs in photoshop or after effects and modify the button look to match whatever command you are after. The custom commands just run whatever Gcode you tell them to when clicked. Soon i will be making a series of custom buttons and adding them to the firmware so I will be sure to let you all know when I do so.
Congratulations, very nicely designed. I use this display for about two months and so far there were no problems. Operation of the printer is much more convenient and faster. That’s how I imagine a user-friendly system.
Hi there
I have the MKS TFT32_L V2.0 and have hooked it up how its been described here, flashed with provided firmware and its running. But smoothieboard is not reacting to any commands from the panel. Is there something i have to change in the config in smoothie?
Thanks
I have the same problem. I want to use for laser and have it connected to a cohesion3d board
no response from it.
Must need file on the smoothie side altering, but to what?
This layout is awesome and I have loaded it to my touchscreen but I have an issue that the move and home icons are both the house and in the settings page the choose file, motors off and change filament all use the motors off icon. Is there a simple solution to this fault? Probably user error on my part but I cant figure out why its happening.
a-ha,
in the new firmware there are additional functions such as bed levelling and so the icons werent available. I made my own in the same style as above but and having issues with the Motors off and Change Filament using the same icons, cannot get them to use their own icons. Ill email the supplier to ask if its a bug or if im doing something wrong.
I feel like an idiot. I downloaded all three files to a SD card. Placed the card into my MKSTFT32 and rebooted. The device reprogrammed as described, but at the end it simply displayed “booting……” in green letters. A white pixelated band runs vertical almost in the middle. Rebooting without card produces the same. What am I doing wrong?
I have more information to provide. During boot-up I see a 3.00 revision. Is this the revision of the bootloader or hardware? Next, by process of elimination I kept all the image .bin file folder and was able to load those using the existing original firmware and config file. Some of the GUI is messed up (as you can imagine), but the system appears to boot up and function. I will do the same tonight with the config file. I really want this to work and curious why mine is so messed up.
Oh well, I heard nothing but crickets. I eventually had to replace my MKS TFT32 and this solved my problems. I can’t figure out why I was able to load MKS code, but this code just wouldn’t boot. If there is an answer, I doubt I will find it here. All I can say is that this mod works good now and I am grateful to the author that donated this code.
I have uploaded the file and it seems great, but when i try to command motors or trigger to heat up heated be it simply dont work, neither temperatures are being read. The baud rate is the same on MKS and Marlin. Another strange fact is that after make the connection between computer/Arduino the temperature suddenly appears on display. On the other hand after turning off the board i get no readings.
I am having troubles configuring a MKS TFT32 V3.0. I have the pixelated line that has been discussed in this forum. I have tried changing the baud rate in smoothie. Could not figure out how to change in your config file. I am able to reload the REPRAP config file and the display works file. Just does not communicate with the smoothie board. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks Tim
Hope this will be useful to some people.