Additional Hardware Mods

[BlueFinBima]

I have just completed my Mariner build and wanted to share the modifications I made in addition to the basic changes which were described in this fantastic project. I really appreciate the work undertaken by @luizribeiro and all the contributors to the project.

Firstly, I have no idea how anyone can run with the Raspberry Pi inside the all metal enclosure of the Mars Pro (and I suspect many other printers). I used https://www.briandorey.com/post/raspberry-pi-zero-w-external-antenna-mod for my external antenna conversion. I salvaged the RF coaxial connector from an old laptop's WiFi card, and used the antenna from the screen of another laptop. So far, so good... It is a fiddly job, and while it was made more difficult for me by my very small soldering iron bit not heating up to temperature meaning I had to use a much larger bit the RF connector went in easily. Be prepared to use (a lot of) magnification for the rotation of the resistor/link. If you're not an advanced solderer, and with the RPi Zero W's being very hard to come by, the external antenna mod should probably be avoided unless you're very confident that you can do it without damaging the RPi. It does work very well though if you do do it.

Secondly, I wired an ESP32Cam into the buck converter which powers the Pi Zero (the ESP32Cam is also another source to harvest an RF coaxial connector). I use the camera to cover the LCD display as well as to detect print failures.
I am extremely happy with this overall solution for my Mars Pro.

The camera is essential, IMHO, to get the necessary feedback about how the printer is progressing. This is especially true if your printer is a long distance from where you're working.

[basic-settings]

I use the RPi connected to power(always on), with a relay in-between the printer's main and the power supply. That way I can always upload files to the RPi even when the printer is off, then turn on the printer and start printing.