An “impossible” upgrade – The Prusa Mini 3D printer receives a boost with new Input Shaping firmware

Prusa Mini owners receive a huge free upgrade with new input shaping firmware

The firmware gurus over at Prusa HQ have achieved what many thought to be impossible. They have ported the Prusa MK4’s firmware to the Prusa Mini series of 3D printers, enabling advanced features on the Mini 3D printer’s more modest hardware.

With their new 5.1 beta firmware, Prusa’s Mini and Mini+ 3D printers now support many of the advanced features of the company’s MK 4 3D printer. This includes Prusa Connect support, and Input Shaper functionality. With input shaping, the Prusa Mini can now print faster than ever before while achieving great printing results. Highlighting this, Prusa has showcased how they can print a 16-minute 3D Benchy with their alpha firmware.

This new firmware upgrade highlights Prusa’s 3D printer design philosophy. Prusa makes their products better over time with new updates to both their slicer software and their product firmware. Most 3D printer manufacturers release new products every year with minor revisions and no upgrade kits. In contrast, Prusa supports their products long-term and release upgrade kits whenever possible.

Below is what Prusa had to say about their new Prusa Mini firmware update.

MINI/+ faster than ever!

Yes, you are reading right! Our team has done the impossible and ported the MK4 firmware to the MINI’s modest CPU and smaller RAM.

We support our machines for many years after launch with regular updates and improvements, so we also implemented Input Shaper into the new 5.1.0-alpha1 release for the Original Prusa MINI/+. It is no slouch either! Check out the video of Bonkers Benchy, that takes just 16 minutes (!) to print.

You can download the alpha firmware from GitHub right now. I’m pretty sure that with this firmware release, your MINI will feel like a brand new printer! 🙂 However, don’t forget it is still the alpha version. If you feel a bit adventurous, give it a try, but don’t forget to check out the list of known bugs at the end of the release notes. The stable version should be available within approximately one month.

And BTW, the Input Shaper support is not the only huge feature in this MINI+ firmware – the printer is now also supported in Prusa Connect so you can send G-codes and control the printer remotely!

This Prusa Mini update is about more than input shaping

With their new 5.1.0 Alpha firmware, Prusa hasn’t just added support for input shaping. There is a lot more to this firmware update than that. To support faster 3D printing, input shaping needs to be combined with other features like Pressure Advance and more precise stepping, both of which are added with this new firmware.

Prusa Connect support has also been added with this new firmware. This addition allows Prusa Mini users to send G-code to their printers remotely. This makes it easier for Mini users to start printing, especially if you own multiple 3D printers.

Note that Prusa’s new Mini firmware is currently in Alpha. So don’t expect this new firmware to be problem free at this time. In time, this firmware will be released as an official firmware update for all Mini series 3D printers. Prusa has also confirmed that Input Shaping support is coming to their Prusa XL 3D printer soon.

You can join the discussion on Prusa upgrading their Mini 3D printers with new input shaping firmware on the OC3D Forums.