TL;DR Just want to say thank you for Repetier

edited February 2022 in General
I really just want to say thank you to all the developers for all the hard work that goes into creating and maintaining Repetier Firmware and for providing these support forums.

Last night I decided I'd try Marlin firmware on my Mega-powered custom board to see if I could make better use of my TMC2225 drivers and ran into difficulty immediately.

I went looking for support and boy was I barking up the wrong tree. The RepRap forum was taking too long to activate my account, social media is nothing but a cesspool of hatred and opinion, so I tried the discord server. Big mistake! First I tried to make sure I was in the correct place to ask a question, specifically about pin assignments not working. I also asked in the "general" section. Both times I used a question mark to make it known that I was asking a question. I then get some snotty admin telling me to delete my "duplicate" post and actually ask a question. My mistake for using a question mark. The same admin then continued talking down to me the entire time, not once did they try to help, while one other member was actually trying to help and one other member just sat there quietly and only speaking up when the admin made another joke at my expense. First it was apparently not asking a question, then it was of course I was in the right place what a stupid question, this devolved into ragging on me for using the arduino ide instead of vs, then having an intel CPU in my pc was a potential problem.

Much later I figured out that I had a bad download of marlin which, purely coincidentally, messed up specifically the pins_RAMPS file I was trying to use, which wasn't providing the correct pins in the first place (bad download) and that arduino ide (which the marlin dev's don't like apparently) was making a copy for editing rather than including it in the compile and flash. I went back to the discord to thank the one member that was actually helping me and briefly explained what had caused the issue. But then I get that snarky admin going at me again, likening me to a patient of Dr House MD, saying the patient was always the problem, the other quiet member again chimed in to fluff his master and put up a big LOL. How the actual F can I be blamed for a bad download? Jebus H Crustofski!

That behaviour is absolutely abhorrent. Especially coming from a MODERATOR of a SUPPORT forum. When someone asks me for help, I don't make out that they are the problem from the get go and make snarky remarks at them. If I'm there to help someone, I damn well help them!

The whole episode has soured me on Marlin FW, it's not worth the hassle when support and documentation is limited, when you have to learn a whole new programming environment just to flash a chip, especially one for which an IDE has been created. And especially when the moderators of the only actual person-to-person support forum are on such a power trip that they can rip into you and ridicule you for asking for help.

I don't care if I can't use the advanced features of my TMC2225's anymore. I will happily wait until repetier officially supports them, because:
a) Compared to marlin, repetier is an absolute breeze to configure
b) Official configuration tools are available
c) Arduino IDE
d) No external tools required, see c)
d) When I need help, I have an official forum, where replies have never been far away, without moderators on power trips
e) All the developers, support staff and other repetier brains provide it to us, for FREE, without making you regret choosing the firmware over another

So again, a massive, MASSIVE thanks to all the Repetier crew, you have no idea how much easier my life has been made. Thanks to Repetier software and support for that software, I have been able to design, redesign, and scratch build increasingly better and more precise iterations of my 3D "tool", complete with custom circuitry and firmware. I have designed and built myself a machine that in 30 seconds, changes from a 3D printer, to a CNC router and we all know what having access to CNC machinery means to a hobbyist engineer.

I'm not the wealthiest, but being treated like a moron by a mod with an ego, has made me realise just how much free software like Repetier is a godsend, so I'll be doing my best to donate to the dev's on the regular.
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