¶ At a glance
The extension board is a development board designed to add advanced and customized functions for Bambu Lab. It is primarily compatible with the P1P series and all product updates and iterations prioritize compatibility with the P1P series. Below you can see a few examples of adding functions, which can serve as a reference for other models.
¶ What you'll need
- Extension Board Kit
- LED light (Optional)
- Cooling fan (Optional)
- A camera and a compatible shutter cable (Optional)
A few lines of G-code may be required to implement functions. Follow the instructions below and copy the example code or refer to our WIKI page for advanced programming.
¶ How to apply G-code to the extension board
- Turn on the 'Advanced' setting in Bambu Studio.
- Click the 'edit' icon to configure G-code.
.png)
- In G-code, documentation comments are set after the semicolon. You may insert your code at the beginning of printing, at the end of printing, during the layer/filament change, etc. By initiating a print job, the configuration information will be written to the extension board.
.png)
¶ Extension board interface
The photo shows Bambu Lab Extension Board Pinout Diagram:
¶ Extension board presets
The board presets some configurations as below:
- The #0 switch can control the on-off of the two LED light interfaces at the same time. The #0 slide potentiometer can control the brightness of the two LED lights, and the LED color is white by default.
- The #1 switch can control the on-off of four fans. The #1 slide potentiometer can control the speed of the two 4-pin fans.
- If you want to control only a single channel, for example, to use switch #0 and slide potentiometer #0 to control the #0 LED light, you can apply the following codes at the beginning of the machine G-code. You may make further modifications by browsing the extensive Extension Board Gcode Reference documentation.
; M1004 is commanding the Extension board. Configure #0 switch(I=0) to control LED(F=1) of #0(D=0)
M1004 S7 I0 F1 D0
; Configure #0 Slide(I=0) to control LED(F=0) of #0(D=0)
M1004 S6 I0 F0 D0¶ Examples
¶ Use a switch to control the relay on and off
- Connect the relay with electric components or devices you'd like to control.
- Insert
M1004 S7 I0 F3 D0at the end of the machine start G-code.I0represents switch #0，F3controls the relay，D0represents relay #0（D0can be omitted). Additionally, if you'd like to save the configuration after powering off, insertM1004 S0 P1。
M1004 S7 I0 F3 D0
M1004 S0 P1
.png)
¶ Control camera shutter to take timelapse videos
If you want to complete a perfect timelapse with your own camera, you need to take one photo after the tool head finishes printing on each layer.
- Connect your camera and the extension board with a camera shutter release cable.
- Insert the code at the layer change G-code to take a photo.
Before shooting, you need to set the shutter to manual mode and not let your camera automatically fall asleep.
Please note that there may be a conflict between the camera shooting command and the logic of timelapse codes using the built-in camera. Select the position to insert the code according to the following conditions.
Build-in commands for timelapse are as follows. The if-else statement will be executed every time a layer is changed. If the timelapse mode is 0(traditional mode), the built-in camera will take a photo immediately (M971 commands the built-in camera). If the mode is 1(smooth mode), the toolhead will be moved to a specific position and the built-in camera will take a photo.
M622.1 S1 ; for prev firmware, default turned on
M1002 judge_flag timelapse_record_flag
M622 J1
{if timelapse_type == 0} ; timelapse without wipe tower
M971 S11 C10 O0
{elsif timelapse_type == 1} ; timelapse with wipe tower
G92 E0
G1 E-[retraction_length] F1800
G17
G2 Z{layer_z + 0.4} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000 ; spiral lift a little
G1 X65 Y245 F12000 ; move to safe pos
G17
G2 Z{layer_z} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000
G1 Y265 F3000
M400 P100
M971 S11 C10 O0
G92 E0
G1 E[retraction_length] F300
G1 X100 F5000
G1 Y255
{endif}
M623
¶ Case 1
If you don't use the built-in camera (P1P timelapse smooth mode has not yet been released), you can insert the following code at the beginning of the layer change code:
Random taking a photo
; take a photo
M1004 S5 P1
Timelapse while tool head is at the wipe tower
; timelapse with wipe tower
G92 E0
G1 E-[retraction_length] F1800
G17
G2 Z{layer_z + 0.4} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000 ; spiral lift a little
G1 X65 Y245 F12000 ; move to safe pos
G17
G2 Z{layer_z} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000
G1 Y265 F3000
M400 P100 ; wait for 100 ms
M1004 S5 P1 ; take a photo
G92 E0
G1 E[retraction_length] F300
G1 X100 F5000
G1 Y255
¶ Case 2
If you want to use the built-in camera along with your camera at the same time, you can insert the code (highlighted in Green) into the existing if-else statements based on actual conditions. In this case, the function of timelapse needs to be enabled in Bambu Studio.
M622.1 S1 ; for prev firmware, default turned on
M1002 judge_flag timelapse_record_flag
M622 J1
{if timelapse_type == 0} ; timelapse without wipe tower
M971 S11 C10 O0
{elsif timelapse_type == 1} ; timelapse with wipe tower
G92 E0
G1 E-[retraction_length] F1800
G17
G2 Z{layer_z + 0.4} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000 ; spiral lift a little
G1 X65 Y245 F12000 ; move to safe pos
G17
G2 Z{layer_z} I0.86 J0.86 P1 F10000
G1 Y265 F3000
M400 P100
M971 S11 C10 O0
M1004 S5 P1; only executed when smooth timelapse is on and take a photo while toolhead is at wipe tower
G92 E0
G1 E[retraction_length] F300
G1 X100 F5000
G1 Y255
{endif}
M623¶ Program custom LED lights
LED lights will change their colors at each layer gradually.
- Connect the LED light with the extension board.
- Insert the lines at the beginning of the lay change G-code.
; change the led color slightly with the number of layers
M1004 S1 L0 M0 B{30 + layer_num * 200 / total_layer_count} ; set red between 30-200
M1004 S1 L1 M0 B{255 - layer_num * 200 / total_layer_count} ; set green between 255 and 55
M1004 S1 L2 M0 B{55 + layer_num * 100 / total_layer_count} ; set blue between 55 and 155
.png)