Description

This PR implements logic to handle a multi-zone nozzle heating configuration and adds support for rotation-based extrusion volume configuration for modded_printer_pellet printer models.

These features improve temperature control accuracy and extrusion calibration, especially when using Klipper firmware and OrcaSlicer with the "rotation distance" feature.

Changes introduced:

• Multi Heating Zone feature: when enabled, users can independently set the temperature for each zone, instead of setting a single temperature for the nozzle, this entry will enable in the printer configurations the extruder zone number and in the materials the various set temperatures for each present zone, these will be divided into first_layer and other_layer.

• Updated G-code command (M104): the M104 command now supports a new Z{zone_number} parameter, which allows targeted zone heating. This feature is compatible with multi-extruder printers.

• The previous behavior of the M104 command remains unchanged when the multi-zone heating option is disabled.

• Multi Heating Zone feature: When enabled, users can independently set the temperature for each heating zone instead of assigning a single temperature to the nozzle.

  • Printer configuration includes the number of extruder zones up to a maximum of 10 zones.
  • Material profiles include individual temperatures per zone, divided into first_layer and other_layer.
  • G-code generation is updated to reflect zone-specific heating.

• Updated G-code command (M104): The M104 command now supports a new Z{zone_number} parameter to set the temperature of a specific nozzle zone. This is compatible with multi-extruder printers. The original behavior remains when multi-zone is disabled.

• Extruder Rotation Volume support: Added support for defining extrusion based on the extruded volume per motor rotation (rotation_volume), aligning with Klipper’s volumetric extrusion model.

  • Material configurations can now include extruder_rotation_volume.
  • Avoids inaccuracies introduced by the virtual filament diameter method.

• Mixing Stepper Rotation Volume: Support for dedicated feeding motors (mixing steppers) with configurable mixing_stepper_rotation_volume in material settings. Requires enabling the option and naming the mixing stepper motor in the printer configuration.

  • Currently Klipper-only.

Impact:

This update improves:

• Temperature control precision across multiple nozzle zones.
• Extrusion consistency and calibration via a direct volume-based extrusion method.
  It enables high-performance configurations for large-format pellet printers and improves the reliability of material profiles.

Breaking changes:

There are no breaking changes.
All features are optional and maintain backward compatibility:
- If multi-zone heating is disabled, M104 behaves as usual.
- If extruder_rotation_volume is not set, the classic pellet flow coefficient method remains in use.

Limitations and features to improve:

• Hard coded limit of 10 temperature zones: Current support allows a maximum of 10 nozzle zones. This will be made dynamic in a future update.
• Equal number of temperature zones for each extruder: All extruders must currently have the same number of heating zones.
• Klipper-only support for rotation_volume features: Extruder rotation volume and mixing stepper logic are only supported when using Klipper firmware.

Screenshots/Records/Graphs

Testing

The following tests were conducted to verify the changes:

1. Generated a G-code file with correctly modified M104 commands using Z{zone_number} syntax.
2. Verified that disabling the multi-zone heating option retains the previous behavior without any regression.
3. Tested extrusion via rotation volume using simulated 1 mm² virtual filament with Klipper.
4. Checked Klipper runtime compatibility and parameter update functionality.
5. Validated correct calculation of total extrusion using both rotation_volume and mixing_stepper_rotation_volume.