Putting Some Zig In A Linux-Based 3D Printer
Putting Some Zig In A Linux-Based 3D Printer
https://hackaday.com/2026/07/15/putting-some-zig-in-a-linux-based-3d-printer/
Publish Date: 2026-07-15 10:00:00
Source Domain: hackaday.com
Having Linux on so many devices is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, it is great that you can hack on things and modify them or even totally repurpose them. But it also means you have a fleet of Linux devices you have to manage and keep track of.
My current “main” 3D printer is a Flashforge AD5X: a nice, cheap machine that does four colors with the purge/exchange method. It sort of runs Klipper. I say sort of because Flashforge has Klipper running on a Linux host in the box, but it is massively crippled and modified. I’m sure it works for most folks. I’m also sure that if you know nothing about Linux, Klipper, or 3D printing, the experience is probably better thanks to all the cloud point-and-click interfaces. But, of course, I check none of those boxes.
I’ve had the printer for probably a year or more. Almost immediately, I put a “mod” on the printer to give it a more true Klipper interface and gave me things like shell access. There are several that I think will do this, but I used Zmod, which doesn’t totally replace the printer’s firmware; it just sort of patches it and extends it. You can easily bypass or even remove it and go back to the stock printer, although I would not want to.
In my case, the issue was a printer, but the same idea might apply to any embedded Linux system, from a router to a thermostat. Sure, it runs Linux, but is it Linux you can change?
The Problem
