When working on my printer yesterday, I had to change the firmware to accommodate the new bl touch, and I wanted to update my Marlin version to a newer one. Marlin is the flavor of code that a lot of 3d printer firmware runs on. So I used firmware from TH3D Studio for my specific printer (the cr-10 s5.). They gave straightforward and clear instructions on how to flash it onto the motherboard.
For flashing it, I use a program called Visual Studio Code combined with a plugin called PlatformIO, which uses the USB port to flash onto another machine like the Arduino or, in my case, the 3d printer board.
When configuring the settings in the code, I noticed a file called “bootscreen.h,” so I was curious and clicked on it. Commented out were instructions if I wanted to set up my own custom boot screen. Naturally, I clicked on the link for the guide and fell down an exciting rabbit hole of people customizing their own boot screen. You grab the image you want (about 128×64 pixels) and change it to black and white, then use marlin’s official converter to convert the image into code. Which then you can copy and paste into the bootscreen.h configuration file. When following the steps, I tried to think up what photo or logo I wanted to put on my bootscreen. I then got a very random notification of something I was following, which at this time was the Elon Musk buying Twitter, and I thought I might as well put an image of Elon musk on my boot screen for no reason at all other than to be humorous. This was the image I chose since it was black and white and easier to tell when less detailed on the cheap 3D printer screen:
Here is what the final result looks like on my printer: (taken from my Instagram)
