Pronterface allows us to control the 3D printer from our personal laptop, instead of having to use the knob and LED screen as in Marlin Firmware.
Pronterface functions similarly to Marlin firmware, allowing us to home the axes, move axes by a controlled amount, extrude, as well as reverse the extruder. This proved to be particularly useful to our project, as the drawing up and dispensing of the liquid requires such clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations of the extruder (or the stepper motor attached to the syringe or pipette, in our case). In the earlier stages of the project, to test the feasibility of the 3D prints and whole design of the set-up, Pronterface was used. Pronterface also allows for a file of pre-written g-code to be sent to the printer directly from our computer, which was very convenient.
For more information, please go to https://www.pronterface.com/
Done by Clarice