The LCD smart controller on the Isis One allows you to print without having a computer attached to your printer. This means that your computer is free for other tasks, can be shut down or moved while printing, and that any computer error will not disturb the printer. It also allows faster transfer of gcode to the printer motherboard than happens over a USB connection.

The following is an explanation of the menus in the smart controller.

Home screen
Upon powering on your printer, you will see several pieces of information on the LCD screen. These include the temperature of the three heaters (left extruder (E0), right extruder (E1), and the bed heater. Next is the current z height, which helps you know how far along a print is. The third line tells the feedrate, which we suggest you leave at 100%; the percent complete*; and the elapsed time since the print started. The bottom of the screen should read "Isis One," followed by the version number of the firmware on your printer. This bottom line sometimes also tells you that the printer is heating, or names the gcode file you have selected to print. When a print is finished, it displays the total time the print took (the above time keeps counting). Restarting the printer resets this time data.

To access all other menus from the home screen, click the knob button. Turn the knob to scroll. Select main to go back to the previous menu.

Printing with the LCD Smart Controller
To start a print, load the gcode from your slicer software on to the included genuine Sandisk 4 GB SD card. Spray the print bed with a very generous coat of hairspray.

1. Insert the SD card into the left side of the LCD case, with the contacts facing up and the label facing down.
2. Click the knob to see the menus.
3. Select the bottom menu, Print from SD.
4. Select the gcode file you wish to print, and click to start the print.

Prepare menu

• Disable Steppers: Turns off power to the stepper motors so you can move them by hand
• Auto Home: Homes the X, Y, and Z axes. Useful for setting the initial Z height of the printhead
• Preheat PLA: Heats the heaters to 200ºC and the bed to 55ºC to print in PLA
• Preheat ABS: Heats the heaters to 240ºC and the bed to 100ºC to print in ABS
• Cooldown: Turns off all of the heaters
• Move Axis: Allows you to move one axis of the printer a specific amount at a time

Tune menu
The Prepare menu turns into the Tune menu during printing.

• Speed: Scales all of the speeds called for in the gcode by this number as a percent. Slowing down will make the print take longer; speeding up may cause extruder failure.
• Temperature: Changes the temperatures of the hotend heaters and the bed on the fly.
• Fan speed: Allows you to change the fan speed on the fly. Using less than full fan will probably harm print quality.
• Flow: Allows you call for more or less filament to be extruded per unit called for by the gcode. Use with caution.
• Change filament: This command homes the X axis and ejects the filament loaded. Then the user loads new filament, priming the hotend by turning the big gear, and resumes the print.

Control menu
The control menu contains many advanced settings, which we have specifically calibrated for the Isis One. Restoring these settings requires reflashing the firmware from your computer, so please proceed with caution. If you know what you are doing and wish to change these, the best way to do it is by flashing an edited version of the firmware; otherwise some settings may revert back when power to the printer is cycled.

• Temperature:
  • Allows you to set the temperature of the heaters before, during, or after a print, separate from what the gcode sets.
  • Fan speed is a range from 0 to 255 (default).
  • The PID settings control the temperature control for the heaters.
  • Preheat PLA/ABS Conf allows you to change the temperature presets in the Prepare menu
• Motion
  • Allows you to change the acceleration, jerk, and steps/mm of each axis. Changing these will un-calibrate your printer and greatly decrease the print quality

Source
The LCD Smart Controller is designed and manufactured by RepRapDiscount. See the links below for the open source files and more information:

• http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRapDiscount_Smart_Controller
• http://forum.reprapdiscount.com/threads/smart-controller-open-source-files.617/

* The percentage complete on the home screen is approximate because it reads percent of lines of gcode complete, and not all lines of gcode take the same amount of time. We find this still gives us a pretty good idea of the overall length of time. The accuracy increases as the print progresses.