Prusa Research grew from Josef Prusa’s work in the RepRap project. Our mission is clear: make enjoyable machines for everyone to use. Open-source is our heart, sharing how we do things so others can learn and create. Check the timeline of our entire history.
Our goal is for our printers to remain moddable, easily repairable, and produce amazing prints even decades after their initial release. Reprint the plastic parts, flash custom firmware, or completely modify our printers to meet your specific needs.
Our approach to sharing is careful and planned. Right away, we share things like our ✅ firmware and ✅ printable parts. Other details, like 🕐 electronic schematics, come out a bit later. And hardware manufacturing info? That might be shared closer to the ✖️ end of product's life. This helps us stay true to open-source while navigating today's market challenges.
We don't just develop open-source solutions - we actively use them in our daily work. All our departments, from firmware, software, and web development to support, content creation, and DevOps, rely on open-source tools every day. To express our gratitude to the developers of these tools and promote their incredible work, we have prepared page Open-source tools we use at Prusa Research.
PrusaSlicer is our own open-source in-house developed slicer software. The PrusaSlicer team consists of 13 full time developers. As of January 2024, we spent a total of 145,720 work hours developing PrusaSlicer (that’s over 16 years of non-stop work by one developer). While only about 10% of the original code remains, we are still extremely proud that PrusaSlicer is originally based on the open-source project Slic3r by Alessandro Ranellucci. Each of the source files has a short header with the list of all contributors. We believe this is the right way to acknowledge whose shoulders we're standing upon.
PrusaSlicer is a completely free, feature-rich, frequently updated tool that contains everything you need to export the perfect G-code for your 3D printer. Today, the PrusaSlicer code powers most slicers on the market.
Our 3D printers print parts for our 3D printers - our manufacturing literally depends on our own product! We constantly iterate on our parts to make them more durable, to make assembly and maintenance as easy as possible, and often times based on community feedback.
MK4 LCD Cover printed part
We release all printed parts both in the easily editable STEP format and as an STL mesh. Our developers use various free and commercial 3D CAD software to create these parts. By releasing as universally accepted STEP files we look to ensure that anyone can easily modify the parts to their liking.
We also use injection molding in our manufacturing. Especially for big parts that rarely need updates (e.g. spool holder, MINI front panel). For those parts, we still release 3D printable alternatives to maintain maximum modifiability and repairability for all.
Firmware
The firmware for our printers is completely open-source. Anyone can view and change how the printer behaves. Community made improvements can be merged back into the official firmware to the benefit of all Original Prusa printer owners. Researchers and companies can add additional functionality relevant to their specific needs. Company security experts can inspect that no sensitive information is being sent over the network without approval.
The firmware for the Original Prusa MK4, XL and MINI+ is based on FreeRTOS firmware, originally developed by Richard Barry, and later by Amazon Web Services. Our 32-bit platform also uses some pieces of Marlin firmware for motion planning, developed by Scott Lahteine.
The firmware for the Original Prusa i3 MK2S and MK3S+ printers is based on Marlin by Scott Lahteine.
The most active community developers get access to our internal Slack channel for quick communication with our in-house developers. Since community made firmware can sometimes cause permanent damage the printer's electronics, we also provide replacement parts to these selected developers, even if they have (obviously) broken their Appendix. We are extremely happy that several such developers have now became full-time members of our team!
Bootloader
The Original Prusa printers are designed with a focus on safety, particularly when it comes to firmware updates. Our printers come with a bootloader, a crucial feature that maintains a balance between user customization and safety. The bootloader, while locked, permits users to flash any custom firmware, ensuring flexibility in usage.
The 'Appendix' is a pin alteration required to flash unsigned firmware. This step, learned from MK3 experiences, ensures users are aware of the risks of unverified firmware. Prusa is responsible for official firmware only; users bear the responsibility for any community firmware, acknowledging potential risks and liability. The bootloader does not incorporate any open source code.
Electronics
We release the full schematics for our electronics, to make modding and 3rd party addons easier to develop. You can inspect the connection of all components, the voltage on various pins, the architecture of the entire board.
MK4 Nextruder electronics schematics
For some products, we do not release the full PCB manufacturing layouts, as we do not want to support manufacturing of untested clone boards. Our boards feature redundant hardware safety features, which will cut the heater's power even in the case of the firmware safety measures not triggering in time or the firmware getting stuck for whatever reason. In the case of a faulty replacement board, our support will send you one free of charge (within warranty period) and spare PCBs are also available for purchase on our eshop.
Hardware / replacement parts
We provide long term support for all our printers, even for those which we have not been selling for years. You can buy all the spare parts on our eshop. While we do not prepare the BOM (bill of material) for all our printers, you can easily find specific screw lengths, smooth rod dimensions and other hardware in our assembly manuals.
Making it easy for users to modify and repair their printers is important to us. At the same time, we do not actively provide manufacturing information to companies that produce exact, cheaper, and lower-quality clones of our products, which do not contribute anything new to the open-source community.
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