That's good to hear... thanks.

Now the next issue is the prehistoric Marlin firmware. Has anyone done anything with that?

Can we assume that since you are making this assertion that you have actually set up an SDCard image without MakerGear's version of Octoprint and it all works?

I have been told by MakerGear support that in any verion Octoprint is installed except the MakerGear fork, it will break the machine.

I've already done that and was told "it is on the list" but no timetable.

I had this problem and after talking to Tech Support, there is a procedure to adjust the alignment of the z leadscrew and motor. I did this and it helped for awhile but the squeal came back. I then purchased some "Super Lube" fro 3D printers from Amazon and applied it sparingly to the leadscrew and ...

MakerGear firmware and Octoprint versions are extremely old. Octoprint has moved to Python 3 and many plugins only work on the later versions of Octorpint. Firmware is the same way, i.e. very useful plugins will not work with the old Marlin version of the firmware. When are we going to get updates!?