My first Smoothieboard prints, wow!

[prussiap]

cool. so you suggest smoothie vs beagleboard ?

seems straightforward for the rest. The last comment though would default delta work on R2 ? i'm sure there are some tweeks specific more then hight/print bed size like retract etc..

finally i've been wanting to build scratch build just to learn. care to share that knowledge unless you have a thread? you can pm me if it's not appropriate for this thread.

thanks for the input let me dig in.

[JFettig]

I have both smoothie and BBB+CRAMPS - neither are running printers yet, I had the BBB running my max just to move it around - Machinekit will never be fully done - so unless you know how to run linux, compile and do all that stuff, don't mess with it. I spent way too much time messing with mine. My Smoothie is all configured and ready to run - took minimal time. I do plan to try out the BBB+CRAMPS setup again at some point but I'm not wasting any additional time on it right now. Every guide you find on setting up Machinekit is outdated and will just give you a headache.

[prussiap]

thankfully I am a software dev. though it's been a while since i've compiled on ubuntu i do compile quite a bit and am pretty familiar with linux. i do get the best of both worlds with osx though.

machinekit = http://www.machinekit.io/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
bbb = http://beagleboard.org/BLACK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

not sure what CRAMPS is.. is there a reason you didn't do more on the BBB.. not sure if this is a hobby or job but you certainly have a ton of knowledge and cool gadgets.. is the bbb+cramps what you're doing the build your own with?

I want to build a delta from scratch but not sure where to begin. Seems like 3d printing has become more standardized over the years at least for the parts but there are a lot more players.

azeeg x5 seems similar to smoothieboard (uses same firmware) so not sure what differences are.

I'm still a bit afraid of frying mine.

[prussiap]

so I did a bit of reading on smoothie and BBB but seems they can only handle 5 stepper motors? maybe more on the spi but not sure if you need external stepper motor spi controllers then?

Is this correct ? Seems the rostock uses 4 off the shelf. 3 for motion, 1 for ezstruder.

with the diamond hot end i would need 2 more for ezstruder. I would also need 3 total hot ends and fans which i think is covered off the back.

Also what LCD did you sue for Smoothie? can you re-use the built in one?

I'm considering 3d printing all the rostock-mini parts I can find (i see you can find on thingiverse the kossel too) and building one from scratch to make sure my R2 doesn't get hosed by my stupidity using your smoothie build as an example.

[bubbasnow]

BBB is the brains and CRAMPS is the motor controller, there are different boards out that do the same thing as CRAMPS or more... i think they are up to 10stepper motor on a bebopr++ with optional muxer. Gotta keep your head in the machinekit google groups to stay in the know. I have a working bbb+bebopr++ w/ pepper board running dual extruders working on a delta type machine. it also runs my laser... it was not as easy to start up as rambo, but not impossible.

[teoman]

Mind writing a quick tutorial? Or getting started/orientation guide?



To me it seems like the superior platform for 3d printers and cnc machines but it lacks documentation.

[JFettig]

I had a reply written but windows update decided to kill chrome

Anyway - CRAMPS is the cape - its like a RAMPS-FD for an Arduino but for the BBB.

The biggest issue with Machinekit is the continuous feature creep - it will never be finished. I tried linuxcnc many years ago and I had the same problems. I thought they'd be solved by now with proper documentation and everything. Smoothie is so easy, the documentation is well written and variables are not constantly changing.

If you follow this to a T, including using the old release, you can get up and running rather quickly https://designmakeshare.wordpress.com/2 ... libration/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[prussiap]

smoothie documentation on the site was really fantastic.. I do agree with you there.. What would you use there for add on boards for 8-10 steppers ?

[JFettig]

What would you need 8-10 steppers for??

Like bubbasnow said the bebopr++ can do 10 steppers with their add-on boards.

[prussiap]

but not for smoothie right ? since it's smoothieboard and not bbb..

[JFettig]

Correct. You can add a couple I believe but not that many.

Look at the DUET board.

[prussiap]

no sleep = me confused so still looking for smoothieboard add on boards..

[JFettig]

there aren't drop-in add on boards. gotta pin it out yourself using extra outputs.

[prussiap]

sorry. I'm not sure i know what that means to add my own. I'm looking through the extnesive docs on steppers on smoothieboard but nothing about having more then 4-5..

I guess I need 6 but probably better to have 1-2 extra just in case.. Just with linuxcnc had better reviews and was better able to handle BBB cause it seems ideal.. But you are correct there is little documentation if any, and very very few people have done this, and it's hard to pin down any specs other then Xtruder boards and other pepper like boards, no software to use it though or not much that you can't ocmpile.

[JFettig]

There is extra IO on the board, you just have to find it and configure it, hook up your own drives, etc.