Poll: Which 3D printer controller do you use, or plan to?

[Aflac]

I've been debating which controller to use for the build I'm working on now. The things you said about bbb are the same worries I've had that have been causing me to lean towards smoothie, but if the replicape will have your auto calibrate stuff then I'll probably be very tempted to get one of those.

[626Pilot]

I've been debating which controller to use for the build I'm working on now. The things you said about bbb are the same worries I've had that have been causing me to lean towards smoothie, but if the replicape will have your auto calibrate stuff then I'll probably be very tempted to get one of those.

I'm still talking to Elias Bakken about this. Nothing is hammered out yet, but I may wind up working on his driver board (plus the new revision of the Reach extender, with more stepper drivers) sometime in Winter/Spring 2016, and helping out with the code to drive the extra channels. Since this is not set in stone, I can make no promise other than to say "it looks good at the moment."

How many extruders do you need, and do you need an advanced auto-calibration system for the particular stuff you want to print? Those questions are important in selecting a board. Keep in mind that the Replicape 2 isn't going to start delivery until November, and I'm not likely to start working on anything for that platform until next year when I have a Reach board.

[Aflac]

At the rate my build is going I have plenty of time, though now that I finally have the frame together (trick laser max metal frame) I am hoping to speed up. But with the one year old kid running around it took me a few months just to get the frame together. I'm planning one extruder to start, but want to go to more eventually, I can't remember the name right now but the three in one pyramid looking extruder is something I want eventually.

But for the most part I just want a printer were I spend more time printing than I do calibrating, it seems on my current printer all I ever do is calibrate and I've almost stopped printing because it's such a pain.....silly Kickstarter printer and their assembly monkeys who have never heard of set screws or lock tite

[626Pilot]

I can't remember the name right now but the three in one pyramid looking extruder is something I want eventually.

That would be the Diamond: http://reprap.org/wiki/Diamond_Hotend

[RMLynch]

I use the SmoothieBoard on two Rostock MAX v2s.

So far, love the simplicity of the "config" file and flashing the firmware. Best I've seen yet!

However, I can't stand the USB/Windows file conflict of being only able to write to the SD Card from one source at a time! I might try getting rid of the USB and using the Network IP Address route? That's new to me.

The Duet looks promising. Very expandable and I really like that color touchscreen for it! I read somewhere that Arthur was going to write the code to be able to use it on a SmoothieBoard but that he is tied up ATM with the SmoothieBoard 2.

[0110-m-p]

However, I can't stand the USB/Windows file conflict of being only able to write to the SD Card from one source at a time! I might try getting rid of the USB and using the Network IP Address route? That's new to me.

Another option is to run a Raspberry Pi with Octoprint print server. Upload files and start jobs through the web server.

[626Pilot]

The Duet looks promising. Very expandable and I really like that color touchscreen for it! I read somewhere that Arthur was going to write the code to be able to use it on a SmoothieBoard but that he is tied up ATM with the SmoothieBoard 2.

It really is a pretty display. You have to program it separately over USB, which is lame, but at least you don't use precious RAM or flash memory on menu strings.

I got my Duet wired up for the most part. This is what I've learned so far:

• No wiring diagram. If you Google "duet controller wiring diagram", you'll get some photos of the Duet - and the wiring diagram for a Smoothieboard.
• There is no support for mounting the SD card over USB, so you have to take it out and use a separate reader for that, which makes me feel like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
• You can't just flash the firmware. You have to also copy over three or four folders containing configs, macros, and some files for the onboard web server. There does not appear to be a config-override, so if you drag in the settings for a new version, they will override your own ones, and you may also have to port any changes to whatever new config file shows up in the new version. Not a fan!
• The M-code for configuring the endstops is M574, but no matter what args I give it, it complains that the g-code is invalid - even using the M-codes specified in the comments in the config file(?????)
• Hot end power connector is microscopic and I torqued it significantly by just tightening the screws down. They should have used something more substantial, something that would take a 16-gauge wire without a bunch of messing around.
• Unsure how to connect a Z probe because I don't know whether the board is 5V tolerant.
• Migration from Smoothieboard (electrically, anyway) isn't too hard. Standard 2.54mm (0.1") connectors will work. I had to unscrew a few wires from the green Molex connectors that the Smoothieboard uses in order to connect them to the screw terminals on the board - not brain surgery.
• They use 7-pin headers for each motor channel (four for the motor, and three for the endstops). Slightly confusing at first, but not rocket science, and nice to have nearly all connectors on one edge of the board. I have no idea how the endstops are supposed to be wired - they never change state, no matter whether I press the switches or not.

I've cloned the dc42 fork of RepRapFirmware so that I can put together some Rostock-specific stuff. I haven't uploaded anything yet, but I have removed a bunch of extraneous crap (configs for Ormerod and other non-delta printers) and changed some configs to be Rostock-specific. Once the admins get to my request for adding a Duet subforum, I can start a thread there.

I sent an e-mail to RepRapPro with a few questions - hopefully they'll answer soon. Really want to get this thing up and running!

[RMLynch]

Another option is to run a Raspberry Pi with Octoprint print server. Upload files and start jobs through the web server.

Does the Smoothie not have it's own Web Server interface? I thought it did and that it looked like a version of Pronterface...? That it would allow one to do everything that you could do using a USB interface...?

[RMLynch]

It really is a pretty display. You have to program it separately over USB, which is lame, but at least you don't use precious RAM or flash memory on menu strings.

I got my Duet wired up for the most part. This is what I've learned so far:

• No wiring diagram. If you Google "duet controller wiring diagram", you'll get some photos of the Duet - and the wiring diagram for a Smoothieboard.
• There is no support for mounting the SD card over USB, so you have to take it out and use a separate reader for that, which makes me feel like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
• You can't just flash the firmware. You have to also copy over three or four folders containing configs, macros, and some files for the onboard web server. There does not appear to be a config-override, so if you drag in the settings for a new version, they will override your own ones, and you may also have to port any changes to whatever new config file shows up in the new version. Not a fan!
• The M-code for configuring the endstops is M574, but no matter what args I give it, it complains that the g-code is invalid - even using the M-codes specified in the comments in the config file(?????)
• Hot end power connector is microscopic and I torqued it significantly by just tightening the screws down. They should have used something more substantial, something that would take a 16-gauge wire without a bunch of messing around.
• Unsure how to connect a Z probe because I don't know whether the board is 5V tolerant.
• Migration from Smoothieboard (electrically, anyway) isn't too hard. Standard 2.54mm (0.1") connectors will work. I had to unscrew a few wires from the green Molex connectors that the Smoothieboard uses in order to connect them to the screw terminals on the board - not brain surgery.
• They use 7-pin headers for each motor channel (four for the motor, and three for the endstops). Slightly confusing at first, but not rocket science, and nice to have nearly all connectors on one edge of the board. I have no idea how the endstops are supposed to be wired - they never change state, no matter whether I press the switches or not.

Hmmm... Seems like a headache... Not what I'd call "plug-n-play" if you will. Definitely not as easy as the Smoothie. But, I suppose once up and running it looks like it would have the features that you're looking for 626Pilot. Time and testing will tell. Crazy that there is such limited documentation on it, especially the wiring up bit!

I still feel the Smoothie is the best option right now for up to dual extruders/hotends. The Smoothie v2/Pro v2 hopefully will be built around all the inputs of the extremely well informed users of this forum. Again, I went with the Smoothie for it's support of 626Pilot's calibration routine... As did a lot of others!

It's incredible the knowledge in this forum!

[IMBoring25]

Some of that I can answer.

There's a KiCad model for each of the Duet versions on Think3DPrint3D's github, https://github.com/T3P3/Duet

I've been loading my gcode and config files over the web interface.

I've always just overridden my config file, so I haven't paid attention to how it handles other files in that folder. You can have as many different files as you want, and just copy one to be named config and upload it.

Taken with the last comment, I wonder if it's erroring because it's expecting a signal and not seeing it. My experience has been the Dupont connectors are a little finicky, but I've gotten them in a position they seem to like now.

RRP's Mendel 3 instructions show a prox sensor board to two of the pins of the expansion connector, at https://reprappro.com/documentation/mendel-3/wiring/ . I'm not sure if there's anything special about that board. There's also discussion about putting it to pins AD12 and AD14 of the DueX4's expansion connector if you're running a DueX4 at https://miscsolutions.wordpress.com/201 ... al-colour/ .

There's a schematic for the external wiring at the wiki, http://reprap.org/wiki/Duet (and all the pins are labeled in screen print on the back side of the board). The ones the schematic shows to use are STP and GND, leaving empty the middle one of the three the motor doesn't use. I don't think the 3.3V pin would be of interest to you unless you're running Hall effect endstops.

[626Pilot]

I got the Duet up and running, sort of. So far, I don't like the way the auto calibration is set up. They have a G-code file full of instructions for probing the bed, rather than generating the probe points in real time, and if your printer has a different useful probing radius, that file is useless. Seems like a bunch of duck tape and chicken wire to me. With Smoothie, you just tell it the probe radius and it does all the boring math for you. Smoothie doesn't expect end users to use a code generator to set up the Z probing, or to read long instructions full of engineer-speak about how you have to manually edit G-code files. This seems like a very odd way to do it. Why not just have the firmware do that for the user?

The Duet commissioning docs seem to assume you're using an Ormerod, which is a Cartesian printer. This adds further confusion. If you're not doing that, you have to figure out for yourself what applies and what doesn't. Having to dig around and scan pages and pages of forum threads is exactly the kind of experience that scared me away from the BeagleBone solutions.

I have no idea how to check whether the probe is triggered (they didn't hook that up to M119 for some reason) and the Z-probe commands like G30 don't do anything. They don't print error messages, either.

I posted some questions to a thread dc42 has been answering. I hope he can tell me something good.

Edit: Movement is totally wrong, too. I have the steps/mm for the axes, the delta radius, and the arm length set up properly, but it's moving irrationally. Can anyone with a Duet share a working config.g? This is way too bizarre.

[bot]

I just yesterday got my duet moving nicely. I'll upload my config.g. I don't have a probe, so have disabled all that, but I have set up the thermistors for an e3d v6 and the pid for a v6 with a 25w heater.

config.zip

(1.42 KiB) Downloaded 365 times

[626Pilot]

I just yesterday got my duet moving nicely. I'll upload my config.g. I don't have a probe, so have disabled all that, but I have set up the thermistors for an e3d v6 and the pid for a v6 with a 25w heater.

config.zip

Thanks. Can I ask about this line?

M665 R241.645 L439.246 B140 H400 ; set delta radius, diagonal rod length, printable radius and homed height

What exactly are "delta radius" and "printable radius" in this scheme? What's the difference? What kind of printer are you using?

[bot]

I believe the delta radius is exactly the same as repetier's eepron "horizontal radius" value. It's the horizontal measurement from axis to axis when the effector is centered. Do not include the "effector offset" and other variables into it -- just from axis center to axis center. The printable radius defines software limits for where you intend the nozzle to stay within. I designed my new printer to have a 280mm bed, exactly like the rostock max, so I have the printable radius at 140. My other values are very large because of my design, you'd want the delta radius and arm length to be more like what you are used to with repetier and smoothie.

Video of my printer making it's first gcode-powered moves: https://www.facebook.com/nbuxton/videos ... 145278836/

[626Pilot]

Thanks - I had the diagonal rod length wrong. Seems to be moving OK. Now I just need to figure out how to tell it to invert the Z-probe's pin.

[bot]

Have you seen these two pages?

http://reprap.org/wiki/Configuring_and_ ... apFirmware

http://reprap.org/wiki/Configuring_RepR ... an_printer

[mhackney]

I'm going to be posting a lot on my Duet and RepRapFirmware experience. All I can say is - I'm converting all my printers to Duet. The calibration takes less than 30 seconds and the results are outstanding. Calculated points rather than line segments results in nicer prints and obviously smoother moves. The built in web server is amazing and the best I've seen. And all configuration is simple gcode and can be updated via the web server. No more CF card shenanigans. The list goes on.

[bot]

I agree totally, except that I manually calibrated and it took less than 30 minutes to get a build plane that was within .1mm over the entire area. With a bit more effort, I could probably have it nailed down. Maybe I'll try getting a probe, but I've never used one so don't see much need. Duet/RRF-dc42 4 life.

[mhackney]

Once you see the auto cal in operation it is a thing of beauty and fast enough that it can be done as part of every print. I added the necessary gcode to my slicer header to do just that. I'm using FSRs and the calibration even has a compensation for the deflection difference at points over vs between FSRs. My bed/plate is very stiff so I don't observe this though. I'm thinking about trying dc42's IR probe too.

[Eaglezsoar]

I'm going to be posting a lot on my Duet and RepRapFirmware experience. All I can say is - I'm converting all my printers to Duet. The calibration takes less than 30 seconds and the results are outstanding. Calculated points rather than line segments results in nicer prints and obviously smoother moves. The built in web server is amazing and the best I've seen. And all configuration is simple gcode and can be updated via the web server. No more CF card shenanigans. The list goes on.

The Duet looks to be a great solution and I personally would appreciate a write up from you.
The software configuration is all on the Internet but is dispersed widely, you could help all of us with your write up. Looking forward to it!

[626Pilot]

Have you seen these two pages?

http://reprap.org/wiki/Configuring_and_ ... apFirmware

http://reprap.org/wiki/Configuring_RepR ... an_printer

Thanks!

I got everything set up - almost. Probing works, bed and hot end heat work (surprisingly stable - I haven't even PID-tuned either one). However, it won't extrude. The firmware has some weird behavior where you have to send a T (select tool) command because it doesn't default to the first one. I tried manually selecting which hot end to use in Repetier Host, but when I do that it does that weird behavior where it's waiting for a confirmation that never comes. Still trying to figure that out. Probably need to go through the setup again.

Eaglezsoar, can you get someone with admin power on the forums to look at this? We need it. http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9144

I bought dc42's IR probe. I'm looking forward to 3D printing an effector mount for it, once the board feels like responding to extrude commands. I hope it works OK with the glass.

[IMBoring25]

My approach was to put G10s in my config.g to set active and standby temperatures for all the tools to 0 and then select T0. Then my slicer start gcode reconfigures active and standby temps for only the hot end(s) I'm going to use for a particular print.

Just to make sure, anything you do with tools in your config.g should come after you define the tools using M563. If you're using the standard pins for Extruder Drive 0, E0 Hotend, and E0 Temp, the command would be M563 P0 D0 H1.

[bot]

On another note, why are you using repetier host? The duet webserver is fantastic and IMO better than repetier host.

[mhackney]

I added the Duet forum in Electronics.

I only configured for 1 extruder to get started and it worked first time.

In addition to the webserver being really well done, David's PanelDue is also very well done. Has its own processor and firmware so there is no burden on Duet. It is color and touch also.

[626Pilot]

On another note, why are you using repetier host? The duet webserver is fantastic and IMO better than repetier host.

The way my shop is laid out, it would be awkward to string up an Ethernet cable to do that, but I think I will at some point.