Kickstarter for Smoothieboard

[bxd]

Looking for an electronics upgrade (or don't have electronics for your frame yet)? You might be interested in this Kickstarter project:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/log ... on-control

• 32-bit ARM processor running at 100MHz
• Plays gcode from uSD card (accessible as a mass-storage USB device) or native USB serial port
• Native USB interface with mass-storage and serial ports
• Play gcode or reconfigure from the uSD drive, or live over serial
• Interactive serial shell for gcode playback and configuration
• GRBL-derived, syntax compatible (while removing some of GRBL's limitations, such as the line length limit)
• Supports up to 5 axis, plus many peripheral controls (hot ends, thermometers, SSDs, fans, etc)
• Open source, open hardware

Disclosure: I have contributed code to Smoothie, but I'm not financially associated with the project.

Eagle-eyed viewers will be able to pick out a Shapeoko in the video. To be honest I haven't worked much on my setup in a while, so it doesn't make for a particularly impressive show, but it drives well.

[Gadgetman!]

And now they're fully funded.

[zerblatt007]

Would it be possible to run their software on the Teensy 3? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pau ... -arduino-a
It runs at 48Mhz and has less RAM, but if you only need 3 axis and have external drivers..

Probably not worth the effort, but after having to solder out a driver from the GRBL shield - external drivers seem tempting.

[Gadgetman!]

you may be able to run the SW...
if the SW can live with 16KB RAM/128KB Flash instead of 64KB RAM/512KB Flash and only half the speed...
There may be other differences between the M3 and M4 cores that make them incompatible, too.

You would still need the driver ICs.

[bxd]

Although it's not as cheap as the Teensy3, you can run Smoothie from an mbed LPCXpresso 1769 board (dev board with a similar DIP format), see here: http://smoothieware.org/smoothie-on-a-breadboard

Until I get my Smoothieboard, I'm using a SimpleCortex board (http://www.brc-electronics.nl/) running Smoothie with a buildlog stepper shield on top. Keeps the wiring more simple than the breadboard approach, but it doesn't give you all the handy connector breakouts that the Smoothieboard has.

Note that the Smoothieboard also has a very robust thermal management design for the drivers, so in theory you'll never blow one out. If you're really paranoid, there's also a "bare" board to drive external steppers in the works, but not included in the Kickstarter.

[hugov]

if the SW can live with 16KB RAM/128KB Flash instead of 64KB RAM/512KB Flash and only half the speed...

An AVR at 48 MHz is *not* half the speed of a ARM Cortex-M3 at 100 MHz. Probably more like <20% of the speed when doing path planning maths...

[Gadgetman!]

Please study the Teensy 3.0 Kickstarter a bit more.

The Teensy uses an ARM Cortex-M4, running at 48MHz.
The SmoothieBoard uses an ARM Cortex-M3.

[Llamas]

With the soldered drivers, I'm less concerned about a heat damage scenario than I am about accidentally connecting or disconnecting a motor while the driver is hot, misswiring a motor, etc. I can't say that I know what factors are involved in causing the damage in those situations or if some drivers can tolerate this manner of mistreatment (which be ideal), so I currently err on the side of implementations that use driver carriers.

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