Smoothie M2
Posted: Sun May 10, 2015 4:18 pm
So, by popular demand, I ordered my Smoothieboard from Hackaday:
http://store.hackaday.com/products/smoothieboard5xc
It arrived yesterday and spent all night on my doorstep (oh, WHY don't they ever ring the doorbell?!). Fortunately it didn't rain last night.
I unpacked it and was dismayed to find no micro SD card in the slot or in the box. Eventually, I discovered I was sitting on it. It pays to open the package carefully, although I thought I was doing so. I think that the micro SD card is supposed to be in the slot, but it looks like the board is designed in such a way that the SD card can get pushed in and disengage if the board is pressed completely against a flat surface, such as the side of the box it's shipped in.
I unplugged the USB from my RAMBo and plugged it into the Smoothieboard. I was delighted to find that it immediately came up under Linux with two recognized devices: The serial communications channel at /dev/ttyACM0, and the micro SD card at /dev/sde1, which I mounted onto /media/. This is the first of the several major advantages of the Smoothieboard. I can write directly to and read directly from the micro SD card from my host computer. Better yet, I can do the same over Ethernet, although I haven't tried that communication channel yet.
I decided to start a new thread here dedicated to the conversion of an M2 from a RAMBo to a Smoothieboard. Note that I have a very old-generation M2, where the RAMBo is several revisions old. Among other issues is that the solid-state circuit breaker can't take 24V without a catastrophic and possibly explosive failure, and the stepper drivers are the older 8-microstep version, not the newer 16-microstep version. I solved the circuit breaker problem by soldering in an automotive fuse. The Smoothieboard is maybe 50% or so larger than the RAMBo, but given that if you position it in the M2 such that all the ports are in front, then there is the same amount of clearance as on the RAMBo; the longer part of the board is toward the back, where on the M2 there is empty space. So that part seems all well and good.
The first thing to think about when considering whether or not to do a Smoothieboard upgrade (other than waiting for my complete set of posts to see if I was successful or not!) is whether it is worth the price. Sure, the Smoothieboard has some great features, but the RAMBo is no sloucher. RAMBos shipped for the past (approximately) two years support 24V operation, have the 16-microstep drivers, and have the same I/Os as the Smoothie (enough for a dual-extruder M2 setup). It remains to be seen what advantages the GRBL-based, non-Marlin firmware has to offer. I have already mentioned the ability to remote-mount the micro SD card, and the Ethernet port. There's also the advantage that you can talk about the board without conjuring up unwanted images of Sylvester Stallone. Although it may make you hungry for a frozen blended fruit drink.
As I continue posting to this thread, I will mostly be following instructions on http://smoothieware.org/3d-printer-guide. I have read through them, and they seem simple enough.
http://store.hackaday.com/products/smoothieboard5xc
It arrived yesterday and spent all night on my doorstep (oh, WHY don't they ever ring the doorbell?!). Fortunately it didn't rain last night.
I unpacked it and was dismayed to find no micro SD card in the slot or in the box. Eventually, I discovered I was sitting on it. It pays to open the package carefully, although I thought I was doing so. I think that the micro SD card is supposed to be in the slot, but it looks like the board is designed in such a way that the SD card can get pushed in and disengage if the board is pressed completely against a flat surface, such as the side of the box it's shipped in.
I unplugged the USB from my RAMBo and plugged it into the Smoothieboard. I was delighted to find that it immediately came up under Linux with two recognized devices: The serial communications channel at /dev/ttyACM0, and the micro SD card at /dev/sde1, which I mounted onto /media/. This is the first of the several major advantages of the Smoothieboard. I can write directly to and read directly from the micro SD card from my host computer. Better yet, I can do the same over Ethernet, although I haven't tried that communication channel yet.
I decided to start a new thread here dedicated to the conversion of an M2 from a RAMBo to a Smoothieboard. Note that I have a very old-generation M2, where the RAMBo is several revisions old. Among other issues is that the solid-state circuit breaker can't take 24V without a catastrophic and possibly explosive failure, and the stepper drivers are the older 8-microstep version, not the newer 16-microstep version. I solved the circuit breaker problem by soldering in an automotive fuse. The Smoothieboard is maybe 50% or so larger than the RAMBo, but given that if you position it in the M2 such that all the ports are in front, then there is the same amount of clearance as on the RAMBo; the longer part of the board is toward the back, where on the M2 there is empty space. So that part seems all well and good.
The first thing to think about when considering whether or not to do a Smoothieboard upgrade (other than waiting for my complete set of posts to see if I was successful or not!) is whether it is worth the price. Sure, the Smoothieboard has some great features, but the RAMBo is no sloucher. RAMBos shipped for the past (approximately) two years support 24V operation, have the 16-microstep drivers, and have the same I/Os as the Smoothie (enough for a dual-extruder M2 setup). It remains to be seen what advantages the GRBL-based, non-Marlin firmware has to offer. I have already mentioned the ability to remote-mount the micro SD card, and the Ethernet port. There's also the advantage that you can talk about the board without conjuring up unwanted images of Sylvester Stallone. Although it may make you hungry for a frozen blended fruit drink.
As I continue posting to this thread, I will mostly be following instructions on http://smoothieware.org/3d-printer-guide. I have read through them, and they seem simple enough.