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3D Printing - Smoothieboards
Posted by
Deaniture
on 25 Oct, 2016 21:58
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Hi guys,
I have been looking at purchasing a few Smoothieboards for my 3D printer, along with some other CNC projects I have on the go. My only problem is that they tend to go for around £120 each. I was just wondering if people would be interested in purchasing the bare boards instead as I have looked around and have found a website that, as a basic quote, are saying roughly $10/ea if 5 are bought, going down significantly in higher quantities.
Along with this, I would plan to reduce the costs further by purchasing components in bulk so that kits could be made, or possibly pre-soldered for you.
I would just love to get some of these boards, but would need the help of forum members who are also interested to actually make it financially viable.
Kind regards,
D
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whats so special about smoothie board? why dont you buy ramps board and arduino?
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#2 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 26 Oct, 2016 00:44
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Let's reduce your cost
US $49
still expensive. arduino mega + ramps board is near $10
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#4 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 26 Oct, 2016 02:21
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Arduino Mega can not handle 5 axis in delta mode with a graphics display, Arduino is a poor's man option,
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Arduino Mega can not handle 5 axis in delta mode with a graphics display, Arduino is a poor's man option,
from the smoothie layout, its similar to what ramps has... X,Y,Z,E1,E0 (5 DOF) for stepper connections. and ramps has 3 power fet / pwm output, smoothie got 4 at the bottom, not sure how important the extra 1 heater... ramps has 3 thermistor sensing, smoothie got 4, ramps has 6 endstop switches sensing, i guess thats the 6 white 3pins connection on the right of smoothie. and oh yes, ramps support 20x04 lcd monitor, encoder, sd card and other free aux pins that i have no need yet on my latest build. the marlin FW support is Humongous i'm not sure about that smoothie. but yeah, if ARM chip is what you really need, then $40 extra maybe not a problem.
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#6 Reply
Posted by
LukeW
on 26 Oct, 2016 04:34
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whats so special about smoothie board? why dont you buy ramps board and arduino?
RAMPS is crappy engineering. It's horrible for about fifty different reasons.
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I'm in for a couple of bare boards if shipping to Spain is not crazy.
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#8 Reply
Posted by
pix3l
on 26 Oct, 2016 08:17
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If the shipping to the Netherlands is OK I would like a bare board as well!
whats so special about smoothie board? why dont you buy ramps board and arduino?
The big benefit of of the smoothieboard is that it is 32 bit instead of 8. The mega2560 can handle an average 3d printer OK but once you start to add more like a nicer display, ethernet or 0.9 degree stepper motors instead of 1.8 it starts to crumble under your feet.. Adding the maths behind a delta printer makes it even more challenging on an 8 bit controller.
About the MKS SBASE: it is a cheap board but the documentation is kind of crappy and support I think you can forget about. I've heard some good stories about smoothie support.
Just my two cents..
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#9 Reply
Posted by
Deaniture
on 26 Oct, 2016 08:35
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I have used the Ramp board in the past, along with MKS Base boards, but they are very much limited in the power they can supply, processing speed, along with a few other problems. The Ramps board is certainly a poor choice for anyone wanting to get more serious about the CNC world. The Smoothieboard is also much more suitable for CNC milling as well, something which I plan on having a go a building.
I have also had a look at the Duet Board, but it is limited compared to the Smoothieboard.
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#10 Reply
Posted by
Deaniture
on 26 Oct, 2016 08:40
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Along with that, it is great that I have a few willing to join me. If we could get some more we could make it significantly cheaper so does anybody know anyone else that would be interested? Shipping would be fine if you could add a little for shipping. Bare boards would be fine as well, but I will obviously be buying parts anyway so buying wholesale would just make sense. Yes, Pix3l is definitely correct there; the 32 bit controller is much more capable in all respect, and combined with the more powerful and advanced stepper controllers it is by far a superior board.
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#11 Reply
Posted by
pix3l
on 26 Oct, 2016 11:03
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I would be in for group-buying the components!
The duet also has a new version now by the way: adding wifi and very nice stepper drivers: TMC2660
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#12 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 26 Oct, 2016 13:13
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I don't thing that making the board and buying the components you can do for less than 49 USD there have a lot of expensive parts ( specially in low volume ), I'm more included to buy the MKS since it's based on smothie 100% compatible, ok they have that "chinese appearance".... but who cares justify the price because works
If you plan to make the board you will also need a stencil to make a decent soldering on the board with reflow or hot air and will be very hard to be near the price of a Mks board.
Another possible path is to use arduino due, and external motor drivers, with a due version of smothies, My opinion at this point in time MKS is the the best bang for the buck to be in smothie world
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#13 Reply
Posted by
Deaniture
on 26 Oct, 2016 18:39
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Well I have found a place to make the boards for roughly $4/board if you order 20, and even cheaper if you buy more. Do you really think components are that expensive?
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#14 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 26 Oct, 2016 19:35
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Quote from: Deaniture on Today at 19:39:57Well I have found a place to make the boards for roughly $4/board if you order 20, and even cheaper if you buy more. Do you really think components are that expensive?
At that price I'm in for 5.
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#16 Reply
Posted by
Deaniture
on 26 Oct, 2016 21:46
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EBCLR
I don't know how much you have look around, but I have quickly found the A4982 for less than $2/piece when buying only 10 - it would obviously go down when buying more.
Along with that, the LPC1768 can be bought for less than $5 when buying 20 - again, this would go down when buying wholesale.
Resistors and capacitors can be bought for less than half a cent.
I haven't finished my final price up, but I will let you know when I do (probably tomorrow afternoon).
Yes, EdoNork, the bare boards are dirt cheap.
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#17 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 27 Oct, 2016 01:03
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Let's wait for the finished
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#18 Reply
Posted by
Deaniture
on 27 Oct, 2016 02:22
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I'll get it priced and get back to you.
D
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I'll get it priced and get back to you.
D
good luck!
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#20 Reply
Posted by
janekm
on 27 Oct, 2016 04:33
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If you value your time at 0, and buy second-hand components from China (well, the same on the MKS one I'm sure), you may just beat the price of the ready-assembled version...
As a soldering practice experience, sure...
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#21 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 27 Oct, 2016 13:16
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How can you be sure
I beat that you are wrong, MKS for sure use new components, I already went to the factories and see fresh news smd reels there.
It's not smart to thing that everything in china is fake , bad quality or something else, there everything is available the good and the bad, the main point for low price is lower margins, less regulations and waste low cost labor, they don't need to have a team of lawyer on every company, they don't need to pay Hugh bonus for Directors.
If there everything was fake or bad quality they didn't have be so competitive around the world, I beat that you are sited on a Chinese chair, using a Chinese keyboard, on a Chinese computer connected to a chine router, pluged on a Chinese mains plug.
It's hard to accept but Europeans and Americans lost the band wagon for China, and this is only the beginning, wait until they learn English and occidental marketing on mass, Take a look on what a small country like Korea did, and extrapolate to what chine will do.
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#22 Reply
Posted by
janekm
on 28 Oct, 2016 06:10
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Fair enough, you're right I can't be sure, and I meant no disrespect to the company...
And to be sure if you buy a pre-built board you can expect it to work out of the box
It's just that in general the supply in China has quite a lot of recycled components. And they get supplied on reels too...
When I need an original component, I tell my (Chinese) distributor I need the "original, new imported" one and they tell me that's going to cost around 20% more. Which doesn't mean that the other ones are necessarily recycled, but...
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#23 Reply
Posted by
pix3l
on 28 Oct, 2016 09:27
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#24 Reply
Posted by
ebclr
on 28 Oct, 2016 15:25
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I don't thing that paying 220 USD for that board, you are supporting Arthur Wolf 's
Instead you are supporting the big corporations behind , like digikey, mouser and others and even Obama care
Buy the 49 USD one and send a 30 USD Patreon or paypal contribution to Arthur Wolf 's will be a better deal for both.
