Another controller question

I have recently rebuilt my MPCNC from a burly duel endstop to a primo. I noticed the Rambo board that was recommenced when I first built mine is no longer sold here. Mine seems to be working fine, but I wonder if one of the newer boards would be better. I would like to have a controller like ESTLcam 12 or similar that can display the g-code as the machine works.

Hey Jake, if you want Estlcam as a controller, you need a different board than most here use. I personally have the Open CNC Shield 2 and am really happy with it since it also enables Autosquaring which Estlcam itself is regrettably missing.
The only drawback of Estlcam is that you need a USB cable that is always connected to the CNC, so for larger builds it’s hard to find a long, well shielded cable.
Besides that it is (in my opinion) far superior to the other controllers being used, the toolchange and pause options are a lot easier to handle.

Well, it doesn’t have to be Estlcam, but I do like to have the code on a screen when running. The problem is I am not super electronics savvy, I know just enough to get myself into trouble, so I prefer a plug-and-play option.

I wonder if one of the newer boards would be better

Better can mean a number of things. If you are only going to be upgrading the control board, and you are using your machine for cutting wood, it is unlikely you will see any improvement in the actual cutting. If you are doing laser engraving, you might benefit from a 32-bit board plus some form of GRBL instead of Marlin also has a positive impact.

Some boards support displays directly, some boards support displays via serial communications, some boards are primary wireless for communications. In selecting a new board, consider what problems you are trying to address with the change.

Or you can be like a lot of people on this forum, and make the change because you like the new and shiny things :grin:.

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I do Like new and Shiny!!