Okay with the ease of "one click ordering " with Mr. Dring’s boards I am ready to make a small batch of customs boards. Mr. Dring is willing to help me sort out the details.
Then there can still be 1-2 external ports available for customs stuff. I could hang them off the edge though so if you are not using them the board can be smaller, or maybe have one over some of the board.
EDIT- Everything after this line is after the initial release. 7/23/23
The mosfet one looks better. It needs external power, but if you put 5V on there, I can’t see why the 5V one would be better in any way. But maybe I am missing something.
Please don’t go back to adjusting trim pots . It has to at least have digipots. Is there any way to combine them or get those uarts or spi on a separate IO chip?
It supports a lot of “headless” ways to run (screen, wifi adapter).
It is possible to edit it to force in new features like auto squaring.
This board has a wifi interface and a lot of flexibility in one board. It has auto squaring and I bet we could fit in some new features if we had to.
But still, ordering and selling a few dozen of these does not mean the rambo or skr pro is going away. It is just a small trial. If it works well, then this might be the first step towards that.
Many of us do have good feelings about Marlin. But we aren’t going to keep it for sentimental reasons. It has to earn its place based on merit.
Maybe you could take some ideas of the CNC shield I and @kockie-nl are using? OPEN-CNC-Shield 2
I am by no means an expert, but the base idea seems to be solid to be able to change the controller.
NEVER EVER! Well, we can have 2209’s but some things will need to be sacrificed since it takes an extra pin. I think that is fine, because it has two empty module ports. we would have to give one of those up I think. We’ll see what he says. There is SPI for the other drivers but I don’t know if that helps.
Oh and external plug in drivers take up less room because you can tuck the big caps under them. I am cool with that. Replaceable drivers (or a different driver) is fine.
The reason to offer this is to get a GRBL based board. It would be inexpensive and use espui, so no LCD. That saves money with the complexity tradeoff of the initial connection (for some).
That seems similar, is that only running the ESTLCAM firmware? I love the push connects.
On that note I asked for mostly Dupont connections instead of the expensive screw terminals. The screw terminals do open up the possibility of just sending out one long 6 cable wire and letting people make their own wires. (I would love that, I am sure a lot would not like that.)
I regards to more than 4 2209’s. “The only catch with them is that you only get 4 addresses. Using more than 4 requires dynamic control of the addressing pins or multiple UARTs. FluidNC currently supports multiple UART for drivers, but this would require using 2 precious gpio pins. It also uses all of the UARTs, so pendants, RS485, could be out of luck.”
I really think we want locking connectors like JSTs. Or as a compromise, removeable ones like on the SKR Pro 1.2 so people have choice. These machines move around, I don’t want my wires to fall out.
Nah, it can run any firmware if you exchange the controller module. It can do Arduino Mega (Estlcam), Beamicon, FluidNC, GRBL with a Mega or Uno, WinPC NC. This is the most interesting part about it.
The push connects I don’t really like, I opted for the terminals that I can plug and unplug. The power has got a push terminal that is already a bit loose.