New to LR3

Hello all and thanks for welcoming a new bee. I am beginning research on the LR3 build planned for summer. My approach will be to purchase a hardware kit form V1 and use one of the recommended routers etc. In a hope of “future proofing” this build I think I have a few “requirements” and those are the basis of my questions.
1.) I beleive WiFi is a requirement
2) I would like to add a laser cutter in the future
3) A wireless controller ala Onefinity
This all leads to the question concerning the initial controller. Of course the ones offered by V1 are attraction but if there is one that would better future proof my system I am more than willing to go in a new direction. Can anyone comment on first my believed requirements and two a direction for a control board that could/should meet them.
Thanks in advance. Steve

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Hey Steve, the SKR can be run headless: Add Wifi to SKR Pro step by step, so I think you should be good in that department. :smiley:

/edit: It seems that lightburn is not working wireless at the moment, but I guess it is just a matter of time.

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Thanks I was hoping the SKR would be a solution that could work for me. Do you know if my requirements are “doable” when it comes to the laser and the wireless control? I only ask because I am not sure of the “headless” term you used. I assume it means no laptop but…

It means you can run it via wifi, but not with a laser yet. The linked thread gives you a pretty good idea what it can and can’t do. :slight_smile:

Many thanks!

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I run my LR3 on a Duet 2 Wifi board.

To run the laser, I needed to add a board to convert a heater output (switched ground) to PWM for the laser. The Duet 2 doesn’t have an available +VCC PWM output, though the Duet 3 does.

Anyway, with the added board, it works fine for laser control, and of course full wifi connectivity to the Duet Web Control interface.

For the record, the SKR Pro board can run the RepRap Firmware, same as the Duet. There is an add-on board for it that will run the Duet Web Control interface as well. It does have pins that can be used for PWM control as well.

… It’s an option.

Shouldn’t be needed though. I have run the v1 Marlin firmware on the SKR Pro, with the ESP01S module in the TFT35E3 screen, which gives wifi access to the SD card, on fully stock V1 firmware, just update the screen to tell it to listen to the wifi module, which was a small matter.

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Thanks SupraGuy, Do either the Duet 2 + PWM board or the SKR + ESP01S enable the LR3 to control both a laser or a spindle? As far as wifi the interest. I would like to down load file and use a wireless controller for jog and home movement. Do both these boards enable that ability?

Thanks Again, Steve

My LR2 uses a router most of the time, i could define a spindle with PWM control, and it.also does the laser.with PWM.

Because I have a router, not a spindle, I didn’t define the router to have a controm pin, bit I could have. It does have the laser defined as a separate tool thst it can enable and disable.

I believe that the SKR Pro with Marli does work for both as well. Marlin does have tool change code, and it certainly works with both.

RRF (RepRap Firmware) is “Gcode everywhere” so I could (if I wanted) define completely different machines with entirely different configurations and change them by running a gcode file. Different steps/mm, even a completely different coordinate system, or different axis. Of course that’s a little extreme, but it could be done. As such, you can define different behaviour for different tools.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate the input. I am leaning toward the SKR + ESP0S for cost simplicity(I am familiar with Marlin). I will begin my research on the wireless jog/home control hopefully elsewhere on the forum
Best, Steve