So I’ve been browsing the the Jackpot category and was hoping someone could help shed some light one a couple things for me.
Currently I have a MPCNC Burly with Rambo 1.4, and control it Via Octoprint. I do have a laser engraver as well as a CNC
Current workflow is to generate GCODE on PC, upload to Octoprint, and use that to send GCodes to the Rambo (I don’t like lugging my laptop back and forth)
Link to my build: Canadian MPCNC - Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC / Your Builds - V1 Engineering Forum
What I was hoping to find out was:
Would upgrading from Rambo to Jackpot improve my laser engraving performance? or would simply upgrading to a 32bit SKS board be better?
Has anyone been using the Jackpot board with a Pi and CNC.js? If so how is that working?
Yes it can, for raster images, I am sure the command limit is not messing with your vector uses.
Almost no change it to be had from this setup.
I have no experience with this, what would the point of the Pi be in this case? If it is just for wireless file transfers, the jackpot can do that, but moving a SD card is still preferred more so with very large files (laser etchings).
People are complaining about moving files around kind of a lot, I think a few SD cards solves that issue. You have to go to your computer to make any changes, and you can not run the machine without being near it, so, best case is just have a few memory cards and sneaker net the files.
My main reason for using the pi would be that I already have one, and the ability to have a Keyboard/mouse/display without having to worry about a tablet or phone in the shop is ideal for me. The file copy is just a bonus really.
Sneaker net…I like that lol
I guess I’m not that familiar with the interface, and have not been able to see many video demos on Youtube of what it looks like / its features in comparison CNC.js which I know has a lot of configuration/info available. I have Octoprint pretty well configured for jogging and macros, and apart from never being able to get the raster to work I’m pretty happy with the setup. Not compiling marlin would also be a nice bonus if we see future upgrades on that front
Using the Tablet pane for jogging is great! Jogging is much more responsive and quick with the fluidNC.
BUT - one big thing that I miss a lot with fluidNC is the graphical representation of the gcode uploaded. With CNCjs I could always double check sizes, positioning, zeroing and such.
I used v1pi with grbl_esp and fluidnc and it worked fine. I haven’t tried the latest versions of fluidnc. But the pi wifi interface was more reliable. Fluidnc may have caught up a bit though.
Actually, the jackpot will get 5V power from the pi in that configuration and not boot properly. You would need a cable that has the +5V pin cut. The board I used previously didn’t have TMC drivers.
so I am thinking of going to to the Jackpot and upgrading my laser from an Endurance 3.5w to a Neje A40640II, I have a meanwell 12v 10amp power supply, does the jackpot run well with a 12v PSU? Any recommendation on current (amps) required for the jackpot?
For the laser, you might want the 24V PSU (for the Jackpot, not the laser module) for the speed advantage, but 10A should be enough for both.
The Jackpot should run perfectly well at 12V. We know the 2209 drivers do, as many SKR Pro boards out there run on 12V, and the ESP32 is running internally on 3.3V and 5V, so no problem on the logic side.
Give 4A for the NEJE laser module, 1A each for the motors (plenty of headroom there, actually) and you’ve got plenty of room with a 10A supply.
Most of us won’t come close to straining a 3D printer power supply. Heaters take a lot of power and we don’t need them.
So does using a 24v supply for the jackpot allow maximum speeds wrt the processor or the stepper drivers? Im not looking to break records i would just like to improve my 22mm/s max speed in raster mode. Working some of my larger signs take forever to raster at that speed
Stepper motors generate voltage counter to rheir movement, so as speed increases, the voltage needed to generate and maintain torque increases. Therefore the 24V power helps the motors generate and maintain torque and control at higher speeds than 12V can. 12V is still good to any reasonable.speed that milling will use, but a more powerful laser like the 40640 may benefit from faster speeds that 24V can help ensure.
The processor and logic circuits operate at a fixed 5V/3.3V internally, and that’s all it needs. (I suppose you could overclock an ESP32 module, but that would still be way under 12V for requirements. Regardless, we don’t need more processing power for much more rapid movement. The Jackpot is good for some very fast raster laser action. (@vicious1 has good data on this, better than I have.)
My advise would be to build with the 12V supply that you have, but be open to using a separate 24V supply for the Jackpot if you find that you want to use higher speed and acceleration than the 12V allows. This would almost certainly only apply to engraving, cutting even thin material should not push those limits.
Hey, all, I was thinking about upgrading my Rambo to a jackpot as well. I’m wondering if anyone has done this and if so, what you liked and what you didn’t like about the upgrade.
It seems like the upgrade would give me a faster setup with more upgrade options. But I definitely want to make sure it’s reliable and consistent and I’m not losing anything there.
Greetings, Alex.
It looks like your earlier posts around 3 years ago are about an MPCNC? Is that what you have?
I only de-lurked a couple of years back, so missed seeing anything you posted.
Rambo is a really robust board, I don’t have one in a V1 machine but I do have them from the TAZ series of printers- I still use my TAZ 5 regularly.
Can you tell the community more about your machine? Do you use an LCD? What CAM? What’s your workflow like?
Jackpot is a great board, and FluidNC is a modern firmware designed and built from its GRBL roots to be a CNC control software.
The ESP32 that is the brains of it all has built-in WiFi, so you can operate your Jackpot controller from any device with a web browser. There are also pendant options, and options for other spindle types.
The ESP32 is way faster than the processor in your Rambo, so that translates mostly into features, but it doesn’t magically make the system “better”.
Most folks would consider the Jackpot to be a really worthy upgrade to an existing machine.
It does take a bit of learning to figure out how the config files work, and how to use the WebUI or pendant.
Maybe if you can describe more about what you’d like to do next with your machine and what your use cases are, the community can help you further.
Edit- I also see this is a reply to an existing forum topic.
You may want to start a new topic so more folks that watch for new stuff may discover the discussion.
