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  1. #1

    Smoothieboard Who's using it

    as the title says just curious as to who is using the Smothieboard controller, and how do you find it?

    I've been using one for a couple of months I replaced a Ramps board and I have to say I find it much much better, I can print quicker the heated bed is quicker at getting up to temp and the network interface is very handy also setting the Currnet for the motors in firmware is a very good idea indeed.

  2. #2
    I am building my first printer using a smoothie board I will let you know once I have dialled it in attempt my first test prints.

  3. #3
    Hi Everyone

    I am currently looking to replace my RAMPS with a Smoothieboars.

    Does anyone have any further updates on this?

    Rgs

  4. #4
    Staff Engineer printbus's Avatar
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    I migrated my MakerFarm i3v from RAMPS/Marlin to Smoothieboard v1.0a x5/Smoothieware in early 2015. Like cwaa said, the ability to change the printer configuration by editing a text file is pretty slick. I should never have to compile my own Smoothieware build. In fact, I think it's been over a year since I bothered fetching an updated binary file. What I have had has been working fine as it is.

    If you haven't seen it, the primary information repository is at http://smoothieware.org/

    There's also the #smoothieware channel on freenode IRC. There's usually people involved with the board and firmware development available there.
    Last edited by printbus; 09-28-2016 at 10:56 AM. Reason: added v1.0a x5 detail

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by cwaa View Post
    There is a Google Group that helps with Smoothi9e ware:
    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...ieware-support

    I would like to switch to smoothie but im afraid my limited skills wouldnt let me figure out how to make the changes necessary in the firmware text file to emulate what I have today

  6. #6
    Staff Engineer printbus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dunginhawk View Post
    I would like to switch to smoothie but im afraid my limited skills wouldnt let me figure out how to make the changes necessary in the firmware text file to emulate what I have today
    Of course, the IRC channel and google forum would be there to help you out.

    You could always download the firmware and starting looking at the configuration file, even before purchasing hardware. The documentation on the smoothieware.org site is pretty extensive - there are step by step guides for setting up a 3D printer, a laser cutter, and a CNC machine. Then there is also general detail provided for each of the configurable features in the firmware. Knowing how your printer is currently configured is actually a pretty strong plus, as opposed to starting from scratch. The pin numbering scheme took a bit to get used to, but other than that I don't recall struggling with it.

    Note: If you use Simplify3D, you never want to admit to it in at least the Smoothieware IRC channel. Being closed and for-profit, the Smoothie developers outright declare Simplify3D as being incompatible with Smoothie and pretty much refuse to help those people using it.
    Last edited by printbus; 09-30-2016 at 01:41 PM. Reason: clarity

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by zx81 View Post
    as the title says just curious as to who is using the Smothieboard controller, and how do you find it?

    I've been using one for a couple of months I replaced a Ramps board and I have to say I find it much much better, I can print quicker the heated bed is quicker at getting up to temp and the network interface is very handy also setting the Currnet for the motors in firmware is a very good idea indeed.
    I may be the odd one out here. Dumped my Smoothieboard and went to a DuetWiFi.
    As others have said if you use Simplify3D forget it!
    They have supposedly been working on a more modern smoothie for well over a year. You may want to look at the blog relating to that. It hasn't been updated in about a year, so it doesn't give one any idea on the progress of a newer board with better stepper drivers, better processor, and support for more stepper motors or heaters. The documentation on the current one is very good but I consider the board past it's prime.

  8. #8
    Staff Engineer printbus's Avatar
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    Well, I use Simplify3D with Smoothie and it currently seems to be fine. I had a few hang issues before, but not since updating Simplify3D to v3. You just *do not* want to ask for help with it, at least not in the IRC channel.

    I wouldn't wait for the new smoothieboard. It comes up in the IRC channel fairly regularly. The board developers simply will not commit to a promise date. It probably doesn't help that there will be, as I understand it, different versions. The "pro" version will have an FPGA core on it too yet. It has been apparent that there's been a major push on smoothieware firmware evolvement this year. It could be that the developers wanted that TCO first in order to establish a fairly solid baseline that would then be migrated to the new board, but that's just me guessing.

    True, the current v1.0 smoothieboard may not be pushing the current envelope, but it's farther along the evolution path than an 8-bit Atmel ATMEGA processor with a RAMPS shield.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by printbus View Post
    Well, I use Simplify3D with Smoothie and it currently seems to be fine. I had a few hang issues before, but not since updating Simplify3D to v3. You just *do not* want to ask for help with it, at least not in the IRC channel.

    I wouldn't wait for the new smoothieboard. It comes up in the IRC channel fairly regularly. The board developers simply will not commit to a promise date. It probably doesn't help that there will be, as I understand it, different versions. The "pro" version will have an FPGA core on it too yet. It has been apparent that there's been a major push on smoothieware firmware evolvement this year. It could be that the developers wanted that TCO first in order to establish a fairly solid baseline that would then be migrated to the new board, but that's just me guessing.

    True, the current v1.0 smoothieboard may not be pushing the current envelope, but it's farther along the evolution path than an 8-bit Atmel ATMEGA processor with a RAMPS shield.

    The Duetwifi has a 32 bit processor. That alone doesn't make one board substantially better than another that I can see. There are a number of other things that are different. The stepper drivers are much better. The duet has expansion capabilities that the Smoothie does not. I'm not an electrical engineer but they are certainly different and one might want to make comparisons based on desirability of certain features.

  10. #10
    Staff Engineer printbus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tpete61 View Post
    The Duetwifi has a 32 bit processor. That alone doesn't make one board substantially better than another that I can see. There are a number of other things that are different. The stepper drivers are much better. The duet has expansion capabilities that the Smoothie does not. I'm not an electrical engineer but they are certainly different and one might want to make comparisons based on desirability of certain features.
    Agreed. The question on the table was whether anyone had updates on replacing RAMPS with a Smoothieboard, which is what I've tried to address. I'll clarify that I wasn't trying to come across as a Smoothieboard fan-boy. There's probably some number of boards that can be argued as "better" than smoothie, especially viewed from the needs of a particular user. Even in early 2015 when I bought my Smoothieboard I was aware it wasn't the latest thing out there. But my priorities at the time were in migrating to a board with a proven track record, immediate availability, access to support, having a firmware solution not built on Arduino, and where firmware development was occurring with more structure and test than what Marlin had at the time.

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