Easiest firmware+board to create custom tools

Currently planning 3d printer number 3, and i would like to try developing a tool changer.
What would be the easier firmware and board combo for creating the custom command snippets for something like a tool change.

RepRapFirmare already has the capability to run custom command snippets for tool changing. This can be run on a select few 32-bit controller boards such as Due+RADDS or the Duet 0.8.5 board series. It runs on the newer Duet boards too, but there have been too many revisions in a short amount of time for my liking to actually purchase one. Perhaps when the boards are 4-5 years old they'll be debugged properly and stable. It may run on other platforms as well, but I don't know.

@PDBeal, even the first version of the Duet was better debugged than most other 3D printer boards. The incremental modifications we have been making are not because the original design was defective, unless you count the fact that on the original Duet WiFi 1.0, a short between a thermistor input and +24V would occasionally damage the processor, whereas my intention was that it should tolerate that short forever and a day. On almost every other 3D printer controller, this type of short will definitely destroy the processor.

The minor modifications we have made have been to further protect the Duet against miswiring, to make it easier for users to wire (does any other board allow you to connect a 24V inductive probe output directly to the Z probe input?), and to make it easier for our OEM customers (we have many now) to achieve CE certification without additional shielding - which is not easy when you have a WiFi module on board. A few of the recent changes were made to reduce production cost or increase specification by making use of more modern or more available components.

I firmly believe that moving closer to perfection by a policy of continuous improvement is vastly better than a policy of stagnation. By way of contrast, RAMPS still has the same major design flaws that were known about several years ago.

So don't delay, buy a Duet!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2018 06:21PM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Or you could buy 6 or 7 ramps style boards... and not worry about damaging them.

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Dust
Or you could buy 6 or 7 ramps style boards... and not worry about damaging them.

Don't forget that a RAMPS is no good without an Arduino, so you'll need 6 ot 7 of those too. And 6 or 7 displays or SD card sockets so that you can print from SD, because you'll get stuttering and zits if you print over USB. And lots of decent Trinamic drivers, if you want your printer to be quiet. And you'd better get some SSRs or MOSFET switches for the bed heater, because RAMPS can't handle the current safely. Best also budget for using 24V power, because that's what all the plug-in Trinamic drivers are happiest with. Oops, Arduino/RAMPS can't handle more than 12V VIN, so you'd better change the electrolytic capacitors and fuses on the RAMPS, and get a separate 5V PSU to avoid overheating the voltage regulator on the Arduino. When you decide you'd like a web interface, you'll need to get a RPi as well.

Now wire all those components together, mess around adding wires to the RAMPS to connect up the UART or SPI control lines on your drivers, and spend a few days trying to configure Marlin to drive them - every time you get it wrong it's a new edit/compile/upload cycle.

Alternatively, just get a Duet.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 03:38AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Can you create things like if commands in reprap firmware macros? For example if use a sensor/switch to confirm a tool has been picked up successfully or not, and if not to either try again or stop the print.

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Andy1989
Can you create things like if commands in reprap firmware macros? For example if use a sensor/switch to confirm a tool has been picked up successfully or not, and if not to either try again or stop the print.

Not yet, but it's scheduled for implementation in release 2.03 (we're currently at 2.02RC5). The draft outline specification is at [docs.google.com]. Our ideas have changed a little since that specification, for example we'll probably use indentation (Haskell/Python style) to delineate blocks instead of keywords like "endif".

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 02:04PM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Brilliant. Any idea when 2.03 will be available?

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Andy1989
Brilliant. Any idea when 2.03 will be available?

Release candidates should be available during January 2019.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].