New MKS SBASE Smoothieware-compatible board from China

Quote
bobc
BTW, it's engineers that are normal and sane. Non-engineers are the idiots.

I would actually have to disagree on that point.

I (Re)-trained to become certified as a Mechanical engineer much later in life than normal, I had been doing the my job for years and years without a thought, but modern company policy began to dictate that only "qualified" personnel was allowed to undertake the job even though I was always the one given the juniors with paper coming out their arse to look after, but they couldn't be trusted to make the bloody tea (they could explain the mathematical formula on how the water boiled though !!!)

And while studying for said "qualification" and not being a spotty young oik I quickly observed that most of these youngsters training to be "the future" had such tenuous grasp of reality that it was scary, and I have found that after gaining said "qualification" that it has served me as being useful 0000000.00001% of the time in everyday real world application and even then in that time I would have gotten to the nub of the matter without the "qualification".

So I am sorry most engineers think they are so clever when in reality they are that clever that they are in the real world stupid (remember its that place we all actually live in ), and many are so far up themselves because they "think" they are very clever. A piece of paper doth not maketh the man.

if you have a big C**k use it happily in the knowledge you have a big one without the need to wave it around.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2016 05:28AM by Calvinx66.

Quote
Calvinx66

Quote
bobc
BTW, it's engineers that are normal and sane. Non-engineers are the idiots.

I would actually have to disagree on that point.

I (Re)-trained to become certified as a Mechanical engineer much later in life than normal, I had been doing the my job for years and years without a thought, but modern company policy began to dictate that only "qualified" personnel was allowed to undertake the job even though I was always the one given the juniors with paper coming out their arse to look after, but they couldn't be trusted to make the bloody tea (they could explain the mathematical formula on how the water boiled though !!!)

And while studying for said "qualification" and not being a spotty young oik I quickly observed that most of these youngsters training to be "the future" had such tenuous grasp of reality that it was scary, and I have found that after gaining said "qualification" that it has served me as being useful 0000000.00001% of the time in everyday real world application and even then in that time I would have gotten to the nub of the matter without the "qualification".

So I am sorry most engineers think they are so clever when in reality they are that clever that they are in the real world stupid (remember its that place we all actually live in ), and many are so far up themselves because they "think" they are very clever. A piece of paper doth not maketh the man.

if you have a big C**k use it happily in the knowledge you have a big one without the need to wave it around.

Very well said.
I've lived in the IT industry since early 90s where I was a teen myself.. worked most of my life as self-learned (autodídaktos) and selfemployed person.. I later went to business school and finally also got some papers on my IT skills...

I always thought IT people were having a loose grip on reality and a general lack of peopleskills... however.. after doing much work with and general interaction with, I have come to learn that Electronics people.. especially engineers with focus on electronics and/or electric aspecs simple just live in another reality alltogether. Not meant in a positive way.

Being good at what you do means jack if you can't communicate it out. It might work in a big company, where you don't have to communicate it to anyone, but just perform your assigned tasks... taking your skills to reprap community or any other community requires a skillset which is rarely observed in said engineers.

So instead of insightfullness the result is (sadly) in most cases just a mass of meningless technicall sputters, leading nowhere except destructive discussion.

Edited multiple times to enhance readability

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2016 05:41AM by dintid.

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LoL, I was only trolling. I was just wondering how it would sound if I reversed the insults.

"Engineers are all nerds with poor social skills, who live with their parents and sit in their bedrooms typing angry messages at the internet"

Anyone like to guess what my point is?

Clue: stereotypes are bullshit, fodder for lazy minds.

I am a moron. You are a moron. We are all morons. So how about we stop with the little ad homs towards our pet hate groups, and stick to the subject? Please.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2016 05:27PM by bobc.

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Quote
bobc
LoL, I was only trolling. I was just wondering how it would sound if I reversed the insults.

"Engineers are all nerds with poor social skills, who live with their parents and sit in their bedrooms typing angry messages at the internet"

Anyone like to guess what my point is?

Clue: stereotypes are bullshit, fodder for lazy minds.

I am a moron. You are a moron. We are all morons. So how about we stop with the little ad homs towards our pet hate groups, and stick to the subject? Please.

It' actually a good subject and highly relevant. I call it stupid by education. I do not call anyone dumb, but I do think many people with specialized jobs/educations forgot where they come from.
Making many people blind and dumb to anything prior to their education. It so muddles up the communications because said people don't use their brains to remember how long they spend on learning what they now know..

My point was if only people would think a bit on the recievers of the messages instead of where you yourself are coming from, and the community in general would benefit greatly.

Being a troll or use sarcasm and irony is always out of place in a written community, as it pretty much never hits the mark, and just muddles everything up for several pages (at least).

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My Instructables - both total newbie instructables and some for intermediate users.
My Designs on Thingiverse
YouTube channel containing a few 3D printing videos - they are videos for my Instructables, and mostly not standalone.
Ultius / Tantillus Thingiverse Group

Just a question about the 25mhz crystal that is replaced next to the ethernet PHY controller; does it affect only the ethernet component in the board or possibly something else like USB as well?

My SBASE (v1.1 without the crystal changed) keeps disconnecting USB frequently. I've changed the power settings for my PC to not sleep USB devices and I've also disabled power management in each of the USB controller devices in device manager. I haven't tried a new cable or a new micro SD card but that's my next step.

The USB disconnects which drops connection through serial in Repetier Host or similar. The SD drive also flashes up a few minutes later and then disconnects again. They don't stay active for long enough to change settings (config.txt) or calibrate (vie G1 move commands) so I'm stuck at this part.

I do have a spare 25mhz crystal I got from an ethernet board that I can replace and some small capacitors that were next to it (assuming they're like the ones that flyaway97(?) used when they discovered the fix).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2016 11:17PM by Simpsoid.

I had what might be the same problem (version 1.3). In my case the USB would lose the connection with Repetier Host, and also when using PuTTY to interact with the Smoothieware command line, and usually a short while later I would get an error from Windows, and if I looked in the device manager, the USB device (not the COM port) would be marked with a "!" for a while and then disappear from the list. This only happened with Windows, on Linux it was fine. I tried all the same things as you - change SD, different cable, prevent Windows from suspending the device.

I also found the problem with a different board running Smoothieware (Azteeg X5), making me wonder if this is actually a Smoothieware issue, or an issue in the interaction between Smoothie and the Windows driver. Will be interested to hear if you find a solution. There is a more detailed report of the exact cases I tried at [groups.google.com].

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

Are you by any chance, using Windows 10? I have identical issue on Windows 10 64bit, but it is fine on Windows 7 32bit, raspbian and ubuntu.

I'm using Windows 10 x64 just fine on both PC and laptop. I had some issues but solved them by changing USB cable.

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My Instructables - both total newbie instructables and some for intermediate users.
My Designs on Thingiverse
YouTube channel containing a few 3D printing videos - they are videos for my Instructables, and mostly not standalone.
Ultius / Tantillus Thingiverse Group

Has anyone used the TFT screen with this card. I am using it and it's great. The problem I am having is, you can assign extra buttons for other commands like servo's. I am having trouble with getting the images to associate to the correct commands. I know this sounds vague. But I am sure if you have tried to do it, this should make sense. Basically the image I assign for button 1 ends up on button 2 and so forth. I would love to know How I get support for this product.

So just for some feedback about my issue that I mentioned a few posts up with the USB frequently disconnecting. I believe I identified and have resolved the problem. I was using Windows 10 x64 and using the 1.1 driver from the Smoothieware package and that worked fine.

I believe the problem was due to EMI from the (cheap no-name Chinese) power supply I was using. The printer sits on my desk and the power supply is right next to my PC and printer. I also have a cheap set of speakers. The USB constantly and randomly dropped (sometimes after 30 seconds, 1 hour, 180 seconds etc.). When I had my heated bed running I could hear the power supply ramp up and there was a massive amount of noise coming from my speakers (like the old phones next to the speakers noise). I knew then that it was likely EMI and the few reports of the USB disconnecting due to that (not many but the 1 google group mentioned earlier).

I had tried many different USB cables and some were better than others. The USB cable I was using when I first identified the problem had a single ferrite bead built in to the output (Printer) side. To fix my problem I ferrite shielded as many things as possible. I found a USB cable that had a ferrite bead on both ends. I also looped that cable 3 times through a larger ferrite bead I had. I changed my printer power supply to use a double ended Y cable that I have and plugged the PC into that. It's got a single power socket (wall plug) and a double IEC plug. Previously it went to my PC and monitor, now it's PC and printer. I did this to fix any ground loop issues I may have. I also put a single ferrite bead on the power into the printer (12v) as close as I could to the MSK SBASE board. That power cable also goes through the loop that I made for the USB (with the 3 times loop) since there was room. So it should also be shielded that way too. I opened up my cheap power supply and lubricated the tiny 30mm fan inside as well since it was making some audible noises.

So all up my USB cables have a ferrite bead at both ends of the cable, and another triple wound bead. The printer power goes through the triple wound bead and then another ferrite bead at area it plugs into the SBASE. My PC and Printer power supply are now supplied from the exact same power point using a Y cable. I do still hear some interference on my speakers when the bed is on, but not much.

The printer was connected all night and I did a largish print via USB with no issues. It connects immediately and looks like it stays connected all the time. All in all I think this solved the problem I was having but further testing is really required.

I have been building a large Core-XY printer and have been having some issues with the MKS SBASE board.

I can not get the Z grid leveling to work no matter what I try. Loading the latest SmoothieEdge firmware does not work at all. I have done a full format on the card (fat32) and still no success. The board seems incompatible with the latest Smoothieware. It will freeze periodically and Pronterface reports no auto level strategy found when executing a G32 with Z grid leveling enabled.

The mks based firmware works great but does not seem to support Z-grid leveling. However 3 point leveling works with the mks based firmware and the printer does not freeze during a print like it does with Smoothieware-edge.

Has anyone been able to get Z-grid leveling to work with this board on a cartesian based printer?

I might just go with an original Smoothieboard if I keep having theses issues.

have you checked the config file gone through the settings correctly

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Hi, sorry if I put this message here, I sell this mks sbase 1.2 board because I don't use it...the link with spec :
[forums.reprap.org]
Thanks

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2016 08:13AM by RikyRap.

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The board mks sbase 1.2 in the prevoius post is no longer for sale.
Thanks

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Il mio blog su Stampa 3D, Arduino e Multicotteri
[riccardoquirici.wordpress.com]
CoreXY, Alligator v2, Igus e Skf, flusso canalizzatore hot end IeC, MKDUO, Nextion display 4.3, in evoluzione...
[youtu.be]
Prusa i3, Ramps 1.4, Greg wade con filo 3mm e ugello 0.5, Slic3r, Cura, Repetier Host, Sprinter Firmware.
[www.youtube.com]

Quote
chris33
have you checked the config file gone through the settings correctly

Numerous times.

do you have a 5v input on that board as well as a USB? If so unplug the 5v. If no, is there a 5V regulator off the primary power supply? If yes the disconnect the usb connection and opt for local control or Ethernet. Also what are you doing to keep it cool? A problem I have experienced with the heat sinking pcbs is their impact on the other parts of the circuitry. Heat = resistance and a sudden increase of resistance can cause odd behavior and errors or Data corruptions.

I have tried to execute the z grid leveling from a gcode file on the sd card with no usb connection to the board. I have a rerapdiscount 12864 lcd to control the printer localy. I have a 24v power supply to the board and no other power source connected. I suspect the SBASE board has some proprietary firmware specific to the design and hardware used on the board.

drop your config settings in here so people can see

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Having a look through my config file and also new to smoothieware myself, it seems you have to write in more functions for the probing to work, as in the sample config files i have don't have the coordinates for the probe points ans reading up on the smoothieware website, it looks like you have to add that piece in yourself

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There is a BUG in the board. Checked v1.2 v1.3
Affected only those who uses display with cardreader.
Both cddetect pins of internal microsdcardreader and external cardreader are connected to one processor pin! And
I need to reset the board every time I reinsert flashcard into my display cardreader.
So I cutted the microsdcardreader wire, and solved the problem.

I plan to attached ssr to the input as a safety cutoff when anything goes wrong. But my problem is the ssr will be in OFF-State when first power up the psu, how to put ssr on ON-state for this situation? Or is there any 5v input for sbase board?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2016 10:43PM by davidwyl.

i plan to implement Solid state relay controlled safety cutoff but which pin should i use on mks sbase?

switch.psu.enable true # turn atx on/off
switch.psu.input_on_command M80 #
switch.psu.input_off_command M81 #
switch.psu.output_pin 1.30 # small mosfet (NB not inverted)
switch.psu.output_type digital # on/off only
#switch.psu.ignore_on_halt true # so the PSU does not turn off on a HALT condition (like limit trigger)
# However leave commented or set to false if you want the PSU to turn off for an over heat fault condition

tried every single pin but non of those pin switch off the ssr in halt state.
any idea?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2016 08:45AM by davidwyl.

i thought a solid state relay works by having enough input voltage to trigger the switch ie ive seen 3v-32v input so i would imagine minimal would be 3v i don't know but hopefully when i get the parts ill try and figure it out, because i need to do the exact same, i was talking to someone on the irc about the sbase and he advised me to run the heatbed seperate through a ssr and i just though if he has done it its possible.

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Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

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anyone get ZGrid ZProbe to work on mks sbase?
can u share your config file ?

i mounted the sensor off the bed when home x and y , how to i get the firmware to probe moving the sensor within the bed area?

Quote
dintid
Created a new instructables on how to add an extra fan or use fan with different voltage using PWM pin on the Sbase and configuring Smoothieware.
Sbase/Smoothieware - Use a Free PWM Pin and Power Expander or SSR to Control Fans.

Hi.
Is it possible to use one of free PWM pins to control servo? If yes - please could you make the same instructions how to make it? Thanks.

i'm looking to get one of these

with it being from china, are there any pitfalls?

Quote
boelle
i'm looking to get one of these

with it being from china, are there any pitfalls?

I never got mine to communicate with Windows reliably. I had no useful support from the vendor. If you don't need dual extruders and are willing to pay more (though still less than a real smoothieboard), consider the azteeg x5 instead. They are based in the USA and communication with them is a little easier. Other people on this forum have had no problems with the sbase, it seems.

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See my blog at [moosteria.blogspot.com].

Quote
animoose


I never got mine to communicate with Windows reliably. I had no useful support from the vendor. If you don't need dual extruders and are willing to pay more (though still less than a real smoothieboard), consider the azteeg x5 instead. They are based in the USA and communication with them is a little easier. Other people on this forum have had no problems with the sbase, it seems.

Have you a photo of the sbase you have there are currently 3 types out there plus clones. the 1st version is the unfixed version which has usb and Ethernet connections problems, (many of the clones have this one). the 2nd was a manually fixed by makerbase by adding hand soldering two crystals, then the third was a clean board with the crystals fixed in. if you have the first iteration or a a board not from makerbase.cn then no doutbly you will have those issues

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Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

up and running
[3dimetech.blogspot.co.uk]

Quote
chris33

Quote
animoose


I never got mine to communicate with Windows reliably. I had no useful support from the vendor. If you don't need dual extruders and are willing to pay more (though still less than a real smoothieboard), consider the azteeg x5 instead. They are based in the USA and communication with them is a little easier. Other people on this forum have had no problems with the sbase, it seems.

Have you a photo of the sbase you have there are currently 3 types out there plus clones. the 1st version is the unfixed version which has usb and Ethernet connections problems, (many of the clones have this one). the 2nd was a manually fixed by makerbase by adding hand soldering two crystals, then the third was a clean board with the crystals fixed in. if you have the first iteration or a a board not from makerbase.cn then no doutbly you will have those issues

i bought mine directly from the official MKS shop @ taobao, so it is definetely the genuine version. I have the second version which has the crytals hand soldered. i have the exact same issue.

I've done some troubleshooting. It appears that only Windows 10 64bit are affected. The board is able to communicate via usb reliably on a virtual machine running ubuntu (with a Windows 10 host that always have usb issues with the board). The board is able to work on a real machine running Windows 7 64bit. Considering i am using raspberry pi that runs octoprint, i dont care that much. It is definetely something to do with the Windows 10 driver, but i am not sure it is MKS Sbase specific or not.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2016 06:48AM by megablue.

Hi,

You who are using this controller board, what stepper motors (P/N) and what PSU voltage are you running?

I’m definitely considering this board for my build but I’m afraid about the high pitch noise some are describing when searching info on the DRV8825’s.

Thank you in advanced.