slave processor

i am trying to set my repstrap up to use a slave processor to read the temps, but what i was wondering is if other people out there use them to control there heaters has well. so that it would also control the heated bed and barrel heaters has well. or do most people out there still use there main controller for that.

i am also looking at using a lcd to display information too from my slave processor, have many people tried that.?

In general, communicating a temperature readout over a serial line is more work for the controller than just computing it it locally. Generation 3 Electronics had such a concept, but not earlier or later versions for probably this reason.

If you want to see a controller with an LCD hooked up, see [reprap.org] , at the bottom of the page there are links to two pictures a bit hidden in the text.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

i was thinking that if it did enough it would help offset the extra work it made.

i was also not sure about how much a lcd would use the cpu cycles. so my theory was that if i could just get it to pass on the the taget temps to the slave processor that would just take care of it from there, so that it would turn the heaters on and off, and run the lcd

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2010 08:18PM by dissidence.

... i've got two Matrix Orbital displays with 2 and 4 rows and USB/serial port and some extra MOSFET-outputs for PWM and TWI-ports for communicating with other 'intelligent' devices.

Here the extra 'load' will be only updating the diplay and external ports per serial communication, but i think the USB-displays are pricey - the 2row costs around 70$, the 4rows around 100$.

'Simple' displays without an extra controller are much cheaper, but then you have more timing issues with syncing the byte-stream ...

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Viktor
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