New 32 bits ARM MKS Robin with TFT??

You can land this website to get the English instructions and firmware.[github.com]
If you can't understand well, you can send mail to us please.

Quote
grimlock
printer use only half of hot bed, changing any valuein config file and resetting board do not give any change,,

Question is, does it move in the right scale then?
Maybe there are other parameters like max. bedsize, preventing the head to move further?

Still waiting for mine here in Calgary, AB!
My Robin board:
It was supostely shipped out on Nov 04 after two weeks of issues with the makerbase'Taobao and only after paying extra shipping fees, the Aliexpress' Makerbase department took the charge and sent it out... ( Miss Zhong helped greatly!) not sure if it pew I'll have the same ending as my Mks Sbase board.....
Also still waiting, my other Mks Sbase board order, now is 1.5 month and no show, and I afraid that it is lost in postal.......
Very sad for the moment.....
I suggest everyone to order the goods and use e-package that has better tracking system than the register mail!
It arrives fast and fully traceable from the start to the end.
I ordered a hot bed aluminum on Nov 26 and received yesterday....
Hope my experience serve to help others.....
Sad.......

Kind replay from Markerbaseofficial Aliexpress shop

King Zhong
2016-12-06 22:50
Dear sir, sorry for my delay.
According to your desciption, the board has been broken.
You can try to fix it well or send it back to me and we resend you a new one.
What would you like to do?
Thanks.


Luckily i sold board today on Ebay for spare parts or repair
I do not reccommended to order this board until do not have new version vell testd by user
Good bye Markerbase

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2016 10:14AM by grimlok2000.

Sorry to jump on this thread but needs must, Flyaway i posted in other post about more english, especially in the tft configuration theres no point having the settings in english and the subheadings in chinese. im trying to get the more g29 and g32 to work on the more buttons but don't know how to change the button names not the icons, when i did the g29 it just crashed into my bed so i loaded up pronterface and went through my computer and it didnt crash,

---

Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

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

,from first day i have problem with temperature reading,inverting stepper motor direction changing homing direction...motherboard do not responding on any changing value in config,i try to set micro-step on board to 1/16 removing 2 jumper and get immediate whistling sound and freezing display ,,it is defective board
MKS offer to replace board .
Robin have new price and shipping to Croatia on Aliexpress shop , increased to 84 usd ,after buying stepper drivers go up to 90usd .
Today i sold board on ebay for spare parts,i have no intention to waste my time and money on not tested and unfinished product sent on market just before Black Friaday and Chrismas time

here is link to Sbase and 3,2 tft for 74 usd includig shipping ..trouble free ,dual extruder,network connector ,auto level power detection,wifi ,,all working .Comunity do not support MKSSbase clone but you can find answer for any trouble .

[www.aliexpress.com]

To me it looks like the MKS Robin is a tailor made controller for one type of printer ( or one specific customer ). But they are selling surplus production to the masses now. ( maybe the customer went bankrupt? )
Now they try to make the firmware a bit more universal, but that takes time. Too bad, they don't use the power of the open source community for that

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2016 05:20AM by o_lampe.

New price is reduced to 45 usd + shipping ,,included 5 pcs stepper driver 4988.. Now you can order full kit for price of Atmega and full graphic display,,....I do not believe firmware will upgraded to dual extruder ,,All bunch of connectors on board is usseles,second extruder wifi,autoevel, continous power ,,,on display missing lot standard icon and function you get on standard 2,8 tft display,,.All together looks like bad copy of Chitu motherboard..Highly recommended to avoid order for some time,,

I make true feedback on Ali shop for my order,Ii get bad product and defective product,no respond from technical support,slow respond from ali shop,,no solution for fix problem ,,MKS offer full refund and return board back to China ..That is fact

Spent a couple of days playing with MKS TFT32... The board seems to be okay to make a good firmware for it
My progress in hacking this toy: [hackaday.io]

Maybe I'll hack Robin too, later. It looks interesting to me...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2016 05:31PM by rstepanov.

thats pretty cool you done that wish i knew where to start to change firmware nice option would be a simple keyboard to input gcode manually be good

---

Check my rubbish blog for my prusa i3

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

Quote
chris33
thats pretty cool you done that wish i knew where to start to change firmware nice option would be a simple keyboard to input gcode manually be good

Unfortunately there is no way to "change" firmware since Makerbase didn't publish it. You can only make a new one from scratch. It takes a lot of time but no other options available...

Ordering this semi finished board is big mistake,Developing firmware is impossible mission,You save only 20 usd comparing ordering MKS Sbase smothieboard and 3,2" display buying on Ali ,For 20 usd saving you get sheet board ,incomplete firmware and no support .Now when they have not open source self develop firmware they have big trouble ,Big trouble have all customers who order this board,,Markerbse can offer only refund for defective product,,They can not fix nothing ..So it is easy clone finished product and open source firmware but difficult to make own product ,
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO NOT BUY THIS CRAP BOARD
community exist to share experience,,,you do not need to make mistake ad throw your money on street

Quote
rstepanov

Quote
chris33
thats pretty cool you done that wish i knew where to start to change firmware nice option would be a simple keyboard to input gcode manually be good

Unfortunately there is no way to "change" firmware since Makerbase didn't publish it. You can only make a new one from scratch. It takes a lot of time but no other options available...

Dear sir,sorry to bring you trouble.
We will publish the new Robin firmware next year, please please wait with patience.
Thanks a lot.

Quote
grimlok2000
New price is reduced to 45 usd + shipping ,,included 5 pcs stepper driver 4988.. Now you can order full kit for price of Atmega and full graphic display,,....I do not believe firmware will upgraded to dual extruder ,,All bunch of connectors on board is usseles,second extruder wifi,autoevel, continous power ,,,on display missing lot standard icon and function you get on standard 2,8 tft display,,.All together looks like bad copy of Chitu motherboard..Highly recommended to avoid order for some time,,

I make true feedback on Ali shop for my order,Ii get bad product and defective product,no respond from technical support,slow respond from ali shop,,no solution for fix problem ,,MKS offer full refund and return board back to China ..That is fact

Good day,sir.
Strongly sorry to make you confused and unsatisfied. I need to make some explanations to you.
1.The MKS Robin cost was reduced by 45usd+shipping fee, it's because 8G sd card was sold out on market,there is no sd card coming with the Robin board,so that we cut down 5usd for compensation;
2.In the products description, we don't describe the MKS Robin supports 2 extruders. But we're going to publish a new firmware next year, and the new firmware will support 2 extruders;
3.Apologize for our late reply and weak service for you. After we analyzed your problems decription, we decided to give you refund and got back your board to research and fix it to make up. We do pomise we will improve our technical support and service;
4.Sincerely thanks for your feedback, we will keep learning and improving.
Finally, if you have any other questions or problems, you can contact me anytime. My mail adress is king@makerbase.com.cn. I will try my best to give you reply and resolve your problems as soon as posibble.
Wish you a nice day!

Quote
Bobyni
Still waiting for mine here in Calgary, AB!
My Robin board:
It was supostely shipped out on Nov 04 after two weeks of issues with the makerbase'Taobao and only after paying extra shipping fees, the Aliexpress' Makerbase department took the charge and sent it out... ( Miss Zhong helped greatly!) not sure if it pew I'll have the same ending as my Mks Sbase board.....
Also still waiting, my other Mks Sbase board order, now is 1.5 month and no show, and I afraid that it is lost in postal.......
Very sad for the moment.....
I suggest everyone to order the goods and use e-package that has better tracking system than the register mail!
It arrives fast and fully traceable from the start to the end.
I ordered a hot bed aluminum on Nov 26 and received yesterday....
Hope my experience serve to help others.....
Sad.......

Dear sir, have you recieved your packege now? If not, you can contact me on aliexoress or send me mail, my mail adress is king@makerbase.com.cn

1.In the products description, you don't clearly describe the MKS Robin supports 1 extruders. You have 5 stepper drivers on photos and E1 and E0 connectors presenting board as dual extruder. Your seller on E-bay thanksbuyer-hobby know well that Robin supporting single extruder but not declared in description,,,That is cheating of your customer,


2.I sold Robin as defective board and lose some money ,Your support and kindly offered full refunding for this board is not require. My feedback on Ali will remain unchanged.
My comment and recommendation to not purchase this board on forum will remain unchanged,

3.i recommend to purchase MKS Sbase and 3,2TFT display

[www.aliexpress.com]


Kind regards
Edvard

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2016 02:37AM by grimlok2000.

Quote
flyway97
Dear sir,sorry to bring you trouble.
We will publish the new Robin firmware next year, please please wait with patience.

I asked about MKS TFT32 LCD manufacturer on Aliexpress Makerbase store one week ago, no one bothered to reply. So I assume you provide no service at all.

Quote
grimlok2000
1.In the products description, you don't clearly describe the MKS Robin supports 1 extruders. You have 5 stepper drivers on photos and E1 and E0 connectors presenting board as dual extruder. Your seller on E-bay thanksbuyer-hobby know well that Robin supporting single extruder but not declared in description,,,That is cheating of your customer,


2.I sold Robin as defective board and lose some money ,Your support and kindly offered full refunding for this board is not require. My feedback on Ali will remain unchanged.
My comment and recommendation to not purchase this board on forum will remain unchanged,

3.i recommend to purchase MKS Sbase and 3,2TFT display

[www.aliexpress.com]
You're right, it's really our mistake that we do not describe the MKS Robin doesn't support 2 extruders until the new firmware is published.
It's right you keeo the feedback unchanged, which would remind us to keep learning and improving.
From this thing, we will get more experience and pay more attention to the service and details.
Thanks a lot and sorry again,


Kind regards
Edvard

Thanks guys , i was just buying the board , i canceled , pitty for Grimmlook200, i hope you get better boards or communication with mks .
You safed me money , by making this open in the rerap community.
thanks again , i will keeping follow this .
Greeting from the Netherlands ,NL
Daantje.

Quote
flyway97

Quote
Bobyni
Still waiting for mine here in Calgary, AB!
My Robin board:
It was supostely shipped out on Nov 04 after two weeks of issues with the makerbase'Taobao and only after paying extra shipping fees, the Aliexpress' Makerbase department took the charge and sent it out... ( Miss Zhong helped greatly!) not sure if it pew I'll have the same ending as my Mks Sbase board.....
Also still waiting, my other Mks Sbase board order, now is 1.5 month and no show, and I afraid that it is lost in postal.......
Very sad for the moment.....
I suggest everyone to order the goods and use e-package that has better tracking system than the register mail!
It arrives fast and fully traceable from the start to the end.
I ordered a hot bed aluminum on Nov 26 and received yesterday....
Hope my experience serve to help others.....
Sad.......

Dear sir, have you recieved your packege now? If not, you can contact me on aliexoress or send me mail, my mail adress is king@makerbase.com.cn

No yet Miss Zhong...:-(
I really don't know what is going on with postal service.
Nov 08 th was the last tracking info I can see from the postal website, thereafter nothing....
Thanks for asking.. Still waiting.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2016 01:14AM by Bobyni.

Sorry sir, I would deal with every question on aliexpress everyday except Sunday and holiday.
Sorry again to delay your questions, you can contact me: King@makerbase.com.cn.
Merry Chrismas.

in the end, I got my refund, but received the board just couple days ago! and re-paid back to the seller.
This board replaces my OEM Zonestar Melzi "V3b" board.

Here is my impression on this little 32bit board:

with the available firmware v1.01, the temperature control for the hot end was not good at all. the temperature would oscillate in +- 10C.

But then the updated firmware was released and sent to me yesterday: V1.02 with PID control enabled,
Autotune PID worked and this has brought the control of the hot-end to the +-0.8C

Basically, the closed "firmware" is based on Repetier firmware.


TFT touch screen 3.2"
- comes as standard. basic control no live info like Full graphic discount LCD
- does not have its own processor, so it is run by the STM 32bis CPU from the main board.

Config file

The config file uses almost identical function's names as the repetier with the difference of instead of repetier's "# " it uses ">" in MKS
MKS' configuration are limited, or restricted. it has lesser options than repetier's (removed)
with every modification, you would need to save the new changes into the config file and replace the .cur back to TXT and reboot the board and all the changes will get updated and saved into EEPROM. (saving the config file onto a SD card)
USB serial are stable, using at 115200

I am using the DRV8825
- with mod of fast decay on Y axis (X asis was way to noisy) in 1/32 micro steppes
-no mod on X axis (x axis MIN distance negative value - xx.xx since it is off from the hot bed when x homes, in my case -49.5mm)

A9488 on Z axis

one FAN

works well with Astro print (my current setup)

will have to use the smoothing diode mod.
since the DRV8825 produces some pasterns on the print.

Still will have to invest time in testing how to enable the auto-leveling, since I used to use the photoelectric sensor.
WIFI module no tested yet.
It has Power off detect, but it needs a small board from MKS that I did not purchased.

and will have to test the dual extrusion when I modify my printer....

I think it is a great entry level 32 bits STM board for the price.

suggested Makerbase to release the pin outs so, it could be customized to others firmware, but I guess it has to add the portion of coding for their touch screen...

Hope this can help some one.

some first prints top TFT case
the pattern created by DRV8825, I think

hi

nice review..
new version of firmware is published on github,,still not sepporting dual extruder,,

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2017 01:19PM by grimlok2000.

to add my first impressions...

board assembly quality is on geeetech level (i own their g2s)
looking at the soldiering job.
provided stl for screen cover, has misaligned screw holes.
same as gt2560 board, picky SD compatibility.
haven't looked at previous FWs, but i hope 2.0.2 isn't the final one.
i intended to use it on delta, but lack of corrections options doesn't look promising...
i could only communicate with their pronterface, repetier-host supposedly connects but times-out on any command, S3d fails to connect on recognized COM port. (tested with only one cable, so still to be tested again...)
running m503 command isn't recognised, so it leaves me wondering if there are any offsets implemented.

as I mentioned, i only spent limited time on this, since i have to reconfigure whole printer to have it mechanically adjustable.

so far it looks like i shoot myself in the foot, going with this board... but i will reevaluate once i finish assembly, again

Glad to have some one else
Using this board.

Glimlik2000 advised me that the board is no longer available on their official Ali and Taobao store

It is based on reoetuer firmware and I did use repetuer host and it was prior the new firmware release.
That I had to struggle to control the temp if my extruder.

Most of the function in g code works, only when you want to manipulate the EEPROM then some of saved values would not be able to be changed.

If you bought the board from MAkerBase, try to send a direct e-mail to then to seek the settings you are in need and see if that way you could sort things out!!

Miss king's email was posted couple post above.

Tested using ASTRO print and Octoprints on my Prusa i3 clone and it is great prints so far.

Modify config. cUr back to TXT and pop in hot and press reset and changes should take in please.
No need to re load firmware every time.

Cheers

ok, now this doesn't look good then...
i just checked on my seller ali site, no longer available
i guess that post about limited run seems most logical,
wish i seen that before i purchased...

regarding offsets, lets put it this way... my main reason for moving from marlin to repetier on gt2560 was easier calibration. everything you wish for is in eeprom tab nicely sorted, no need to fiddle with m66x commands.
so, where to start in the email
and not just offsets, home (info) screen is much missed.

not to be so negative, i can confirm it "works" with external drivers (drv8825 based) for axis, with geeetech a4988 for extruder.
i had to move off rails and on metal rollers, party because of
combination of parts used and lack of "electrical" adjustability.

bit more info on specific build
[plus.google.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2017 07:03PM by Piscanc.

Hi, no longer available because out of stock. and will resell after about 15 days.

We will keep on develop the firmware. If have any question can send email to king@makerbase.com.cn, we will reply soon. thanks.

Quote
flyway97
Hi, no longer available because out of stock. and will resell after about 15 days.

We will keep on develop the firmware.

that is nice to hear

my communication problems were caused by the cable.
on different one, Repetier and S3d connected first time.

Well if anyone wants one I would happily sell mine.
I am not sure what is going on in stm land, but the STM boards all seem to run closed source.

The only reason I can think of for not disclosing the source is licensing or attribution.
Either the manufacturers are using tools to gen the code that require licensing from stm, or the code is stolen and they don't want to reveal that to reprap community.

Luckily the problem seems to be solving it self, but not without cost to early adopters.

Most folks interested in 3d printers and Making in general won't buy a closed source product, provided its closed nature disclosed and they understand that before purchase. So the manufacturer will have to disclose, or sales will ultimately suffer. (Unfortunately for those that bought these products, without sales, the closed source programmers will get assigned to more profitable code lines or no longer be employed to compete with the open source community's aggregated coding power)

Either way, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for firmware and support. You had better get writing it yourself if you ever want to see it, difficult to do since you will have to start from scratch

With the assumption of positive intent, let's just say their coders are working on it, how long will they get paid to do so on a project that the rep rap community deems a dead end?
It's a shame on many levels, mostly for those who bought the product as part of a package and didn't know better.

I own 3 of these boards. None of them are worth the cost of their component parts. No functionality can be added buy the community and the hardware, while on paper has great potential, in practice is all but useless.

I can afford to tale the hit for my curiosity, many others cannot and become immediately disillusioned with the 3D printing experience.

The Rostock 301, and I believe the new prusa buy Geeetech, and the Mks Robin are in the same boat.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from them. I don't say this with any malice, or anger. My purchases were made for experimental purposes. (I have a Rostock 301 it's useless but has clever wiring)

If you buy one of thes stm32 based printers and intend to use it for anything outside a lab environment. You will find yourself quickly frustrated and converting to a more standard OS solution. The OS community is far from perfect, but pretty hard to compete with.

The stm boards are just a cart before the horse situation. What good is hardware that you can't get software for, even if the hardware is great?

Ask any Amiga owner. (Yes I am old, lol)

Investigate other 32 bit solutions such as SmoothieWare and Smoothieboard, Azteeg or Duet if you want/need 32-bit hardware and software for a Delta, Morgan, Scara, Polar etc.

(Basically The further you get from straight, XYZ, non bed compensated motion systems, the more you need 32-bit or greater computing power to handle the required math)


Otherwise go with more proven solutions in the 8-bit world for a Cartesian.

If you want to use something that is exotic on the extrusion side, like a diamond, chimera or kraken, make sure you have an open source board and the firmware/software that can drive all the axis and extruders as well as heating elements you require, as well as the filament mixingbefore committing your hard earned money.

Nextion displays, TFT screens, mixing, triple and quad extruders, they all sound great, and they COULD BE eventually if and when the software catches up. But that isn't going to happen without someone creating the code support for it. If one of these solutions does what you need, today, great. I am happy for you. Enjoy, but be sure it does before you buy.

If a google search reveals nothing but sellers and no positive forum links on support, you are headed for disappointment and frustration.

So in closing, again, make sure you can get the software and adapt it as needed, before you commit to the hardware.

Good luck.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2017 06:30PM by mshievitz.

I agree with you.
I've been working on this board for a month ish now , and wanted to progress with higher features like auto levelling and it CANNOT
proceed with the simple Cartesian i3 printer that I have.

Not sure if deltas users are using this feature just fine.

With the source being coast, and not knowing which pin to assign to do what nor having responses from
MAkerBase for a while, all in all is started to crash my fever for this board.

I liked it very much, but I am like yourself, might probably "ditch" this board for some other well known opensource one.

I said "ditch", it would probably be a board for some smaller "toy" printer that I might make.

So far, I sent email to maker base and left issue report on their GitHub about the autoleveling and WIFI support with no answers.

Cheers