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arthurwolf
I'm annoyed at people talking authoritively about the Smoothie system when the seem to have not studied it much.
I'm annoyed by people claiming I did not study what I'm talking about. Smoothieboard schematics are right here on my PC, next to about 15 other designs.
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arthurwolf
If you never heard somebody tell you that having to open the arduino IDE to affect changes is something offputting about Reprap, you are completely disconnected from what typical newcomers experience.
We're getting closer. It's not the board, it's the software. GUI configurators are now about everywhere. It's simply the logical next step to implement them, if just to reduce all the helpless questions coming from newbies.
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arthurwolf
Smoothie generates a smoother step pulse, does more precise acceleration, does longer look-ahead, has much better delta support, fixes issues that 8-bit firmwares do not or can not fix.
Smoother than what? More precise that what? Better than what? And again, all these are properties of firmware, open to any board.
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dc42
AFAIK it's also the only firmware that calculates the step pulse times on a delta properly. All other firmwares that I know of (including Marlin and Smoothie) chop up moves into shoit segments
Oh, you managed to move non-straight (in terms of motor movements), still step-accurate lines? That's indeed something worth looking at.
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dc42
The only remaining reason to use 8-bit electronics and firmware is if you are working on a very tight budget. But 32-bit processors are inexpensive now, so the price of 32-bit boards should fall.
That's certainly true. Nevertheless, there's also no reason to get a 200 hp engine (32-bit CPU) when you're always constrained to drive within city limits (e.g. simple carthesian printers, CNC milling machines). 8-bit CPUs are simply fast enough for many applications, no need to throw them away. Some two months ago a Teacup firmware user got his printer running with an € 3.- Arduino Nano. Cheers to that!