Plankton, thanks for your comments.
Screw terminals are nice for anyone who designs and builds a printer from scratch and doesn't want to pay £20 or so for for a crimp tool. For kit makers and anyone with a crimp tool, plug-in connectors are better. The kit manufacturers benefit by reducing the possibility of miswiring, and.users benefit from being able to disconnect the wiring from the electronics quickly and easily (and again reducing the possibility of miswiring when they reconnect). I removed most of the screw terminal blocks from a Duet board I received and replaced them with header pin strips, to make the wiring of my Mini Kossel easier. I'm not sure whether to go for pin headers to keep the cost down, or locking/polarised Molex connectors that cost a little more. For anyone who really wants to use screw terminals, I guess I could offer a board with the connectors not fitted. I do plan to use screw terminals for the heated bed, hot end heaters and power connections.
I would port RepRapFirmware to it, because I am familiar with it and it is one of the best 32-bit firmwares available, with features such as segmentation-free Delta printer support, near-instant print pausing, macros files to run when pausing/resuming prints, and Bowden extruder elasticity compensation in testing. I would leave out the Ethernet bits, and add direct read/write of the SD card via the USB port.
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plankton
@dc42
Good luck with this, a low cost viable alternative to RAMPS/Mega is long overdue (before anyone says anything, I know there are lots of alternatives already out there, but none have yet had the right combination of price and features to wean the majority of users away from RAMPS - which this project sounds like it could), my only request on the hardware would be to use screw terminals or friction fit (not ordinary pcb headers) for the main connections like stepper motors, endstops, and thermistors (as well as power, heatbed, and extruder(s)). If that is not possible then consider leaving room for people to solder whatever type of connector they want.
+1 for a pin for ATX power standby
Screw terminals are nice for anyone who designs and builds a printer from scratch and doesn't want to pay £20 or so for for a crimp tool. For kit makers and anyone with a crimp tool, plug-in connectors are better. The kit manufacturers benefit by reducing the possibility of miswiring, and.users benefit from being able to disconnect the wiring from the electronics quickly and easily (and again reducing the possibility of miswiring when they reconnect). I removed most of the screw terminal blocks from a Duet board I received and replaced them with header pin strips, to make the wiring of my Mini Kossel easier. I'm not sure whether to go for pin headers to keep the cost down, or locking/polarised Molex connectors that cost a little more. For anyone who really wants to use screw terminals, I guess I could offer a board with the connectors not fitted. I do plan to use screw terminals for the heated bed, hot end heaters and power connections.
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plankton
The biggest stumbling block I see to take up will be firmware, unless this can run a straight port of firmware from another board then you will not get large scale take up until people see it can match the features and performance of the likes of Marlin. Also the clone makers probably won't pick it up until they see viable firmware. Is your plan to develop new FW from scratch, or will this be based on an existing FW?
I would port RepRapFirmware to it, because I am familiar with it and it is one of the best 32-bit firmwares available, with features such as segmentation-free Delta printer support, near-instant print pausing, macros files to run when pausing/resuming prints, and Bowden extruder elasticity compensation in testing. I would leave out the Ethernet bits, and add direct read/write of the SD card via the USB port.
