After some help from @raykholo , the SD3 is alive. As a Smoothie newbie, I was not aware that the SD card had to stay in the SD card slot (mistakenly thinking that the config file is read and stored with firmware as we would do with a RAMPS board…sorta). In any event, we have a working LCD and now am able to tun the printer using my homegrown computer. That computer, an Intel stick PC2Go PC, is using a monitor made out of a dead notebook’s LCD, an RF based wireless keyboard and a USB adapter to connect the printer. Presto! Now I need to adjust the stepper driver power (since I am just getting jiggling out of X and Z but Y works fine), connect the hot end thermistor and hot end, connect the extruder, connect the heatbed and its thermistor, and we can start printer calibration. I also received the polycarbonate door material and I am waiting on some cable to mount the LCD to the door – I need longer cables to run to the board in back. The homegrown monitor can also bolt on to the door for a complete standalone printer. The PC has plenty of storage and 2GB RAM and is running Windows 10. I can literally zip tie it behind the monitor. We are getting close…
Nice job!
Today I replace the bench power supply with a more conventional unit and then add a lit on/off switch along with the door amd driver adjustments. Now that I know where these issues are, who wants me to convert their old SD2 or SD3 :-)?
I got the axes moving yesterday. I found out I had at least one bad stepper driver daughterboard and that the board mounts were shorting against the case of the printer (even though they looked isolated). I switched to plastic standoffs and screws and all was well.
Nice! I have been thinking about using a compute stick for my next printer build. How fast is the slicing? Does the compute stick seem to handle it ok?
Well, it’s an Atom processor, so not stellar. On the other hand, when the SD3 was alive, I was running Repetier 0.9x on a Pentium 90. That’s right a Pentium 90. Complex models needed a lot of time or memory to slice so those I would slice somewhere else, but ultimately, this machine will get a RasPi running OctoPrint.
I am happy to report that I now have all 3 axes fully operational. Last night Z was giving me trouble but I noticed some things…first I had not one but 3 bad stepper drivers. Second, you can mix stepper driver boards (I have 2 Sainsmart and 1 Polulu installed). Next up, resume replacing the benchtop power supply.
I have been using cheap tablets based on the Intel Atom Z3537F CPU with 2GB memory and 32GB SSD.
I also have been looking at the PC stick types to use with my printer. looking to use as a field FPV base station for my Radio Control planes and quad-copters too.
With the Atom Z3537F I have Cura, Repetier, Matter Control and Sketchup 2016 all working on this CPU. Repetier is usually the one that will not run if any.
This tablet is attached to my Printrbot Play. It is very transportable and I can draw and print directly from the 3D Printer itself. I use a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse for drawing but usually just use the tablet screen for print settings. The Tablet is powered from the printer PSU.
For most slicing the Atom works fine. I have found a few objects that I had to slice on my desktop as they just needed to many resources to slice in a decent amount of time.