Been a long time RAMPS user with Marlin but I’m looking at trying either a Duet or Smoothie board.
Is there any truth to getting better quality prints with these other boards for a cartesian printer?
I’ve long wanted to setup Octoprint for remote printing and a web cam so am looking at the Duet wifi board.
Feels like you can’t go wrong with either board…thoughts?
TIA
It really depends on what you’re doing. The 32 bit boards are going to have more accurate step timings. They generally aren’t going to increase your print quality on their own if you’re already running the right set of motor controllers and motors. What they will do is allow you to increase your speeds if you’re running into hiccups with Marlin (if you’re running a Delta this can be an issue), they’ll allow you to more easily configure your machine (via a file instead of via recompile), they’ll run quieter generally due to better step pulses, and they’ll allow you to use drivers with higher microstepping (which generally also produces the side-effect of being quieter)…so long as you get a board that actually accepts external drivers or if it comes with drivers which have >32nd microstepping.
You can use a raspberry pi and set up octoprint for remote access with your existing board. If that’s really what you’re looking for.
I have to agree with @Geoffrey_Forest here. Try Octopi if you have a raspberry pi lying around, or else get one and it’ll still be cheaper, if your main goal is using octoprint.
I just set it up today myself, and it works nicely.
Duet has its own web interface, so no need for OctoPi if you upgrade. I believe the WiFi has better drivers for silent printing, though I am not sure if it would improve your prints. I do believe I have gotten better prints on my delta, but it is more anecdotal than actual evidence.
The downside of the Duet is that its web interface is only accesible from the network it is in, you cant access it from other networks
The duet wifi has no support for Webcam at the moment. So if it’s remote control your after I can’t recommend pi+octoprint enough. But for the best experience go pi 3 with a pi camera.
@Javier_Prieto it is possible to access outside your lan. You only need to open the port on your router
Duet web interface does have webcam support, but you have to set up an IP webcam and give the Duet the IP address, rather than plugging in a PiCam ribbon cable.
Commenting for updates and I’m planning to use a Duet Wifi in my current build.