Interesting looking printer, I like the linear rails.
What do you think about his design choices?
Originally shared by EEVblog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_gfZsVb-SY&feature=autoshare
Using Sarrus linkages to stabilize a cantilevered Z stage is interesting. Cantilevered XY gantries are kind of anti-optimized from a ringing standpoint, but maybe he made it light/rigid enough to get good results.
That is usually the issue with Sarrus linkages 
I think it’s an interesting design, maybe reinventing the wheel when it comes to the control board, but I’m interested in it’s real world performance when he gets done with it.
EE Majors seem to be drawn to re-writing firmwares. “Throw away everything” is a very college approach. Is is possible people have learnt something in the past? Still nice looking printer.
To be fair, most of the mainstream firmwares are full of kruft and bloat from years of unfocused development. And GRBL-based motion planners are old and tired and due for some major overhauls to stop holding back printer performance. (But that’s a whole other discussion.) New ideas are good… I’m more worried about whether an EE has the necessary domain expertise in motion control dynamics and such to do a good job with it. Anybody halfway competent can hack together a constant-velocity motion controller or a stops-at-every-corner motion controller. Getting high performance is quite a lot more difficult. That’s the main reason why everybody keeps reusing/porting/tweaking old GRBL code.
@Ryan_Carlyle Exactly my point. It would be a big help to the community to “fix” the GRBL motion planners rather than write a new one. Although then I got to the bit with the board and did like it quite a lot so IDK maybe it’s time for a firmware “war”.
I saw the smoothie board, and it seems to have all the features he wants and then some…that’s why I think it’s a bit overboard. I have to admit it would be a very good learning exercise to have to start from scratch tho.
Smoothie is close, but it doesn’t have all the feedback loops he’s implementing. It does feel like it’s time to try having a closed loop “consumer” system. I hope he kickstarts some of this, it would be great to see it in the real world.
Naw I want alllll the ins and outs plus that the nature of that youtube channel. I really want to see this print at its max speed when done tho.
If you look closely I believe that the back panel can be unscrewed to get the the internals. Still, even if that’s the case it does look like a pain to operate on.