Is there any information specific to the MKS SBASE board? I have tried setting it up as if it were a smoothieboard, but since it’s slightly different I feel like there could be differences in how it works. Most likely those differences are why it’s not working yet. The biggest issue so far is that if I hook 12 volts to the power inputs, the USB connection drops. The 2nd issue is that the firmware is about a year old and I can’t update it using the process documented (firmware.bin file on sd card). Possibly newer firmware would fix the 1st issue. Lastly, the webserver/network interface doesn’t work, but again I would hope an update might help. I’ve also wondered if this particular board is broken, but I might just be using it wrong. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find information on this board and I have not found it which is why I’m posting this. Maybe someone has one and knows from how theirs works, that mine is indeed broken.
The specific version of the firmware it currently has is written down next to my printer and that’s not where I am right now, but it’s an edge version and i think the date is 12/26/14.
USB dropping when connecting 12V might be a bad board, or might be you have the polarity wrong on the 12V input possibly.
I’m not sure why it wouldn’t update your firmware, I’d expect that to work the same.
The SBASE is a closed-source clone of open-source hardware, which takes everything from the community, and doesn’t contribute anything back ( not even it’s own documentation … ). It’s generally considered a nasty board, and it’s likely you won’t get as much support for it from the community as you would for other boards.
The general idea for closed-source boards like this is : if it doesn’t work, contact the seller, you shouldn’t expect the community to get it’s work stolen *and* have to provide support for the stealers … Sorry if I sound rude I don’t mean to at all, but lots of people don’t actually know what they are buying when they get a SBASE so I just wanted to make that clear.
Yeah I had no idea this was that sort of board. The first 2 words of the ebay listing were smoothieware compatible. Before ordering it I did a ton of searching for information and found so little I assumed it would just work like the smoothie boards. That was a mistake. Unfortunately I didn’t even find any information saying it was a “bad board” or I’d not have ordered it.
I’m currently trying to get support from the seller as well, but they aren’t replying to my messages. Thanks for the info, and hopefully people run across this as a warning to not get involved with that board.
Oh, and about the polarity, it’s very clearly labeled, but perhaps the missing documentation would say “the polarity printed on the board is reversed”.
I’m going to try switching it just to see what happens.
Yeah the documentation on the MKS SBASE board is pretty bad. I bought the first version and ONE image they have for documentation had the pins labeled incorrectly. It also had so much switching noise on it that the hotend temperature was unusable as it bounced around 1-2C even with a fixed heater output. The MKS response was basically “/shrug you can probably mod it to make it work better”. There’s a certain amount of “get what you pay for” when you buy a cheap knockoff of an open source project, and you can’t expect the open source project to support the hardware that’s ripping off their design and then getting it wrong.
That said, it sounds like you’ve got a bad board because the SBASE I had (sold it and bought a real Smoothie) I could update the firmware by just dropping a firmware.bin in the root and rebooting. The ethernet also worked out of the box, and simultaneous USB / 12V power wasn’t a problem. The USB always powered the CPU/logic if it was plugged in, regardless of the 12V input. I know their newer version has a different 12V->5V supply though so maybe they botched this as well.
HI, I’ve just purchased one of these to replace a Printrbot board in one of my machines and I’ve been a little surprised by what I’ve here since. I am aware of the buyer beware stuff but the comment about being closed knock off of openware surprised me. I’ve since done a few searches and found an instructables and a Chinese sellers site (selling it for half the price I paid) and this github.com<slash> makerbase-mks<slash> MKS-SBASE
This has all sort of info including schematics and board layouts.
I notice your comments were some time ago and what was stated then the situation may have changed since.
I’m hoping to see how the 32bit board run rings around the old prinrbot board though.
The fact that they show schematics do not make it open-source. Open-source is about what they allow you to do with the schematics and design files ( re-distribute, modify, etc ). And in the case of MKS, they do not allow you to do anything. They themselves described themselves as closed-source.
The schematics they show you are not even enough to modify their design, it’s just a bit of documentation, it has nothing to do with open-source and community-based design.
