I’m in the process of building a cartesian 3D printer of my own design. I’ve purchased 95% of the parts with the last thing on my list being the controller. I’ve been looking at the Smoothieboard, Duet, BeagleBone, and the Azteeg X5 GT but I think I’ve narrowed it down to the Smoothieboard or the Azteeg X5 GT. I’ve exhaustively searched the internet for a clear/concise list/table/chart comparing compatibility and performance of all the external stepper drivers folks have used but I really haven’t found much of anything useful. So my question is this - I think I’m leaning toward the Smoothieboard but can someone help me identify a good external driver for my particular setup?
Relevant information:
- BUS voltage will be somewhere between 24 and 30VDC (will power the steppers, fans, LED’s, and the hotend) via an 20-35VDC adjustable 15A power supply.
- Heatbed is a 400mm x 400mm 3mm thick aluminum plate with a bonded 1200W 110-120VAC silicone heater. This will be powered via a FOTEK 40A solid state relay
- Hotend is an E3D with a 24V 40W element
- Single extruder setup currently but I want to have the ability to add a second one in the future
- Currently have 4 stepper motors for X, Y, Z, and the extruder. Motors are Wantai 42BYGHM810 2.4A 0.9 degree steppers. I have heat sink and fan kits for the steppers since the machine is pretty large, the parts are pretty heavy, and I expect the motors will be pushed pretty hard to get fast print speeds.
- Most important to me is performance, sound, and reliability in that order. Cost would be lower on the list but I also don’t want to go overboard.
I’m a mechanical engineer by training that just got into 3D printing a year or so ago so I apologize in advance for my ignorance or dumb comments/questions. Specific questions:
- I’m assuming the onboard drivers aren’t going to work for me, correct? If I limit the 2.4A max motors to the onboard driver limit of 2A wont I be handicapping the motors to some extent? I think these motors are just marginally going to work for this machine so I suspect I’ll need to get everything I can out of them.
- With all the info above can anyone recommend good external drivers? I don’t think I need crazy microstepping other than for noise attenuation (since I think linear motion system inertia combined with the max torque capability of these motors will prevent effective micro-stepping beyond 1/8 or perhaps 1/16. I really have no idea though but I sized everything assuming the best I’d be able to do would be 1/16 microsteps.
- A more general question - does anyone see any issues with the above or have any general thoughts? I want to go with the smoothie but I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on the board until I have a stepper driver plan.
Thanks for the help!
Imported from wikidot