The Smoothieboard

[@TheSickness]

A revisit would be nice. What has changed on this

[@danielpas368]

2018 still wondering

[@MrGunnaras]

Thumbs up.

[@ivanfarkas5672]

V2 has been coming very soon for 3 years now :-)

[@andrewmaynard6693]

get an skr1.3 for 22 bucks lol almost the same.

[@jrunplugged]

Thanks, this is excellent, enough detail to be informed but not overwhelming. I have been messing with an X-Carve router for about a year and six months with my little Anet A8 which I have to say is immaculate for the price. I am getting ready to move up the feeding chain and have been listening to your excellent reviews for some time. This is the kind of unbiased stuff that we all need and helps buoy up the open source world. Thanks again.

[@mitchese1]

I've been using Smoothie since early 2013 and even then it was amazing. A lot of development has happened in the last ~2 years to make it even better. It's what I recommend to anyone getting started in 3d printing and building their printer from scratch. My favourite feature is the SD card as mass storage device, and config/firmware updates via this device. The current control is in second place.

[@dragnet53]

mitchese1 dumping my crap ramps 1.4 for a smoothie board. So tired of marlin and its bullshit.

[@gizmoguyar]

Hi, mitchese1. Sorry to bump this after 3 years, but it caught my eye that you said you recommend this board for people who build their printer from scratch. That's exactly what I did, so I'm hoping I could pick your brain if you're still engaged in the 3D printing community. I took on the daunting task of designing a completely custom 3D printer from the ground up including a nice rigid all metal frame, electronics, and software. I finished the hardware and electronics, but after about 500 hours of writing code, I was maybe 30% done and mostly lost interest in completing it. Now I'm thinking that I'll just bite the bullet and get a pre-made controller. Do you still think the smoothie board is the way to go? Are there any other boards that I should consider? Thanks

[@gizmoguyar]

@dragnet53 Sorry to bump this after so long, but could you elaborate a bit on what you didn't like about Marlin and Ramps 1.4?

[@kdanagger6894]

The MSD access to the SD card is a great feature in theory. Makes editing the config file extremely easy. Unfortunately, when enabled it caused frequent communication errors as windows saw it an attempted to mount it while printing across USB. If printing from SD - it's great, but if printing across USB you should compile Smoothie with DISABLEMSD=1 and also set the disable flag in the config file.

[@wjohnsonenterprises7647]

I agree; it's time for a revisit. Many of us are starting to move to the 32bit world for 3D printing, and building machines that not only 3D print, but CNC, laser etch, and etc.

[@ratbagley]

3:58. Either I'm slow or you skip things. It's probably me. "You simply run Make and drop the finished bin file on to the SD card...." what are you talking about? I don't have a make file on my new Smoothie board. Only two files, config and firmware.cur. Agree with TheSIckness - time for a revisit. This board is leading the way IMHO. Good video, thanks.

[@somedud1140]

That's what you do, if you want to add/replace the firmware. There's really no need to compile firmware on your own. As for revisit, no, it's terribly outdated and overpriced.

[@Daweim0]

"the ancient and slow Atmel Atmega chips" 0:42 oof even 6 years later that still hurts

[@AdityaMehendale]

+Thomas Sanlarderer - ST seems to have announced an eval-board targeted at 3D-printers (similar to Smoothieboard, I suppose)for a bit over 100 eur. What do you think? : www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/solution-evaluation-tools/computer-and-peripherals-solution-eval-boards/steval-3dp001v1.html?ecmp=tt3670_gl_enews_may2016

[@smaurice2006]

It is a board I will keep a yes on! Web interface end a color touch screen will be a great feature.

[@williamzdd]

Hi Thomas. Smoothieware seems like a abandoned project... do you know any news?

[@somedud1140]

It is! As of board itself, it could be still useful, but there are plenty of deal breaking features. For example, if you try to connect to it during print, it will crash! This means it's not advisable to connect it to LAN! Documentation is also lacking and support is non-existent. There are now much cheaper and better alternatives for it now.

[@DavidBassetti]

We LOVE our smoothieboards, they're in ALL our machines from CNC's to printers to Food machines :)

[@DavidBassetti]

Sorry, yeah this is my google plus account but i run a company called 3d-seed and all our machines have smoothieboards.

[@corbyfranks7870]

Great video with a lot of good tech!! I think the directions they are going with upgrades are on target for the coming advances to 3d printing and controller requirements, but until I push the limits of my Arduino 2560, the price will be more than I'm willing to spend for the current improvement.. but if I get some time to learn the smoothie firmware, and really like it.. I might have to buy a board because I know these are things I want to take advantage of in the future. great to know the future is here... (again) :-) and Thomas, you are doing really good at making these videos and getting good information out to the community. The E3D assembly video was also very good at making sure the viewers can properly assemble the hot ends. keep up the good work.

[@yoremkastor]

I know it has been 8 year since this video posted but AVR core microcontrollers with different variants are still up to date and microchip has not declared obsolute yet.

[@mhe0815]

I'd love to have a Smoothieboard with more steppers - dual extruders with dual Z drivers are impossible with that setup unless you want to wire the 2 z-motors together.

[@scottwillis5434]

There are pins for external drivers, could add another one running in parallel with the onboard driver.

[@hansroemerszoonvanderbrikk7626]

The most useful feature of an ARM processor when driving a delta is the floating point unit.

[@nogthree]

Hey Tom, there's also the Azteeg X5 which runs Smoothieware and is based on the Smoothieboard reference and it's only $109USD with 4 stepper controllers :)

[@lowellhouser7731]

Bought an FLSUN delta. After beating my head for a couple of days trying to get Win7 to read the stupid RAMPS board it comes with I've decided on one of these. Thank you for this review.

[@Unfinished_Projects]

It may be easier to set up but especially when your just getting into 3D Printing and Repraps. I think a cheap Chinese Ramps is the better solution. It's so easy to blow up a Stepper driver or your Arduino. The replacement of those parts only costs 10€ so you're getting away pretty cheap. I think this board is for people who understand the "inner mechanics" of the whole Reprap thing. This would be a great board for a second printer as most people build a Delta as their second printer but to use this as a learning board I think it's much too expensive...

[@ArthurWolf]

Mr0Yoshie It costs the same price to fix a Smoothieboard and to fix a RAMPS, and the Smoothieboard's drivers burn much less often ( better current control, better protection, better thermal design ). Also, cheap chinese RAMPS are not made to specs, and are dangerous. Actually genuine RAMPS cost about the same as a Smoothieboard.

[@Unfinished_Projects]

Arthur Wolf How do you fix a burned driver on the Smoothieboard? Not everybody is able do rework SMD Parts and therefore a "Plug n Play" Pololu Shield is much easier. I build my Mendelmax nearly entirely with parts out of china and never had a problem so far. Maybe because I did wait very long with building a printer and had therefore much time to read through forums and learn from the mistakes others have made before me. I don't say that the Smoothieboard isn't worth the money, I just wouldn't recommend it as a board for your first printer.

[@ArthurWolf]

Mr0Yoshie No need to do SMD soldering ! Smoothie has breakout pins for external drivers, and there are drivers that are equivalent to Smoothie's on-board drivers that cost about the same price as a replacement pololu. So just wire a new driver in ! Also please note : drivers on the Smoothieboard are much much better protected, the fact that you worry so much about burning them comes from the "historical" pololu architecture, burnt stepper drivers nearly never happen on a Smoothieboard, and if it does, we'll just exchange your board !

[@Unfinished_Projects]

Arthur Wolf Well, good to know that, and awesome costumer service! Thanks for clarification. I haven't fried any Pololu until today but I thought this would be very frustrating on already soldered on SMD components.

[@rstcologne]

Totally agree. I'd never recommend a Smoothieboard for beginners. It's really confusing and not nearly as complete as other boards out there. Voltage regulator, weird adapter for displays, ... The software is great and likely the board is as well if you are an electronics geek. As an enthusiast, get an MKS SBase. Compared to the Smoothieboard it's plug and play and costs a fraction so mistakes (which are easy to make with Smoothieboards) are not nearly as painful. Also quality control seems to be an issue with smoothieboards. With the first one I received, the display didn't work and I got a replacement. Both did not get a network link with any of my switches. Initially I bought the MKS to test smoothieware prior to spending a lot for the original with my latest build. Now the MKS is in my printer because unlike the Smoothieboard it just worked. Maybe the upcoming version two is more finished for normal users.

[@tfergusonjr]

Do you have any updated material on the smoothieboard? This video is from 2014. 😎

[@joe_snuffy]

So if I use and ATX power supply and I don't want to solder the integrated buckmode converter, I can just solder another connector to the 5V inputs and connect the 5V wires from the ATX to that? If that's correct then you are correct and the Future is Here!!! At least for me.

[@alanpowell328]

Hi Thomas, An engineer friend and I are looking at building a H-Bot, similar to the Sparkcube as a second printer and unless something better comes up it looks like a smoothieboard solution. I wonder if they will ever change to the Trinamic stepper driver 😄. Keep up the good work. Alan

[@ydoucare55]

Any plans to review the Duet WiFi?

[@brandonacree4605]

Correction: The Future is Out of Stock! Got me excited to dust off my Mendel and toss out my Gen6 board and the only one available is the most expensive one lol What's the next best option that is more likely to be available? :)

[@andrewwoodfield5348]

Is it worth the time and effort to show how this board might be used in a 3d printer? Is anyone else interested? Maybe using the board as a retrofit into a commonly used printer like the Printrbot Simple Metal? Does this offer any advantages over the stock electronics or is the Smoothie really just aimed at the high performance end of the market? As always, thanks for the great videos, Thomas.

[@TinkeringNerd]

Dear Tom, please make a review of re-ARM board that runs smoothieware and is made as a drop in replacement for MEGA 2560. Thanks.

[@TheAnical]

Howdy, my friend and I are trying to build a few 5 extruder 3d printer for full color. Could you recommend a board for 8 motor drivers? We've looked into the 'Panucatt Azteeg X3 PRO 3D Printer Controller', but $140 a pop is a little too expensive. Also, any tips to making a 5-in-1-out hotend/nozzle, I've seen the DIY 3-1 mixer tutorials. That is our current solution. Thanks

[@andrebalsa203]

I just found out that the 120MHz Cortex M3 CPU used in the Smoothieboard does not have hardware floating point support i.e. all floating point operations are carried out in software. Calling this "the future" seems a little bit preposterous and misleading at this stage. The future as I see it would be to use a $35 RPi 2 (quad-core 900MHz Cortex A7 CPU) and add a RAMPS-style interface board to it.

[@peternann5721]

André Balsa Amen brother in the RPi. I've been wondering why there isn't more activity coming from this angle. Could be because something like Linux isn't a real-time operating system. Incredible amounts of processing grunt and connectivity features for the price...

[@shaitand69]

+Peter Nann The v2 is slated to have an updated chip with a co-processor

[@peternann5721]

shaitand69 , my point was just just about RPi. Why aren't people using them more already for 3D controllers? They are already 10x more powerful. Why are designers persisting trying to make faster Arduino-level hardware when RPi is ready on the shelf? Just seems strange to me. Philosophical question... Not meant to be a criticism.

[@shaitand69]

+Peter Nann The smoothie (which is actually old news but getting people to upgrade from the comfort of the ATMEL based world is slow) and the smoothie 2 are both using ARM chips just like the RPi which other than it's processor is mostly designed for video processing and largely useless for 3D printing. I'm not sure what you mean by Arduino level hardware the arduino is ATMEL based and smoothie is in large part based on the move to ARM which is basically the only thing from an RPi that is useful here. It takes time to design these boards (especially for the small outfits and hobbiests working on them) and it takes time for the chips to come down in price. So once a chip becomes viable pricewise it might take another 6-12 months for there to be a 3D print controller board using the updated chip. The firmware has to be rewritten to actually take advantage of things like a new co-processor and use those extra cores/cycles where it make sense otherwise you have a higher spec on paper but aren't any better off for it. Unlike the RPi which has essentially just updated by slapping in the faster chip, smoothie is getting a major overhaul for 2.0 adding not just a newer processor with co-processor but also a dedicated FPGA for step calculation. The biggest and most important thing setting these boards apart from something like the RPi is that they have to handle and route tons of power. My own board is handling about 400w. That is the capability to run not just 5 24v 2.0A steppers but heating two extruders to 300C as well as a 300mm x 400mm bed to 100 C, as well as fans, inductive sensors, thermal sensors, and the onboard capability to drive another heating element/sensor if I enclosed the chamber and heated that. An RPi has the electronics needed to handle a fan or two and maybe the sensors (and that only because the ARM chip has that capability built in and it breaks out the pin). The smoothie and beagle board aren't "the future", they are "the present" but smoothieboard 2.0 is definitely "the future" and anyone moving to 1.x (or a clone thereof) now will be well prepared for it when it's time to upgrade.

[@Munky332]

You should do a review of the Re-ARM for RAMPS, or other 32-bit options out there.

[@MosheKashani]

Hi Tom, can you do a firmware configuration/setup video. I realized as I was typing this that you kind of did that the one of your live streams. However, a dedicated video would be nice.

[@nikushim6665]

Does the board and firmware have built in rotary encoder support? This is a feature that seems to be lacking on most printer designs but would pretty much eliminate skipped steps.

[@jasonsaffle13]

I'm working on a Delta printer from scratch. Looks like I am going Smoothieboard but any chance there are any new game changing boards or options?

[@mikevidal4896]

Yeah, lets get a revisit...

[@somedud1140]

Why? It's a dead project now. Even their site has been down for over 5 months now. They are out of stock almost everywhere and last listing price for 5 driver version was around $190

[@nkdurrett]

Hey Tom can this board hook up to a RPi so you could run octoprint?

[@6969smurfy]

Can I get some friendly help/suggestions here? I have available some heavy duty linear parts from equipment that was being scrapped out. I'm perfectly capable of building a high quality plasma/router-mill. What I'm trying to teach myself is the CNC programming and controls. I know sketch-up, learning sketchucam, figured out nema motors specs. What I'm stuck on is does gCode from sketchucam go right into a smoothie board through swoothieware or is there something I'm missing? I see this Vid's quite old, is this the best way to go for someone like me with little programming knowledge?

[@privatetutorials4428]

Hello tom can you make a video about connecting display to smoothie board

[@aqib2000]

For CNC routing what is the software to be utilised with this?

[@Fluless]

Talking about smoothie firmware, any chance you reviewing the Re-Arm?

[@christophderycker9585]

Hi, Thomas, is there a way to connect a PNP inductive sensor to a MKS Sbase v1.3 board (smoothieboard clone) ? If so do you have schematic ? Gr. Christoph

[@mp3d247]

Will you do a review of the Smoothiboard 2, mini and pro?

[@USWaterRockets]

The ATMEGA based solutions are really not as underpowered and obsolete as you imply. The ATMEGA2560 is a very capable CPU, that is simply being hobbled by the Arduino based software it is running. The Arduino software was designed so that it would be easy to learn and use for people who were not expert programmers. It is fantastic for this job, and does it well. However, being a simple and easy environment means it is not very well suited for complex programs with a lot of time critical operations. It's nice to see newer and more advanced controller boards coming out, but most of what they do better is due to better programming software and not so much that the CPU is that much better.

[@SianaGearz]

I don't think Arduino is the issue. At its basic level, Arduino is an IDE which integrates the same compiler that you'd be using with AVR anyway, and a 512 byte small bootloader that allows software replacement over serial cable, plus some default configuration. There's certainly also the libraries, and the quality of those is... to put it mildly, mixed, but it's also more versatile than what you'd usually use an AVR for. The AVR are ideally suited for tight control loops. Arguably, perhaps any and all performance issues stem from doing things that don't make sense, such as parsing the SD-card, parsing text, etc. Motor/sensor control is a great use case at which AVR is pretty hard to beat. And you aren't forced into using any of the Arduino libraries. So i think chaining another system, perhaps most cheaply an STM32, to the AVR is the right solution. Both units have integrated UART FIFOs that they can be connected throgh, so high effective utilization can be achieved, actually paradoxically higher than for either ARM or AVR individually. I'm also not sure why a Cartesian printer needs explicit Delta calculation at all? Fast line drawing on low-end processors without multiplication or division was solved by Bresenham in 1962, using error accumulation tracking.

[@SianaGearz]

Ooh it wasn't about Cartesian printers at all, it was about printers of different geometry needing geometric conversions. It makes sense. Still, it's something best done on a different unit than the one that actually speaks to motor drivers.

[@Wingnut353]

You'd be wrong about that... While using the built in Arduino functions for IO would be slow nothing is stopping your from using faster libraries or just directly addressing IO at maximum speed. IO is acutally where the ATMega's shine... where they fail is as Tom mentioned calculations on the fly..... as well as floating point calculations which they can only do in software. An Arduino can toggle pins in at the very least 100s of kHz range without too much sweat but what it can't do is decide how to toggle them... and for that you need a faster CPU with more Ram and a floating point unit. Now that Microchip and ATMEL are one... I think it would be cool to see a PIC32 chip powering a 3d printer.

[@axelSixtySix]

Hi tom. Thanx for your interesting videos. The smoothie board is great but also expensive compared to a ramps/mega solution. Through, you need to learn a new firmware too. There's nothing like the SB except maybe the Radds which looks like comparable in cadency, and is cheaper. I tried to find useful information on it, but most of it are from german pages. I'm not as good into the german language to understand a eighth of that reprapper's slang. Things you surely understand well. So I stay interested by the radds but with no good information to make up my mind on it. Maybe it cluld make a future review, or a part of your next Q&A ?

[@avimor5751]

hi tom , need some help, where can I buy the smoothieboard V2 pro?

[@thatdiyguyraymondmonk1225]

Tom, I am considering trying the lerdge K board on my core xy printer, what do you think of this board?

[@Ryukachoo]

I really want to jump from RAMPS+marlin to smoothie+Smoothieware but i'm extremely intimidated by the transition process since i use a Delta. is there a guide somewhere on all the settings that need to transfer over from a ramps+marlin delta to a smoothie+smoothieware delta?

[@andymiddleton6431]

+Ryukachoo Read the Smoothieboard wiki, and look thru the example config text file (when you download the latest FW) - everything is called almost exactly the same so you won't get lost at all, plus a load of extra options that will enable you to do your own macros, etc... The only other thing is Smoothie actually defines only 2 Delta parameters, instead of the 4 in marlin... Once you try it, you'll love the ease of configuring, much faster than arduino IDE!

[@machine2747]

Thank you for all the great info. Do you recommend a specific nema 17 motor?Amps/phase and MH value?

[@jamesmalenko6111]

hey tom, 2 questions.... could you ever do some MakiBox videos? i know the company shut down and all, but I'm pretty sure Nils Hitze has one, also, what do you think about the new PB metal plus... I ordered the kit w/o the heated bed or dual extrusion.. Thanks!!!

[@TheArtIsFart]

would be nice! kannst gern meine grüne mit headbed reviewen!

[@TheArtIsFart]

:) #Johnisaclown

[@stefanwittmann1779]

but can it run crysis ?

[@XAD566]

Only on medium setting on a monochrome 12864 display - very challenging to play, without keyboard or any other controller besides a rotary encoder :o)

[@lukekuhner6230]

Can we get a duet wifi review please?

[@Sophal27]

There is a problem with some smoothieboard clones like Azteeg X5 and mks sbase , they produce artefacts due to missing micro steps. The problem comes from the stepper driver DRV8825. see this link : www.engineerination.com/2015/02/drv8825-missing-steps.html?m=1 Hopefully there is an easy fix with diodes (lot of them) in the link.

[@kdanagger6894]

I don't see the point of 8-bit boards anymore. 32-bit boards with onboard processors are getting cheaper and more plentiful every month. I particularity like the boards that run Smoothieware. In addition to the original Smoothieboard, there are some decent alternatives such as AZSMZ mini, MKS SBASE, Sunbeam 2.0, and Azteeg X5 Mini. My favorite for compact installations is the AZSMZ mini, but it order to be tiny, it leaves out the ethernet port, and has only 3 MOSFET outputs. I would be nice to have had one more MOSFET output for a dual extruder setup. You'll have to do your own fan control if you want to run dual extruders. It uses removable stepper modules, so you can can use whatever you like, or plug in large external drivers - a feature that I really like. It has 4 endstop inputs, so you can hook up a probe on your delta. It has 3 thermistor inputs to support a dual extruder setup. Very nice dedicated GLCD available for about $20 USD which includes a place to insert a $3 ESP8266 WiFi module. I had to replace the heatbed polyfuse on my board - but that's not a fault of the board itself. I would advise checking the solder connections on the micro USB connector, as I was able to break mine loose. Micro USB connectors will not stand the abuse of a full sized USB connector like most other boards are using. The designer is a hobbyist and seems responsive to questions. Schematic is provided, but nothing else. The Azteeg X5 Mini is equally small, but is higher in price, and is apparently plagued by some reliability problems. No option of using other stepper drivers. Only 2 thermistor inputs. I don't know much about the Sunbeam 2.0, but it is fairly expensive. It only has 3 endstop inputs, so no way to hook up a probe on your delta. Otherwise, it is a very full featured board and includes an ethernet port. The newest board from China is the MKS Base. Very affordable (about $75 on eBay with shipping), and very full featured. It has integrated DRV8825 drivers. 4 MOSFET outputs, 4 thermistor inputs, ethernet port. A whopping 6 endstop inputs. It's a BIG board - (147mm x 95mm) which is actually considerably longer than a real smoothieboard. That may be a negative feature for some people. It also doesn't have much of a track record yet. There are reports of little to no communication or customer support. I can't verify if that's true or not. Nevertheless, if it's well built, it could be the best bang for the buck if mounting space isn't an issue. Of course, if size and price isn't an issue, there is no doubt that the original smoothieboard is the best board with the best support. In the end, the best board depends on your specific needs.

[@parkerd2154]

I realize this video is pretty old, Tom, but you know a Arm Cortex-M3 chip cannot run linux! You would need to upgrade to the one of the Cortex A chips for that. Cortex M usually runs bare metal, but definitely an upgrade from the AVR.

[@darkshadowsx5949]

I need more monies for upgrades.

[@Moglysha]

***** If U can please make me clear , I cant catch when I want to make bigger area for 3d printing I need to buy some board with that specification or I can edit in board how much area is x,y,z ? Thanks

[@markosabic2250]

You can edit print area in firmware.

[@nikolakosanovic3969]

mare srpski mozda ? :D firmware is software for all motherboard or ? is your facebook same name and surname to add U ?

[@AnthonyWebb7]

How does it compare to the tinyg?

[@queldomingoespin5522]

Hello, I would like to make my own 3D printing and I would need 6 stepper motors, what board would you recommend me? Big thanks from a fan!!!!!

[@dumle29]

The Duet, with the duex4 :) Edit: Or hold out for the smoothieboard 2.0, and make sure the firmware supports what ever it is you want to do with 6 steppers (Sounds like a mixing hotend?)

[@jsf777golf]

When I try your ebay link I get the general front end of ebay but cannot find your site in order to buy one. Question: can it operate a dual extrusion 3d Printer (Mendelmax 3)

[@wvg.]

jsf777golf Check Robotseed, or Uberclock if you're american. Links here: smoothieware.org/getting-smoothieboard With the 5X version of the board, you can operate dual extruders.

[@stuartmp1974]

Great review Tom. Really enjoyed it. Very informative and on point. I have one question though. The video was done in 2014. What is something that I should look at for good processing power. Marlin based and will run dual z and dual extruders with on board stepper motor current adjustment

[@JamesRivera1]

This looks like a really good board! Question: do you know if Smoothieware supports the g-code arc commands (G2 & G3). My understanding is that these are too computationally intensive for most RepRap controllers, but your review makes it sound like this board has ample processing power to handle this. The question is, does the firmware support it?

[@richardjm]

***** Arc support is very tempting. I'm planning on making a Eustathios and from what I understand the arduino has difficulty keeping up when running at full speed.

[@richardjm]

Doubt it. I tend to use Cura nowadays but I don't think either produce arcs neatly yet as they've not needed to.

[@Exlr8Films]

Could i use the 5v from an atx psu?

[@alexanderleisewitz9201]

Hi ... I am in the process of building my own printer (learning & customized for me). My biggest problem now is, that I would like to run a 3-in-1-out hot end (DSWAY - NF THC-01) and I would like to have a nice touch screen to control the printer (like the MKS TFT32 or the Lerdge). I investigated a lot but I can not find a board to run 6 (or 7 due to 2 Z-axis) and provides a nice TFT touch screen input only the RUMBA board seems to support 6 axes out of the box. - Does anyone (or you @Thomas Sanladerer) know a solution for this problem? (e.g. adding additional drivers to the Lerdge or MKS SBASE V1.3 board) - Can the Smoothieboard do this? If yes, it would be very great if you could make a video showing this!

[@alexanderleisewitz9201]

coconut_ pie - thank you for answering me ... I will have a look on that and reply here if to show my selection/solution.

[@BrotherEmmet]

As always, great video! I've seen lately some chinese clones of the Smothieboard. Some I have seen going for as low as 50 USD shipped. They call them MKS-SBASE (or sometimes MKS-BASE) They appear to be the same apart from using DRV8825's. Have you had any experience with them? If so, would you be able to to a quck comparision between them? (I'm kind of cheap, so IF I can get a "clone" I most of the times do, provided they are of decent quality) Anyway, thanks for your videos Thomas! /Jimmy

[@daveyhi3154]

+Jimmy Heawenson The MKS-BASE is an integrated Arduino MEGA2560 plus RAMPS1.4 and A4988 drivers. It's not a Smothieboard clone.

[@shaitand69]

+Davey Hi The MKS-BASE and the MKS-SBASE are two different boards. The SBASE is a smoothie clone. I have one on my desk right now.

[@shaitand69]

+Jimmy Heawenson I have an MKS SBASE I bought for $59 (which is not the same as the MKS-BASE arduino + ramps board mentioned below). There are some small differences as you noted but it seems to be a well designed and made board. There isn't much in the way of English instruction but there is enough to get it done and all the technical documents are available showing pinouts and function in English. I did have a component failure on my first one but the components are quality and the board professionally manufactured. That can happen with any board, it failed after a couple weeks and a couple hundred hours operation so I wouldn't expect QC to have caught it and I just think it was luck of the draw.

[@scottwillis5434]

@@shaitand69 the questions being, what is the failure rate, why did yours die, would a bad design be visible, would e.g. counterfeit components or use of components rejected from a manufacturing line be visible? Easy to overload a part or not handle fault conditions well. "I don't see why that is needed." "What happened?". "Don't know, doesn't happen often, don't care, ship it!"

[@slayyou]

meh my delta runs just fine on the "outdated" and "old" hardware

[@GregAtlas]

Can you desolder the drivers and solder on Trinamic drivers?

[@MadeWithLayers]

+Greg Atlas kinda. While you cannot replace the drivers directly on the board, you can easily wire in any other stepper driver board (including Trinamic / Silent Step Stick) since the neccesary signals are routed to pin headers pads.

[@GregAtlas]

Hmm. Sounds confusing without a visual example, but thank you!

[@mjoesherman]

Is the SoothieBoard v2 out?

[@somedud1140]

Still no!

[@S1ngerich]

Der "Sven Väth" unter den 3d Druckern :)

[@adlapl]

ATMega2560 and touch panel is "no can do" ? Funny believe :) but lack of knowledge.

[@billysgeo]

Of course it can support it, now. Keep in mind that the video is very old. Code obviously has become more efficient now.

[@karandex]

Then what is THE best board?

[@dejayrezme8617]

Beaglebone - a complete linux PC on a chip. Check out machinekit as a software and there are different shields like the bebopr++ or cramps.

[@bubbasnow]

Dejay Rezme I agree, I got bebopr++ running my delta

[@dejayrezme8617]

tylor abel I have mine sitting here - still not finished :D But I'm confident it's the best board! ;)

[@erikcederb]

+James Snell And i dislike integrated drives since i want to be able to swap out drivers or using more powerful external drivers, and i think it sucks when a integrated driver lets out the magic smoke... :)

[@tfergusonjr]

All is well and good about the hype of Smoothieboards but if you can’t buy one then why hype them. Every link to resellers goes to the same page and nobody has one. Worry some about support if I did find one.

[@jrunplugged]

Addendum - If I was to Review the Reviewers on uTube, you would be at the top of the list. LOL

[@bradleymorgan8223]

RAMPS 1.4 for the win 😅

[@luizbueno5661]

1.6 ; )

[@MilanKarakas]

This is too expensive and the motor drivers are too small. It is better to buy big machine with Ruida 644 or similar.

[@Unorthatrox]

Just a heads up. smoothieware.org is compromised and will make a connection to coinhive and use your processor for mining.

[@brettturnage533]

this review convince me to buy the Smoothieboard, but I'm having buyers remorse with stalling/freezing issues that are accompanied with an audible beep which is an unresolved firmware issue. Problem is, this board only runs one firmware. I think I might be going back to the Rambo.

[@IAnolastname]

+brett turnage 2 months late, but reflash it- it'll fix it.

[@brettturnage533]

+Arturia Pendragon actually no, that would not have fixed the errors. Smoothie has a problem with micro movements in g-codes. To prevent it you have to run the g-code through a cleaner.

[@IAnolastname]

That was a theory, but glad to hear it's working.

[@brettturnage533]

+Arturia Pendragon No worries. I eventually just got rid of them and switched to Arduino Dues. Having to run the code through a cleaner is too much hassle.

[@IAnolastname]

Fair enough, I'm considering a Smoothie if maybe it'll work with a Rostock MAX V2. Dat sweet, sweet rapid calculation speed. But yeah code-cleaning is a pain in general.

[@Noor-oh4jq]

Simple things like. A phone??????? This iPhone is not a simple thing Insert latest iPhone pic hear

[@jd52wtf]

This is missing replaceable motor drivers. You pop one one these and you are replacing the board.

[@ulaB]

+jd52wtf You have not watched through the 06:00 minute mark, have you? :)

[@scottwillis5434]

There are connectors for external drivers, allowing higher power drivers to be used.

[@matthiasBdot]

die musik im hintergrund irritiert irgendwie

[@matthiasBdot]

***** Prinzipiell is musik schon nicht schlecht. Du hast sie wahrscheinlich gedämpft damit sie nicht stört während du redest, aber grad durch das dämpfen wirkt es so, als würden dir die nachbarn aufn sack gehen während du versucht hier ein video aufzunehmen. Ich find deine videos auch ohne musik gut, weil meist sowieso keine sekunde stille herrscht die man füllen müsste.

[@TheArtIsFart]

Matthias B. find ich auch.Musik einfach weglassen. Danke fürs Board zeigen!