That was a close one Mark Carew, you swooped in just in time! The OB'ers are getting restless. I may be egging them on a little
NP man we feel the same way as its been a long road on our end as well All is good. We hope to have that more detailed update posted for you guys tomorrow.
thank you mark..... did I read more detailed update coming today!!!!!!! this is awesome, colossal, and most riveting!!!!! I am so happy for the openbuild team. You all work so hard and I am sure pulled out so much hair in the process. I am also happy for the openbuild community who kept the excitement going and cheering the home team on. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. have a great weekend everyone. matt
I live 30 mins from Windsor and saw lots of crowds and bunting,could not figure why and now I know why!! Brilliant news and obviously there has been a rumour leak !
Woohoo! Haven't been this excited over an upcoming hardware release since the Pentium! ... Did I miss it?
You guys are awesome! We can't thank you enough for the positive attitudes, excitement and most of all your patience. A change of direction for Apex About 1 year ago, the OpenBuilds Team announced working on a new CNC controller, the Apex. Over the following months, it was progressing nicely. About this time, however, technology began leapfrogging the plans we had in place and after many months of hard work it became apparent we needed to put Apex on hold (for now) and get ahead of the game utilizing the new incredible technologies at our disposal. OpenBuilds always strives to push the boundaries of technology and in this case pioneer amazing new solutions. The OpenBuilds community needs more than just another controller - we needed a complete modular electronics system that is as user friendly as the OpenBuilds mechanical system itself and so we rolled up our sleeves and dug in! With new tech comes exciting new prospects and goals: An Ecosystem, not just a product: The new system evolved around a set of subsystems that cover more than just control and also more than just CNC type applications (more about this later). The Ecosystem was planned from the very start to make it super easy, almost plug-and-play for most users, thereby entry for new users is significantly improved. The new ecosystem had to cater to the hackers’ needs too so we made sure to include the interests of the hackers-by-heart! (; No crimping required which is going to make everyone happy! Cover the use case of 99% of our users: From our own experiences and through many discussions and support requests, we had clear knowledge of EXACTLY what users need! We upgraded to 4 super powerful smart axes onboard (with expansion headers for a future upgrade) and we made sure to include all the IO you will ever need. Mounting: Probably half of our energy went into ensuring that this system is going to be a dream to mount onto your machine. -V-Slot Linear Rail compatible mounting patterns -Clearly and neatly labelled indicator LEDs so you never have to guess again -Meticulous planning for where your hands need access, which buttons and switches needs to be within easy reach and all the way down to planning for which side motor wiring exits versus where USB enters to eliminate as much inconvenience in wiring your machines as we can. -Logical wiring bundles at last! -Also, we made sure its Enclosed: No more bare-boards exposed to the elements! Because it has to look great too! This is one sexy controller! Technology: Pushing the envelope of newly available cutting-edge technologies as far as possible, allows us to provide a tomorrow’s controller, today! Easy! Choice! Freedom! - We also went over and over the decision of which platform/firmware to support. We really wanted to make sure to offer users choices when it comes to firmware without compromising ease of use and stability. You won’t be locked into a single firmware! Bullet-proofing: Testing included doing things to the beta controllers, that should probably be considered controller-abuse but we had to make sure it would never let you down! What does this mean for the contest winners? – You can be sure the contest winners will be getting theirs right from the top! Where can we talk and learn about about the new controller? – Although all of the new controller’s specs aren't available to be released just yet we are able to reveal its name… We call it the OpenBuilds BlackBox! There is a new Blackbox thread started here for discussions and updates - https://openbuilds.com/threads/blackbox-motion-control-system.12310/ What’s the ETA? – At this point we have been though many many many iterations (pics to come) and countless prototypes testing and experimenting with brand new concepts that are ground breaking in this field. Although there is no exact ETA as of yet, we can say that we are in the final prototyping stage! Please know we are working hard and we are super excited to get these into your hands as soon as possible!
After spending almost the first half of the year in the hospital (2 months in ICU, 3 surgeries), I was certain that the Apex would be ready to order! I am certain that without my orders each month that Parts Store invoices been down a wee bit. I'm planning to place a parts order soon since I've filled a sketchbook with build ideas. The really good news is I'm now doing well physically and I'm ready to order a Apex and a bunch of C-Beam to build a CNC Lathe I've dreaming about while watching Battle Bots reruns. To all my friends who called and emailed, thanks for all your thoughts, and prayers, they all counted. Larry
Welcome back brother @stargeezer great to hear your back on your feet and ready to Build! I am looking forward to a lathe design, it's been in the back of my mind to make one. We love watching Battlebots! Side note; Witchdoctor reached out to OpenBuilds about a possible future sponsorship! Exciting stuff ahead there As always thank you for your support
... I learned I have an unreasonable desire for it... And a desire to stay tuned to learn exactly what it is.
Ahhh. If only he had "clicked" through to the end of the click-bait post. The link to the new thread is right there. This one is teetering on the edge of the flames. Get your answer on the Black Box thread...
Hey guys, lighten up! Nobody here pre-ordered or sent money for a new controller! I'm just as excited and just as impatient as everyone else but Mark and the OB team do not owe us anything, certainly not the reasoning behind their executive decisions. Just saying! BTW, these guys are a smart bunch so I'm sure the ramifications of the name change are being discussed . JB
Had gotten away from all things CNC and just recently took an interest again. Saw the email Mark sent out about a new controller board and that got my interest. Not sure what they have in mind but I would like to see a board that you could hook up multiple machines at the same time. It would be nice to be able to hook up a 3D printer and laser machine/router/lathe with plenty of I/O for just about anything you want to implement to the same board without having to swap cables depending on which you want to use. Also have the ability to control and drive steppers or servos. That would be a big plus. Looking forward to what's to come.
Right on Josh! I've been offline for a while, for reasons I don't need to repeat. I for one have missed my friends here and I look forward to hooking up as we work through some new designs I've been putting together.
Hey Charles Thanks Brother! And "Sempra Fi". I'll be checking your organization out tonight. Looking for a group in my area that has common ideals to serve with in my spare time. It sounds like a group I might share some common experiences with. Be well my friend. Larry
Sounds like a smart move in the correct direction, congrat OB team! These type of decisions are very hard to take but it proves that you are loving what you are doing! Excited to see news about this blackbox!
Wow, in the beginning it felt like a smoothieboard re-designed to easily interface with serious drivers and with better packaging and that would have been a really nice product. And now a year later it sounds like the same thing. With the cost of modern processors approaching almost zero, why 4 channels when 6 or 8 or even 10 would have been doable for almost no additional design costs. Just seems like the perfect application to have an connector on one edge of the board with an additional or stackable additional driver sections, comes with 4, but add on another one, two or three relatively inexpensive driver sections and a case extension and suddenly it's got enough channels for anything. Making it 4 channel with a way to get 2 more if necessary seems limited and arbitrary, I think in this arena if you give them the option for 10 channels, someone will figure out what to do with them and then we'll all wonder how we ever did without them. If you're going to do this, make sure it's out in front far enough it's not obsolete the day you ship it and sadly, right now it still sounds like a Smoothieboard in a fancy box. The time it's taken makes it seem like the people in charge of both designing and implementing the project and don't know what they are doing. If you'd shipped what you had a year ago, you'd already own this market and have the cash flow to be properly doing V2. Ira
Wow Ira! Thanks for the valuable insight! You don't post often, but it was worth the wait. Hope to hear from you again in a couple more years. Or maybe a build.
