Hello, I am looking to upgrade the board and interface for my nema 23 3-axis machine. My main focus is reliability. I need something that can run for hours at a time doing light work in the shop. I killed my X pro v2 and want something that can handle more abuse. I have searched all over for a solution, however i keep coming up with mixed reviews, opinions, etc. What do you guys recommend for someone wanting to move away from an all-in-one board? Thanks!
Use a Smoothieboard with external drivers (like the DQ542MA on Openbuilds part store). You get cutting edge look ahead and aceleration on a 32 bit processor with the Smoothieboard (has an optimized firmware specifically for CNC/Laser) and bulletproof drivers that can be swapped out one at a time if they ever do breakdown. There is a huge community for the Smoothieboard, with ongoing development happening all the time. And they have one of the best Wikis for a product that I have ever seen. But if you do not like the Smoothieboard, you can run GRBL with the external DQ542MA's or any other external driver. Personally, I prefer the Smoothieboard (I have Smoothie, GRBL, and Ramps setups currently, and the Smoothieboard wins hands down.)
Anthony, I have recently completed my build using 4 DQ542MA drivers (x, y1, y2, z) and a smoothie board. I also have a RaspPi hooked up to act as my PC. I'm having trouble getting things moving and bouncing between software packages. As a noob, I need something easy that will allow me to get beyond the basics. I like Easel a lot but can't figure out how to get my smoothie to be useable with it. I do have grill enabled in my config file. I can almost get things working in bcnc before a bunch of errors pop. What do you recommend software wise for a noob like me?
@Brandoneous I assume this is for a CNC router? LaseWeb3 has some basic milling functions, but in a couple of months, LaserWeb4 should be released. It will have awesome CNC milling functions, @tbflemming is porting his JSCut.org milling software to work inside LaserWeb.
