Why do I want 2 make the switch/up-grade to duet cnc?
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Hello all,
So I'm basically thinking of trying to use the DUET3D boards for my 3,4,5,6 axis CNC builds....I custom design my own brand of CNC mills...I currently use a masso control box 4 this....however, I love the fact that DUET3D looks so robust...& they have the ''trinamic'' motion control system....
Why do I want 2 make the switch to duet3D boards 4 my CNC 3,4,5, & 6 axis builds?? -
what cam solution(s) are you targeting? (Duet3D and RepRapFirmware doesn't offer any CAM capabilities, only motion control)
the DuetWebControl (DWC), nor PanelDue display is specifically targeted towards CNC; workbee has one version of DWC more suitred for CNC, and DueUI allows you to customize your own relatively easy, for a touch display using DWC or DueUI you'll need a single board computer like the raspberry pi, an tablet or something with more brains than the PanelDue.
couldn't find any specs on a " masso control box 4" with google, maybe add a link to the product to get some more feedback on the techincal aspect?
edit, forgot to add why you should; because the answer to can i do X is normally a question of how/when and not if
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I am running my CNC (simple 3 axis) on a DuetWifi and it works. As already said, the addons (PanelDue etc) are not CNC friendly, so there are various compromises that I made and workarounds that I continue to make to use it.
That said, the CNC originally came with a very basic controller, which required a computer (A RapsberryPi could work) to stream the gcodes to it, in order to use the CNC. I did not like that and for the price of a simple computer, with screen and accessories that can be used in a dusty environment, I could just as well buy and configure the Duet (with a PanelDue) to handle everything. Now that did mean that I could not start cutting when the machine arrived, and also I surrendered any warranty (I actually arranged at the seller to get a discount due to not taking the controller and stepper drivers).
On my machine the steppers are rated at over 2.5A/phase, but still fine when running them only at 80%. This is a very big consideration - if the builtin drivers don't supply enough current, it gets expensive to buy external drivers and you don't use the silent stepper drivers.
Mine was the 2nd Duet board setup I did, have done a few more since, and it takes time to get everything configured. The RRF configuration tool does not help in setting up the CNC. Recently when I switched over from version 2 to version 3 of RRF, I basically had to regenerate the whole configuration file, by reading the notes for each command and updating it to the new syntax. This took a whole afternoon.
The Duet is very good and it works for my CNC, however you should consider the time spent configuring and maintaining the configuration for the various firmware versions, to keep the machine running optimally.
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You answered the question yourself
love the fact that DUET3D looks so robust...& they have the ''trinamic'' motion control system....
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@timgibby It is actually a very good question. I'm following this topic to learn more :). I for e.g. recently made one more (miniature 3 axis, 2A motors) CNC here and was thinking on what to use for control, considered a lot of options as I do have a bunch of hardware available. I decided to take the Smoothieboard from one of the 3D printers running smoothie and use Smothieware in GRBL mode with RepRapDiscount smart Graphics display for the CNC and pushed Duet2Ethernet with paneldue into that 3D printer.
I love how DRO looks on Smoothieware, you can see WCS and MCS values, all the NIST stuff works... now, I think all this works with Duet too but in my case I currently, for the 3D printing, prefer RRF to Smoothieware, so I upgraded printer to RRF and used Smoothie for the CNC. If you already have RRF capable board you should try, but as mentioned, if the current capability of the RRF board is satisfactory. Using RRF board with 5-6 drivers and not using those drivers is kinda expensive :).
Dunno if GRBL postprocessors can be used with RRF or separate postprocessor need to be used?
