3 ms·

The control board is listed for me at price €262,80 EUR (with tax included). The control board version with the 6 additional 10€ stepper driver (with the link t

The control board is listed for me at price €262,80 EUR (with tax included). The control board version with the 6 additional 10€ stepper driver (with the link they provide in their BOM, is listed at €456,00 EUR, (at this price I can plug stepper driver all day long). Rant mode activated : Those prices are just excessive. Before 2020 we could buy some 5-axis 8-bits RAMPS 1.4 board with stepper for less than 50€. Then there was some transition to use some more powerful 32-bits microcontroller (which are cheaper on the BOM), but no standard has emerged, 32-bits chips were impacted by the shortage, so everyone and their dog are creating their own 3d printer control boards, and selling them for more than €100, and they are less customizable, harder to upload. (The best replacement for RAMPS 1.4, is probably BTT SKR V1.4, which sells for €43 with silent drivers) (but you are on your own for the non-standard software and development environment). Those control boards are just connector boards, they are mainly used to replace some wires, it's just to connect the microcontroller to the stepper driver. You can have your own pcb connector board made for less than €10 for 10. You just have to solder the header yourself.

numpad0 2y ago
Is your rant more towards RAMPS, or is it actually has more to do with lack of a 32-bit Mega/Due successor? Because RAMPS is still around and there isn't much wrong about it, it just works okay.
- GistNoesis 2y ago
  Kind of towards the 3d printing industry and greed in general. The RAMPS guys didn't offer a successor when they were in the perfect position to do so after having built a large diy community of RepRappers and opensource 3d-printing. The 32-bits transition is better and cheaper on the BOM compared to the Mega2560. The speed boost is really useful when you want to add more advance control algorithm for your motors for robotics application. Creality CR-10 quality was just better and it was the beginning of the transition away from open standards. A slow but sure erosion of what was once a great flexible community solution, where what was built by open-source is being privatized. Chinese clones replicated CR-10 model each with their own control board. But when your machine is repairable, you can't sell it for a lot more than the sum of individual parts, so the whole economics of how much a control board that run marlin is got delirious. This trend continue today with the emergence of companies like BambuLabs. The whole arc makes me sad, as 3d-printing is the entry point for many makers around the world and these initial core values of really owning your hardware stack are important. For building robots, building your own 3d printer was a great introduction. Being able to replace a fried motor driver because your robot took an unexpected fall for cheap is kind of essential. If every time a part break you need to pay more than €100 and more than to 2 weeks of delivery time, you can't test and push your machines. Whereas if you are using standard parts, you'll have a stock of them, and it will be €5 and 5 minutes and you are good to go, and the mistake is forgotten, and the lesson learned.
  - aforwardslash 2y ago
    A BTT octopus w/ replaceable 6xTMC2209 and plenty of I/O (including CAN support) costs <70 eur; this is light-years from a RAMPS, and still very cheap. the prices of the controller boards of this robotic arm is just... ridiculous. A money grab.
  - numpad0 2y ago
    I mean, if those improvement deltas are all in the processor part, would a hypothetical Mega 32-bit, or a standardized 32-bit Arduino platform(that isn't Uno R4 - no way a Renesas part can be an industry standard with their typical "JTC" style of business) not solve the issues?

numpad0 2y ago

Is your rant more towards RAMPS, or is it actually has more to do with lack of a 32-bit Mega/Due successor? Because RAMPS is still around and there isn't much wrong about it, it just works okay.

GistNoesis 2y ago
Kind of towards the 3d printing industry and greed in general. The RAMPS guys didn't offer a successor when they were in the perfect position to do so after having built a large diy community of RepRappers and opensource 3d-printing. The 32-bits transition is better and cheaper on the BOM compared to the Mega2560. The speed boost is really useful when you want to add more advance control algorithm for your motors for robotics application. Creality CR-10 quality was just better and it was the beginning of the transition away from open standards. A slow but sure erosion of what was once a great flexible community solution, where what was built by open-source is being privatized. Chinese clones replicated CR-10 model each with their own control board. But when your machine is repairable, you can't sell it for a lot more than the sum of individual parts, so the whole economics of how much a control board that run marlin is got delirious. This trend continue today with the emergence of companies like BambuLabs. The whole arc makes me sad, as 3d-printing is the entry point for many makers around the world and these initial core values of really owning your hardware stack are important. For building robots, building your own 3d printer was a great introduction. Being able to replace a fried motor driver because your robot took an unexpected fall for cheap is kind of essential. If every time a part break you need to pay more than €100 and more than to 2 weeks of delivery time, you can't test and push your machines. Whereas if you are using standard parts, you'll have a stock of them, and it will be €5 and 5 minutes and you are good to go, and the mistake is forgotten, and the lesson learned.
- aforwardslash 2y ago
  A BTT octopus w/ replaceable 6xTMC2209 and plenty of I/O (including CAN support) costs <70 eur; this is light-years from a RAMPS, and still very cheap. the prices of the controller boards of this robotic arm is just... ridiculous. A money grab.
- numpad0 2y ago
  I mean, if those improvement deltas are all in the processor part, would a hypothetical Mega 32-bit, or a standardized 32-bit Arduino platform(that isn't Uno R4 - no way a Renesas part can be an industry standard with their typical "JTC" style of business) not solve the issues?