Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The humble RepRapDiscount Smart Controller and why I am using it for the Delta Steel

And also a simple stand design for the RepRapDiscount Smart Controller, see below!


In my opinion all 3D printers should be equipped with an LCD controller, for simple practical reasons:
  • An LCD controller gives you immediate visual feedback about the status of your 3D printer.
  • An LCD controller, as its name implies, allows for direct control of the 3D printer, before, during and after the print.
  • An LCD controller which is equipped with an SD card reader allows you to print G-code files from the SD card.
Besides this, it should be noted that LCD controllers are relatively inexpensive components and readily available from a number of suppliers. I have been using "made in China" clones of two different LCD Controller models in my P3Steel's:
  1. The RepRapDiscount Smart Controller which is a 20 characters x 4 lines LCD with a rotary encoder, a buzzer and a stop button.
  2. The RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Smart Controller which is a 128 pixels wide x 64 pixels tall LCD with, again, a rotary encoder, a buzzer and a stop button.
They both work fine with a RAMPS board, displaying as much useful information as one could need or want, both are equipped with an SD card reader and both cost < $15 per unit. For the P3Steel, although I have used both and am equally satisfied with either design, I recommend the RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Smart Controller, simply because it looks slightly better and the price difference is minimal (about $2).

For the Delta Steel I decided to go with the RepRapDiscount Smart Controller. First, it's the same LCD Controller that has been used in the past for many linear delta printer prototypes, including the Delta-Pi prototype itself. And second, there are reports that the Arduino graphics library used to drive the LCD in the RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Smart Controller is CPU intensive and can cause problems when printing at high speeds on a linear delta printer, where the Arduino also has to deal with the Cartesian to delta transformations.

A simple bracket to mount the RepRapDiscount Smart Controller onto any wooden surface

I designed a rather basic bracket to mount the RepRapDiscount Smart Controller onto the MDF base of the Delta Steel prototype, which I have published on Thingiverse.


You'll need to print a mirror pair of these like in the OpenSCAD render above, and they additionally require two M3 10mm screws and nuts and two wood screws.


The main advantage of these brackets versus a complete cover and base is that they use very little material and print very quickly. They are strictly functional though, I didn't attempt to make them aesthetically pleasing in any way.


And did I mention that the knob with the Open Hardware logo is a previous design of mine, published on Thingiverse too?

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