It can't be "rolled into" the gcode though. Gcode is sadly extremely limited, and while you could build some pretty complex extensions, there is no reason to avoid switching to a (cheaper) more powerful microcontroller to avoid building gcode hacks.
Regardless, I was just pointing out one place where a bit of extra power could help with printing. However, that's not really the point. It's not that the core _needs_ to be 32 bit, it's that most modern microcontrollers are 32 bit. The Atmega is more expensive, has less memory, no JTAG, no DMA, poor debugging support, and mediocre peripherals. The extra power to run more advanced motion control is just a bonus when you switch to a modern Cortex-M.
The real usefulness of power is the possibly to add other features not directly related to printing like built-in ethernet/wifi, or a larger screen (it drives me nuts that I can't see longer file names on my Prusa screen).
No, on most CNC machines the controller actually handles much of the motion planning.
The slicer will generate a command that says go from point (x1, y1, z1) to point (x2, y2, z2) with speed f, but it doesn't say anything about acceleration, or how to transition into the next move. A very simplistic controller will use a trapezoidal ramp profile where it will ramp up to the programmed feed rate at a fixed acceleration, then stay at the programmed feed, then ramp down in time to reach the end point. However, if the move was a very short line or arc as part of a large surface, the machine doesn't need to reach 0 speed before starting the next move. A smarter controller will 'look ahead' to predict the next few move and plan the motion of the machine to eliminate jerkiness or stopping.
The slicer may tell the machine what acceleration to use, but that's really just setting a parameter in the machine controller, and isn't settable per-move.
This isn't as critical for 3D printers as it is for big, heavy milling machines. Nevertheless, you can do clever things like trying to compensate for vibration, or speeding up or slowing down the extruder motor based on the pressure of the plastic in the nozzle.
This isn't to say Prusa is switching just to do better motion planning, it sounds like that isn't a primary goal, but I'm trying to illustrate there is a lot more room for intelligence than 'just wiggling some IO'.
It's a pretty straightforward, the same technique that's used industrially for most common ceramic production. I 3D print mold positives that then get cast in plaster. That plaster is used as part of a 'slipcasting' process:
I'm using standard high-fire (cone 10) ceramic slips that I mix from raw powder. They are fired to ~1300 C in a small electric kiln (although it's a particularly well insulated one so it can go all the way to cone 10 without too much trouble).
Why do you think I have imperial interests? Is it because you think everyone does? If everyone does, does that mean you do? In that case, what is the answer? Do we just wait around until China somehow out-imperials the US and not be critical of anything? Then, do you think that will really be better?
> Sure, but now they are a small company that has to maintain two separate codebases. Even big companies like Google can't keep their Android and iOS apps at feature parity, so something has to give and it's the early adopters with old hardware that is just not going to get any new features. Or they are going to have twice the software engineering overhead.
I mean sure, it's not going to be a perfectly smooth transition, but I think you're underestimating how bad it was on the Atmega. There is _no_ code space left on those chips, which makes adding features nearly impossible. They'll probably just maintain the old version for as long as they can, while switching new products over to the new one.
The codebase is also probably simpler than you realize. These microcontrollers don't have the code space for programs of any significant size. Porting the peripheral interfaces over to the new controller is not that hard.
> (As for the motion control aspect, at the feedrates of 3D printers, I don't think you get anything from a faster processor. Motion control is not what's limiting print speed or accuracy.)
This is actually a real problem. It's not the basic motion control, but doing things like intelligent look-ahead or vibration compensation.
I think the technology is further ahead than you realize. It's not an Atmega running your microwave we're talking about. Those chips _are_ seriously limited, in material ways, even if you haven't run into it yourself.
Damn I never thought I would run into a tankie on HN. Neat.
Your criticism isn't totally invalid (if unreadable), but not everything is reducible to class. Stop reading weird blogs about how socialist China is and get outside and do some real activism. Sitting around hoping Xie is going to magically do socialism by 2035 isn't praxis.
Additionally, we don't need to speculate, they explained their reasoning in the article:
> Why did we decide to switch to a 32-bit board? Surprisingly, raw performance is not the main reason. We can now write cleaner and more abstract (reusable) code without assembler hacks like on the 8-bit board. Adding new features becomes much less of a hassle and we don’t have to count every single byte in the flash memory. Unit tests and JTAG debugging sped up the development and we also got the chance to include ethernet and optional Wi-Fi connections.
If you read through the firmware you'll find 1000000x #define's for different features that I'm sure they're eager to get rid of.
I've literally never firmware updated my Prusa and it works totally fine. This is a bit of a bizarre nitpick. Hell, you can build your own firmware if you really care that much.
There are a ton of online services that allow you to order 3d printed parts from your own designs. The quality will likely be much higher than what you can print at home as well.
No everyone needs a 3d printer for sure. A big part of what stopped the idea that 3d printing would be this magical revolution is that designing plastic parts is actually fairly hard.
I don't use my 3d printer to 'fix' things around the house that often because it's frequently cheaper to work around it or buy a replacement. The times a high-value item breaks in a way I can fix with a printed part are rare enough it certainly doesn't justify owning one.
That said, if you really like designing mechanical things or working on electronics projects or similar, a 3d printer is a total blast. I'm currently using mine to make molds for real ceramic parts.
These threads are always a strange and uncomfortable bridge between valid criticism (many products made in China are cheap and break easily, the Chinese government uncomfortably authoritarian) and actual racism ("the Chinese" only make cheap shit, Chinese don't care about freedom).
> I just want a USB serial port that accepts gcode. I have plenty of computers with much better screens (and SSL stacks) around for doing something more powerful ;)
That's fair, but then you've added an extra processor which adds a lot of cost. I don't want to tie up a full computer and the associated space just to run my printer. Many people don't have a spare computer they can dedicate to printing either.
> While it is something Reddit endlessly complains about (despite having no software engineering experience)
While I agree Reddit's obsession with weird technical details is annoying, this is a pretty arrogant position. I've written motion control code for both 8-bit and 32-bit designs, and the difference is bigger than "read a string and pulse an IO a few times". The Atmega has been outdated for the past 10 years, the only reason it picked up in 3D printing was because of the accessibility through Arduino and similar---not for any good, technical reason. They're going to need to switch at some point, may as well be now.
Sure, you don't _need_ a 32 bit processor, but a modern Cortex-M0 or M4 is much more powerful than an Atmega328 for the same cost or less. My Prusa Mk3 takes a non-negligible amount of time to sort files on the SD card, and the screen could really show more information. There is also much more advanced motion planning they could do with a little more power available.
It's not _just_ a different point of view though. It's Turkish propaganda and even includes a "hordes of others" reference which comes from an ultra-nationalist viewpoint that is incompatible with modern values.
Furthermore, no one is censoring them beyond their comment getting a bit more gray, downvotes are not the end of the world. We don't need a community of people justifying massacres because they're scared of retaliations from the same foreigners they're subjecting to brutal oppression.
I would much rather have a society of equitable Marxist-Leninists (which they are not) than authoritarian far-right Turkey. At least their values would be in line with mine, regardless of their political ideology.
It's pathetic that you're using this red-scare nonsense to justify a borderline genocide.
I have two comparisons in mind. I've used a corded, $500 Dyson, and it's really awful. So many little, annoying design decisions and just an overall lack of power for a corded vacuum.
For the cordless ones, I've used the V7 (I think), and it's worse than a comparable Bosch.
Again, I'm not saying that Dysons are bad or anything... It's just the hype seems to far outmatch the actual quality when you go to use them, and it's taken them years and years just to get competitive.
It's great that they've improved, but I'm still confused about the hype. The best Dysons I've used are worse than my old, $400 Miele. They may be competitive now, but it took them 10 revisions to get to a point other manufacturers have been at for 20 years.
They feel like a vacuum marketing company more than anything. People seem to like them because they've only ever used $100 vacuums and it's their first time with something better, so it feels awesome in comparison.
Not everyone is aware of the extent and power of institutional oppression in America, and we can think of more than one thing at once. Realizing the double-standard doesn't prevent me from being upset at the institutional powers that got rural America addicted to opioids.
Like you said, through our system of democracy, we _allow_ the markets to exist in a particular form. We _allow_ the government to administer force to protect the peoples' ownership of private property. None of this is a given, and pretending everyone has a moral imperative to participate in the market does not follow.
If people in a region decide, by democratic means, they want to change the way the market functions, there is nothing implying they should 'get out'. It is fully within their rights.
HIV is not easy to communicate to other people. Education and PrEP have reduced the problem immensely.