MPCNC with Duet 2 Wifi (Burly 20"x20"x3.5" work area)

Good morning everyone,

so I have not been very active on the forum but I was hoping to take this opportunity to say thanks for a great machine. I have finally gotten to a state with my version of the MPCNC that I am actually enjoying it :slight_smile:. I started building the MPCNC a few years back when my public library received a 3d printer. What better way to support your local community services than to hog up the printer for a good 4 weeks :slight_smile:. They knew me by name and were really curious about what I was printing.

You might laugh but from start to finish, I think I spent a good 3 years building it. I am not one who likes to finish projects fast and family of course comes first (hence the googly eyes).

to give everyone some specs:
work area is 50 mm x 50 mm or 20" by 20".
Z-height is around 3.25"

I originally set out to build a 4’ by 4’ MPCNC. As you can see, it looked great on my living room carpet :hugs:

After realizing that it doesn’t fit through doors, I shrunk it down in size. Originally the Z-axis was 6" which I recently changed to about 3.25" … what an improvement.

In terms of electronics, I started out with a cheap ramps … then a second ramps after the first one didn’t want to be flashed … then I added a raspberry pi with CNC.js to make it a bit more “21st century” and adding wifi … but … my wife’s laptop gave us trouble so my wifi dongle got confiscated and I ended up using a LAN cable to talk to the raspberry pi. the RPI talked to the ramps via USB cable. It was a clunky setup and my wiring wasn’t great either. You can see the mess below my googly-eyed library Frankenstein.

Naturally, I needed to tinker with it because you can’t leave good enough alone and I have to always do the opposite of everyone else. In my search for the solution to my bad wiring and constant motor failures during my jobs, I came across the Duet 2 Wifi. I fell in love with it right away due to its simplicity. It didn’t require little stepper motor drivers that could turn to smoke in an instant, you could access it via wifi, and it has a big community behind it. What more could you want?

I found a cloned version of the open-source duet 2 wifi board on aliexpress
[https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AlRo0C]

It was relatively inexpensive and did what I needed it to do. All I can say, if you have an MPCNC and aren’t using the duet, you are missing out. My machine went from growling and rumbling Frankenstein to a well-oiled machine. The integrated stepper motors made the machine so quiet, I can now hear when I need to lubricate things. It lets you set up work coordinate systems, pause and resume jobs, and best of all, I managed to have the duet control my cheap 400w Chinese spindle.

I made a bit of a summary video, its my first youtube video so go easy on me :). It shows some of the key things that the duet is capable of doing. The software recently got an update that geared it towards CNC and Laser applications. It is very nifty to work and best of all, because it is wifi enabled, any device with a browser can connect to it. You can even use conditional G-code I believe. I’d be more than happy to go into more detail. Right now it is set up as a dual endstop configuration. The duet lets you easily configure how homing is done and you can set multiple work coordinate systems.

My first big project after installing and setting up the duet was 24 5k-running race medals for my wife’s volunteer running organization


the medal on the right was designed by me but lasered by someone else

I’ve also made a nice little sword for my son

The cool thing about the duet that really impressed me was the way I could set up multiple workpieces and preset my x, y and z work zero. I simply clicked start again and the job would run. That really saved time cutting 24 medals over 2 days.

I am curious to hear what you guys think and if anyone is interested in me explaining how to set up dual endstop homing and the like. Everything is done via G-Code on the Duet. It is really easy to set up min and max work spaces as well as set stepper motor current in the software. Also I would be very happy if you guys had any comments on the video hehe, I want to know if I am on the right track to becoming a youtube sensation … NOT! lol

Oh, and before I forget, for those that love to use Fusion 360, it sounds like the guys at OpenBuilds have come up with a workaround to the recent removal of rapid moves. Openbuilds have come up with the Workbee and Lead CNC machines. Both used to use the duet for their control system. The duet is RepRap-based but can interpret GRBL G-Code. I haven’t tried Esltcam yet but I suspect it should work just fine with it.

Thanks for your patience and thanks for all the hard work that went into coming up with the MPCNC design. All that is holding me back from a primo upgrade is a few extra coins to order stainless steel tubing :slight_smile:
Cheers
Alex

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Very nice setting and nice projects.
I’m impressed and even a little jealous, as I would never be able to go that far.
Well done.

Looks really good. The web interface does look pretty sharp.

There is a post processor by flyfisher64 that also tries to gauge what is a rapid and what is a cut in fusion for the free version for the MPCNC.

I can second the flyfisher PP. It’s been working well for me at putting rapids back into the gcode after fusion360 strips them out.

Nice job.
And kudos to you and your wife for making the running awards. That is so great.

I have a couple of Duet Wifi boards, but they don’t power my CNC.

I do like the web control, and the versatility of the firmware is excellent. If not for the board cost, I’d probably be running my Zen table on a Duet. I might do it yet for the new build, as I’m spending a lot more money on materials for it. (Edit: My boards are genuine, so a bit over double the cost of the Ali Express clone boards in your link. I might buy a couple of clones to run the MPCNC after all.)

I can say that in the RepRap firmware in Marlin mode can deal with Marlin flavour GCode from EstlCam perfectly well, as I did some movement tests with it. It also deals with Sandify code perfectly well for reference. I haven’t tried GRBL mode myself. The point of the movement tests was to see how fast the Duet can deal with arc commands, since my poor 2560 seems to have trouble keeping up sometimes, and that results in jerky motions. The Duet’s processor is much faster of course, so it doesn’t seem to have any trouble with the arcs at speeds I’d never run the CNC at.

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I’m using the Duet2Wifi too on my big 3D printer and really love it, it’s a great board.
Never gave CNC cutting a try with it though, hopefully soon.

Kudos on the things you’ve cut, those medals and the sword all look great!

Thanks, everyone, it was the first sunny weekend in the year! needless to say, I spent it outside, I’ll grab the files this week and post them.