Would it be hard to use a different controller board than the ones sold in the V1 Shop like a smoothie board?
What do you have to do if you go this route without having the tested firmware and settings from V1 on the already tested boards he sells?
I am just trying to see what my options are right now. I am trying to upgrade my old MP3DP that had the ramps/arduino mega to a 32 bit board.
Appreciate the feedback.
In my experience, no. I used a Creality 3D 1.1.4 with Klipper software, Fusion 360 and the custom post processor. I am sure that you could use a custom compile of Marlin too. The only problem with the Creality board, if using the LR2, is the insufficient current provided to the 84oz/in motors.
Possible, yes.
I don’t know the Smoothie board’s firmware myself, so I can’t give you much advice to that specifically, but you can probably find answers. I just don’t know that you can find them here. Still, the MP3DP is for control intents and purposes an I3 clone, and should be fine with adjustments made for steps/mm, since most I3 clones I’ve seen use 20T pulleys, instead of the 16T. Same rules are going to apply for the extruder steps/mm as any other printer.
A number of non-v1-maintained boards come across the list. If it were me, I find a version of Marlin for my board/display combination. Often you will find a gitHub project for a specific board provided by the manufacture of the board. After you have some version of Marlin running on the board, I’d pick a V1 maintained firmware that was the closest to the board I have purchased, and I’d run a diff between the configuration.h and configuration_Adv.h of the two versions of the firmware. I’m using Meld these days to run software diffs.
The things you need to address are relatively small. Off the top of my head:
By starting with a firmware made for your board, you get the first three handled. For most boards (boards that have been integrated into the general Marlin build), selecting the Motherboard will percolate the other settings (like pins), that are needed for that board.
Note that within the last few months, lightly tested firmware for a few “non-standard” boards have made their way to the V1 release point, so that might be an alternate pathway.