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reprappro / RepRapFirmware

OO C++ RepRap Firmware
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support raspberrypi b+ #69

Closed thawkins closed 9 years ago

thawkins commented 9 years ago

I would like to gage the demand for using a raspberrypi b+ as a host, it now has suffcient gpio to drive 5 steppers, and cheap i2c adc and pwm generator chips can handle the rest. Im considering desiging a breadboard lashup that provides this, prior to porting the code. Would there be demand?

Im still torn between retaining the os, or direct booting the pi into the firmware from its sdcard.

Thoughts?

RRP-support commented 9 years ago

Hi. I think you are asking how difficult it would be to port the RepRapFirmware to Raspberry Pi, and whether there is sufficient demand? The RepRapFirmware currently runs only on the Duet, which has a SAM3X chip. From what I understand, it's quite a different architecture from the Raspberry Pi, and we have no plans to port it. There are already some existing solutions for the RPi, both running it as a host for a simpler stepper board (Octoprint), or running it as the real-time controller of stepper motors (some beta installs of LinuxCNC, other firmware), with a shield/cape for stepper drivers. We don't see much point porting our firmware to the RPi. As for gauging demand, RepRapPro are a small company, in a niche market; we don't have enough information as to whether any particular variation of board, or firmware/software, would be the 'next big thing' - otherwise we would make it! I think your question would be better served asking on the main reprap forums, or the larger CNC-related forums. Ask the community what they want, rather than developing something that they don't. I hope that helps. Ian RepRapPro tech support

RRP-support commented 9 years ago

As a follow-up, I asked Adrian Bowyer (who wrote the RepRapFirmware for Duet) how difficult it would be to port the code to RPi. He said 'trivial'! However, it would need to run on the hardware to ensure good stepper timing, not on top of an OS. I guess there would be a bit of messing around with libraries to get ethernet working, etc. Ian RepRapPro tech support

thawkins commented 9 years ago

I have a due and a ramps-fd on the way, but i also have several pi B+ cards and a prototyping kit for them. Plus boxes of motors and pololus.

I should read up more on bare metal pi, i understand its just the case of putting a suitablely built .bin file on the sdcard. On Oct 28, 2014 6:16 PM, "RRP-support" notifications@github.com wrote:

As a follow-up, I asked Adrian Bowyer (who wrote the RepRapFirmware for Duet) how difficult it would be to port the code to RPi. He said 'trivial'! However, it would need to run on the hardware to ensure good stepper timing, not on top of an OS. I guess there would be a bit of messing around with libraries to get ethernet working, etc. Ian RepRapPro tech support

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/reprappro/RepRapFirmware/issues/69#issuecomment-60734072 .