Benefits of Duet Wifi over Rumba with Octopi?

Discussion in 'BigBox General Chat' started by Proto_BB, Mar 2, 2017.

  1. Proto_BB

    Proto_BB Well-Known Member

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    I have looked at Duet Wifi a couple of times and thought *got to get one*, but I have always come back to the *why* question. At the moment I run a Rumba with OctoPi. I have it connected to my network, I use the web interface to manage prints and it works rather well. I watch my prints from the lounge on the little webcam for the Pi and it all seems great.

    Noise from the printer has never been an issue. Connecting via the web interface has always been reliable. I'm struggling to see what Duet Wifi brings? Please enlighten me :)
     
  2. elmoret

    elmoret Administrator

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    Compared to a RUMBA + Raspberry Pi, it brings:

    - quieter stepper drivers
    - finer microstepping (minor increase in print quality)
    - much easier to configure (no firmware recompilation ever needed, just edit a text file right in the web interface)
    - stepper motor driver currents are set in firmware instead of with fiddly potentiometers
    - more powerful motion control (32 bit vs 8 bit) - though this is a bigger benefit on Delta than Cartesian systems.
    - allows for PanelDue display, which is quite a bit easier to use than the 4 row character LCD.

    When you consider a RUMBA + Raspberry Pi with proper genuine stepper drivers costs about as much as a Duet Wifi, its an easy decision if you're starting from nothing. If you already have the RUMBA/RPi, its a little less enticing I agree.
     
  3. Proto_BB

    Proto_BB Well-Known Member

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    Thanks elmoret. I was hoping to see something more compelling outside the ease of firmware update.
     
  4. Ephemeris

    Ephemeris Well-Known Member

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    The ability to update the configuration interactively is an incredible feature. Sure maybe you love messing with development system tool chains, make files, etc., I certainly don't.

    Another big feature Elmoret left out is the macro functions, which are user supplied gcode files. These can do whatever it is you need to do repeatedly over time. They appear as commands in the PanelDue interface and can be edited interactively without rebooting. I find that incredibly useful.

    Also I cannot emphasize enough how happy I am with automated mesh leveling. This makes all the difference in getting good layer one control every time. Admittedly this feature only works well if you have a sensor bed combination that works everywhere on he print bed. For example, the PEI/aluminum bed and the stock IR Z-sensor work incredibly well. If you like to slather glue on the build plate and have the IR sensor, this won't help you at all.
     
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  5. R Design

    R Design Well-Known Member

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    Did I forget to mention?

    Lots of cool people now on Duet and there's an active forum @duet.com. ;-D

    (It certainly feels like the future)
     
  6. Ephemeris

    Ephemeris Well-Known Member

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    Cool people? Does this mean I have to reinstall the Rumba? I hate to get into trouble ;)
     
  7. Proto_BB

    Proto_BB Well-Known Member

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    Live config, macros and auto mesh levelling (I have a BLtouch on the way). You can welcome me to the club. Duet Wifi with 4.3" screen is now on the way..

    The macros look super useful. That paired with the auto mesh (I will follow the build notes on here) got me over the line.
     
  8. Alex9779

    Alex9779 Moderator
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    BTW you can use the macros in gcode too. So you can make modular script you can call from your start and end scripts or from within your sliced code to execute certain actions for example for wiping or purging...
    M98 is the command to call a macro file... Works also if the file is in a sub directory...
     
  9. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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    I couldn't see the value in the Duet personally(yet).

    Having replaced drivers on the RUMBA with the TMC2100s I have the noise benefit (which for me also was not a big factor, but was an interesting upgrade and I wouldn't go back), but also I'm in the position where if a driver has an issue, or new drivers come out, I can just swap over again. On the Duet, they're soldered in and a problem with an existing driver will be a return/replace (out of action while that happens at best), or rebuy (much higher cost than a single broken driver).

    The mahoosive Duet display onboard also put me off, along with the attendant loss of camera (unless you hook something else up).

    Configuration is also a moot point for me since tahoma's OctoPrint plugin. OK, I have to wait a minute to 90 seconds to change something and, I'll admit that instantaneous would be better.

    Automate mesh levelling is something I think Octoprint/Marlin/RUMBA can also do, but I'm still working with the manual mesh 9 point eyeball method and it gives decent results. Since getting the Alu bed, I should really re-try using IR to auto mesh level if I can figure that out.

    PanelDue control is no biggy for me, but I would use probably enjoy it if I had that. I like the idea of a colour touchscreen and I'm sure that the bigger display would allow me to cram more buttons in for regularly used macros, such as dock, filament swap, home etc. That said, custom buttons can be placed on the Octoprint UI and give me this feature already.

    Stepper motor current via interface - that's sweet. I love the idea of that. So that's one killer improvement at least.

    I'm curious about the Duet macros though? I like the idea of them being usable via GCODE. Are they simply a replacement for custom buttons running GCODE + the GCODE-able macros, or do they do more?
     
  10. Proto_BB

    Proto_BB Well-Known Member

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    That's neat Alex. I had a read of the reference for m98. Looks useful.

    I had no idea about the custom buttons. That's going to come in handy. Like one to kill a running print job - the button I needed a bit too often (printing from OctoPi but killing from the LCD) of late with my levelling issues.
     
  11. Spoon Unit

    Spoon Unit Well-Known Member

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  12. Alex9779

    Alex9779 Moderator
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    Camera and controlling with Octoprint is something which annoys me a little. Though you can still run your OctoPI and link the camera URL in the Duets webif and see the picture there too...
    Controlling with Octoprint is not so good because connecting the Duet to the Pi always powers it. I had problems with that...
    I asked Gina how about implementing different connections other than the normal USB/Serial in Octoprint. I thought about just using Octoprint as another WebIF for the Duet which will work but OctoPrint does not support that at the moment...
    But I am fine using the built in WebIF for the moment. Didn't print much this year anyways... Other things have taken priority...
     
  13. Dr Jeep

    Dr Jeep Well-Known Member

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    Alex, Try a doctored USB cable with +V cut, USB requires the DATA+ DATA- and GND to work correctly but technically unless one end is powered you don't need +V and that should prevent he power up problem you have.

    So are you saying that Octoprint's WebUI is superior to the Duet WebIF or it is because you are using Octoprint to slice as well ?
     
  14. Alex9779

    Alex9779 Moderator
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    I don't want to tinker with an USB cable...
    And all I will get is a slow connection to send gcodes with all the problems... I don't think this will work so good...
    Octoprint has some nice features for managing files, monitoring prints and print statistics. I had a nice workflow previously with a monitored net share I just saved my files directly there from my Windows PC. Then they appeared right away in OP.
    I tried to do something similar with a script and using the upload channel on the Duet but this didn't work so well for larger files when I tried it.
    I had PushBullet set up, so I was messaged on my phone when a print finished with a picture of the print.
    I could completely manage the printer from outside, the Duet has an issue with my VPN I couldn't figure out... Dunno if a new firmware is out yet to try this again...
    I can't take Z driven time lapse videos anymore...
    And some other little things...
    I don't really need all this but it made my workflow smooth.
    Overall the Duet is so much better electronics and firmware IMHO that I rather miss all these things than dealing with RUMBA and Marlin stuff.
    For the RUMBA it seems you have to have some luck to get a good and stable one. Mine was so it seemed.
    But Marlin was a major issue for me, the development was weird, decisions were made by one person, which led me fork it and other things that drove me crazy. That was some time ago so.
    No idea how it is today so...
     

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