A big question here and this one is for cost savings. What would be the advantage of the Nitrogen 6x SOM over the Rpi Compute module 3. The Rpi community is vast there is tons of support out there the board has comparable if not better CPU and RAM. the form factor may even be the same so you may not need to change the system slot(don’t quote me on that). And again the cost savings. The Rpi compute module is 30-40.00 US(and internationally if I am not mistaken) This would be a boon for us as the end users and when manufacturing the systems wouldn’t this also decrease the over all cost of the control boars if you were to sell them? Just a thought. Thanks for your time.
I’m actually working on a version that uses the compute module.
The main unknown at this point is how to drive the steppers with it. I’m not impressed with any of the methods I’ve found for the RPi.
I’m currently researching some dedicated hardware to generate the step timings. Trinamic has some good solutions for this, and that is the way I am leaning.
The RPi based device will not likely be compatible with the Glowforge service, which was the main reason why I chose the same hardware as they use for the my first version.
Given the near total lack of anything but minor improvements to the Glowforge service, I don’t see this as a big negative. Especially if you and @LightBurn can collaborate!
it would be nice if it was somehow integrated with standard 3d printer systems. my mk3 prusa has some things that make me wonder if the glowforge could use. I personaly think something like octoprint on the rpi would be nice and then integrate standard Arduino and stepper drivers, not to diferent from ramps setups but all in one board… maybe even stackable boards if one is not enough room.
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I myself was wondering about using a sec w/ octoprint sending code to a grbl device