Hello, I’m from Brazil. I’m also building my CNC router and want to turn it into a product, but things are much harder here, so this $165 price is quite steep for us. Another question is why this board is much more expensive than the tabletop board, which is historically well-tested hardware with excellent performance. I plan to use LinuxCNC for my router. I am a designer and system developer, and in the future, I intend to create a more user-friendly web-based software and use LinuxCNC as the backend to facilitate interaction for the end user. Sorry for the English, I’m using Google Translate.
Hi Alexon, the main reason for the price is the added cost to turn it into an all-in-one board solution. Other boards you find likely don't have motor drivers built-in so you have to buy those separately, also they might only give you raw inputs and outputs rather than having circuit protection designed for improving communication for specific purposes. The board complexity and component cost combine to make up most of the cost of the board to buy it, otherwise the remaining cost is because we want to offer great customer support and documentation to use the board There are still definitely other solutions out there that work well for different applications if you're also willing to get your feet wet. I think if you're planning to dive in and make a LinuxCNC solution with your own programming and machine design then you can likely work your way towards a more cost-effective approach for that too
Chris, are you going to do an assembly video for the Altmil? I only have one hand and had a hard time with the longmill mk1. I thought your videos were great, but I struggled with some or the assemblies . That is why I'm asking.❤❤
It will probably be Andy or Daniel or both of them together that film the AltMill assembly since they are the main designers and will be able to offer much more insight on the assembly than me. I'll make sure to peek over their shoulders ;) though I trust they'll be mindful of making the process easy to understand 👍
Is there any plan to have headless setup. SLB+Rasperri Pi + gSender and just access it from the browser? Kinda like buildbotics? I'm looking to switch my controller to SLB but really wanted the headless setup that reduced wiring for display and control.
We already have some pretty thorough documentation you can find in the manual, but if you look there and still would like more clarification then just let us know 👍 resources.sienci.com/view/slb-manual/#spindlers485
This is an immensely appreciated update. I purchased the SLB early because I have a lot of trust and confidence in you guys. You've more than earned it and I can't wait for my SLB to arrive tomorrow. On the g-Sender front, anything new regarding touchscreen operations, specifically how it doubles the jog distance? Last question, do you recommend ethernet over USB or vice versa and if so, why? Thank you, guys, for all that you have, are and will do for the CNC community ,/\,
No we still are working on a solution for that - in the meantime we've been putting our time into furthering compatibility with SLB. Regarding USB versus Ethernet, I'd say to start with USB and then feel free to switch if you want your computer further away or feel like you're wanting to further improve reliability, otherwise USB should fit the bill for most people 👍
I so enjoy all the specific information updates to general information; from each to all related there with Sienci Labs involved. By this I mean everybody seems to be in their groove and enjoying the work-play they're doing. It's a delicate balance as the years go by, and the products grow in quantity and technicality; for there not to leave out the personnel fit from the scheme of the whole business and fusion of the enterprise. Kudos to 😀everyone; keep up the fine effort you are all putting into the art and activities there at Sienci Labs!
Excited to get mine and hook it up to the MK1. This will give me some experience with the new features while I await the delivery of my AltMill that is due in May.
As of 1.4.0 (most current version 1.4.6 came out today) gSender can now support running the SLB. With this major hurdle nearing it's end our next steps will be to evaluate whether we leverage a Mini PC or board redesign to make gSender run locally. Currently we only have 110V power supplies since we were forced to switch due to limited supply during the pandemic and haven't been able to get any better since then. We'll keep trying to offer them once we can find another reliable source
Wow i did not realize how complex and different the new SLB is to the original board which I am currently running. I’d like to know in watching your video your router is different and larger then the makita router, does this mean I will have to purchase the lager router to take advantage of the speed the new slb provides? Thank you Scott Bieth
From what i am hearing i should be able to upgrade to the slb with my existing lm mk1 without any issues. I would like to have this unit if it means i can run a long complex program and not fear it will go south 3/4 of the way thru and leave huge hole or cut line across my project that isn't in the program. This is my biggest fear and thevreason i keep my projects small.
Yup! That should be possible. If you're worried, feel free to wait another month or so as we start shipping the first units out. You'll be able to see people's experiences with it, and it'll give us even more time to ensure everything is working like we hoped - then you'll be able to power up your MK1 just like you're hoping!
Yes there were some people who expressed interest, so we engraved into the cover of all the pre-order boards that it was part of the first 500 that we made :)
Since we just started shipping we don't have SLBs set up yet on the order status page. If you email us your order number we can let you know your current wait thin though 👍
This version of the SLB, no. We're working on a different version for the AltMill that would allow for controlling closed-loop motors though. Feel free to follow along on our blog for development on that
Could you link your specific model? Overkill is a relative term, because for the price it offers a lot, and some of the features and reliability would be very worthwhile assets even for smaller machines
