Repetier for 3D Robot

robbycandra

It is a surprise for me to see that @repetier actively involved in discusion here, consider that there is almost no activity on github account.

I want to discuss about ufast8_t PrintLine,dir variable here,
This variable can only hold 4 stepper, each for 2 direction.

Multi color extruder now can have 5 extruder working together to mix color.
And some hexapod printer or 6 DOF arm have 6 stepper.

What do you think if I change dir to uint16 and add extdir with uint16 too,
This will add 3 byte for each PrintLine.

Regards.

Repetier

For multicolor this is not needed. All extruders have same direction anyway.

If you start misusing it for genral porpose controlling of more motors that is of course not enough. Since it is in first place a printer firmware we take special carer that this works best. Here we support 8 bit platform so 8 bit variables have some benefits as this can be checked much faster. And for deltas we need to preserve as much memory as possible.

Having said this, for 32 bit platforms this could be extended to 32 bit variable at no cost allowing 16 axis. Same could be done for 8 bit, bit it should fall back to 8 bit as soon as no extra axis are used to preserve memory and speed where needed. I think fast8_t is 32 bit on due anyway, but for switching dynamically you would need a additional type.

robbycandra

The new mixing color extruder move the color indepently. It can mix red and yellow to make orange with any percentage of each color. 

Repetier

Yes it can, but we do this by switching steps to the motors according to mixing ratio. For bresenham algorithm it is still one E axis regardless of number of motors.