Creality confirms that future Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit motherboards
A neat upgrade for new Ender 3 purchasers
Published: 28th August 2020 | Source: Creality3D |
Creality confirms that future Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit motherboards
Earlier this month, Creality3D announced that all future Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers would be shipped with 32-bit processors, upgrading the system from its original 8-bit processors.
While this change will be an inconvenience to some users, as Creality's new 32-bit motherboard requires different firmware than its 8-bit equivalent, the move to 32-bit is a positive change when considered as a whole.
New Creality Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will ship with a new 4.2.2 32-bit motherboard, which comes with an STM32F103 master chipset and HR4988 driver chipset. Like Creality's older 8-bit motherboards, it also ships with Marlin 2.0 firmware.
The benefits of 32-bit ARM controllers over their 8-bit counterparts are numerous, but the core of the matter is that they are much faster. 3D printers need to read complex G.code and deliver precise instructions to your 3D printer's motors, and 32-bit processors allow 3D printers to complete this task with performance to space. As a whole, old 8-bit and new 32-bit Ender 3 3D Printers will offer the same functionality and printing performance as before, but 32-bit processors allow users to process more complex G.code without any potential slowdown, stutters for pauses.
For most users, the upgrade to 32-bit processing will deliver huge benefits to new Ender 3 users. That said, it is a positive step for Creality to take, even if it complicates the process of updating an Ender 3's firmware.
It is worth noting here that Creality is not guaranteeing that all new Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit processors. It is likely that a large number of 8-bit Ender 3 3D printers are still available from retailers. All newly manufactured Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit motherboards. That change doesn't mean that 8-bit Ender 3 printers have been removed from retailer shelves.
While this change will be an inconvenience to some users, as Creality's new 32-bit motherboard requires different firmware than its 8-bit equivalent, the move to 32-bit is a positive change when considered as a whole.
New Creality Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will ship with a new 4.2.2 32-bit motherboard, which comes with an STM32F103 master chipset and HR4988 driver chipset. Like Creality's older 8-bit motherboards, it also ships with Marlin 2.0 firmware.
The benefits of 32-bit ARM controllers over their 8-bit counterparts are numerous, but the core of the matter is that they are much faster. 3D printers need to read complex G.code and deliver precise instructions to your 3D printer's motors, and 32-bit processors allow 3D printers to complete this task with performance to space. As a whole, old 8-bit and new 32-bit Ender 3 3D Printers will offer the same functionality and printing performance as before, but 32-bit processors allow users to process more complex G.code without any potential slowdown, stutters for pauses.
For most users, the upgrade to 32-bit processing will deliver huge benefits to new Ender 3 users. That said, it is a positive step for Creality to take, even if it complicates the process of updating an Ender 3's firmware.
It is worth noting here that Creality is not guaranteeing that all new Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit processors. It is likely that a large number of 8-bit Ender 3 3D printers are still available from retailers. All newly manufactured Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro 3D printers will feature 32-bit motherboards. That change doesn't mean that 8-bit Ender 3 printers have been removed from retailer shelves.
You can join the discussion on Creality 3D updating its new Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro 3D printers with 32-bit motherboards on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
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Originally Posted by NeverBackDown
Surprised they haven't gone to 64bit arm? I would have assumed they were already on a arm 64bit architecture.
Then again I know next to nothing on 3D printers |
Not gonna lie I'm surprised there was performance issues with the 8-bit parts, G-Code/NC-Code is fairly simple all things considered and you could definitely encode it purely in 7/8-bit ASCII chars, I guess it's the long strings causing issues.
But yeah, you can get realtime 32-bit ARM embedded processors for about £1 a piece if going for a Cortex-M3 models or similar (I assume this is using the popular STM32 family). Generally current 64-bit ARM processors are sold in vastly more expensive complete SoCs, and not really meant for realtime processes ("Really Fast" processors are often actually too slow or inconsistent for things like controlling machinery in the aspects that really count; latency and determinism)Quote
But yeah, you can get realtime 32-bit ARM embedded processors for about £1 a piece if going for a Cortex-M3 models or similar (I assume this is using the popular STM32 family). Generally current 64-bit ARM processors are sold in vastly more expensive complete SoCs, and not really meant for realtime processes ("Really Fast" processors are often actually too slow or inconsistent for things like controlling machinery in the aspects that really count; latency and determinism)Quote
Quote:
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Originally Posted by NeverBackDown
Surprised they haven't gone to 64bit arm? I would have assumed they were already on a arm 64bit architecture.
Then again I know next to nothing on 3D printers |
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Originally Posted by Warchild
I guess because 3D printers are no where near needing the advantages of 64bit arm right now. I see it as an extremely light weight operating system which some have got working from a simple Arduino.
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Originally Posted by tgrech
Not gonna lie I'm surprised there was performance issues with the 8-bit parts, G-Code/NC-Code is fairly simple all things considered and you could definitely encode it purely in 7/8-bit ASCII chars, I guess it's the long strings causing issues.
But yeah, you can get realtime 32-bit ARM embedded processors for about £1 a piece if going for a Cortex-M3 models or similar (I assume this is using the popular STM32 family). Generally current 64-bit ARM processors are sold in vastly more expensive complete SoCs, and not really meant for realtime processes ("Really Fast" processors are often actually too slow or inconsistent for things like controlling machinery in the aspects that really count; latency and determinism) |
It's the difference between using something that "good enough", and using something that is fast enough to (pretty much) never become an issue.Quote
I've dablled a bit with CNC and writing motion controllers. In my experience the limitation with the 8 bit controllers is that most of the time they run a form of GRBL which has some non asynchronous functions, that block the thread. Which slows things down. Also most 8 bit hardware has pretty modest clock speeds which doesn't help things.Quote
CSS Valid
Then again I know next to nothing on 3D printersQuote