Investigating MKS DLC32

[Sutto]

I built an initial mural (I love the project btw!) using some tweaked hardware - due to what was on hand and budget considerations. Hot glue went a long way to making some of the pieces a fit without modification.

Now, in doing so - I wondered if we had another option to make the process even easier - CNC boards based on the ESP32 of different varieties are quite common, and if we're sourcing from Aliexpress, super cheap.

In particular, the form factor, features and price of one boar in particular stood out to me - the Makerbase MKS DLC32.

Feature wise, it support:

• 3x Stepper motor drivers (no need for seperate boards to for each powered off the ESP32).
• Built in step down regulators, and designed for the higher power requirements of driving these motors.
• Compact form factor, with plenty of IO
• Easy USB connection etc lie the standard DevKit design.

And as of talking, I've found the whole board pretty available around the $22 AUD mark - bargain!

The only limiting factor to a straight port (adjust pins etc) appears to be the use of I2S as a novel way of driving the motor drivers / to expand GPIO's: https://github.com/bdring/Grbl_Esp32/blob/main/Grbl_Esp32/src/I2SOut.cpp

To this end, I've got a board on hand and plan to dive into the code this weekend / over the next few weeks to see what would be required to adjust it. It'll also make assembly much, much easier - and I'd just have to adjust the hanger design.

I'll drop some comments here as I investigate it more :)

And for context on the board - the design (and specs!) are all open source: https://github.com/makerbase-mks/MKS-DLC32

[nikivanov]

That does indeed look like a really good way to cut down on components, assembly AND cost! Let me know how your investigation goes.

[flow1986]

i had the same idea with the MKS-DLC32 board:

#22

i don´t have the time to investigate further, so i much appreciate your work and hope you can reprogram the code to use with the MKS-DLC32.

thanks a lot!