Delta printer support?

From the original Synthetos forum (2011–2025)

Started by vaporlock on in TinyG Support. 6 replies, last activity Feb 16, 2016.

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Can TinyG drive a delta printer? I can't find any config options for this.

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Having never heard of a delta printer I did a quick search.
Is this what you have in mind?

https://www.adafruit.com/products/2259

From a quick look it appears that there are 3 movement motors and a rotational motor. Presumably whatever software generates Gcode for the machine translates movement of the three legs into X,Y and Z equivalent commands.
So tinyG could probably handle that part.
However, again based on just quick observation, tinyG likely lacks the I/O and control capability for the filament feed, heater controls, etc.

You might be able to do the job with a DUO+Ultimaker 5 motor shield running tinyG2, but that is just a wild guess

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That is one example of a delta. Mine prints clay and needs pwm to manage the extruder. I am using an arduino based controller right now. Tinyg would havee to translate all axis moves that, on a Cartesian machine require only one motor to up to 3 with translation into polar coordinates. It's all about the firmware. Deltas aren't seen much in cnc because the structure doesn't handle loads well. Deltas are noted for speed. Check this out:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv5B63HeF1E

Staff #

tinyG will not do the necessary translation for you, but I recall a similar "wirebot" project solved with a Chilipeppr Macro a long while back.(a year or so)
It was an update to something Synthetos did a longer time ago

https://github.com/synthetos/WireBot

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Hi,
I'm interested in that question too. I have built a delta printer before using a tinyG (check it out). However, it was very rudimentary and didnt come with any fancy controls like heat, filament speed etc.
We used grasshopper for Rhino (more specifically the firefly plugin) to execute simple Gcode commmands. It was very time- and labor-intensive and really just good enough to prove a point. And grasshopper is not really optimized to do those things.
I have gutted our printer and would like to build another one that's functional and reliable (like this one, but I couldn't find any that use a TinyG.
I am fairly certain I can pull off the mechanical side, not so certain about the programming and electrical. I would be willing to build the code from scratch, but dont really know what is needed and where to begin.
Im no programmer, just know some Java, tiny bit of python and have some experience with arduino and processing. I am willing to learn the necessary languages. Any suggestions on where to start this project?

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I am not ignoring you; I have asked one of the devs to comment here, as they may have some ideas.

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Thanks! I will be waiting.

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