ServoStock Delta 3d printer powered by servos and Bowler protocol

This Delta is heavily modified Kossel derivative which uses DC motor powered servos instead of stepper motors developed by team led by mad.hephaestus.

On each axis is a small board containing a magnetic encoder, and a continuous rotation servo. With this setup, the makers are able to get 4096 steps per revolution with closed loop control that can drive the servo to with ±2 ticks.
The electronics and firmware are fully redesigned configuration when compared to the usual 3D printers. The motherboard uses a Pic32 running at 80MHz. In parallel with hardware, the communication between the host and printer has been completely redesigned, instead of g-code, the team is using the Bowler protocol for sending packets over serial, TCP/IP, or just about any other communications protocol you can think of.

The final aim is to create much cheaper powerful 3d printer that would cost in 200 - 300 USD range.

Project on hackaday.io:

http://hackaday.io/project/962

GitHub repository:

https://github.com/Technocopia/ServoStock


There is lot of discussion on the project page and on hackaday about viability of this technology. I don't know much about all the stuff they use, so it will be lot of new stuff to learn. Maybe it will be the standard in the future.

Here is a video about closed vs. open control systems:



Here is a link about differences of DC vs. servo vs. stepper motors:

https://www.modmypi.com/blog/whats-the-difference-between-dc-servo-stepper-motors