Starting with Duet 2

[sunToxx]

Well, to be honest, it should read "starting with 3D printing" as i ordered a printer that comes with a Duet 2 and it's my first 3d printer. However now i read that to avoid expensive mistakes, one should be familiar with other controllers first before diving into duet 2. So I am a bit worried now and hoping on hints where to start and what expensive mistakes to avoid. The Duet manual contains a lot of information, however with my current level of knowledge it seems not too useful to prepare for it.

So I would be grateful for any newbie hints. Like what you wish you had known before. Where and what I could read to prepare for Duet, while waiting for my printer to arrive, etc. I did read quite a bit about 3D printing in general in the last weeks, from general problems, to hardware to calibrating a printer etc. However I have not yet delved into slicing or the actual workflow.

Thanks!

[oliof]

@suntoxx I can only recommend to read the comprehensive documentation at docs.duet3d.com.

Duet 2 WiFi and Ethernet Hardware Overview | Duet3D Documentation covers the hardware
RepRapFirmware overview | Duet3D Documentation covers the firmware

most of the other interesting things branch off from those

[sunToxx]

@oliof thanks. Yes, that's where i was reading already. However without even having the hardware, it's a bit bland and I did not see anything in regard to my question. Someone now told me that the Duet is not as forgiving about shorts as 8 bit boards. However, that still doesn't seem to explain why in the all3dp article they said, that experience with 8 bit boards is recommendable, because mistakes can be expensive.

I ordered the duet printer preassembled (caribou), as I mainly need it for a (theoretically) commercial project (if things go as planned) and did not want to spend extra time fighting the hardware and need consistent results. So I was wondering if there are any usage mistakes that do not include tinkering with the hardware, that could kill the duet board and was hoping for any hints as what to avoid when starting to print my prototypes. Obviously i am not intending to to wild experiments with out of range values, but i suppose a bit of playing around and experimenting for fun and out of curiousity will be unavoidable

[oliof]

Since you get a pre-assembled printer / kit with all parts selected by caribou, you should be fine. As long as you follow the documentation provided by Caribou in building, I don't think there is a big(ger) risk as if you were building a machine based on 8 bit boards. It's important not to work on wiring while the board is powered, and not to rest it on anything that could short the soldered pins on the underside -- but that's true for any board. Duet2 boards have lots of excellent protections against shorting them out. The most important thing you need to be aware of is that the endstop pins are in a different order than on 8 bit boards.

While the duet documentation may seem bland (I prefer "concise"), it's usually covering all the bases. You might enjoy this article https://docs.duet3d.com/en/User_manual/Troubleshooting/How_to_destroy_your_Duet (-:

[sunToxx]

@oliof thanks for this, it sounds quite reassuring. I'll just stick to the documentation when I have to touch any of the electronics!

[Phaedrux]

We're always here to help when you have specific questions.