Revolve Is Set to Be the New Standard in 3D Printer Controllers

The board that controls your 3D printer is critical to its functionality, and the Thing Replicape has been a great option for a while now. It was a BeagleBone Black cape with onboard motor drivers, and together with the BeagleBone itself it was a very robust controller. Now Thing is poised to release the Revolve, which packs the entire system into one compact board.

That’s all possible thanks to Octavo Systems’ OSD3358 SIP “BeagleBone on a chip.” That term couldn’t be more appropriate, because the chip puts all of the BeagleBone’s important components on a single wafer. It can then can be used on other boards—giving them the power of a BeagleBone Black without the bulk.

For the Revolve, that means that everything your 3D printer needs is on one small board. The power supply, stepper motors, hot end, and heated bed all connect directly to Revolve, making messy wiring a thing of the past. And, because it’s its own Linux computer, you can even use a webcam and utilities like Octoprint all from the Revolve board.

A release date and price haven’t yet been announced for Revolve. But, its creator Elias Bakken expects that it will run somewhere between $100 and $150. That’s an absolute steal when you consider everything you’re getting on the Revolve board. Our fingers are definitely crossed that it will be available for purchase soon.