NanoDLP vs. OctoPrint for Resin SLA / LCD 3D Printers

Many people start 3D printing with FDM printers. When they need high quality surface and cost is not priority then they move to SLA printers.

Entry and mid level SLA market consists of LCD, DLP and Laser SLA 3D printer technology which later one is quite different and much less used.

SLA 3D printers used to be much more expensive compare to FDM which with release of LCD printers getting very close to FDM 3D printers.

People in FDM world get used to work with OctoPrint when they want to make their printer works as standalone unit and easily controllable from web browser.

LCD SLA resin printer is quite different to FDM. On SLA you do not have much movement as FDM and you only have movement on Z axis. Then resin get solidified by display of layer, so instead of complex gcode generation, on resin printers layer image generation become much important and movement is much more simple.

NanoDLP works as Resin 3D printer OctoPrint, with following differences:

• You do not need separate slicer as slicing process is not extensive as FDM work so could be done on Raspberry Pi.
• No standardization on SLA world, so it is much more difficult to setup NanoDLP on your printer compare to FDM. You need to enter lots of hardware details on NanoDLP.
• It is much more important to have standalone resin printer compare to FDM, as image display could get interrupted on your PC and force you to not use your PC for any other purpose.
• NanoDLP is free and not open source
• NanoDLP supports real-time processing and close loop feedbacks