Powerful control for your 3D printer

Project note

About the BBP project

Fastbot was established three years before the homepage content snapshot, with the aim of building a faster upgrade for 3D printers. The BBP project was discontinued due to business difficulties and could not continue.

Software and hardware information was made available on GitHub, and the forum and wiki remain the places to read technical discussion and documentation. For inquiries, see the contact page.

Fastbot is built around a simple idea: give makers and small teams a control board that feels less like a constraint and more like a foundation. The BBP1 and BBP1S boards pair an ARM Cortex-A8 processor with a Debian or Android operating system, so the same hardware that drives steppers, heaters, and fans can also run familiar software. That combination matters for people who want to spend their time improving a printer rather than fighting a limited controller, and it keeps the path open for experimentation as needs grow.

A control board is only as useful as the interfaces it exposes, and the BBP platform leans into that idea. Drivers, heaters, endstops, and fans all connect through a rich set of inputs and outputs, with a dual PRU helping handle timing-sensitive work alongside the main processor. Memory and storage are generous enough to hold an operating system and the software around it, while a microSD card, USB OTG, and Ethernet give the board room to talk to the rest of a workshop without awkward workarounds.

Because the boards run a full operating system, the way you work with them feels closer to a small computer than a traditional controller. You can install packages, manage services, and reach the board over a network to edit configuration or watch a print progress. Remote access through a socket connection means a printer in another room stays within reach, and the same flexibility lets owners script routine tasks or integrate the board with tools they already trust.

Community and documentation sit at the heart of the project. The site gathers news, forum discussion, and download links so owners can find firmware images, notes, and fixes in one place. Bug reports and feature requests are welcomed, and the project invites people to flag problems rather than quietly work around them. That feedback loop is what keeps a small hardware platform honest, since the people running the boards daily are the ones who notice what needs attention first.

The hardware choices reflect a deliberate balance between capability and simplicity. An ARM Cortex-A8 processor clocked up to around a gigahertz, paired with DDR3L memory and eMMC flash, is enough to run a modern Linux or Android environment without turning the board into a power-hungry server. A dedicated real-time coprocessor handles the fast, repetitive signals that stepper drivers depend on, so motion stays smooth even while the main system is busy with other work.

For anyone arriving from a failed crowdfunding effort, the Fastbot story is worth understanding. The project began as a dream and ran into the hard realities of running a business, manufacturing hardware, and keeping software moving at the same time. Rather than disappear, the team chose to continue, publishing what they could and keeping the design open where possible. That decision shapes the tone of the site: candid about difficulty, but still focused on the boards and the people using them.

Openness runs through the project in more than one way. Source material and design files are shared where licensing allows, with attribution and share-alike terms guiding how others may reuse and build on the work. For a small hardware effort, that approach lowers the barrier for tinkerers who want to adapt a board to an unusual printer or a custom machine. It also means improvements can travel back into the community instead of staying locked inside a single product line.

Getting started with a Fastbot board is meant to be straightforward for anyone comfortable with a terminal. Creating an account opens access to downloads and discussion, and the documentation walks through the basics of powering the board, connecting peripherals, and reaching it over the network. From there, the path is yours: tune a printer, build a custom machine, or simply explore what a small Debian or Android computer attached to your hardware can do when the software is fully in your hands.