The Recore A8 is an all-in-one 3D printer control board built around the Allwinner A64 SoC. The board includes six soldered TMC2209 stepper motor drivers, cooled by an 8-layer PCB for durability. To make the connection better the board features industry-standard JST PH connectors for secure cable connections. Most of the connectors are flexible and support end-stops, Neopixels, servos, inductive probes, and BLTouch. Two Expansion headers on the board allow for two additional stepper motor drivers. Additionally, the board supports various temperature sensors, including regular thermistors, thermocouples, and PT100/PT1000 sensors (PT100 requires an extra board).
Elias Bakken has been working on this board since 2019 and in our post about the earlier Recore A5, we have seen how Elias leverages Allwinner A64’s 300 MHz AR100 core to control real-time I/Os.
Recore A8 specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner A64 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor running at 1 GHz, with AR100 32-bit core @ 300 MHz, Mali-400MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 RAM
- Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash
- Video Output – HDMI output to connect a display
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet
- 3D printer control
- 6x built-in TMC2209, cooled by 8-layer PCB for increased durability
- Support for 2 additional stepper motor drivers (Restep with TMC2209 or Revolt for 48V power supply)
- 3x heater outputs + high power heated bed up to 20A
- 4x thermistor/thermocouple inputs (software selectable)
- PT100 and PT1000 resistance temperature sensors supported (PT100 requires extra board)
- USB – 4x USB 2.0 ports
After a close inspection of both boards, I found out the specifications for both boards are very similar. The only difference is that the A8 has support for 2 additional stepper motor drivers using either TMC2209 or the Revolt for managing motors with a 48V power supply and a strongly advertised 8-layer PCB. whereas the layer count for the older versions is unknown.
The Recore A8 comes pre-installed with Debian Linux, allowing users to choose between Klipper, OctoPrint, MainSail, Fluidd, and many other tools. Additionally, A recent Armbian forum update confirms that it will support models A5 through A8.
Recore is not 100% open-source hardware, but you can find the PDF schematics, Allwinner binaries, and other files on Github, as well as Refactor Linux distribution for 3D printers on a separate repository. Bakken recently released a tool called Reflash which solves the problem of installing and switching between software on 3D printers with permanently mounted storage (eMMC flash) by providing a secure and efficient way to flash new images via USB. For further technical details, refer to the Recore A8’s wiki page.
The Recore A8 3D printer control board can be purchased at the iagent.no online store for $149.00.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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What is the advantage of this compared to using a normal 3D printer main board and a pi? If you want an all in one package then why not one of the main boards that can connect to a compute module?
Soldered stepper drivers are not a good choice and should be kept for lower end boards, not boards costing this much.
I can get an F722 BTT octopus with drivers and a BTT pi for cheaper than this so what is the point?