Upgrading from 3XC to 5XC

Controllers Smoothie
1

Hi, So I bought a Smoothieboard 3XC with the intention of building myself a laser cutter.
After some arguments, I have been banned from using lasers in the house. Fair enough, not going to argue. but is sad because that means I wasted money on a board.
Cant let it go to waste, figured I’d build a printer because they’re less hazardous, but obviously the 3XC board is missing a lot of the components necessary to operate a printer, motor drivers and MOSFETS etc.

My question is, is there a good reason why I shouldn’t go on Digikey and buy all the missing components as stated in the BOM and solder it up to make it a 5XC?
Like, would the job involve more than a soldering iron? does the board need to be reflashed to add the additional hardware? do any of the ICs need programming?

I figured it is open hardware so it shouldn’t be so hard to do? but then the documentation isn’t totally complete. like, are the package descriptions in metric? example, most of the resistors are 0603 but I can see “0201 (0603 metric)” and “0603 (1608 metric)” on the package filter list. and what power specs are required? I could just get high as possible but would be nice to know.

Thanks peoples, I’m kinda running at this head first so appreciate all help you can give.

Imported from wikidot

2

So, the job is likely to be too much for a soldering iron, you want hot air and soldering paste ( well, or a soldering iron and world-class patience ).
Also, the cost is likely to be pretty high. Have you modified the 3XC in any way ? If not we can possibly buy it back from you so you can buy a 5XC.

No IC need reprogramming though. It’s just a ton of work, and it’s prone to error/board killing with shorts etc. And we are usually very liberal with how much warranty we give, but this would definitely void your warranty.