Anyone tried to make a 3D Printer controller?

Finally the exam period is over, more time for other projects
This lil’ pause also helped me in terms of the tunnel view that i slowly got.

I think i will trash the whole idea with the extra modules. If i rethink the whole idea, to be able two swap them out if they break, i was a good thought, but with the extra protection added for the mosfet (flyback diode, reverse polarity diode, all nicely fused, heatsink for the mosfet although it wouldnt be really necessary) i dont think it will ever happen that you have to swap the module out. And it kinda adds up bulk to the whole controller, making it taller than it has to be.

On another note: I also dumped the screw terminals for the stepper driver, because 90% of the stepper motors used in 3d printers have simple connectors on the and just a few of the china kits happen to have screw terminals on their controller, while the majority has connectors. Plus saving space.

I tried to make the whole board F4 compatible, but it seems rather hard because they differ in terms of pinout (if i have checked it correctly). If i find some time i might try it out again.

And i would like to try to control the microstepping settings digitally via an IO expander (MCP23017). Was just a crazy idea i had

~Straw

strawberrymaker wrote:
I tried to make the whole board F4 compatible, but it seems rather hard because they differ in terms of pinout (if i have checked it correctly). If i find some time i might try it out again.

Goodmorning everyone

Is there any news regarding this project?

I believe that today is necessiario start directly with a nice F4. With all this computing power will be the basis of many projects for a long time. Not only in 3D printing.

We really need an IO expander (MCP23017)? Add it to the board is definitely easy and some firmware for 3D printers so that they can activate the microstepping.

@Straw Now that the exam period has passed (:-) coped well with the tests? ), And now you’re more free, what you plan to use for the realization of this card?

Greetings
drk

@Drakelive although i didnt posted that much lately (kinda forgot about it), stuff has happened in the github repo.
I already managed to check the pin diagram atleast on the F1, which worked, but i didnt finished my small F4 Test board but there shouldnt be a problem.
The whole design is F4 conpatible, so its just a matter of changing the jumper pads and the micro for it. But having the option of a f4 for it still seems important. Although its slower, its still the most supported mcu here and it would take a bit more work to get it working.

The IO expander is also in the design, seemed like a nice idea

Hmmm….realization of the boars. Good question. Using china to outsource the PCBs is a standard (because most pcb manufacturer in germany charge wayy too much). And for the first few it would be enough to use a stencil to paste the solder paste on it manually and pick and placing the parts manually seemd good. Maybe getting and oven and modifiyng it to use for soldering the pcbs is good.

Its not like there are 1000 smd parts that i would be worried for the solder paste to harden while i place the parts.
But atleast all pin headers have to be soldered by yourself, just so that exporting it and shipping cost is as low as possible.
For the future, i dont know what would come next

But for now: trying to finish the next design before holidays begin in 2 weeks, because then im gone for 3 weeks and if i get all the new Parts ordered before im gone, i can test them happily in 3 weeks without school

~Straw

ok, about the IO expander: has to be dropped. makes the 2 layer design way to complicated. guess i will stick with normal header jumpers for now.

~Straw

Just gonna leave the Site here for pictures.

So, gonna sum it up what changed since the last board:

• Hardware Support for the F103 and F407 series. (not sure about other F4 Chips)
• Changed the Fuse holder to mini automotive fuses (saves muuch more space)
• Moved everything now ON the board. all of the parts are as safe as possible and protected really good. making extra modules for everything makes power delivery bit more complex + higher cost and things are getting high.
• Added some reverse polarity diodes, just in case.
• Smaller crystal for the MCU
• Now WITH screwholes, in spec for DIN 912 M3 screws.
• Changed the Thermistor count to 6, so you can have extra redundance in every heater and the heatbed.
• LEDs indicating the Power Rails.
• 5V and 3V are now generated with buck converters. Also fused.
• Now with an adapter to (theoratically) directly use a RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Display.
• But still an aditional SD Card adapter (not microSD)
• Actually relatively proper Silkscreening
• ESP-01 Socket. Bit more experimental, but there are actually Web Interfaces out for it.

Now i just have to gather everything together and get everything ordered tomorrow

~Stra

Just curious about your selection of ESP-01. Did you consider any other models, such as ESP-05.

@Ollie the web server part would be completely on the ESP and wouldnt be ran by the STM32. It seems like with the ESP-05 you cant flash it because the GPIO isnt broken out(?). And it doesnt seem to be really loved by the community, thus it costs like double of the ESP-01 price. And you would still need an external antenna.

There also doesnt seem to be another small board with pin headers, except for the esp-12 lineup, but all of this GPIO isnt really needed. I only connected GPIO2 of the 01 to one of the pins of the STM32, so you could maybe add a special function if needed.

~Straw

@Straw
Great work. I want a PCB. When you’re ready mail me privately. Do not forget me

Drk

@Drakelive noted

~Straw

@Straw: I’ve been following your thread. Nice work!

I started recently diving into 3d printers, I am building a delta. There are many 32-bit controllers that are showing right now.

I am not sure if you saw the eval kit from ST http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/pro … 001v1.html which is based on STM32F401 micro controller. There is also a firmware for it Marlin4ST https://github.com/St3dPrinter/Marlin4ST, could be that is newer than Marlin_STM32.

Would your board work with Marlin4ST firmware? Maybe it is worth considering this during the PCB design phase.

Wouldn’t say many. The only ones out there are either arduino dues based on the ramps, smoothie boards and their clones and some stm based ones out of China. But haven’t seen this one before.

I think it’s compatible with it, as it’s based on the stm32cube, and the board is also compatible with f4 mcus as well as the f1. but I don’t like the cube licensing and that would take the open source part bit away.

I’m rather aiming to port marlin4due and make it based on the stm32duino core, seems easy enough. And i think there is also a port of smoothieware for the stm32 out there.

BTW, the PCN design phase is over atm. Just waiting for the new pcbs to arrive. And if they work properly, I think I’m done for the first bit in terms of changing stuff in the board.
It’s already F1/F4 compatible, has nice automotive fuses, two outputs and 4 additional. Seems more than enough for its price point (<60€, but got to calculate the BOM cost again tomorrow)

Straw

Hi Straw

strawberrymaker wrote: … I don’t like the cube licensing and that would take the open source part bit away.

@Drakelive

werent part of the cubemx code under MCD-ST Liberty SW License (or something like that)? Or did they already changed them all to MIT (or others).
IIRC they used a license which forced you to only use the software for stm mcu’s only. guess they changed it since then.

~Straw

strawberrymaker wrote:@Drakelive

werent part of the cubemx code under MCD-ST Liberty SW License (or something like that)? Or did they already changed them all to MIT (or others).
IIRC they used a license which forced you to only use the software for stm mcu’s only. guess they changed it since then.

~Straw

The license is now a lot more open

But, I don’t know if it allows use on the GD32 etc, I think it probably does not allow use on non-stm32 devices.

PCBs arrived. Soldered the mcu in and testfitted the connectors

Main Front

Main Back

Others Front

Others Back

Some things that went wrong:

Pads for the fuses are too small.
wrong footprint for the transistors in the LCD adapter.

But now: gamescom

FYI.

I just saw this in the STM news letter

http://blog.st.com/speedy-board-and-stm … ld-for-3d/

Hi Roger

Yes, I know her. It was designed by an Italian company. This board was presented last year at Rome MakerFaire, unfortunately it is a project in hadware closed.

ST achieved its Board:

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/pro … 001v1.html

https://github.com/St3dPrinter/Marlin4ST

Drk

OK

I just thought I’d post in case no one else had seen it

BTW. Andy has posted about another STM32F103 based 3D printer (but I think its also commercial / closed source)