A controller board hybrid HACK??

Hello guys!

I decided to start a board project to learn more about board designing and was like, why would I start schematics from scratch if I have this big database on the internet providing me with so many board schematics and boards?
Especially if am doing a board for a very common FDM printer design and nothing is special. A RAMPS can operate it just fine I just want it to be a single board like Makerbase mks 1.4, capable of running tmc drivers instead of the A4899 and maybe switch to 24V instead of 12V . A 4 layer board is my objective.

So I began digging and collecting some schematics and was wondering if it's possible to make a hybrid board out of a combination of selected sub-circuits or diagrams such as the temp sensing circuit from many different boards.

The question I keep telling myself is what circuit should I choose? Why? what's the difference? How should I compare?

I would appreciate it if you give me your thoughts on this or if you have any advice that could help me out.

PS: I am no board designer so I was thinking that this is the shortest route or maybe a route "Hack" .

Thanks you!

This is an idea that I've in mind.

Some different simple and low cost boards, like the old modular design in RepRap.

This way you could design say the main board, this board is mere controlling the steppers, not so far from and arduino uno with cnc board.

This board is the "master board" it communicates to the slave boards with some communication protocol.

Let's make some ideas, a "master board" and a "temperature board" the temperature board could as simple as an arduino Nano with some electronic that read the temperature and command a Mosfet, it has the circuittry and the logic to drive say 2 or 3 hotends.

It receives simple commands, like ("T0 170") to set the Heater 0 to 170C, or maybe when receviving a ("T0?") will send over the communication line the temperature read.

Another board could be a display and keyboard board, maybe made with an Arduino Nano, a SD card reader, and some buttons, other than a LCD display or Oled, (there are plenty out of there and) that send the proper gcode to the "master board" to print the file.

The only limit is you fantasy, if the board wil use some not to exotic component it has not to have much pins, three for each stepper (EN DIR STEP) and maybe some line to control the programmable steppers, some three or six lines for endstops and maybe some z-height probe. I've seen some project using some ESP32 to control a simple 3D printer with 3 motors one extrude and one HE and H Bed.

I've made an ESP8266 Wifi interface for my printer, with less of 5 euros, using some cheap components from ebay, and with some existing software.

One of the most challenging task is the writing of the firmware for the main board, temperature controls are fairly simple to find around for arduino uno and nano, and the communication protocol is matter of reading strings.

Maybe is only a ranting.

Regards

Carlo D.

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P3Steel - MKS GEN v1.2 e REPRAP_DISCOUNT_FULL_GRAPHIC_SMART_CONTROLLER + Gen 7 MOSFET (HotBed) + alimentatore step-down 12V -> 5V
Firmware MK4duo 4.3.6 con ABL induttivo con LJ18A3 - Slic3R (Originale) ed ESP3D per controllare la stampante da remoto.
HotEnd Cinese V6 clone con ugello da 0.4mm.

[My Building Log]

Hello onek,

At last someone interested in the idea ! LOL
That is exactly what I was talking about. I think it is a good idea to make something anyone can do only by purchasing some ready and easily purchased boards like arduino nano and uno, some cheap components and a master board that they can possibly make with DIY style (copper etching...etc.) .
I guess it is worth the effort. I recently made a board capable of connecting 12v/2A power to an A4988 stepper driver controlled by an arduino uno and can be connected to a smartphone using a NODEMCU (I totally forgot that this can be used to achieve something similar but bigger to control a 3D printer).
A lot happened since I posted this thread so now I am able to design PCB layouts up to 4 layers. I already did some work on 3D printer controllers and alredy finished 3 4-layer concepts. So something with arduino boards should be possibly made with 2 layers and MAYBE without vias for people who do not have access to good PCB fabrication services (like myself ) .
So let us brainstorm a little. I think 1 arduino nano can be used to manage thermistors, endstops, a probe and an LCD. The LCD can be connected through 2 wires only using an I2C module like the one attached to most LCD screens nowadays and that way we may be lucky enough to hook up the SD card too and connect the board to the master board (which can also be a nano or we can do it ourselves in the master board using atmega328 or something like that). The steppers can be controlled via the master board directly or through a nano also. An I2C communication or SPI can be established between boards (slaves, master and the esp8266 based board) .
The wireless connection can be made to establish the purpose to send the gcode to the SD card. After that, all should be a matter of programming the application to monitor the print, browse through the gcodes, executing the gcode, and maybe sending gcodes on the go.

Best regards.
xdarko

Some tweaking, could be done using a rather exotic setup:

An old project

Sadly this old concept at RepRap was not developed, it used a concept similar, many boards, one for each task.

Generation 2



This board is a 32 bit but quite affordable, maybe a good basis to tweak on it, totally diy, the creator has also a very good MOSFET module, that I own and use.

Gen 7 ARM


Maybe using a ready made GRBL board to control the mechanics, 4 output one of them could doubled, like when using a dual Z, it made a very good work on moving the head, but the rest have to be managed from the main board, so the gcode has to be parsed and divided in "movement" to be send to the GRBL board, and "heating part" or maybe "extra tasks", but as said the heater task could be delegated very simply, you send the temperature needed and the work is done by the "temperature module"

The main concern is to find someone skilled in firmware writing, the other electronics is not too challenging, temperature controller is to read a ntc with teo or three resistors and to command a mosfet with PWM.

Regards

Carlo D.

---

P3Steel - MKS GEN v1.2 e REPRAP_DISCOUNT_FULL_GRAPHIC_SMART_CONTROLLER + Gen 7 MOSFET (HotBed) + alimentatore step-down 12V -> 5V
Firmware MK4duo 4.3.6 con ABL induttivo con LJ18A3 - Slic3R (Originale) ed ESP3D per controllare la stampante da remoto.
HotEnd Cinese V6 clone con ugello da 0.4mm.

[My Building Log]