Smaller Footprint
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Have you considered turning your micro delta upside down, i.e. stepper motors and electronics at the top instead of the bottom? You can avoid running heavy power wires up the towers by using a cheap 5-terminal bed heater SSR in the bottom.
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Hi David, it's designed so that either the electronics or steppers can be at the top or bottom but not both. It really is micro sized the bed is just 100mm diameter and 3x nema 14 motors only just fit into the base, as I have it configured with electronics at the top, motors at the bottom. The bed is heated by a silicone heater at only 40w on 12v so I won't need any ssr's.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1874766
The duetwifi board is physically larger than the electronics compartment. I could use one externally if I wanted to switch over.
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Maybe turn the board 90 degrees in that case and mount it vertically,
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Sounds like a custom triangular board with 4 drivers would be perfect! Also for such small motors you don't need TMC2660 drivers, the smaller TMC2130 would be a better match.
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This would probably add $10-20 to the cost for everyone, since it would mean doing two PCB fab/assembly processes instead of one. Also it would mean introducing a failure point at the stack's connectors. It would also mean the board is taller for everyone, for some printer designs height is the limiting factor. Not saying it isn't possible, but there would be some drawbacks to consider. Cost is probably the biggest one.
Agreed. The Duet Wifi is already expensive, the price being even higher would be a difficult sell.
Basically I'm just envisioning that the main board would have no integrated stepper drivers. It sounds like that sort of design could work well with multiple CAN bus driver boards that are located very close to the stepper motors. This could also have some big benefits in terms of EMI since the stepper motor wires could be much shorter.
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Basically I'm just envisioning that the main board would have no integrated stepper drivers. It sounds like that sort of design could work well with multiple CAN bus driver boards that are located very close to the stepper motors. This could also have some big benefits in terms of EMI since the stepper motor wires could be much shorter.
Yes, you could do it that way, but the costs would be higher. Each slave board would need a PCB, processor, CAN transceiver, power regulator and connectors, in addition to the stepper driver(s) and any other components moved off the main PCB.
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There is no one size fits all, We tried to make the DuetWifi be suitible for a wide range of printers, and be easily extendable for a much larger range through the large expansion header.
If only small form factor is important then a minimal board with daughter boards on each stepper driver and a hotend carriage mounted hotend controller board would be the way to go, but it would not be cheaper.
If a lower cost controller is important (while retaining core functionality) then a single extruder board with minimal expand-ability is the way to go.
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I think it is what it is and is a very well positioned offering. Smaller boards are available though as you say they're either older tech or less expandable. Electronics though always get smaller, and I'm sure 3d printer controllers will do too, some type of standardisation of wiring and connectors would help.
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John Lydgate said it first (brain teaser for today).
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Needs must as the devil drives?
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Needs must as the devil drives?
Nah. The one I was thinking about was "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time".
So with the Duet some people want more features, others don't want to pay for features they don't need, others want a smaller footprint, some want more features and a smaller footprint, and we'd all like it to do everything and cost nothing.
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Yeah fair enough I didn't know that was one of his too, but that's what I mean, its a well positioned offering, if it weren't people wouldn't be buying them, or they would be selling them on ebay, which they aren't.
