Is there any news or blog on the Duet3

Miasmictruth

@resam Well they did sort of announce it at Reprap fest but oh well heh

T3P3Tony

more seriously we have a plan to make a more extendable controller (for those people who need more than 12 steppers however its not planned to be a product we release in 2018. Also we will continue to work with the Duet 2 boards for a long time.

dc42

To expand on Tony's response:

The next-generation Duet will support many more stepper drivers and other I/O devices, using chainable expansion boards and a CAN bus as we have already said.
Design and development is well under way. We will have something to show in the not too distant future; but production will not happen this year.
The improved hardware specification of the next generation Duet - which I am sure will have many of you drooling - means it will inevitably cost more than the current Duet 2 boards. So we don't expect it to replace the Duet 2 Wifi/Ethernet for typical 3D printer applications requiring no more than 5 stepper drivers, because Duet 2 is adequate in that space. This means we expect to continue manufacturing Duet 2 boards and enhancing firmware for them for a long time. We may make some small tweaks to the Duet 2 range, for example by offering a version with external WiFi antenna.
Although the hardware specification of the next generation Duet 3 has largely been frozen (no we're not sharing it yet!), I am currently specifying how the existing G- and M-Codes will be expanded to handle multiple expansion boards. To this end I am about to start a thread on that subject, for which I welcome input from this community.

jml

Can't wait! Already drooling.

Miasmictruth

@dc42 said in Is there any news or blog on the Duet3:

may make some small tweaks to the Duet 2 range, for example by offering a version with external WiFi antenna.

Thanks for the replies, sorry if I jumped the gun was just wondering what the future was looking like since I hadn't heard anything since MRRF. I was hoping to possibly incorporate the expandability of the Duet 3 with the e3d tool changer, a match made it heaven it would seem lol.

Of coarse there is no release date information for that either but I have a feeling that I will be sticking with the wifi for at least initially by the sounds of it.

Also don't get my wrong I love me duet wifi, I don't plan on swapping it out of my current system, unless I am borrowing it I suppose for the tool changer.

dc42

We are taking the needs of the E3D tool changer very much into account in the design of the next Duet.

PcS

This is awesome news !

T3P3Tony

@dc42 said in Is there any news or blog on the Duet3:

We are taking the needs of the E3D tool changer very much into account in the design of the next Duet.

The initial e3d tool changer will have 4 tools (as announced on their blog post)
https://e3d-online.com/blog/2018/08/20/e3d-tool-changer-and-motion-system-beta-30-incoming/
It will be able to be controlled with a Duet 2 + Duex5 which is what e3d say they be offering, along with all the wiring.

Longer term the tool changer concept can add all sorts (carousel, robot arm, etc etc) at which point Duet 3 becomes a requirement.

dc42

Here's a teaser for you! This is a prototype of one of a planned range of Duet 3 expansion boards. The connectors on the left are for the CAN bus.

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gtj0

@dc42 Looks nice! I love the change to the larger VIN terminal blocks.

deckingman

Just what I'll need for the 7 axis machine I'm planning

dc42

Yes, we changed to barrier strips on the Duet Maestro and we intend to use them on all future boards.

OG3D

@dc42 are you taking into account of adding a closed loop stepper control with an absolute encoders? I seen talks about it in the past but was curious if your taking this into account for next gen duet. Any replies would be appreciated.

Thanks,
OG

dc42

You can already use step/servo drives if they have standard step and direction inputs, and several Duet users do this already. What's more interesting would be using BLDC motors and encoders.

Martin1454

@dc42 Have you considered to make an expansion board with diffrent stepper drivers like the TMC2130 so we can get stealth chop on the X/Y axis? I know the maestro have them, but would love to be able to use some with the duet

OG3D

@dc42 so with steps and direction inputs the absolute position would not be known to duet? my thought towards absolute position encoder is that the printer will always know it position thus with a well build print no need for homing or mesh grid compensation between every prints.

deckingman

@og3d said in Is there any news or blog on the Duet3:

................... my thought towards absolute position encoder is that the printer will always know it position thus with a well build print no need for homing or mesh grid compensation between every prints.

Does an absolute position encoder retain the absolute position when power is disconnected? i.e when the printer is turned off? That's the only advantage that I can see because as long as you don't power off the motors at the end of every print, then the absolute position is retained. So it is currently only necessary to home when the printer is first turned on, not for every print. Likewise any mesh compensation (although a well build printer doesn't need it ).

OG3D

To my best knowledge absolute encoder will know its position after power cycle, I think its due to absolute encoders are providing a unique position values.

The place that I work they have a machine that has absolute encoders in its servo motor. It does not require homing sequence at startups.

dc42

Are absolute encoders for linear position actually available, at affordable prices?

Mabover

@dc42 the CUI AMT20, AMT21 and AMT23 sentries of encoders offer absolute output in spi, rs485 or ssi respectively and support software zero position setting. They can be had for about 50USD from digikey.

They also have incremental encoders and commutation encoders for BLDC motors that don't already have commutation sensors, they set the commutation position relative to the motor pole position via software in a guide they provide.

https://www.cui.com/amt-modular-encoders