Duet 3 "lite"

remopini

Are there any plans to make a "lite" version of the Duet 3 board for people only planning to use the CAN-FD port for hotend(s)?

There is a lot of (costly) hardware on the Duet3 that is not relevant if using a CAN-FD type setup.

Afaik here is a "CNC" version with headers for external steppers instead of the integrated drivers on the drawing board, but 4th quarter was the last estimate for "when", and wouldn't be surprised if pandemic situation delays it.

remopini

Sounds interesting, but that is probably not what I was referring to...

If you use the tools board(s) for your extruder(s), you still need the three stepper drivers for X/Y/Z movement, but you don't need the hotend components (i.e. extruder drivers, head temp probe, head heater out, head fans, z-probe, ...), so the board could be simplified quite a bit.

The board basically still needs "the rest".

The Duet3 with it's $300 price tag is a substantial chunk of cash, so anything to reduce the price would be welcome.

remopini

Alternatively, I could imagine a fully modular "core" Duet3 board that has only Ethernet/Wifi, control interface IO (LCD/I2C/...) and CAN-FB on it and everything else is connected using various types of tool boards:

a N * "stepper driver + end stops"
a N * "temp out + temp sensor"
a "hot end combo" [the existing one]
a N * pwm fan + GPIO

That way, people could only pay for what they need at the time, mix and match what is needed (need 20 drivers? just add more tool boards) and upgrade/reuse as time goes on (new features only require new tool boards, not a new core board, or a faster processor/more oompf just needs a new core, but the periphery stays the same)... you get the drift.

Then switch to RJ45 for CAN-FB, because those come in twisted pair and are dirt cheap (which cannot be said for RJ11)

Cutting the production volume in 10 and release 10 new products likely wouldn't be cheaper on average when factoring in the cost of developing the board and scales of economy in production.

edit the "core" version you envision is probably what the CNC board will be like, but I don't think we've seen the actual specs, ~~just that it won't have drivers~~. For GPIO dc42 have added support for a generic development board with Atmel SAM chip with CAN-FD; what the future brings idk

deckingman

@bearer said in Duet 3 "lite":

Cutting the production volume in 10 and release 10 new products likely wouldn't be cheaper on average when factoring in the cost of developing the board and scales of economy in production.

Agreed - and given that each board would also need power and data connectors, as well as "doubling up" on CAN bus chips, and possibly voltage regulators and a few other components, it'd likely end up being a more costly option I'd have thought. Then there is the extra cost and complexity of all the additional "inter board" wiring.

dc42

What we currently have in mind for the prototype of the CNC version is three outputs for external drivers, plus three TMC2160 drivers (capable of 6.3A peak, like the existing main board) along with encoder inputs so that they can be run in closed loop mode. We haven't yet decided what heater outputs (if any) or fan outputs to include. A 0-10V analog output for a VFD is also under consideration.

@dc42 said in Duet 3 "lite":

three outputs for external drivers

No 4th axis? If there are enough IO I'd like to see an additional header.