Smoothieboard 2.0

Controllers Smoothie
1

Hi,

I recently noticed a Google+ post by Arthur where he shows a image of the new/planned Smoothieboard 2.0.

I’m very curious the hear what new features are planned, what improvements we will get and so on.

I also noticed that you plan to put in an FPGA to the Pro model, what tasks will this FPGA handle?

Imported from wikidot

2

Hey :slight_smile:

So, the board in that post is the Smoothieboard v2 pro.

The Smoothieboard v2 will be very similar to the Smoothieboard v1, but with a LPC43xx microcontroller instead of the current LPC17xx

And the Smoothieboard v2 pro is like the Smoothieboard v2, but with : 

  • A FPGA
  • Nicer stepper motor drivers ( and more of them )
  • An Intel Edison port
  • Generally more I/0

The FPGA will be used mainly for step generation.

Cheers :slight_smile:

3

Hey Arthur,

Will the FPGA also calculate the ramps and stuff like that?

Also, have you ever thought about making the Smoothieboard more modular, so that people can combine modules for their needs?
For me all the 3D Printer stuff is more or less useless, while its important for the 3D printer guys.
So why not having a core module containing the FPGA and LPC43XX and several daughter boards that can be pluged in.
That would help being more flexible. I think of a IO-Board for example that could exist in various versions, a 3D printer board that has the endstops, large and small FET’s for heated beds and so on and on the other hand a lets say CNC board, that has 24VDC tolerant I/Os, maybe some power outputs for driving relays and valves for example.
And boards for the stepper driving, one with stepper drivers mounted for 3D Printers, another one with just screw terminals for external drivers and maybe feedback ports for rotary encoders?

Let me know what you think about that :slight_smile:

By the way, I have no idea in what state the Smoothieboard 2 is at the moment. is there already a physical board or is it still in planning?

4

There’s no physical board, but we are getting closer to that.

About making it more modular, we don’t do it simply for cost reasons.
The original reprap electronics were designed the way you describe, and it made them too expensive, so more integrated solution replaced them.
It’s not a bad idea, and maybe somebody will do it. We just try to make the most inexpensive board we can for a given feature set.

Our way of making boards for different uses, is to not solder components on some board types ( like we do on the current Smoothieboard with the 3X/4X/5X versions ). It’s not perfect but it works.

Cheers :slight_smile:

5

Hi,

ok, that makes sense to me. I thought that it would be cheaper to split the board into modules.
But i think that you can estimate the costs much better than i do!

Will you put the development files (eagle, VHDL/Verilog, …) on Github before you start to sell the boards?

6

Yep like with everything we do, we’ll put the files on github as soon as they are functional in some way.

7

Hey Arthur, Just saw the wealth of info on the Smoothieboard 2 and wow am I stoked for this one. I love the layout and the idea of the tons of expansion boards is brilliant! Looks like there are going to be great things ahead for Smoothie.
Great work to you and everyone who is contributing to it. =)