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Someone please build a parallel cable robot
03/23/2017 at 11:44 • 7 commentsI think the ODrive could provide plenty of power to make some really cool high dynamics.
I was inspired by the Hangprinter discussions over on the RepRap forums.
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ODrive v3.2 and Alpha Release
03/27/2017 at 20:31 • 2 commentsI am excited to let you know that the time has finally come for the alpha stage of the ODrive project. This consists of two components, the alpha software release and the manufacturing run for ODrive v3.2.
TL;DR: Get your v3.2 alpha board Here.
ODrive v3.2
The new design is ready, and can be reviewed here. The design will go to production on Monday the 17th of April. As a one man team, I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback in from your review. Feel free to leave comments on this post, or write a private message.
Changes from v3.1
- Fix current sensor filter capacitor values
- Break out the SPI port
- Consolidate all 0.1" headers into two long rows
- Remove the confusing EV (Encoder Voltage) rail.
- Add test-points for most interesting analogue signals
- Add precision LDO for AVCC (analog VCC)
- Change MOSFETs to a slightly better Rdson version (30% better)
- Adjust heatsink holes
- Add fiducials
- Improve labling
ODrive v3.2 production run
You can buy a board in this run on the shop: https://odrive.xyz/shop. The expected shipping date is expected to be the 15th of May, and the pre-orders will close on Monday the 17th of April, though some extra stock may be left after that. This is the board revision designed to be delivered simultaneous to the alpha firmware release.
Firmware alpha release
You can check which features will be included in the release here. The alpha release will include all the core features of the board, and allow go-to commands sent over USB, as well as step/direction interfacing.
Proper documentation, setup and tuning instructions will be ready for you by the time that the board ships.
ODrive is for real
As I mentioned in the previous post, I finish my day job on Friday, and I will be taking up developing ODrive full time.
ODrive is a serious product and deserves a website, so I bought the domain odrive.xyz, and set up a Squarespace website. As of the time of writing, I have only added the shop page: the reason for putting up that first is to be able to take the payments for this v3.2 pre-order. I've been focusing on getting the v3.2 board ready, and I haven't had time to put the rest up just yet. It will be up soon :)
The reason I'm sharing this with you now, is because some people astutely pointed out that a website with no content, and only a shop page, looks very suspicious. Rest assured that the site at odrive.xyz is mine, and communication from oskar.weigl@odrive.xyz is legitimate. Any payments should go to ODrive SWE, and the address of the business is in Stockholm, Sweden. The VAT number of the business is SE901114035801.
ODrive forums
I am deeply impressed with the projects, ideas, skills and contributions that all of you have conveyed to me through various channels. I am really excited to talk to you about your application, how we can build the ODrive community and advance the project. In the next couple of weeks, I will set up an online forum for ODrive, and I hope you will join the community there!
This will be the place for all kinds of discussions, comments, ideas, feature requests and queries. It will also serve as the main place to get help with your ODrive; where I, and others who will be gaining experience with the board, can all help you and each other. We'd also love to hear about your project: what you wish to do when kilowatts and micrometers meet in an affordable package.
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Alpha Preorders Finished
04/19/2017 at 21:48 • 0 commentsThe preorder period of ODrive v3.2 and the corresponding getting started kits has now concluded. To those who joined the project, thank you for your support, and welcome to the alpha stage team! The batch of v3.2's have now gone to manufacture and we are slightly ahead of schedule for shipping things out by the 15th of May.
I anticipate that there are some people who will want to join mid-way through the alpha stage, so I made sure to order some extra stock. At the time of writing there are 8 kits left and 17 ODrives. They will continue to be available on the ODrive Shop page until stock runs out.
Again thank you for your support!
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ODrive and LitePlacer at Maker Faire
04/25/2017 at 19:58 • 7 commentsFor a long time now, the main ODrive demo has been the pen plotter from more than a year ago:
This is about to change! Through a close collaboration with Juha Kuusama, the guy behind LitePlacer, I am excited to announce that there is a demo ODrive/LitePlacer demo brewing. This consists of a LitePlacer retrofitted with the vastly overpowered SK3-5065; able to put out 300N of force on the belts, and hence a theoretical acceleration of the head at 50g. This virtually unlimited power capability should be a good platform to test the actual performance of the full setup, with the ability to emulate the power capabilities of other motors by simply applying software limits.
So if you are in the area, or maybe even if you are not, please do come see the demo at the Bay Area Maker Faire on Sat/Sun the 20th/21st of May.
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ODrive Community and New Website
04/28/2017 at 22:04 • 0 commentsI'm very excited to announce that the ODrive community forums are up and running. This is the place for all kinds of discussions, comments, ideas, feature requests and queries. It also serves as the main place to get help with your ODrive; where I, and others who will be gaining experience with the board, can all help you and each other. We'd also love to hear about your project: what you wish to do when kilowatts and micrometers meet in an affordable package.
The ODrive website has moved to https://odriverobotics.com. It has also been updated and now has some basic content on it. Progressively more information and resources will be added, and soon enough it will become a fully featured place to find information about ODrive.
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ODrive v3.2 Have Arrived!
05/04/2017 at 19:25 • 0 commentsODrive v3.2
I just received a huge box from the factory today, full of ODrives (mango for scale).
ODrive v3.2 looking good!
Now I will be testing to make sure the design works as expected. Once that is done, we are looking good for shipping ahead of schedule!
At the time of writing there are still 10 ODrive v3.2 left in the batch. Get one here.
Kits
A huge pile of encdoers have arrived.
Also the first batch of motors for testing have arrived.
Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 4250-410kv looking good!
For the kits we are still waiting on the large order of motors from hobbyking, and the jigs have yet to be 3D printed. The 3D printing should be okay for making the expected delivery date, but the motor order may cause delays. I will make sure to keep you up to date with how that goes.
Cheers!
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LitePlacer - First Tests and Build
05/09/2017 at 06:45 • 3 commentsThe first test of the LitePlacer retrofitted with ODrive motors was a success!
Running at 40% speed limit and 25% current limit, reaching a top speed of 1.75 m/s. The motor that is currently on the LitePlacer was picked for a system running on 24V, but this test was run on 12V, hence the low speed limit. I have ordered a 24V power supply, so hopefully we can see it go twice as fast soon!
It should be noted that it is possible to pick a motor with twice the kv rating to run on a 12V system, and it would perform respectably.LitePlacer build
The LitePlacer comes in a kit, which took about 2 days to build. Below follows the build in pictures.
Here is an empty table; this is where we start. It is where the LitePlacer will be bolted. I chose to get a sturdy table but it still wobbles with the very high accelerations.
A box full of goodies!
Here is everything in the kit, splayed out on the floor, and somewhat organised by type of part. If you are building the kit, I would recommend also sorting the bolts by size, which I did later on.
The build instructions are very well done, with everything detailed in bite sized build steps. A significant time of the build is spent collecting the components for each step. So if you have an assistant, have them help you collect parts for the build steps. Above is our assembly line at one point.
Here is the z-axis (with the lead screw and rails), rotation axis, and the pick mechanism.
Here is the x-axis finished.
Retrofitting the y-transmission with a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 5065-275kv. Calculations show that it is vastly overpowered for this application. Just the way a demo should be.
Mechanical parts semi-finished.Tasty kilowatts, aluminium and steel. -
Maker Faire and Alpha Shipping Update
05/28/2017 at 23:09 • 3 commentsMaker Faire
Last week I was at the 2017 Bay Area Maker Faire. It was really fantastic to meet other people who are into building cool stuff. Thank you for all the praise, suggestions, interesting discussions and ideas!
Also, Juha Kuusama, the man behind the Liteplacer, flew over from Finland to hang out, and to help man the booth. Thank you!
Below are some pictures of the booth we managed to put together with a very last minute effort. Huge thanks to my girlfriend for all the help!
ODrive booth, shared with an unrelated exhibitor.
Left to Right: Hardware showcase (see next picture), newsletter signup laptop, handcrusher5000 (seriously, several people didn't take the hint from the acrylic shields).
Hardware showcase, top to bottom: Motors and encoder, with prices from Hobbyking/aliexpress (many people were very impressed with the kW/$), old versions of ODrive, and finally the last of the ODrive alpha stock for sale. I marked up the price from the nominal price of $120 because they were selling too fast, and I still sold out on Sunday morning ;D
Handcrusher5000 in action. You can see the ODrive to the right of the laptop dancing to the accelerations.
Handcrusher5000.
Brakeresistor heatsinking on extrusion. It was cool to feel the heat gradient along the extrusion ;D.
Alpha Shipping
The first batch of Alpha boards were shipped out on Tuesday. Here are some pictures.
Boards in boxes.
Accessory bags.
Some standoffs.
29/30 boxes ready to go. The last one I filled after I realised it was missing, after I took the picture.
30/30 boxes ready to go!
EU orders
The shipment of 21 ODrives going to Sweden to be resent from there, due to the exquisite dance of following VAT regulations, has been stuck in customs for a week. I supplied them with the additional information they needed on Friday (two days ago), so hopefully it will be released ASAP. I will keep you posted on any updates.
Kits
The order of 40 motors from Hobbyking is still on backorder, with no estimate when they will have additional stock. All they tell me is that "we usually get new stock every 30 days".
In any case, knowing that shipments from China likely has problems, I made a backup order of 40 similar motors from Aliexpress. They also took forever to get here, but they actually came in the end. Specifically, they are the EMP C4250 - 500kv. The motor has very similar dimensions, it is a slightly faster motor (slightly higher kv), and it seems to have a bit more cogging torque.
Finally, motors!
EMP C4250 - 500kv with the included accessories.
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EU ODrives Shipped - Kits Manufacturing
06/07/2017 at 03:56 • 0 commentsEU ODrives Shipped
Two weeks ago the ODrives going outside the EU were shipped. Due to VAT and customs, the shipments going to the EU were routed through Sweden. After being stuck in customs for a long time, finally the non-kit ODrives for this batch have now shipped in the EU too.
ODrive Kits
After the motors finally arrived, I have completed the design of the test jigs. I have been manufacturing the pieces, and I'm about to assemble and glue them together. I will also be drilling the 3D printed couplets to get a better tolerance.
Here are the design files, in case you want to make your own: Onshape Link.
Kit Manufacturing Pictures and Videos:
We are making ODrive test jigs!
Laser cutting is so much faster than 3D printing!
Encoder holders.
Encoder holders.
Motor holders.
Pew pew.
Gluing.
3D printing took forever..
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ODrive v3.3
06/17/2017 at 20:05 • 0 commentsv3.2 ODrives sold out very quickly. I was not planning on manufacturing a new batch until the firmware alpha is over. However, demand for alpha stage hardware has been so high, I decided to do another batch while still in alpha.
The new boards are expected to arrive in mid July. If you want to be notified as soon as they are available, you can sign up here.
I took the opportunity to sneak in a couple of minor hardware changes. Below are the changes made, straight from the CHANGELOG:
- Added
- Power LED
- Pads on DC rail, for secondary power connection, on the opposite side of main power connector
- Changed
- GPIO Pinout. See spreadsheet.
- Fliped LDO and C29 to bot side, for better clearance on top side for enclosure style heatsinking.
- Changed all screw terminals to 7.62mm pitch
- Encoder pullup resistance 1k -> 3.3k, to be compatible with 2mA push-pull encoders without desoldering pullups.
- Removed
- AUX_V voltage measurement no longer available
The most significant change is the GPIO Pinout change. This brings about the following possibilities over v3.2:
- All GPIO pins are now 5V tolerant (on v3.2 and earlier, GPIO 2 and 3 are 3.3V max).
- Timer peripheral in capture mode on 4 GPIO pins allow:
- Higher step rates on the step/direction interface.
- up to 4 channels of PWM input.
- Two UART interfaces (we had a single RX pin before).
- We get a 5th GPIO pin. This could be used for anything, but specifically it could be used as an Enable line, which was very highly requested for a "step/dir/step/dir/en" setup.
- We get 4 Analog capable GPIO pins. This enables the possibility of 2 channels worth of sin/cos encoders.
- Added