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Update 15-08-2019

A project log for Project 3+Pi

6DoF stepper motor driver module PiHat or standalone feature. Optional closed loop 6DoF sensing available too.

tobiusTobius 08/15/2019 at 06:000 Comments

Project 3+Pi has been featured on a Hackaday article here. As soon as I heard about it, I could not help but feel so overwhelmed with joy seeing my work being acknowledged! Thank you Tom and the rest of the hackaday team for that. I am very humbled. :D

On to the updates of 3+Pi. I'll be honest, there hasn't been any update so far since I've been working on StuPD which honestly has been very, very slow. I have been bogged down with my usual Engineering 9-5 job which hardly gives me time to work on these projects. 

After seeing the comments talking about how to integrate it with klipper3d and adding limit switches, fan drivers and heaters (for a 3D printing setup to which I completely forgot about! Unbelievably so.) I will have to revamp the design to add those on board. 

I'd like to work on some additional features/modifications such as:

- Modifying the powersupply unit to accommodate both USBC and DC barrel.

- Test it's compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 4 and power it too

- Expand the board to allow more heat sinking for the drivers, thus exceeding the template I used from KiCAD. 

- And others I have to sit down and think about. 

As the article mentions and I mentioned earlier, I am looking for any help externally should they wish to help out. There is a lot if so much, to do on the software side of things. Speaking of which, the Rpi3B+ has a 'shared' UART with the BLE/WI-FI module which makes it annoying so I have to compensate for that.

In addition to all this and perhaps more of a madman idea: 

I'd like to make a custom SBC unit that can support the 3+Pi alongside creating a proper eco-system of a standalone 6DoF, multi-functional device to fit the need.

Now that is not easy and to be honest, I'd want to work on that AFTER I've carefully done lots of tests with 3+Pi entirely. However, It's something I've wanted to do for a while now and cannot find any perfect use of an MPU (Thinking of A53/A57 units..maybe perhaps RISC-V? hmmm) for something other than a breakout board similar to any other pi.

Thank you again everyone for following this project and your feedback. I will do my best to keep updates and see if there will be any progress later. But I must iterate that I hardly have time to spare... But I'll still do something.

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