It has been a bit since the last update but don’t let that worry you. Significant progress has been made since the last post behind the scenes.
Last time I wrote I told you about the last minute redesign and MCU change to the STM32H7 as well as some other upgrades but there was still a lot up in the air in terms of component sourcing and other blockers. So far…the stars have been largely aligning in our favor.
Kliment has finished the prototype and we had PCBs produced which are ready for assembly and testing.
He also made a test board which represents the stepper driver section of the new board so that Wolfmanjm could do some testing and integrate the new stepper driver into the firmware.
I have the PCBs and stencils ready to go. We were waiting on the spools to arrive which took a couple weeks due to shipping backups in China but they finally came in this week.
I have a slight delay since I just moved Robosprout’s shop (lease was up and I did not want to remain in that location). So I added a bit more work for myself in setup but I don’t suspect this will delay the prototype assembly more than a couple days. I may hand place the boards for the proto build but I prefer to setup the Pick and place to do things properly so that we can be ready for the first production runs. The invested time will result in a much smoother process in the long term.
As far as parts, we have everything we need on hand to do the first prototypes. The only part we don’t currently have on hand in order to go into production is the stepper drivers but we have purchased them on backorder and the current estimate is for them to ship by Mid October. By that point I will be ready to begin to produce the initial V2 Prime Kickstarter rewards. After that we will plan on having V2 Prime boards for sale to the general public as we continue designs on the other board variants. The plan as I know it currently is to work on the Mini and Core designs next and then the Pro last.
So…to rehash:
-V2 Prime prototype design is done and initial test PCBs are in hand
-Parts for the initial V2 Prime Kickstarter rewards as well as initial production batch have been purchased
-Stepper driver section has been tested an integrated into the firmware.
-Waiting on the stepper driver backorder but expected to fulfill by mid October.
Everything seems to be going well and we are very optimistic about being able to actually produce a board even given the massive chip shortage and global issues. We have 3-4 items which we essentially purchased the bulk of what was available in the world. It is a strange time to be working in this industry.
Again, I would also like to reiterate one of my key points from the last post. None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for Wolfmanjm and Kliment’s hard work. Be sure to give them a virtual pat on the back next time you see them online. They are the heroes of this tale.
If you would like to support the software devs contributions are always welcome to the Paypal link posted on Smoothieware.org. Opensource devs tend to get far more criticism than thanks for the gifts they give the world. If you enjoy any opensource project…be sure to let the devs know.
Chris Cecil,
Robosprout