Binder Jetting Printer
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Hi guys,
I'm currently having a binder jetting machine running on an Arduino with RAMPS 1.4. Due to slow speed and general complexity this isn't really optimal, so I am looking for ways to upgrade.
Duet3D was one option to go since it has many integrated good motors drivers, 32bit architecture, etc., but if I understand correctly was mainly designed for FDM printers.
Thus what I'm asking is the following. Can I use the excess amounts of pins e.g. the extension pins to control w/e I want to or are there limitations that I'd need to know about before investing in a Duet2?
Best regards
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Duet 2 or Duet 3 core capability is 3D Printing; however, many, many, people are using them in CNC, and quite a few of the "large exotic" things out there in the world, such as concrete printers that scale to print buildings, those have a Duet at their heart.
Duet hardware has (slightly varying on V2 or V3) number of extra IO pins. They are controllable by G-Code. On/Off/PWM, servo-style PWM, and more. Lots of flex here.
So... details are needed... at the same time, it is likely a very good choice.
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Thank you so much for your answer.
It's a powder bed machine with a recoatinger and a printhead. Overall it has 5 motors and one and perspectively two heating units.
The printhead controlboard currently needs 8 Arduino pins.
Best regards
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5 motors is within the based capacity of a Duet V2 or 3 (no expansions needed).
Duet3 has 9 general purpose (3.3v logic) IO. Duet 3 also has 1 very high current output for a bed heater, 3 medium current for heaters, and 6 low current for fans, all at various voltages. These can be easily repurposed into logic outputs. Duet 3 does not, at this time, have a lot of support for step/direction pins for external drives. There is stated future direction (no dates yet) to have expansion boards that directly provide this.
Duet 2 does have a lot of pins for step/dir style external drivers, and a fair amount of general IO.
Unless there is something very specific driving to Duet V2, I'd pick a V3 board for your application, and configure from there.
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the more interesting question would be what would the software for the jetting look like?
What kind of jets are you using? And what resolution?
Is it a full width jet or a repositioning system like a stratasys objet? -
@3dprinter said in Binder Jetting Printer:
Thank you so much for your answer.
It's a powder bed machine with a recoatinger and a printhead. Overall it has 5 motors and one and perspectively two heating units.
The printhead controlboard currently needs 8 Arduino pins.
A Duet WiFi or Duet Ethernet provides 5 drivers, one high current PWM output (intended for bed heater), 2 medium current PWM outputs (intended for extruder heaters) and 3 low current PWM outputs (intended for fans). So it satisfies your basic requirements. The expansion connectors have about 14 more outputs, of which 5 are PWM capable. So more than the 8 that you need. The signal level on these pins is 3.3V.
Duet 3 also meets your requirements, but is more expensive. Its main benefits are higher current motor drivers, dedicate SPI bus to connect a Raspberry Pi, and expandability via CAN bus.
HTH David
