Open Capitalist

In order to reduce the cost of the Pick and Place machine a new 4-Axis Stepper Motor Controller has been designed. 

Hardware Features:

USB Interface

7 general purpose 12v relay drivers.

8 General Purpose I/O

Over Current/ Over Temperature protection

Step/Direction Inputs for use with other control methods.(emc2)

Can be run standalone without USB input.

Based on a Silabs Controller, and Toshiba stepper drivers.

 

Firmware Features:

USB bootloader for custom code, future upgrades.

Dynamic step size.  Can switch to lower resolution/ higher speed in the middle of a move.

Full control of GPIO as input/output through the USB interface.

 

Overall, this controller will be fine for the inexpensive Pick and Place machine.  It has adequate performance in this role, but for the complete manufacturing line a more robust controller will be needed.   This was designed purely for cost reasons.  It doesn't increase functionality above commercially available solutions but it is far cheaper.  I haven't checked the BOM lately, but under $40 retail is the goal, and last check was about $29.  This didn't include such things as heatsinks and connectors, some and some other bits...  $40 is reachable though.

I don't have schematics or firmware available yet, but it will be.