Mugsy

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Update!

M

Hey folks, let’s get to it!

GitHub Updates

  • I pushed an update to commander.ino. It is now compatible with the DRV8825 motor controller drivers that the Mugsy PCB uses.

  • I released the PCB files (Eagle) for the Mugsy enclosure lighting PCB (lightBar V1). Mugsy’s design originally used off the shelf 5050 LED strips. Having an extrusion mountable LED PCB solves a bunch of issues I was running into. It is now easier to mount within the existing spacing constraints/requirements, easier to hook up and it stays put. Rolling your own 5050 LED PCB is also significantly cheaper than using strips. The PCB currently has 30 surface mount 5050 RGB LEDs. The next version will probably have 32. That being said, these boards are V1 and work extremely well. Some pics:

  • I also uploaded an STL file for the light bar offset mount. This makes sure that the LEDS are the correct distance from the front panel.

Other Bits

  • I am currently finishing an additional update to the main controller board. This is to add the ability to sleep/disable the stepper motor when it is not actively moving. Steppers are interesting in that they actually use more power when holding position than when they are moving. This makes sense in a robotic arm that’s holding something up, but not in a coffee machine that is not actively brewing. Mugsy is meant to be powered on all the time, so this “feature” wastes power and produces a bunch of heat with no benefit. This update is just a couple of additional traces to the sleep/enable/disable pins on the DRV8825 driver breakout. This update should be completed tonight and hit fab tomorrow.

  • While those are being fab’d, I will be adding the sleep logic to the commander.ino Arduino runtime.

  • I do not expect this update to impact our tentative shipping date of 5/18. Maybe 1-2 days if something pops up with the fab process. If that happens I will know by mid-week and I will be able to properly set expectations before the 18th.

  • Once this updated version(0.8) is in hand, I will push the PCB files to the GitHub.

Ok, that is all for now. I will have an admin focused update that will cover support requests, docs, etc before the end of the week. I think Thursday night is the most likely release time.

Cheers!