We have a new motor control board that is currently being tested and we aim to make this available very soon. The board is based on an RP2040 microcontroller and works as a Raspberry Pi hat. It has support for 4 motors, 2 high-current PWM channels to control LEDs (RP2040 can run PWM at up to 1MHz so there should be no flickering) and a USB-C plug instead of a micro USB. The Pi GPIO connection also connects to SWD on the chip so we can flash the board from the Pi with no user interaction. All unused/extra IO is available on an extension header so it is easy to build shields for the board (I’ve done one to control a Nema17 peristaltic pump). The current version also has a constant current driver we are experimenting with to see if it works better than simple PWM (TP61060). The design files can be found at Filip Ayazi / sangaboard-rp2040 · GitLab .
Currently, it looks like we can sustainably sell these for around 25 GBP, with the exact price depending on the scale of the order. If we scale the manufacturing order correctly and process a lot of orders at once, we can bring the cost down further. To help with this below is a form where you can express interest in buying a sangaboard. Anyone who fills in the form will be contacted directly when the boards are available and will have the option of buying the Sangaboard at a lower price.
TLDR: Sangaboard v0.5 coming soon, form above if you want some
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A batch of Sangaboard v0.5.1 has now arrived and the boards work as expected, so they will start shipping this week! They can be ordered at https://taulab.eu . Processing the orders in a large batch takes less time per order so until March 16th (when the first orders will ship in the EU) the boards are available at 22GBP/board.
Support for some of the advanced features in software is in progress, there’s a OFM software extension to control these features and to upgrade the firmware on the boards with a single click available at Filip Ayazi / Sangaboard Extension · GitLab .
To make it easy to use the illumination control features on the new Sangaboard and make building the OFM v7 easier, there’s also an illumination kit available to order with the Sangaboard. The kit contains all non-printed parts of the condenser assembly (wire, LED PCB with a very flat spectrum LED, 0.5mm thick diffuser, condenser lens) except screws so that it can be assembled with no soldering. To buy it select the Add illumination kit version when ordering a Sangaboard. It can also be ordered separately, but note it relies on the Sangaboard for current control, so if you use the LED PCB without it you need to use a series resistor.
The pricing follows the same principles as OpenFlexure Industries did, trying to keep it as cheap as possible while still sustainable longer term, so paying for my time spent processing orders, making kits, sourcing parts etc. but not for development work. My main goal is to promote the adoption of OFM so if the cost would prevent you from building one please contact me and I’ll see what I can do.
TLDR: Sangaboard v5 shipping from March 16th, lower price until then. Illumination kit for OFMv7 also available. https://taulab.eu
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