Thanks for clearing that up. One of the things about klipper is that you don’t need a 32 bit processor on the control board though because the pi does the heavy lifting and the micro just acts as an actuator and data collection input, so a processor that isn’t as powerful without the radio would work since it will be usb tethered anyway and the radio will be disabled. Possession is 9/10ths, so since the esp32 is already on there, why not use it in usb mode?
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So I just got a suggestion to swap out the esp32 with something like a pi pico or similar small package, drop it on the jackpot. All that would take is a daughter board / adapter to make it fit the socket and perhaps a bit of pin routing on the daughter/adapter board.
I think I have a pico, any other suggestions of a chip already supported by Klipper we can just slap on?
I am like tingling excited here.
Could you make something from the header pins on a 3B/4B that could plug into the slot? Only asking because just about all of us have one of those already lol. Your way above my pay grade with this stuff so I could be completely wrong
I mean in place if the esp32 on the jackpot.
Features - Klipper documentation A pi pico is $4 and sits well above average on the step rate chart. OMG, this sounds perfect. I just need to break out all the input pins.
Does anyone see any issues with this, should I start a small batch of jackpots to test this?
So what if you made another board so a supported klipper processor would work on the jackpot? Since you don’t need WiFi, it doesn’t have to be an esp32 and since the rpi does the heavy lifting, it doesn’t have to be a 32 bit processor either. You could put the needed fan and analog up on that board as well. It may not have been the intent of the jackpot, but the header being spaced for the esp32 doesn’t mean that is the only option. Klipper won’t care as long as the io maps correctly. Amd while you lose the simple wifi and a pizero2w becomes required at a minimum, klipper cnc becomes available as does klipper for 3d printing. Could be a win.
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I did not even think about that. If the inputs were broken out on the adapter, all past and current jackpots would be printer compatible.
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I don’t see any issues with it at all. I think it sounds awesome! Id love to test one out!
So for that to work, dont you need to rework the jackpot board? you pointed out it does not have thermistor, it also does not have heatbed or nozzle. Might as well make an entirely new board at that point, correct? or is my logic flawed?
I could do a tiny one, add some input pins before the current input protection diodes. OR
Just add it on the board that plugs-in in place of the esp32, and not touch the current jackpot at all.
Those 7 current input pins can be anything, including analog in for thermistors, or just use some as endstops as is.
The 5v outputs can easily control SSR’s for heaters (I will need one anyway for a mains powered bed), it can be added as the hot end as well $7 each. And we have two fan outputs already. That leaves us extra in or out pins and then the whole expansion header is still available as well.
There is no need to do anything.
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I just found my pi pico it is a W…I will grab a couple regular pico’s
pico has 5 less IO. I need to see how they are actually counted because there are a ton of IO we are not able to use because of double use.
Well I think we need 24, and the pico has 29 (3 of which are analog).
Someone needs to find a hole in this plan before I get too excited.
Pinout, Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W Pinout Guide: GPIOs Explained | Random Nerd Tutorials Might as well try and make it compatible with both.
I was suggesting just pulling the esp32 and for this application of the jackpot board, putting a different processor on it along with the necessary IO for 3d printing and then tethering it to run klipper. You just need one to go on the esp32 header on the jackpot.
Edit: looks like I’m too late on pressing submit.
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Pico has a bunch of other features like the PIO, and if needed we could always put GPIO expanders on the rp2040 carrier.
That gives you a jackpot+V1_rp2040+Klipper host board and a jackpot+V1_ESP32+FluidNC CNC board.
I like this.
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RIGHT!?! I am getting excited.
We team worked the heck out of this one so far.
Hope we have similar breakthroughs on the V5 printer.
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This sounds AWESOME! And with it running clipper I’m still open for my canbus toolhead boards! This will be SWEET!!!
how is the processing speed of the pico? I’m assuming we would still hook a normal Pi to this with the main clipper on it?? Not sure how this part works yet. Never messed with a pico board before.
Just under a esp32…but way overkill still
yup
Link above shows how it ranks, above average in terms of step rate.
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I am just packing today’s last order, I hope to try a basic layout shortly.