Traditionally, 3D printer control boards have used simplistic 8-bit microcontrollers to command the stepper drivers and ultimately move the machine where it needs to go. Newer boards have switched over to 32-bit microcontrollers, but they’re still relatively limited computationally.

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Because of this, a Raspberry Pi running OctoPrint is usually used to provide more complex features such as remote management and live video. Looking to combine these different devices into a single all-in-one board, [pkElectronics] developed the Sigmoid S7P . With an STM32 microcontroller, TMC2209 stepper drivers, a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, and plenty of room for expansion, it promises to be a drop-in upgrade for essentially any 3D printer running on an open source firmware that could be ported over. An earlier concept for the Sigmoid According to [pkElectronics], the idea for the Sigmoid had been floating around for several years, but never got off the ground due to the difficulties in dealing with the SO-DIMM interface used by previous iterations of the Compute Module. But with the switch to smaller and denser connector for the CM4 , the board finally started to take shape. Whether you just used it as a convenient way to integrate OctoPrint into […]

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