The system is designed to be a fully-featured, and expandable system for pick-and-place machines. Additionally, it is a drop-in replacement for CHMT32/48 VA/VB machines and existing cables can be used without rewiring and uses the same mounting holes.
The system can be used for new PnP machines, or retro fitted to existing ones.
The system is comprised of two main PCBs, called 'base' and 'core'. A 'core' has the processors and the 'base' has the connectors for the machine, power-supply circuits, output drivers, protection circuits and other IO circuits and connectors. The base board also has expansion slots for things like stepper motor drivers.
The system will use the MakerPnP software and firmware, which is cross-platform and written in Rust. For further details on the software refer to the following two source repositories:
- Planning software: https://github.com/MakerPnP/makerpnp
- Machine UI software and firmware: https://github.com/MakerPnP/machine
- 6 A/B/Z (ABN) differential encoder inputs.
- 8 stepper motor transceiver-driven DIR/STEP signal pairs in 2 banks of 4.
- Emergency stop input on a dedicated hardware interrupt.
- 2x opto-coupled outputs.
- 2x opto-coupled inputs.
- Buzzer
- 8x 5V digital inputs. (end stops, etc)
- 2x 5V 6A regulators, 24V input.
- 5V output connector, e.g. for powering a Raspberry Pi 5.
- 7V output, e.g. for powering head-mounted devices.
- 8x 24V PWM controlled fused and flyback protected outputs.
- 2 pairs of two isolated 48V PWM capable fused and flyback protected outputs. (4x total). e.g. for pumps, heaters, etc.
- Load-cell amplifier.
- 10/100MBit Ethernet (in addition to the Wifi)
- RS422 for remote comms.
- Integrated 7 port USB hub.
- 2x FD-CAN 8Mbps ports.
- 2x I2C muxes and 2 port muxed I2C connector with 4 int signals. (great for identical sensors)
- 4x analog inputs (e.g. for Vacuum, Blow + 2 spare)
- Buttons on the CPU board, with break-out connectors on the main board.
- ETH link/activity LED break-out connector.
- USB connector.
The base board features 4x 64-pin expansion slots, each slot has enough signals for driving multiple stepper motors per board, or for your other expansion ideas.
Each port has the following:
- 2 hardware UARTS.
- 1x SPI + 2x CS pins.
- 1x muxed I2C.
- 2x muxed analog inputs.
- 2x sets of ABN encoder signals.
- 2x sets of DIAG0/DIAG1 signals.
- 2x 4 channel timers (e.g. for PWM, or 4x pairs of step/direction)
- Clock signals.
- Debug signals.
- Interrupt/Wake signals.
- Card insertion detection system.
- CAN H/L signals.
- USB port.
- 24V and 3.3V inputs.
Additionally, the base board as an RGB led physically located next to each port.
Expansion boards are planed for popular stepper motor drivers.
The slots are at the same physical height as the main board, due to the use of edge-mounted connectors. Expansion slots can be combined. e.g. it is possible to design a board that plugs into 1,2,3 or 4 ports at the same time. Note: For high-current expansion boards, it's advised to use power connectors on the expansion board itself.
The CPU board features 3 expansion sockets, to allow the connection of expansion cards or debug/development equipment such as:
- 16 channel logic analyzer (via 16 dedicated FPGA pins).
- additional memory.
- additional sensors.
- other peripherals.
- The cpu/core board expansion headers also allow FPGA flash programming, ESP-C6 programming, H7 programming.
- Debug headers and ports (SWD).
- Boot buttons for H7 and C6.
- Cold-boot select buttons for the FPGA.
- 2 PCB system, a base board and a core board.
- STM32H725IG 550Mhz CPU, 1MB Flash, 564KB RAM (176+25 pin BGA)
- ICE40HX8K FPGA, 7680 logic cells, 128kbit RAM (256 pin BGA)
- ESP32-C6 module, 160Mhz, 4MB Flash, 512KB RAM, Wifi-6, RISC-V, BT 5 LE
- 16MBit shared flash.
- Base board uses 2oz copper 4L PCB.
- Core board used 1oz copper 6L PCB.
- Dedicated 4-bit hardware bus between H7 and FPGA. (OctoSPI1)
- Second 4-bit hardware bus between H7, FPGA, C6 and shared flash. (OctoSPI2)
The goal is to make accessing the FPGA and C6 from the H7 seamless by memory mapping them into the H7's address space using OctoSPI, thus making it possible to send data to/from the FPGA and C6 without a complicated communication protocol.
Firmware is work-in-progress, join the MakerPnP discord server to find out the latest information!
2026/03/13
- An order for a very small batch of the base board has been placed.
- the ICE40HX caBGA256 are in short supply, suppliers have 40 week lead times, an order has been placed for a small quantity before suppliers run out.
- An order for a small batch of the core boards will be placed ASAP.
The MakerPnP variantbuilder_cli tool is used to take the exported DipTrace PnP files, along with the parts,
substitutions, and part mapping files, to produce PnP files that use actual parts that can be ordered and placed.
e.g. the schematic might say CAP_0402, and 100nF 6.3V 0402, but additional information is added by substitution rules and
part mappings in order to end up with this:
├── C1 (name: 'CAP_0402', value: '100nF 6.3V 0402')
│ └── Substituted (name: 'CAP_0402', value: '100nF 6.3V 0402 X7R 10%'), by (name_pattern: 'CAP_0402', value_pattern: '100nF 6.3V 0402'), comment: 'Use X7R 10% by default'
│ └── Substituted (name: 'CAP_0402', value: '100nF 16V 0402 X7R 10%'), by (name_pattern: 'CAP_0402', value_pattern: '100nF 6.3V 0402 X7R 10%'), de-rate: 'from 6.3V to 16V'
│ └── manufacturer: 'Samsung Electro-Mechanics', mpn: 'CL05B104KO5NNNC' (Auto-selected)
Here's how the tools are can be run (from their corresponding directories):
$ variantbuilder_cli @MakerPnPControl-core-PnP_variant1.args
$ variantbuilder_cli @MakerPnPControl-PnP_variant1.args
Note: the arguments are contained within the .args files for easy editing and maintainability.
Please subscribe to be notified of live-stream events so you can follow the development process.
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MakerPnP
- Source: https://github.com/MakerPnP
- Discord: https://discord.gg/ffwj5rKZuf
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MakerPnP
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/MakerPicknPlace
- Dominic Clifton - Project founder and primary maintainer.
CC-BY-NC - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
If you'd like to contribute, please raise an issue or a PR on the github issue tracker, work-in-progress PRs are fine
to let us know you're working on something, and/or visit the discord server. See the section above.