Wanted to share something the X1Plus team has been working on recently. We’ve recently fabbed out a prototype of an expansion board that adds a handful of features to the X1 (Ethernet, two USB ports, I2C, and a bunch of other GPIO). Some of the cool stuff that I hope to do with it (some of it implemented already, some of it still to come…):
neopixel / programmable LED light bar control (display status for print farms, add extra chamber light when appropriate, etc)
external sensor monitoring (direct humidity monitoring inside the AMS, temperature/humidity monitoring inside of a filament dryer, light sensors to turn the chamber and toolhead lights off when the room lights go out, etc)
provide a shutter release control for timelapses on a DSLR
write recordings to external hard drives, etc
The hardware is all open source but we’re hoping to manufacture more of these and maybe sell a few of them if there’s interest, and, of course, it all runs on the AP board as part of X1Plus – no external processors required. Does this seem like the sort of thing that would be interesting to this community?
Here’s a quick demo video of it that I shot the other evening, and below are a few blurry iPhone photos of how it goes together:
If this could work with the P1S id buy one in a heartbeat. I want it, purely for the wired ethernet. Everything else is a bonus (well, the ambient temp would also be amazing).
Nice work. It has a lot more features than I was expecting, and maybe more than some of us would need. Consider an stripped down version with only an Ethernet port, or maybe Ethernet and a USB port.
I know this is a just a prototype, but I’m not in favor of locating this behind the screen, as running multiple cables to the top front of the printer is going to be difficult (and ugly).
Yep you had me at the moment you mentioned gpio functions. immediately popped in my head I can now trigger stepper control for my poop conveyor belt. I would buy one
Nice work
our network restrictions don’t allow for wifi connections to external devices on the main network. an ethernet connection is a requirement to get the full functionality.
