The World’s Smallest 3D Printer Control Board for Direct Drive Tool Heads

Control boards are responsible for driving a 3D printer head, and other electronic functions, and without it, the printer is more or less an expensive paperweight. They also handle all logic, including parsing G-code, regulating temperature, and driving stepper motors. What separates current boards on the market are the ease of use and user-friendly features, but chances are, if you’ve bought a fully-assembled 3D printer, it came with a control board preinstalled.

For those going the DIY route, and are looking for an open-source platform, bondus is currently developing his Huvud 3D Printer Tool Head Controller aimed at direct-drive tool heads.

According to bondus, Huvud is "a very small 3D printer board for use on a direct drive tool head. It is designed to be used with Klipper firmware. Klipper has an awesome feature to be able to use multiple MCUs connected to the host over a (relatively) high latency connection. Using CAN bus, it is possible to chain many small boards using just a pair of twisted wires and power. A good solution for multiple head 3D printers.”

The Huvud controller is still under development, but in its current form, the board is equipped with an STMF103 MCU, a TMC2209 stepper driver for the extruder, and a pair of MOSFETs for fan control. In addition, it packs a larger MOSFET for hotend heater control, CAN bus, thermistor input, USB port (firmware flashing), and a single end-stop.

For those who would like to follow his project, bondus has uploaded a detailed walkthrough on GitHub and over on his Hackaday page.