SAV MkI Summary

This 3D printer board electronics has been designed and developed using all the great contributions and feedback from the RepRap CloneWars group in Spain. All shortcomings from other similar boards have been addressed, providing an affordable yet feature rich 3D printer electronics. The result, the SAV MkI.

We have addressed the main problems and functionality limitations that equivalent electronics have:

• No more heat sinks or fans to keep the hotend and heatbed FETs cold.
• High speed native USB connectivity going up to 8Mbps
• Builtin uSD reader for autonomous printing
• Bluetooth dongle interface (dongle not provided, tested with HC-05 and HC-06) with level adapter built in for wireless operation.
• Designed and Made in Europe.
  

This is your one stop electronics to get your 3D printer up and running; simply connect and you are ready to print. Small, high performance, feature rich and affordable.

The SAV MkI comes preloaded with Marlin with its own personality, interfacing to all the great 3D printer host software out there, including non-attended printing!

To complete the package we have even designed a complete open source housing for the board to tidy up the end result and enable you to mount your electronics on your printer.

Don't miss the story behind the SAV - "The making of...":

Link here.

This board is brought to you by electroFUN LTD.

Acknowledge: This board is a derivative of Teensylu.

Features

• Hotend and heatbed well dimensioned FETs that can take up to 15A without heat-sinks.
• High speed native USB interface connectivity going up to 8Mbps so that there is no lag on your prints.
• 12V built-in fan controller for your layer fan or hot end cooling.
• Micro SD reader for autonomous printing.
• Bluetooth dongle (dongle not provided, tested with HC-05 and HC-06) interface adapted to its logic levels for wireless operation.
• Expansion bus to connect a keyboard and LCD.
• Support for 4 standard pololu compatible stepper motor drivers.

We have even made a housing for your SAV MkI so that you can keep it nice and tidy in your printer. You can download the CAD files from here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:180565

The box has been designed to house the board, a cooling fan for your stepper drivers (if needed), bluetooth dongle (HC-05 or HC-06) and for easy 3D printer and power supply wiring.

Read more on the RepRap SAV MkI wiki page: RepRap wiki

Specifications

HW

Processor

• Atmel AT90USB1286 Microcontroller @16 MHz
  
• Native USB interface @ 12Mbps, instead of the usual 38400-115200 baud via FTDI. The results: Virtually no serial communication errors (common with Sanguinololu and Gen6/7 Electronics).
  

Supply

• Voltage input: (12V-15V) 
  
• Internal regulated voltage: 5V and 3.3V
  
• Logic supplied by on-board voltage regulator through Vin
  
• Logic can also be supplied through USB (internal source selection).
  

Connectivity

• 2 x 15A switching connectors
  
• 1 x switching N-MOSFET for low power fan.
  
• on board uSD connector
  
• Bluetooth interface output levels adjusted for 3.3V logic (connected to UART1 - Rx and Tx).
  
• Four Endstop connectors supplied @ 5V. Includes X, Y, Z and E
  
• 2 Thermistors
• 14 Extra pins available for expansion and development, with the following capabilities
  -- UART1 (RX and TX)
  -- I2C (SDA and SCL)
  -- SPI (MOSI, MISO, SCK)
  -- PWM pin (1)
  -- Analog I/O (6)
  -- JTAG (uses some of the ADC pins)

Dimensions: 100mm x 65mm

Board schematic (larger image on the board´s web page):

Read more on the RepRap SAV MkI wiki page: RepRap wiki

SW, Firmware and SDK

• Marlin (pre-loaded) - Marlin´s main branch already supports the SAV-MkI (MOTHERBOARD==83)
• Bootloader: LUFA's CDC Bootloader
• SDK: Arduino IDE with Teensy add-on.
  
• Windows users only, will need to install USB Serial device (will be downloaded with the Teensy environment).

What We Need & What You Get

By backing-up this opensource hardware project, you are supporting the creative contributions of the CloneWars RepRap group members. Come on-board and share our passion for 3D printing!

We are seeking your support to make this project a reality and enable the evolution of our creativity for more future exciting projects. We already have a line of accessories in mind, but we need to get this project off the ground before we start developing new ideas.

We are looking to fund our first production batch and deliver this great board to you an to the community. Our main goal is to support our designers and local manufacturing capabilities using crowdfunding as the resourcing model.

The SAV MkI is already a reality. We have assembled and distributed several prototypes with excellent results. Our intention is to move beyond the pilot run stage and bring the benefits of this board to an even larger community of enthusiasts. You can help by donating to the project or pre-ordering the product. Either way you will be helping this and future creations. By pre-ordering you are also ensuring that you get your hands onto what we believe is the best value for money 3D printing control solution in the market.

Project Status

We have completed a first proto-run and we have qualified the complete board for mass production. The final stage is to take this project to production and make these boards in volume. This is why we need your help so, let's get this project off the ground.

Project Schedule

We have gone past the testing stage and the prototypes we have tested are delivering excellent results. The performance of the board is way beyond anything out there in the same price range and even boards that are more expensive.

During the crowd-funding campaign we will be distributing to beta testers the boards we built during the pilot run. Once we achieve our goal, we will give our manufacturer the green light to start assembling the boards. The sooner we achieve our goal, the sooner we will start to manufacture the boards.

Impact

As soon as we achieve our goal, we will be releasing all the schematics and board layout, driving SW and housing to the community.

By contributing and supporting this project you are supporting the opensource maker movement and giving us that incentive to continue on our creative journey and community sharing.

We think that we can deliver a very competitive, high quality 3D printer controller board completely assembled and manufactured in Europe without skimping on components or manufacturing costs. 

The boards proudly have the "Design in the EU" and "Made in Spain" credentials. By supporting this project you know what you will be supporting our local industry too. Why pay more for a lower quality product which is not even as feature rich as the SAV MkI?

Shipment

All shipments within the EU are included in the perks through registered mail, if you wish to receive a board else where in the world, please add five (5) additional euros.

Stretch Goals

If we hit our goal, we will expand out objectives and start our LCD control panel board design and offer it to you at a very attractive price. The SAV MkI already supports the a range of LCDs and configurations using the "New LiquidCrystal Library" but we will add a custom control panel with encoder for autonomous printing.

If we hit the 300 mark, we will be designing a very attractive LCD control panel with room to connect a fifth driver, thermistor and FET.

If we reach the 500 mark, all of the above plus a nice Android app to control your printer with a nice looking user interface to make your 3D printer really rock.

We are also looking to get volume discounts with our manufacturer but we need your help to achieve this goal.

Other Ways You Can Help

We now need your help to have a successful launch and there are many ways you can help us:

• Make some noise and share this project with your friends and contacts. You can use the share tools available here or simply spread the word.
• You can make a donation that will be very much appreciated and will receive a big thanks.
• You can make a donation and take with you one of our launch special customized T-shirts: "I am a Clone Wars maker".
• Select one of our SAV MkI perks so that you can start printing.

Thank you very much for your help, we really appreciate it!