Hardware
A six-axis Duet3D motion controller paired with an ST touchscreen board, replacing three legacy components.
All projects
Industrial automation
Motion controller modernization
Replaced a legacy PLC, stepper controller and touchscreen with a modern embedded system that drives up to six motors, homes without limit switches and reports to the cloud.
- Industry
- Industrial automation
- Our role
- System design, firmware, touchscreen UI
- Motion
- Six stepper axes
- Cloud
- AWS machine monitoring
Operator
Touchscreen controls
Controller
G-code to six stepper axes
AWS cloud
Machine status and job data
Dashboards
Remote monitoring
The challenge
The old system was hard to build and dated. The goals were to simplify manufacturing, modernize the electronics, eliminate the home switch and leave room for wireless control.
Firmware
A touchscreen interface that turns each operator action into G-code commands sent to the motion controller over SPI, with stored settings.
Cloud and software
Wi-Fi on the controller sends machine status and job data to an AWS backend for remote monitoring.
Key decisions
Client name and confidential details are withheld under NDA.
- Homing without a switchWhen a motor stalls at the end of its travel, that point is home. Sensorless homing was proven on the bench and the home switch was removed.
- A purpose-built touchscreenModifying the stock touchscreen firmware was convoluted and memory-limited, so an ST touchscreen board was used instead.
- Standard G-code underneathEvery operator action maps to standard G-code, so the controller's proven command set does the motion work.
Machine monitoring dashboard
Live axis positions, the command stream from the touchscreen and the status each machine reports.
This dashboard is an illustration built for this site. Every value is generated in your browser; no client data is shown.
Building something similar?
Tell us about your product, from the board to the dashboard. We'll reply with next steps and a rough plan.