What’s new (v3.2?)
This round was mostly optimization and electronics. I went back through the design and optimized it, then got most of the electronics into the CAD: the ESP32, the power side, and the E-stop.

Electronics
The power path is USB-C → PD trigger at 20V → buck down to 12V for the servo rail, with a separate little buck branching off before the E-stop to give the ESP32 its 5V. The E-stop is a latching mushroom button with two NC contacts, one cuts the servo rail, the other tells the ESP32 it got hit. Since it’s normally closed, a broken wire fails safe instead of leaving the arm live.

Reality check (again..)
The electronics aren’t perfect yet. A lot of the CAD models I pulled for the boards and components aren’t accurate, wrong dimensions, missing mounting holes, simplified shapes, so I already know I’ll have to redo some of the mounts and pockets once the real parts show up. At this point, I was expecting this lol. For now, everything’s placed close enough to plan around, and I’ll measure the real stuff and fix the models when hardware lands.

Next up I’m planning to..

• … Build!
• Swap out the inaccurate models once I have the parts in hand (and measure them myself if I have to)
• Keep chipping away at the tool-head standard and the 1:1/direct drive question, which are still waiting on hardware.. until next time.