I decided to base the whole machine off the RP2040 chip, since I don’t need any wireless communication and the control should be fairly simple. I started out by making the schematic for the core of the motherboard. So the flash, USB C, MCU, crystal, and caps.

After that I added in the two stepper drivers (both TMC2209s) and the interfacing which is just the LCD and the rotary encoder. I’m not sure what else I would need because it seems a lot of the sensing I need can be done in software using the stepper motors. Motorized tensioning could be cool but it is also something I can do without electronics and I don’t want to overcomplicate an already tedious task. I’ll probably sleep on it and work on this tomorrow, since it’s getting late.

Time Spent: 5 Hours