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User 12058
Please note, I have cleared with Daniel Schwiperich to post this Worklog in this section.
Introduction
History -IONI
I had a first go at DIY DD FFB when a friend posted a link to what Bernhard Berger was doing with the Argon drive. Back then I gave the DD wheel via his API a try, shortly thereafter, MMoS came onboard and released a FW to be used on the STM Discovery evaluation board.
It was around this time I hosted the Argon build log over at iRacing, the original Bruteforce, and quite a few guys jumped on board and experienced the joys of DD FFB. I will forever be thankful for the efforts of Bernhard and Michael MMoS, which started me on this journey.
Around Q3 2014, Tero informed me they will do a new small compact drive controller, the IONI, aimed at the printer market. Well, I had some thoughts about this, and met with Tero and Aki late 2014, to discuss a few ideas over beers. I requested Tero to investigate if he could improve on the current 5-7A design spec of his original IONI ideas, and the new IONI was born - it was based on the 8x PCI-Express form factor, to support much higher current than the original 4x form factor allowed for.
We saw the first IONI's introduced with relative conservative current numbers, but today, there are several versions, and the ones we are interested in is the IONI Pro and IONI Pro HC. The former can do around 18A Peak-of-Sine, the latter, 25A, and very soon, I suspect we will be able to get our hands on 30A versions.....(more on this later)
History - SimuCUBE
Whilst both Argon and IONI projects made for a fun DIY DD FFB project, it was time consuming to do a DIY project based on these, not easy for the average Joe to implement. Shortly after IONI was born, I started to think of ways to make the process simpler and easier, as well as improve on communications efficiencies et al.
In my mind, the best way to go forward was to have a simple motherboard, with an interface that can accept the IONI, and host all other functions onboard. It would require a single psu, have an advanced microcontroller onboard, reduced latencies and a host of other future features.
Key was that it had to support the current MMoS FW, allow for open-source fw development, and also support direct API control interface.
Almost exactly 1 year after meeting with Tero and Aki, we met over beers again. I discussed my idea with them, and we brainstormed the features that I would like to see. I also ensured Tero it is a viable product for the DIY market, and as such, we moved from my concept idea, to a block diagram in the space of a few weeks.
Aki shared this and we discussed a few additions, to make the motherboard bullet proof, and Aki then went on to finalise the pcb design. At the next meeting in Finland, and over sauna, beers and pizza, I was presented with a prototype, which I have since thoroughly tested. The Indiegogo campaign was kicked off, to big success for Tero and his team, whilst allowing is FYI types to get our fix.
I would like to give a special thank you to Tero, Timo, Aki and Esa, for listening to my crazy ideas, and bringing this product to the market. We, the community, owe you a big thank you.
With that said, below a basic work log with steps on how to DIY your own.
The original concept idea:
From that, it quickly moved to reality:
Introduction
History -IONI
I had a first go at DIY DD FFB when a friend posted a link to what Bernhard Berger was doing with the Argon drive. Back then I gave the DD wheel via his API a try, shortly thereafter, MMoS came onboard and released a FW to be used on the STM Discovery evaluation board.
It was around this time I hosted the Argon build log over at iRacing, the original Bruteforce, and quite a few guys jumped on board and experienced the joys of DD FFB. I will forever be thankful for the efforts of Bernhard and Michael MMoS, which started me on this journey.
Around Q3 2014, Tero informed me they will do a new small compact drive controller, the IONI, aimed at the printer market. Well, I had some thoughts about this, and met with Tero and Aki late 2014, to discuss a few ideas over beers. I requested Tero to investigate if he could improve on the current 5-7A design spec of his original IONI ideas, and the new IONI was born - it was based on the 8x PCI-Express form factor, to support much higher current than the original 4x form factor allowed for.
We saw the first IONI's introduced with relative conservative current numbers, but today, there are several versions, and the ones we are interested in is the IONI Pro and IONI Pro HC. The former can do around 18A Peak-of-Sine, the latter, 25A, and very soon, I suspect we will be able to get our hands on 30A versions.....(more on this later)
History - SimuCUBE
Whilst both Argon and IONI projects made for a fun DIY DD FFB project, it was time consuming to do a DIY project based on these, not easy for the average Joe to implement. Shortly after IONI was born, I started to think of ways to make the process simpler and easier, as well as improve on communications efficiencies et al.
In my mind, the best way to go forward was to have a simple motherboard, with an interface that can accept the IONI, and host all other functions onboard. It would require a single psu, have an advanced microcontroller onboard, reduced latencies and a host of other future features.
Key was that it had to support the current MMoS FW, allow for open-source fw development, and also support direct API control interface.
Almost exactly 1 year after meeting with Tero and Aki, we met over beers again. I discussed my idea with them, and we brainstormed the features that I would like to see. I also ensured Tero it is a viable product for the DIY market, and as such, we moved from my concept idea, to a block diagram in the space of a few weeks.
Aki shared this and we discussed a few additions, to make the motherboard bullet proof, and Aki then went on to finalise the pcb design. At the next meeting in Finland, and over sauna, beers and pizza, I was presented with a prototype, which I have since thoroughly tested. The Indiegogo campaign was kicked off, to big success for Tero and his team, whilst allowing is FYI types to get our fix.
I would like to give a special thank you to Tero, Timo, Aki and Esa, for listening to my crazy ideas, and bringing this product to the market. We, the community, owe you a big thank you.
With that said, below a basic work log with steps on how to DIY your own.
The original concept idea:
From that, it quickly moved to reality:
Zuletzt bearbeitet: