RUG/Pennsylvania/State College/Electronics

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Overview

This section is for info on the electronics we're using with RepRap. This mainly relates to our control boards, but may include supporting electronics, like the Thermocouple adapter boards we're using with RAMPS.

Parts Inventory A list of electronics parts we're using-- or intended to.

Generation 3 Electronics

We currently have two Mendels on site (Alpha and Beta), created from Techzone kits. They use the Gen 3 TechZone Remix hardware, but we use an extra Stepper Driver board instead of running the extruder from the Extruder Controller.

Comparison of Electronics

On this page there is a comparison of Sanguinololu, Generation 3, Generation 7 and RAMPS Electronics

Hot Tips

Here is a compiled list of information about hot tips for extruding.

Information includes electronics used, number of thermocouples and operating temperatures we have found effective.

RAMPS Supply Info

Since the RAMPS electronics seems to be one of the best bets for the alternate electronics on the PRUSA RepRaps this is a compiled list of where to purchase and the cost. Some of these are located in America and other companies are International.

RAMBO

Two of the new printers this year are using RAMBO electronics. RAMBO is an integrated Atmel ATmega 2560 micro-controller and RAMPS board. It also contains the the stepper controller boards on device instead of having them plug in. The benefit of using RAMBO is that it is slightly cheaper to have everything on device. The downside is that if anything breaks you will need to get a whole new board (or very carefully use a hot air rework station to remove the smd chips) since everything is surface mount. In addition, one must send g-code to set the motor current since there is a digipot instead of real potentiometers. More info (especially on the firmware) can be found here: http://reprap.org/wiki/Rambo

General Electronic Components

Building Custom Motherboard

One of the goals of our program is gaining the ability to produce RepRaps to distribute to other groups at the university. To do this we need to bring build costs as low as possible. To this end, we are researching alternate electronics systems in hopes of finding one which we can produce ourselves, without needing to purchase kits or completed boards from third parties. This section serves as an index for that research.

  • Requirements
  • Would be nice
    • High step count
    • SD Card support
    • Control panel (computerless)

Repairs and Modifications

As we continue to maintain our existing machines, we will undoubtedly need to repair and modify their electronics. This section will document our efforts in this area.

Repairs

Modifications

Page List

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