About to start, but where...

Hiya,

I'm one of the thousands introduced to this project from Slashdot at the start of April and I'm about to start to build a Reprap beginning with the electronics (as I've got several years of experience with diy electronics).

I would like to use the Arduino electronics as this seems more flexible and as it's been chosen as the future of Reprap. The problem I'm having is that the parts lister seems to be a little awkward to use to find out what I need if I'm building a Reprap without PICs.

Can someone direct me to the correct options to be able to buy the components I require?

I am also planning on buying the PCBs from RRRF (http://store.rrrf.org/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=57), but as I've noticed at least 4 or more PCBs on the blogs as having been revised, will I be buying something that is already out of date?

Many thanks in advance.

Ian.

Hey Ian, I had the same problem initially, but I'm now at the point where my stepper driver boards are done and spinning motors, and I'm just waiting for some plastic parts. What I did was clicked the "Darwin" item, saw what it contained, and then replicated it on the first page. If you click the Arduino electronics, you really only need one of each of the other parts, except of course Darwin. Try it out a couple times, it'll start to make more sense. I also opted to not buy any of the tools mail order, as I have them or can get them locally.

I agree though, a single click for the Arduino would be helpful, but keep in mind, this whole things is still experimental. Seems like the parts lister is down at the moment too, I got a Fatal error: Class 'CacheBot' not found in ... from it right now.

I love the Arduino's though - yesterday afternoon, I mounted a laser pointer on two orthogonal servos, wired it to the Arduino, and then controlled it from a program called Processing, so that the laser pointer is slaved to my computer mouse. Mostly useless in a practical sense, but it was fun and I'm amazed at how easy it was to make everything talk to each other. Open source software and hardware has come a long way in the past few years.

Hi Wade,

Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a go!

Did you get the Arduino Raw PCB Kit from RRRF?

I've looked at what the kit contains and can't see why you need two Temperature Sensor PCBs and a Thermocouple sensor PCB as the Arduino diagram on the Wiki doesn't include the Thermocouple and only has one Temperature Sensor.

I presume the two Temps is for a dual head setup, but why the Thermocouple PCB?

Ian.

I think this might have been answered elsewhere, but Zach mentioned that the thermocouple board was experimental, and cheap, so you might as well try it. I bought parts for all 3 temp sensors; I'll want to use the thermocouple for accuracy or higher temps, but the extra thermistors will be useful I'm sure.

I used Zach's Arduino PCB kit, and it was great - I used to design pcb's professionally, and Zach's were perfect. I also picked up two Arduino's and two of Zach's Arduino breakout shields. They make it really easy to mess around with various ideas on the Arduino.

Wade

Hi Wade,

I'd tried searching both here and the wiki and could not find a answer to the temperature / thermocouple question so I had posted elsewhere on these forums.

As I'd not had any replies to that thread, I thought I'd pick your brains whilst I had your attention!

Thanks again.


Ian.

Thermocouple is significantly more robust and significantly more accurate - I believe its a case of either or...

J.