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Extruder

bethebeer

Extruder
April 09, 2012 05:34PM

Registered: 12 years ago
Posts: 25

I am building my first printer using an Arduino UNO and have installed the Teacup firmware successfully. I was wondering if I could use a stepper driver for the extruder without an extruder controller; if not, why not? For the stepper drivers controlling the 3 axes, are all stepper drivers compatible?

Thanks,
Dave

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PastaRocket848

Re: Extruder
April 09, 2012 05:40PM

Registered: 12 years ago
Posts: 59

i've never heard of anyone using an UNO to power a reprap. i'm surprised the firmware even fit on the flash, but beyond that, what are you using to break out the stepper controllers? some sort of custom shield?

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jcabrer

Re: Extruder
April 09, 2012 09:14PM

Registered: 17 years ago
Posts: 824

You can use any stepper driver that takes a step and direction signal, and provided that signal is 5 volts DC. Higher microstepping drivers are preferable, but I suppose any would work, although I imagine the machine would be very noisy, and prone to having parts come loose if you used only half-stepping drivers.

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bethebeer

Re: Extruder
April 09, 2012 10:09PM

Registered: 12 years ago
Posts: 25

Thanks for the fast responses.

There was an Arduino Breakout Shield made for the Darwin: reprap wiki

Couldn't(if I had to) I just use a breadboard for all the connections?

And can the stepper driver for the extruder hook directly into the motherboard, or does it need to connect to a controller which connects to the motherboard?

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bethebeer

Re: Extruder
April 11, 2012 01:28PM

Registered: 12 years ago
Posts: 25

Scratch that last question about the breadboard, but I still can't figure out if a stepper driver can replace an extruder controller, or if both are needed to drive a stepper motor for an extruder.

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Andrew Smith

Re: Extruder
April 11, 2012 01:43PM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 643

Modern electronics don't use a separate extruder controller, and some recent firmwares don't account for that setup. You can run everything from the Uno.