Cheapest Electronics

Hello there! Thank you for reading my post,

I'm a complete noob in this world of 3d printing and i just made my own 3d printer, i know have all the hardware like motors and the table. But which electronics do i need to use? What is the cheapest way to control the motors? what program do i use?
i now have 4 electro motors which arent stepper motors, do i need to buy stepper motors?

Yes, you need stepper motors. Ones with at least 40 Ncm torque and specified for less than 5V. Everything else isn't impossible, but requires substantial development efforts.

All RepRap electronics have the same basic feature set. All of them can run every printer. All of them have the same CPU on it, an 16 or 20 MHz ATmega, few have an ARM CPU. So it's mostly a matter of taste which electronics to get. Single board, stacked board, self-solderable, plugged or fixed stepper drivers, etc. A small selection: [reprap.org]

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I'm not sure what you have made, but if it can't do 3D printing it's not a 3D printer.

You should be able to use any sort of motor you like as long as it can be used to move the axes very precisely - 0.1mm or 0.01mm perhaps.

I suspect that stepper motors are by far the easiest way to do that.

There are two aspects to the electronics system. It controls the movement of the motors in order to position the table under the extruder. And it converts the data from a suitable computerized "drawing" into the movements needed to make the part depicted in the drawing.

You should read this Reprap Wiki

...R

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And it converts the data from a suitable computerized "drawing" into the movements needed to make the part depicted in the drawing.

It sounds like you mean the slicing process here. The slicer is independent from the electronics hardware used, slic3r, Cura, Skeinforge etc. make G-code which works on a Gen3 / Gen7 / Melzi / RAMPS just as fine as on any other hardware.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Robin2 Wrote:
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> You should be able to use any sort of motor you
> like as long as it can be used to move the axes
> very precisely - 0.1mm or 0.01mm perhaps.
>
> I suspect that stepper motors are by far the
> easiest way to do that.

The firmware is written to use stepper motors so unless one wants to mod or write some code for something else they should use stepper motors.

Jeehroen Wrote:
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> Hello there! Thank you for reading my post,
>
> I'm a complete noob in this world of 3d printing
> and i just made my own 3d printer, i know have all
> the hardware like motors and the table. But which
> electronics do i need to use? What is the cheapest
> way to control the motors? what program do i use?
> i now have 4 electro motors which arent stepper
> motors, do i need to buy stepper motors?


Were I doing a cost conscious electronics package for personal use I'd use Traumflug's Gen 7 package. It's functional, simple and elegant but you'll need to assemble it yourself. My next choice would be the Brainwave though for a new user a Sanguinololu probably makes more sense. It's easy to source, widely used and supported. You should be able to get a kit for about US$40 or complete for US$100 or so.

Here is a link to a guy on ebay that has reconditioned NEMA 17 for US$40 plus shipping for the set. [www.ebay.com] Retail new is anywhere from US$75 to 100 for a set, plus shipping though if you look around you might be able to get new a bit less than that. You won't save much (if any) by going direct to the motor manufacturers or distributors. You can use someone like Nor Cal Reprap or Ultimachine and help keep some money in the Reprap community.

Traumflug Wrote:
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> It sounds like you mean the slicing process here.
> The slicer is independent from the electronics
> hardware used, slic3r, Cura, Skeinforge etc. make
> G-code which works on a Gen3 / Gen7 / Melzi /
> RAMPS just as fine as on any other hardware.

When I wrote my post I thought it was the first reply, and If I had seen yours I might not have bothered.

I was including all of the processes (whether on PC or in an Arduino) in the concept of electronics because the OP's question seemed very open.

(And I remain to be convinced that it makes sense to do GCode interpretation in firmware!)

...R

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(And I remain to be convinced that it makes sense to do GCode interpretation in firmware!)

You don't need to be convinced. You have the hardware, you have the code development tools, so you can show us which way it works better

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

It's not a question of working better. It's a question of the most economical way to develop software. I believe it is more economical to do as much as possible on the PC which has much fewer constraints. Unfortunately it is not possible to recover all the time that has already been spent.

...R

Robin2 Wrote:
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> It's not a question of working better. It's a
> question of the most economical way to develop
> software. I believe it is more economical to do as
> much as possible on the PC which has much fewer
> constraints. Unfortunately it is not possible to
> recover all the time that has already been spent.

You don't need to write any software, it's already been done. But like Traumflug, I am looking forward to you demonstrating an alternative method and proving everyone wrong. Until then it is all just theory.

I would note that PC side GCode drivers like Mach3 or LinuxCNC are not trivial, and also require low level tricks to get real time operation. Also, a USB breakout board for Mach3 has an ARM chip and an FPGA, and sells for about $150, about the same as RAMPS. Even if you do all that, it always needs a PC to run a printer as you can't run standalone.

It seems like a lot of effort for an inferior solution. But as I say, you've got the talk, let's see the walk!

I'd recommend a Sanguinololu. That's what I'm going to use. Putting it together wasn't all that hard(just make sure you check and recheck your soldering for the FTDI chip, it will save you alota time trying to figure out what;s wrong), but I haven't actually tested it's performance when printing yet. It is relatively cheap. So my vote is on that one.

theruss007 Wrote:
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> I'd recommend a Sanguinololu. That's what I'm
> going to use. Putting it together wasn't all that
> hard(just make sure you check and recheck your
> soldering for the FTDI chip, it will save you
> alota time trying to figure out what;s wrong), but
> I haven't actually tested it's performance when
> printing yet. It is relatively cheap. So my vote
> is on that one.

Sanguinololu with an ATMega1284p should be identical to a ramps and Arduino Mega performance-wise. You will give up an onboard fan control channel, fifth stepper driver socket, and fuses. If none of those matter to you it's a perfectly usable board.