Converting BfB RapMan to RepRap

Hello!

I've been doing 3D printing for a while, but am new to RepRap. I've found the myriad of RepRap models out there to be a bit confusing, but I've found the articles on the RepRap wiki to be really useful.

My first printer was a BitsfromBytes RapMan 3.1 kit. It took a long time to build, but I got a great understanding of how the FDM/FFF technology works. A lot of fun, too.

Recently, the board blew out, rendering my printer a brick. Since BitsfromBytes doesn't really exist any more (susbsumed by the 3DSystems collective), I can't get a replacement board. A friend recommended that I try to use a RepRap Rambo 1.2 board on it. I recently purchased a Rambo 1.2a made by Geetech through Amazon.

Now I'm ready to go, but to be honest, I'm a little intimidated. I'm fairly adept mechanically, but I've never been that good with soldering or electronics - and I'm worried about blowing out this brand-new board. I wonder if it's just a matter of matching the wiring diagram from the RapMan to the wiring digram of the Rambo - perhaps in my head, I'm making this harder than it needs to be?

Can anyone recommend any resources I could use to help get a better understanding of how I can use a Rambo board to get printer up and running again? Thanks for your patience..

-Crawford

Should be pretty cut and dry just look at any of the builds with the Rambo board connect it up that way the XYZ and e. Be careful when it comes to the home switches look very carefully make sure that you don't put power to the signal or the ground all you need is ground to signal for switches. Configuration of whatever firmware you use Marlin is probably the most popular is going to be a learning curve you have to get into the configuration H file in Arduino and set steps per millimeter for everything that moves including the weird screw type extruder. This calculator might help a little for XY and Z but not your extruder by chance do you happen know the steps per millimeter that your screw type extruder was set for [calculator.josefprusa.cz] the other thing is with their weird hot end totally encapsulated I don't know if there are using a thermistor or thermocouple if it's a thermocouple you are probably going to have to buy a separate little board if the Rambo doesn't take thermocouples and if it's a thermistor to know what value it is so you can choose it in Arduino

Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2014 02:52PM by cnc dick.

Thanks for the tip! I guess there's nothing to do but to do it, eh?

With that in mind, I took my shiny new Rambo board down to Radio Shack to see if I could pick up some connectors. The kid I showed it to was entirely clueless - not surprising, since Radio Shack has basically become a cell phone store. Anyway, does anyone know the technical names of the connectors for this board, and a good palce to obtain them? I've circled them in the accompanying photo. Thanks.

-Crawford

The black ones are just normal 2.54mm terminals [www.emakershop.com] as an example but you need the housings with the correct number of slots.

The white ones are molex connectors.

Ben

Thanks. I should be able to find a local electonics supply store to help me out.

-Crawford

After a long time, I finally got some work done on this project. I think I managed to get the Marlin firmware loaded correctly - at least nothing blew up and I didn't get any errors from the Arduino environment.

I'm still a little curious about powering the Geetech RAMBo board I'm using. I took the power supply from the RapMan - it's showing 15.3 vDC & rated for 80w. I plugged it into the "C" power block (closest to the bottom or the 3 power blocks). For the next step, I suppose I am going to have to also provide power to the "B" block for the hot end. (I don't have a heated bed.)

Question: can I just split the leads from the power supply to feed into both of these power blocks?

Thanks.

-Crawford