Beginner questions

Hi, I am building my own Prusa Mendel. After purchasing the printed parts(http://tiny.cc/w6qukw) and all the hardware, I have a few questions about some things. First, I bought the printed parts for a Prusa Mendel, but I dont know if its Iteration 1 or 2. I'm kind of worried since I ordered 90$ on threaded and smooth rods from the Iteration 1 bill of materials. Second, what should I use for a print plate? Should I start with heated? Also, I have an Arduino Duemilanove, but what shield do I use with it? Also where can I find the cheapest Shield. Lastly, I have Wade's Accessible Extruder, or at least the printed parts for it. What else would I need for this?

Thanks!
Laurens

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2012 06:34PM by laurensderegt.

4mm aluminium plate is what I use for my bed and then bolt on 4no 2.2ohm housed resistors as I only print PLA and they get plenty hot enough for that..

Did the plastics come with plastic bushes or housings for round bearings. If you have I2 then it's only a matter of cutting down the smooth rods for the X axis if they are too long otherwise most of the rest is the same

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

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Also, I have an Arduino Duemilanove, but what shield do I use with it? Also where can I find the cheapest Shield

The Duemilanove is based on an ATmega168, right? I'm not aware of a shield for it, this type of Arduino was last used in Generation 2 Electronics. If you look up Gen2 in the wiki you'll see it was completed with a number of indivicual boards, 3 to 4 for the stepper drivers, one for the extruder heater and so on.

Hard to get these nowadays. If you do, also upgrade the '168 to an '328, a plug in replacement. The '168 has room for a stripped Teacup firmware, only.

At the bottom line it might be cheaper to got with a more recent electronics, like Sanguinololu or Generation 7 Electronics. This also gives you microstepping and another few quite convenient features.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Nelson, they have housings for round bearings, meaning it's an I2. Sorry if I sounded stupid, I'm new to this and was worried I bought wrong parts. How many watts for the resistors? Cheap on eBay, worried about quality?

Traumflug, Correct, they are based on the ATmega168. So basically I have to get a new board? What would you suggest?

If I had really just the Duemilanove and nothing else I'd make an AVR programmer from it and start building a Gen7.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY