Electronics for tricolor printing

Can anyone provide some insight or point me in the right direction for selecting electronics for a tricolor upgrade to one of my prusa's?

Are there options for using different platforms, or will it only work with the melzi boards?

I am currently running sanguinololu's, can these be used with the tricolor firmware?

If so, Would I use 2, one as a slave? are there any forum or other resources that might be helpful?

Thank you,

CT Smyth

i have not seen any sorry to say, but i am trying to keep a eye out for new updates.

personally i think it is really 4 hot ends we would want 3 for color and 1 for support.

i think we might need a bigger ramps board for that though.

Hi Kobalt,

you can use RAMPS 1.4 for tri colour.

You have 5 a4988 slots there, which means 2 extruders can be mounted with ease. For the third extruder you need to hack the board alittle.
There is a blog that shows you how to do it yourself. its not complicated..its actually fun!

heres a small youtube video showing 3 colour extruder
[www.youtube.com]

in the blog page he explains how to hack the ramps 1.4!
[richrap.blogspot.co.il]

have fun!

P.S if you need a RAMPS board let me know i can supply you one!

The way they are handling it with the reprap pro is to use 2 of the Melzi's....

Looking at the schematics for the melzi controllers, they are basically sanguinololu clones, so should work fine, at least with 1284 chips installed.

Cool, thanks!

RepRapPro apparently does this by synchronizing two Melzis (effectively making a €280.- electronics). As a Melzi firmware should run on a Sanguinololu, too, plusminus a few pinout adjustments, trying to get there with two Sanguinololus sounds like a good plan.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

The RUMBA board supports 3 extruders directly.

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[www.panucatt.com]

This one claims to be able to handle 4 hotends.

I had been thinking about this. couldn't seem to find any Melzis for sale anywhere.
Could I use my Melzi and a Sanguinololu to do this or would I need two Sanguinololus as well as the Melzi?

I think RRP used a Melzi plus a Sanguinololu when they were developing the multi-colour stuff.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I was wondering the same question, and when I asked Sally at RepRapPro she said that a Sanguinololu would be the easiest board to configure as a slave controller. I think that any combination of Melzis or Sanguinololu boards would work, as they are almost the same thing. From reprap.org: "[Melzi Ardentissimo] is a Sanguinololu firmware compatible board, though does have a couple of extra features the Sanguinololu does not - namely the extra Mosfet for the fan, and a software controllable LED". The Sanguinololu has four Pololu stepper drives and two mosfets (hot end and heated bed), so this means two more extruders could be controlled with one Sanguinololu board (I think).

I am very new to 3d printing, and I might be giving you misinformation. Sally knows what she is talking about though, so I am 90% sure that a Melzi+Sanguinololu setup will work great!

I have a question about this set up as well. Does one need a mosfet to separately control the heating element for each extruder? Could one create a setup that utilizes only one mosfet for the control of 3+ extruders via a couple of switches?

.. maybe this summer I can offer a comercial syncronous-move 5-axis controller for around €300 with optional upgrades to 8-axes.

I'm actually in negotiations with the company for some other cooperations, so could change soon ...

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Viktor
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Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]