RAMPS versus RAMPS-FD

I recently learned that one can get a RAMPS-FD and Due clone for about twice as much as the RAMPS equivalents. The FD can handle another stepper and 24v, as well as having a more powerful processor, but it's newer, and there's almost certainly less development going on for it. There's also the price difference in the RAMPS's favor.

Which option would you recommend?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2014 08:32PM by epicepee.

I haven't made any general announcements on RAMPS-FD, as we think it needs one more iteration to be ready. Geetech jumped the gun a bit making the v1 boards. If you do buy one you will be a valued beta tester

Unless you need higher performance right now or don't mind being on the leading edge, I would wait a bit for the v2 version of RAMPS-FD, it will have some definite improvements. v1 has some usability issues. Unfortunately I can't make any predictions as to when or if v2 will get built.

I am close to getting Repetier running on RAMPS-FD, and ambrop has APrinter firmware running on it already. It's a classic chicken and egg though, as more people get the board support will grow.

That said, I have been using a v1 board for a few weeks without issues. The only thing is I do not leave it unattended while powered from USB though, if the USB power fails, the heaters turn on. That will be fixed in v2!

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"If the USB power fails, the heaters turn on."
Yeah, that doesn't sound the best.

I'm looking for a challenge. When you say "usability issues", is this things like print quality, or difficulty setting it up?
Do you have a very rough estimate of when v2 will be released? Will it be within, say, the next two months?
How much would it help to have one more beta tester (GUS Simpson)?

Quote
epicepee
"If the USB power fails, the heaters turn on."
Yeah, that doesn't sound the best.

I'm looking for a challenge. When you say "usability issues", is this things like print quality, or difficulty setting it up?
Do you have a very rough estimate of when v2 will be released? Will it be within, say, the next two months?
How much would it help to have one more beta tester (GUS Simpson)?

The non-failsafe heater issue is the main one, other issues are that the aux/fan outputs come on when the Due is in reset, eg when downloading firmware. Some people have reported problems with thermistor accuracy, we are improving ground planes etc to address this. We are also adding an EEPROM and some other minor improvements. Print quality has been fine for me though.

I have ordered one of the Geetech boards to evaluate, I haven't received it yet. Of course if you get a Due package you could upgrade the board later and keep the Due and stepper drivers. The geetech board is only $30. There is also the possibility of using it with UDOO, or DigiX which has wi-fi.

If you decide you dislike the RAMPS-FD, there is also RADDS, although it is more pricey at €80, it has some nice features [www.max3dshop.de]

I am hoping we can get to finalise the v2 design by Feb, then it will be a question of persuading someone to put it into production. I would hope that Geetech adopt the new design, I've had no contact with them but they did respond to a request to replace the PTC fuses with real fuses which they did pretty quickly. I think realistically it will be at least two months before v2 is likely to be on general sale.

I think that ambprop would be interested to support the Simpson, he is a keen coder His firmware makes it quite easy to add new geometries.

It's really the heater issue and the fact there is a v2 in the works that stops me recommending it more fully. I think it's a usable board within limits, and surprisingly cheap.

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Alright, this is going to be a lot of info, but I've had a difficult time finding out where to start with due+ramps-fd. I found the Due for cheap from banggood (http://www.banggood.com/Arduino-Compatible-DUE-R3-32-Bit-ARM-With-USB-Cable-p-906466.html, $20) and RAMPS-FD from Geeetech (http://www.geeetech.com/new-pololu-shield-rampsfd-for-arduino-due-3d-printer-controller-p-770.html, $28). Almost cheaper than MEGA+RAMPS! I also like the RADDS shield (http://max3dshop.org/index.php/default/elektronik/radds/radds-v1-1.html)that has very similar functionality, it's just more expensive (>2x).

More info about RAMPS-FD is available here (http://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS-FD) including a schematic that can help decipher the unlabeled pins of the board itself. Geetech has its own wiki with duplicate info (http://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/Ramps-FD, not sure who copied who) but neither have very helpful diagrams. I've made my own here (http://imgur.com/CnByrtf) with room for improvement. I'll add it to the reprap wiki soon. This is RAMPS-FD v1 (from what I understand v2 is final and v3 is on the way). It is important to note that v1 has reversed (logic?) on the mosfets, so if the arduino power fails, the heaters turn on. This is an important fix in v2, but I'm working with v1 for now.

The marlin port is discussed at length here (https://github.com/ErikZalm/Marlin/issues/626) including its practicality since a total rewrite could have many advantages. Bobc has the port of marlin I'm using, found here (https://github.com/bobc/Marlin) although supposedly repetier and a couple others have firmware that works with RAMPS-FD (and usually RADDS). There are three main forum posts I've found (including this one) that talk about projects with RAMPS-FD (http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,291043,291043 [forums.reprap.org] [andy-projects.blogspot.com]) They've all either had issues or just not been active enough put all the necessary info together to get it to work (thus this post).

I've also had issues with firmware similar to the issue found here (https://github.com/kliment/Printrun/issues/484) that I've solved by Unistalling the arduino Due usb driver (that I believe installs by default, but I'm left with "USB Serial (Communication Class, Abstract Control Model) (COMX)" You also MUST connect at 115200 baud rate and or else you get a communication error, and you must use the programming usb port, not the native port, to connect.

This is all I have for now, but it's connecting to just the Due on it's own in pronterface! I'll hook up the RAMPS-FD tomorrow morning and post an update

Your "unknown" two pin jumper JP801 is external pull up enable for switch type endstops

See page 8 of the cct diagram.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2014 01:25AM by Dust.

DUST!!! socialization...

Hi all.

I'm trying to make the move to 32-bit as well for my new delta. Has anyone tried this with a Due? [www.aliexpress.com]

I have no affiliation to the seller. It looks like they added level shifters to the I/O. Not clear what they did to the MOSFETs. Otherwise it looks very much like a RAMPS 1.4 in terms of form factor. I'm just looking for some reassurance that this has a chance at working before I make the leap!

I'm hoping that someone else who has tried it can chime in.

Thanks.

So it seems this has stalled. RAMPS-FD is dead or what?

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Modicum V1 sold on e-bay user jaguarking11

Bobc has left the forum due to a disagreement with another forum user, and so went the only champion for RAMPS-FD. In another forum, he threw his support to RADDS and warned that the Geeetech RAMPS-FD board has some concerning defects as manufactured. There are fixes in other threads here, but I would consider the long-term viability of RAMPS-FD to be bad at this point.....

Well that seals the deal. Man that would have been such a good continuation to ramps. Ah well, I will be taking my time to choose a 32bit board.

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