Good reliable control board

So I know ramps control boards are very popular, but whats a good control board (towards the budget side) that reliable and not a fire hazard? It doesn't need to have special features just the basic x,y,z and 1 extruder and 2 fans, but with a special focus on safety and reliablity (want to avoid cheap chinese clones).

Links to products would be most welcome!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2018 02:43PM by amatta.

Since all boards control large amounts of current, they are all potential fire hazards. And since they control heaters... Doubly so.

The ramps is much maligned when it is often the user abusing it that was at issue. (stupidly large heated beds it was never designed for eg )

Don't use soldered leads for hotend or heated beds
Don't exceed the maximum currents

and everything is fine.


You cant have cheap and avoid cheap Chinese clones.

Most boards especially the cheaper ones eliminate heat sinks on components that should have mandatory heat sink requirements.
These boards would not have a potential fire hazard if the purchaser upgraded them with the needed heat sinks.
Power Mosfets soldered flat to the PCB's copper clad, this is not an acquit heat sink for high power components simply not enough copper to power ratio. Now if it was a finned copper Heat Sink.


Given my choice the ones below
MKS Base V1.4/Base V1.5/Gen V1.4
HICTOP 3D Printer Control Board MPX.3
RepRap Ramps 1.4

The majority of meltdowns I have seen was because of inadequate wire sizes being used, than from the controller failures themselves.
Yes people will make mistakes, especially when the they do not know max power for the controllers.

WHEN IN DOUBT ADD AN EXTERNAL DRIVER THAT CAN HANDLE THE LOAD.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2018 03:54AM by Roberts_Clif.

By "cheap" I mean I don't want to pay for bonus features like trianamic drivers, extra extruders, wifi, and etc. I am perfectly willing to pay for properly engineered boards.

The only one I could really find is the Rambo by ultimachine but that is really expensive at more than 100 US dollars.

Maybe a better question is whats a RAMPS board, that is properly engineered?

here my choice for a budget build first the board a mks gen l v1
bed control mks fet board and a controller mks tft 24 thou for a controller a better option for first time builder could be the reprap full graphics smart controller, as it gives you access to all the motion setting which helps to fine tune the printer

Quote
Roberts_Clif

Power Mosfets soldered flat to the PCB's copper clad, this is not an acquit heat sink for high power components simply not enough copper to power ratio.

That is not true. SMD power mosfets that are properly chosen for the job and properly driven don't generate much heat, so heatsinking them to the PCB is adequate. We have tested the SMD bed heater mosfet on the Duet to 20A using an FLIR camera to monitor the temperatures of the mosfet and the PCB traces. Whereas the bed heater mosfets on RAMPS and on some other 8-bit controllers are poorly chosen, so they generate a lot more heat even at only 10A current and benefit from a heatsink.

Another thing that the cheap boards usually get wrong is using 1oz copper thickness to save money. It's hard enough to make PCB traces wide enough to carry many amps of current safely even when using 2oz copper (which is what we use on the Duets). It's almost impossible using 1oz copper without making the board larger so that the traces can be made extremely wide.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2018 10:56AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

I have heard fantastic things about the Duet, but again since it has to many "bonus" features it really doesn't make sense for a basic single extruder machine. I really wish Duet 3D would make a budget board, but maybe its not economical with all the cheap Chinese versions out there.

Consider the Duet Maestro then, its $99
[store.printm3d.com]
Don't skimp on electronics, its cheaper than letting your house burn down...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2018 09:18AM by whosrdaddy.

Oh this is perfect, Thanks!