A quick intro

Hi all.

Im a new hopeful. I've been looking around the wiki and decided "I WANT one of those".

I'm fairly practical and have access to all sorts of toys, Welder, Lathe, Drill Press etc and fancy having a crack at building a Mendel.

I am a bit of a DIYer so would like to make the electronics, including the PCB's possibly. What electronics should I be looking at. I would like to build a complete system including stepper drivers.

I have a small 3 Axis machine from Millford Instuments and was thinkng about using this as a Repstrap. I need to develop a light weight print head for it. Has anyone got any experience with one of these machines. Is it a practical proposition ?

Thanks for your comments, and wish me luck. Im gonna need it.

Regards
Rob
Essex
UK

Hi Rob,

... i'm actually repstrapping my Isel-CNC-mill with a Gen3-electronic (motherboard and extruder controller) with reusing the Isel-controller as pure stepper drivers and limit switches, and/or alternatively with an Arduino Mega with a RAMPS where i don't need the extruder controller but can use the same hot end.

Both versions are plug-compatible and i can use the mill as normal by reinserting the Isel interface again.

I've isolation-milled some PCB's ... but i'll recomend to use common Arduino Megas instead of cloning them ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

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

For DIY electronics you'd want to look at generation 7.

There are several milling/lasercut options avilable, like isaac. The main problem with adding a print head to an existing machine, I would think is to make the gcode interact with the electronics properly. You might be better off adding reprap electronics to your mill?

---

--
-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

Well almost.

I plan on using Arduino Mega 2560 from Farnell,
RAMPS,
Some BIG steppers

Just need to find some big stepper drivers now.

Hi Rob,

... how BIG are your steppers?

Look at Nanotec for some specs and prices ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

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

I'm planning on fabbing my own with the iron on transfer method if I can find a well tested board. I'm looking for something thats good for about 5 amps per channel I think, and can easily interface with the Ramps. I will then start looking for the BIG motors.

I think its gonna be easier matching motors to controller rather than controller to motors. Stepper motors seem to be ten a penny. Open source stepper drivers with good history and simple boards seem to be a bit more difficult to find.

I may try the CNC news groups/forums and see what they know.

Rob

The through hole toshiba's are the highest current drivers I have seen wandering around the reprap project. aka47 did some boards here

aka47.adsl24.co.uk/serendipity/index.php?/pages/stepdrv.html

They are 2.5A continuous 3 A max if I recall. You should be able to drive some pretty large motors with these if the voltage is high enough. Most steppers have high med and low current versions of the same motor with different voltage requirements.

Hi bryanandaimee

That looks great. Just the sort of thing I'm after. It has all the features I'm after. The only supplier I've found so far is ebay but I'll keep looking. ( Rapid/RS/Farnell don't stock it )

I'll have to read through the data sheet and have a look at the RAMPS board. I think this stepper driver will work as is and give the ability to access microstepping modes under software control if required which is great.

I will pop out today and grab some nicrome wire for a hot-end and some opto switches for the end stop boards. Then its time to start creating.

Thanks very much for your help.

Kind Regards

Rob