Electronics for next Gen RepRap

Hey Guys,
I'm new to the RepRap scene but I have liked what I've seen so far. There was one thing that has been driving me crazy. It the electronics! It was my understanding this was to be an "open source" as well as a somewhat more simple way of building a 3D printer. But when the parts are impossible to build by someone with average abilities it is, by all normal definitions, out of reach to the average tinkerer. Not everyone can solder surface mount electronics! I would like to make the electronics easier to build. And since I am an Okie by birth I wanted to address the "Locals" first.
I want to make a motherboard with through hole technology. Something anybody with average soldering abilities could build. I would also like to add 4th axis. If you can change tooling heads, and you can. There could be a use for a Rotary Table. Or who knows what could be added with the extra axis! I built a multipurpose Pic based board a few years back that would work but I'm sure it would need to be updated to a newer version of PIC chip.
Is there anyone on this list that would like to work on this with me?
Is there anyone in our state versed in PIC programing?
Please contact me if you are interested.
Thanks for your time!

LennyWayne

I moved from through-hole to surface mount. I've built 4 stepper driver boards using home-made single sided PCBs with surface mount components, and although it's scary to start with, surface mount is actually easier than through-hole (at least for me!).
Through-hole components were used to build the generation2 (back one gen) boards for RepRap - see
[reprap.org]
[reprap.org]
for example.
I think TomHerbert even has some PCBs left :
[forums.reprap.org]

Generation 2 electronics used an unmodified Arduino board, freely available from several sources, but I'd suggest using an arduino mega if you are starting now.

The very first version of the RepRap (generation 1 ) used PIC 'tronics - the designs are still available on the wiki, I think.

Good luck and have fun!

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Reprapping blog and other rants: [renoirsrants.blogspot.com]
My Reprap: [sites.google.com]

Thank you for your help!
LW