Hi there i am building my own repstap with a basic adriuno board with a set of pic based stepper motor controllers using a simple 2 bit input (of forward and back each pulse equalling to one step).
How ever i am having to use threaded rod to drive my axis' as opposed to belts. My question is, will i still be able to use the standard reprap software to control my machine?
I had a problem using the standard Reprap software on a Repstrap machine. This was due to microstepping with very fine leadscrews. In the end I ran the machine with EMC2.
Details here:-
[objects.reprap.org]
I used the Arduino to control the heater. How you do it depends on your extruder. Stepper drive I used EMC2 to drive the extruder as the A axis. When I had a DC drive extruder I used the Arduino to run the extruder as well.
Before there was MakerBot, there was McWire and the ReRap host, and lots of people are still using a McWire with the RepRap host, so it shouldn't be difficult.
Even though my RepStrap uses belts, i'm using the RepRap host for controlling the electronics
