Best electronics board for newbies?

Hi All!! Recently my boss purchased a Replicator for the office (I'm the lucky guy who gets to use it!). Now I'm hooked! I want to build a printer for my house!

I've already done a lot of research and opted for the Prusa-mendel V2 over the Eventorbot because it's more stable and mature. I've begun to spec out the parts for the printer, however I'm stuck on the one critical piece: the electronics board!!

I'm looking for something cheap that is pre-assembled and has the hotbed capability, also I'd like something easy for a newbie to install and use. From my research, there's a few boards out there that meet my criteria, but I'm going crosseyed trying to figure out which is best for me!

The RAMPS 1.4 seems expensive and far too powerful for my needs (plus I'd rather have an all-in-one solution, and not use an Arduino Mega). Gen7 sounds awesome, but I can't find any vendors who pre-assemble those. There were a few other boards I've seen mentioned, but don't see much about them.

Can anyone point me to a place to compare features, or make a reccomendation for a decent board? I intend to build this printer, and spend time printing with it, less time tinkering to make it 'perfect'.

Azteeg x1 [www.panucatt.com]

Azteeg x3 [www.panucatt.com]

Ramps 1.4 ultimate from reprapdiscount on eBay [www.ebay.com.au]

I bought the reprapdiscount ramps kit, ask him to bundle as much as he has and you may end up happy with single shipping and great service and price, that being said if the azteeg x3 had of been available in July I would have bought that one. The X 1 is an older board but may be the lower functionality you are looking for, panucatt can probably also bundle lots of the electronicy things you need for a single shipping cost saving.

No regretts on the ramps board, the rate this whole sector is moving too much functionality today is barely enough to last the month

Gaz

Geeze! You just HAD to throw in another board I had never even heard of! Gah! That board looks like it has everything I wanted.

Looks pretty new (just released) but almost as powerful as the RAMPS board. Thanks for the suggestion, does anyone have some other ideas? Is this easier to use than that modified version of the Gen6 which has hotbed capabilities?

Sorry for the extreme newbieness, but I'm looking for a plug and play type solution, obviously 3D printing isn't quite there yet, but it seems these boards have come quite a long way in the past few years

Nothing is really plug and play, if you don't start with a standard firmware and make modifications to suit your printer, you will always struggle. By building a prusa Mendel you are effectively buying a printer that will change monthly as you upgrade bits and pieces, each of those changes may require firmware changes to describe the printers current iteration, if you have initially calculated your steps per mm for x movement, and your upgrades change this, you will then be able to change the firmware to match your changes.

Azteeg x1 is sanguinolo compatible, and x3 is effectively arduino Mega + ramps 1.4 all on one board with uprated power handling of some functions, both take standard base firmwares that you modify (pretty daunting, but not difficult) to match your printers dimensions and components.

Hope this helps

Gaz

Gaz,

Thanks, I know I'll have to do some tinkering. I was opting for the Prusa-Mendel as it seems rather 'stable'. I don't really intend to be upgrading bits and pieces. I like how the Azteeg X3 does combine those two boards into one. But what i'm after is something easy to configure, pre-assembled, and cheap.

The Azteeg seems easy enough to wire up, but how much support/documentation is there for setting up these boards? Is there a more common board used by newbs?

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Gen7 sounds awesome, but I can't find any vendors who pre-assemble those

reprap-france.com does.

The point of Gen7 is to assemble it DIY, though. Just like a Mendel is designed to be built DIY.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

The Azteeg X1 is perfectly suited for a Prusa Mendel. It does require soldering the connectors onto the board. That way you get to choose whenther the connectors point up or out from the board edge. You'll also need stepper driver boards, which may require soldering their pins--16 pins each on four boards. It's probably not a big deal if you're comfortable soldering, but it can in fact be a meaningful barrier for a soldering newbie doing it alone.

Have you looked at the Printrboard? It's completely assembled, and mine needed absolutely no adjustment on the stepper trimpots. It typically comes preloaded with Marlin, pretty much ready to print. Some critical calibration values do need to be updated, but you can do that after knowing that it works in the first place. A short or hot-swapping of the stepper connections could kill a driver, necessitating a whole-board replacement (or some surface mount surgery), which isn't the case with the Azteeg.

The Ecksbot seems to have resolved some of the more glaring design faults of the Prusa i2. Plus, their build docs are the best I've seen. I haven't built one, but the design does look more functionally sound than the fairly current Prusa i2 I built. In any case, I'd make sure you have fan mounts on the X carriage and well-thought-out choices for the X ends, just because that assembly is hard to take apart for upgrades.

Traumflug, I gathered that much, there is a LOT of awesome documentation for building one, but I'm afraid I'm simply not good enough with soldering pcb's to make it worth even trying.

Derevaun, Printrboard was a name I heard suggested in the RepRap IRC channel I visited earlier this week. The Printerboard seems to also have all the features I needed (isn't it a modified Gen6?). Would it be a better option than the Azteeg? Seems to me the Printrboard would probably have more documentation available than the X3 since it just started shipping last week.

Ecksbot eh? Haven't looked into that one, I'll do some more research before I start ordering parts. I was also looking at the Rostock Delta 3D printer (It looks SEXY when in action!) but its simply not mature enough for me to consider building one.

In my experience, as a newbie, the Printrboard didn't need documentation beyond basic physical connections and Arduino board identification. There was a quirky requirement to unplug and re-plug an endstop on the first startup only, but that has probably been resolved since Rev. C. The Azteeg has even better documentation for wiring it up. It might have minor bugs to work out, like the Printrboard did; it depends on how widely it's adopted WRT solving potential problems, and there may likely be none.

So IMHO it's a distinct choice between the convenience of not having to solder anything (the Printrboard is pre-soldered) and the peace of mind that you can swap out a burned/zapped stepper board later (the Azteeg allows that). Plus, the Azteeg is robust and versatile, where the Printrboard is merely sufficient. I'm happy with the Printrboard, and have also assembled an Azteeg X1, with totally no complaints about it either. The Printrboard was easier to get up and running with.

The Ecksbot is a Prusa Mendel, just with solutions to some problems in the Prusa design. It appears to conform to standard dimensions where it counts--where upgrades would be likely.

Awesome! That helps a lot.

Actually, if you check the options, I can get screw terminals for the Azteeg if I want (only like $15 more). That makes both boards a strong contender. The onboard stepper boards are a concern, but how easy are they to fry?

One last question while on topic. I've heard of heat issues with some of these boards. Does either of the boards (or this type of board) have any heat issues? Either way I'd just plan around the heat, that's something I can handle.

Thanks for all the help, I hope to place an order tonight for some of the hardware!

derevaun Wrote:
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> There was a quirky requirement to unplug and
> re-plug an endstop on the first startup only, but
> that has probably been resolved since Rev. C.

I'm unsure of my Rev (not near the printer, but I think it is C) but I had this issue and it was driving me crazy, I thought it was broken.. I have learned that I don't have to unplug the Y end-stop at all now though.. All you have to do is prior to connecting the USB to your PC make sure the Y bed is homed (slide it by hand till the end-stop clicks) then plug in the USB and it should connect to ponterface. very annoying but I have learned to home the Y before I shut down.

Sigh, oh boy, oh well, I'll figure it out. This is supposedly RevD. I think I'm leaning towards the budget friendly Printrboard

Hi guys, thanks for recommending the Azteeg Controllers.

@cassetti
The X1 might be a good start for you and the X3 for your second printer :-) . If you havent decided yet on a particular one you can go to my website later(tomorrow) as I will start bundling the other stuff that the X3 has for its pre-order like the stepper drivers, heated bed and wiring which can lower the cost compared to the PrintrBoard. Easy way out is to get the wiring assembly add-on where all the connectors are crimped with a generous length of wire. I can solder the connectors to the board for you, I get a lot of request for those.

At any rate, all the controllers mentioned in this post will all work with most 3D printer setups, for truly DIY I would recommend the Gen7 (awesome documentation too).

Thanks everyone for the help!

I ended up buying a printrboard several weeks ago, and finished building my own Prusa v2. This past weekend I wired all the elctronics only to discover upon plugging in that the board appears to have a defect with the USB port (issue is posted here [www.printrbottalk.com] ). For whatever reason, no computer I have used can detect the board!

From previous experience dealing with Printrbot.com customer service, I know it can take a while for them to respond, in lieu of this (and a generous bonus from my boss this past week), I've opted to simply purchase an Azteeg X1 to use in place of the Printrboard (which I hope to exchange for a WORKING board in the near future), I like the fact it has replaceable stepper drivers, and seems like a better built board with the onboard fuse protection. Hopefully this one works better than the printrboard.

Man with all the spare parts I've accrued building my first printer.....I guess I'll simply build a second printer once I get this one running!

Read your posts on Printrbottalk. Looks like you havent tried a new USB cord yet. This is a problem that happens often. I've actually been through 4 different USB cords each from a different manufacturer and only 1 works for my Printrboard. If it isnt popping up in New Hardware at all then I'll bet thats the problem.

Lets us know how the Azteeg works. So far I've only tried Printrboard and RAMPS 1.4.... and Sanguinololu 1.3b.

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-Tom

Sniper4395 Wrote:
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> Read your posts on Printrbottalk. Looks like you
> havent tried a new USB cord yet. This is a problem
> that happens often. I've actually been through 4
> different USB cords each from a different
> manufacturer and only 1 works for my Printrboard.
> If it isnt popping up in New Hardware at all then
> I'll bet thats the problem.
>
> Lets us know how the Azteeg works. So far I've
> only tried Printrboard and RAMPS 1.4.... and
> Sanguinololu 1.3b.

Thanks for the idea, I have tried two different reliable USB cables (one that came with the Amazon Kindle, and one that came with my Samsung phone), but maybe (hopefully) 3rd (or 4th) time is the charm.

Hopefully the Azteeg will arrive this week so I can play with it all weekend.

I guess you realise that Printrboard will not be autodetected just by plugging it in? You need to run a serial-to-usb adaptor program first.
Try the one attached, just run it once then it should find it OK.
I'm eagerly waiting for my Azteeg X3 too

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2012 03:30PM by Wired1.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

To reiterate what Wired said in more standard terms, you have to run the driver setup program before communicating with the printrboard.

The driver setup program is called "serial_install.exe" and *should be part of the package that you can download from wherever you bought the board, or ...hmm...from the attachment I uploaded with this post (I think it came with the package I downloaded from makerfarm for my printrboard)

File is zipped to avoid any "exe" security issues.

1. run program
2. connect board