Hi. I'm a bit confused about how many stepper motors I need to build a Prusa.
I am planning to use
Greg's hinged accessible extruder (a variation on Wade's extruder).
I know the standard recommendation is to use the NEMA 17 motors - and I can get these via mendel-parts.com, thingfarm.org, or any other number of sources. What I don't know is whether I need 4 or 5.
Obviously one is needed for each of the cartesian axes, and one for the extruder also. So that gives four. Is that it? Or is a fifth one needed also? And if so, what exactly is it's purpose?
Looking at the
Gen7 PCB board, I see connections for only 4 motors - not 5. On the other hand, the
Prusa documentation states that 5 are needed. Hence my confusion.
Can anyone clarify?