I have been wandering through the reprap wiki, trying to figure out a path to a 3D printer for my particular interests and resources. I would appreciate comments and/or design review of my proposed plan. Here goes:
Since I own a small 2 1/2 D Taig CNC mill, I will start with that for the translational axes. So I understand this would be called a Millstrap.
I am designing a variant of the mini-extruder (stepper drive, 1.8mm ABS) as the extruder to mount to the Z axis of the mill.
I looked into using Turbocnc as the stepper driver SW but it really does not look very compatible with the extruder commands...
so, I plan to use a Arduino Mega for all positional axes and for the extruder control (Question: as I understand it, one Arduino Mega is up to the task of commanding **all** steppers and heat control including the extruder....some wiki discussion seems to indicate that there is a separate positional controller and a separate extruder controller...my hope is that one Arduino Mega can handle the whole problem???).
The Arduino outputs step/direction signals (correct?) as well as interface to heater related signals/control (need more research here). I will wire them into a connector (25 pin sub D) on my existing mill stepper driver for the X,Y,Z controls (which now receives step/dir signals from my PC via the parallel port. I will separately wire from the Arduino Mega to a Pololu stepper driver to drive the extruder stepper.
This is where it gets hazy...I will find appropriate Arduino firmware to drive the four steppers and heater control (which firmware should I use...help appreciated).
Does this all seem reasonable?
By, the by, what are typical move speeds that one would use with a mini-extruder....I want to make sure my little mill can move fast enough to keep up with typical extrusion rates.
Thanks in advance,
Steve
