I have a few questions about the ramps 1.4 shield, and I've never really done anything like this before, so these may be weird questions. The first one is about establishing communication between an Arduino with the Ramps 1.4 shield and another Arduino Mega. For the machine I'm making, I will be running 3 stepper motors that are expected to be run simultaneously and two servo motors which will run at different times while nothing else is moving. There are also going to be 5 or 6 limit switches for the 3 stepper motors. There are no heat beds or anything like that which will be powered by the shield. However, I do want to use a Bluetooth module to control my machine and an infrared heat sensor to read the temperature of a surface.
I've read online that two Arduinos can communicate to each other through the RX and TX pins, and according to
this link, the RX and TX pins are available as D1 and D2 in the AUX-1 block. Does that mean I can use those two pins on the Ramps shield to connect to another Arduino's RX and TX pins and establish communication between the two? I'm asking because I don't know how else I'd be able to use the infrared sensor (and possibly an ultrasonic sensor later) without the second Arduino, so I'd plan on setting up the
Bluetooth module,
IR sensor, and possibly an ultrasonic sensor to the second Arduino to gather the inputs required to decide what kind of movement the Arduino with the Ramps 1.4 shield will need to tell the motors to make.
My second question relates to the power supply and the motors. This is the
first stepper motor this is the
second stepper motor and this is the
third stepper motor while this is the
first servo and this is
the second servo. If I got a 12V 5A AC/DC power adapter like
this (I'd cut off the 2.1mm jack and use the ground and hot wires from that) and connected it to the 5A input on the left side in
this link's diagram, would I be able to run the three steppers simultaneously and the two servos separately from everything else? With my limited knowledge, it looks like the three stepper motors would draw 4.7A at its peak, but my concern is whether or not the motors would receive 12V, since that's what I'm supplying the shield. The motors are rated for 2.4-3V, and if the Ramps 1.4 shield sends 12V at it, I'm not even sure of what would happen, but I'd imagine it'd be bad.
I'm sorry if I'm asking too much or making obvious mistakes; this is my first time doing anything like this and really need it to work for a group project.