Best 3D printer control board to upgrade to!

Hey guys,
I have a 3d printer and currently I'm using a generation 6 electronics board (http://reprap.org/wiki/Generation_6_Electronics) I was thinking to upgrade my board since I cant have a heated bed. I also was thinking about expanding my 3D printer by adding some more features to it (For example something like second nozzel or extera step motors) so I need something with extra inputs.
What is the best board that you guys can suggest me? (Less than $170)

My vote is for RAMBO. I haven't upgraded to it yet, but from what I've read it sounds the best.

If I were getting a new board today, I'd probably get a smoothieboard. Any board based on an yet another 8-bit atmel is really a pretty modest upgrade from what you currently have. Most of the boards out there are essentially re-inventions of RAMPS because it's harder to make new firmware than new hardware.

Another option is that you could buy a cheap PID controller for the short term for manual control over your heated bed, as there are several ARM-based projects that will be coming out / maturing over the next year.

I just wish the smoothieboard supported dual extruders natively. I know the 4pi does, but it's also about $100 more

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If you're willing to wait a bit, the Smoothie guys are prepping for a Kickstarter for Smoothieboards (see [groups.google.com], don't know when it's actually going to start). They'll be offering the current 4-axis as well as a 5-axis and a 3-axis (for mills and stuff).

If you're not willing to wait, you can get an LPCXpresso 1769 board, a RAMPS, a few odds and ends, and a lot of point-to-point soldering you can end up with a pretty effective 5-axis Smoothie board. That's what I did, and I haven't looked back.

I have had a RANBO 1.1b configured and running for a couple of weeks on a MendelMax1.5

It ran great for couple of weeks. I was printing ornaments and peace signs and the were printing great.

Last knight I ran some print signs and the circles which were printing great are now printing with a slight irregularity which is messing up the entire print.

I checked all of the mechanics and everything is smooth. I tried printing on different sections of the bed and still the same.

I re-flashed the firmware and still the same.

I tried varying the Slic3r setting and still no change.

I checked the belts tension and the belts seem OK.

No changes were made to the Marlin config which worked great fro a couple of weeks and a lot of prints.

Any ideas?

When you have a new topic, it's much better to start a new thread as opposed to hijacking an unrelated one. You are more likely to get people to help and you are less likely to get snarled up with posts related to the old thread.

There are a lot of possible reasons a printer stops printing properly and it'll fill up a thread going through all of them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2013 04:03PM by uncle_bob.

Sorry, I am new to using these forums. I was searching on Google and I kind of ended up on this topic.

Well,.... now you have a new thread and a useful reply to your question.

Thanks for your help as usual