Hi!

I'm building my own printer and I'm facing a problem. I would like to use a five wire diamond hotend, but scince RAMPS only allow five stepper motors, even with a stepper expander x3, it gives me eight stepper motors, one for the x-axis, one for the y-axis, two for the z-axis, so I only have four stepper left. I didn't saw anywhere if it's possible to add two stepper expander x3 on the same RAMPS (I need evolution possibilities) or not. If it isn't possible, how to do it? I saw repetier can have up to 14 motors so how van I acheive my 11 motors printer?

Sources:
http://reprap.org/wiki/Adding_more_extruders
http://reprap.org/wiki/Stepper_Expander
http://reprap.org/wiki/Diamond_Hotend

Thanks.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2017 08:38AM by PtitLu.

From what I read here : [reprap.org]

You need a Duet, Azteeg X3 Pro, or RADDS to achieve 5 extruders.

I cannot guarantee that wiki page information is exact and exhaustive, but that's a start...

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Oh by the way you can run both the Z motors on a single driver output. So assuming that Ramp stepper expander works, you could do it with a Ramps.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

RADDS might be something interesting with its 9 stepper motors (6+3 with the extension), but even with one single driver output for the two Z motors, the X and Y motors, and finally the five motors for the diamond hotend, it will use eight of all availables drivers. Since I need two more drivers for evolution possibilities, there is not enough drivers on this card. Any idea?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2017 03:43PM by PtitLu.

Duet WiFi and Duet Ethernet support up to 12 stepper drivers in total: 5 TMC2660 drivers on the main board, 5 TMC2660 on the DueX5 expansion board, and 2 external drivers. Or 5 TMC2660 on the main board and 7 external drivers.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

I think I will go to duet boards.
Thanks for all your advices.