Converting Cheap 3D printer to Mega2560/Ramps1.4

Hello all. I am new to the community but I have been working with electronics and 3D printers for a few years.

I recently got a super cheap 3d printer from China. Cheap in price, but actually produced good prints. That is until a clogged hot end killed the stepper motor driver on the main logic board.

Long story short, I am going to replace all the electronics with a Mega2560 and Ramps 1.4 Shield. I think this is entirely doable. I am wondering if anyone else has done this and what things I should look out for?

There are two issues I can think of that may be sticking points. First is that the x-axis limit switch is reversed from my other printer (Prusa I3). Second, the z-axis limit uses an optical sensor mounted next to the hot end which I am not super familiar with.

I am new to the community though I have been printing for a while. I am guessing that both sticking points can be overcome in firmware, but I am curious if anyone else has done this, or if someone could point me to some online resources where people have done this.

Sorry if this is a "Dumb" question. I mostly just use my printer as a means to other ends and I don't think about it much until I need to, so I kind of have to re-learn everything when stuff goes wrong.

First thing to look out for, I'd say, is not to use ramps/mega. But yes, the rest is just a matter of tweaking the firmware.

EDIT: What firmware are you wanting to use? Marlin has good documentation if you look up their website and then the heading for what you're after (i.e. limit switches, z probes)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2018 07:04PM by Trakyan.

Ramps Mega is what I have experience with, any particular reason you don't recommend it?

I could order a replacement logic board of the exact same make. They aren't expensive, but the stepper drivers are integrated on the pcb so if a driver burns out I am facing the same problem.

I have decided to go with the Marlin firmware for the reasons you mentioned (strong documentation) and it looks like I can make adjustments to the limits in the code.

EDIT:

I looked at getting a smoothie board, but I don't have any experience with it and in any case I already had the ramps and Mega laying around. If I were building a new printer from scratch that is probably the way I would go.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2018 10:11AM by Spiggles.

The ramps/mega is prone to a fair few failures, has a few bugs/issues that have been discovered since it was designed (with fuses, connectors and so on) and plug in polulu type stepper drivers under perform compared to drivers built into the board. Plus it's just so much nicer to have everything nice and tidy on a single board. There are plenty of single board solutions with exactly the same pinouts as RAMPs for about $5 more than a ramps, mega and stepper drivers.

I've been using the Mega board and Ramps for 5 years without issue. It's like anything else, if its set up correctly it should perform fine. Failures do occur of course but there's failures in all of the different flavours of boards I've seen - nothing is 100% infallible. Yes,a fully integrated board is nice on the eye but a failure of a component can render the whole circuit board scrap.

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Waitaki 3D Printer

It was just my suggestion, you can stick with ramps/mega if that's what you like. You'll find a lot of people, including the creator himself, criticize some "built in" flaws of the ramps. My personal experience is that it's a lot easier to break a component on a ramps and have to replace it than to turn a single board solution into scrap. There's fewer components to fail, and frankly they don't have some of the same design flaws.

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Trakyan
and plug in polulu type stepper drivers under perform compared to drivers built into the board.

vs

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Spiggles
That is until a clogged hot end killed the stepper motor driver on the main logic board.

Personally I like the idea of interchangeable stepper drivers on the RAMPS, today the cheap A4988, tomorrow fancy Trinamic 2130.
The only RAMPS weakness is rounded around the heat bed, both the 11A polyfuse and the 10A screw in connectors. I used a dirt cheap 12V 30/40A car relay around it. Sure you can kiss the heatbed PID goodbye, but the PID for heatbed is disabled by default in latest Marlin. Then again, you didn't mention anything about heatbed.

Regarding your initial question about the Endstops: I suggest you start here: http://reprap.org/wiki/Endstop
Marlin firmware surely has alot of options regarding Endstops.

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Trakyan
First thing to look out for, I'd say, is not to use ramps/mega. But yes, the rest is just a matter of tweaking the firmware.

EDIT: What firmware are you wanting to use? Marlin has good documentation if you look up their website and then the heading for what you're after (i.e. limit switches, z probes)

I'd agree. Get an MKS gen 1.4 board. It is about the same price (sometimes cheaper), uses the same processor, integrates more functions better and is 24V compatible.

DLC

Except MKS is a scum sucking company that takes from the opens source community and gives nothing back.

They don't support their products or even document them.

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Dust
Except MKS is a scum sucking company that takes from the opens source community and gives nothing back.

They don't support their products or even document them.

I didn't know that! I assumed because it was on the reprap wiki it was reprap. Someone should remove their entry. I just tried the links on that board and found all of them non-functional. I have bought my last MKS board. I will spend the up charge for Rambo boards from now on, it is a way better board, and they ARE Creative Commons share.

Thanks for the head's up! I really hate intentional false advertising.

DLC

This could be off-topic.

I have made a comparison table of the mainboards here.
If anything, it's a list of mainboards that in existence.

In my opinion RAMBo board is rather old, and there are a few variations of it, both in names and manufactures.
While gathering the information and making the comparison table to me it seems that GT2560 is the successor of the RAMBo.
*Confused RAMBo with RUMBA (my bad)

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2018 11:33AM by Rossos.

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Proud owner and maker of build from scratch FDM 3D printer [forums.reprap.org]

RAMBo is IMO the best-designed 8-bit open source board around. However, 8-bit boards are looking rather tired now, with so many 32-bit boards around.

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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].

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Rossos
This could be off-topic.

I have made a comparison table of the mainboards here.
If anything, it's a list of mainboards that in existence.

In my opinion RAMBo board is rather old, and there are a few variations of it, both in names and manufactures.
While gathering the information and making the comparison table to me it seems that GT2560 is the successor of the RAMBo.
*Confused RAMBo with RUMBA (my bad)

Great info. I have never heard of the GT2560 before.

DLC