Sourcing electronics in the GTA

Hello all

I'm looking to get started on the electronics potion of my build and was wondering the best way to do this. Is purchasing electronics from makerbot the easiest solution for someone without a lot of programming experience? Is there a substitute that can be purchased locally (in the GTA?) or should I just get the full electronics kit from makerbot?

Thanks,

Sean

makerbot is the easiest solution. you'll have step by step instructions the whole way.

i originally got the tz setup and got a bad extruder controller so those are on the shelf for now.

I tried posting this yesterday but for some reason my response was never posted. Anyway, I found a place in Toronto called Creatron Inc at Spadina and College that sells Arduino Mega kits. They also have the Pololu A4983 stepper motor drivers although they list them as Allegro in the store. I also found some cheap-o stepper motors at Active Surplus on Queen st for $5. I don't think they'll be any use for my reprap but I'm sure I can find something fun to do with them. So I was looking at some of the alternative electronics and there are three instances of people using the Arduino Duemilanove/Mega with the Pololu drivers. Examples are here:

[wooden-mendel.blogspot.com]
[reprap.org]
[reprap.org]

Here's links to Creatron site:

I got this kit but had them substitute in an Arduino Mega
[creatroninc.com]

This is the Pololu A4983 driver
[creatroninc.com]

If anyone knows where else to find stepper motors in the GTA let me know, here's a place in Alberta that will get around all that customs stuff:

[www.phidgets.com]

I'm in the GTA and I found a few sources for the stepper motors in Canada.

electromate - sells Applied motion and danher motion >>>>These are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$expensive but great motos
Motiontek - Never bought anything from them but prices seem way too high. about the same price as applied motion....<<<rip off

I'm buy all my Geko drives & steppers from kelinginc.net(reprap, CNC, RT...ect), I have been buying from them for years and never had a problem with anything, support is good if you need it and the rating of their motors is very conservative so they never dissapoint. Their Nema17's are 20$ each and they ship US postal service to Canada so you only need to pay Canadian taxes no brokerage charges.

Electronics
-digikey
-Creatron - good place for the arduino / pololu / USBtiny / USB to TTL and odds and ends

-M8 Threaded rod - CCS industrial
-Bearings & Belts - BDI in oshawa

Thanks CdnReprap! I'll check some of those out, it's nice to find a place that sells out of the US that ships USPS (kelinginc) and since I go through Oshawa daily I'll definitely check out BDI. Creatron had some stepper motors but they were quite small (~40mm x 40mm x 30mm) and had little info on them. According to their web site they had enough holding torque but I think I'd prefer something with a bit more info.

Right now I'm just playing around with a bit of code to see if I can get one stepper motor running with the Arduino Mega and Pololu driver and am a bit stumped. I'm a bit of an electronics n00b. If you have any good online resources about learning how these things work I'd love to hear about them.

I actually grabbed an SN754410 half H bridge from Creatron Inc. last week and wired it up to some old surplus steppers I bought from Active Surplus just to see if I can get the basics down before going forward with the Reprap. Here's a thread that I put up on the Arduino forum about it:

[www.arduino.cc]

I have still had no luck but haven't given up yet.