does ramps 1.4 do all the work of controlling the extruder,stepper motors and pcb heat bed, or do we need a special controller for the extruder ?
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Yep, it does the whole lot. It has power outlets for bed, extruder and fans and one of the five stepper drivers will control the extruder motor. More info here…Arduino Mega Pololu Shield - RepRap_1.4
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MB3D
3
Most boards used for 3d printing offer four or five stepper motor controllers, these can be used for one X, one Y, one Z and up to two extruder motors. Depending on your printer you need two motors for one axis and therefore can only use one extruder.
All boards also have pins to solder or stick endstops to, up to 6 endstops are usually available (for MAX and MIN of all 3 axis).
Boards with 4 possible motor connections have up to two heaters for one extruder and one heated bed. Boards with five motor connetions have three heaters (in most cases).
You will have to get stepper drivers to mount on your board as those connect the controller to the motors, also cables etc. are required, but generally speaking the board is the main part, that you need.
Common stepper drivers are:
A4988
SD8825
TMC2100
If you want a very large heated bed that should reach a very high temperature of for example 130C, you won’t be able to power the heated bed via the controller board, you need an additional device, called a solid state relay.
You can find all kinds of informations regarding 3d printing, controller boards and electronics on the following youtube channel, I’d highly recommend Thomas’ videos as information source
Cheers,
Marius Breuer
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