I am new here but I’m not new to 3D printing and am very mechanically inclined. Still in highschool but the challenge of building my own 3D printer isn’t far out for me. I was looking at different designs and I want to go with a ultimaker style printer but with a much bigger volume of 12x12x>16tall. I do have access to a 3D printer at school so getting parts printed isn’t a big deal. As far as general construction I’m also not worried as far as pulleys and etc as far as getting the control alyout right. Where I am held up and what is keeping me from starting is the actual controller/circuit board for everything. I’m wanting to use a heated bed also. Just thot sure where to start for the control unit. Curious how adaptable the software could be for the unit as far as auto homing as the ultimaker I normally use does and for if it’s just Arduino robot C Ethel programming where I could set in my code the bed size, startup, etc. Could you possibly give me some insight on the software and control options and maybe recommendations. Thanks to all in advance -RK
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@JackDavies < Jack built an Ultimaker 2 from scratch i’m sure he will have some advice!
Hi RK,
I would recommend using a RAMPS board for the electronics - http://reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS\_1.4
There are some fancier options but this has the advantages of;
- Large community of users (useful if you have any issues with software etc. which you will!)
- Very cheep, you can get the board and Arduino Mega for around $25
- Replaceable stepper drivers, easy and cheep to replace if youu burn one
Marlin is the firmware you want to run on the Arduino which controls the printer, you edit a Config file specific to the printer, if you build an Ultimaker clone most of this is done already! Marlin - RepRap
Let me know if you have any other questions, I suggest you take a look on the reprap.org wiki pages and do a lot of reading. Youtube is good too.
Best,
Jack - 3D Hubs
