Ultra Cheap, Ultra small 3d Printing

Hello Peter

If you are looking for small and portable you might want to check out RichRap's 3DRnano.  Richard build this to be portable and with a small foot print.   As far as getting electronics for under $60, your best bet is Ramps 1.4 off of ebay.  I have found them with stepper drivers and Arduino mega 2560 (or clone) for around $50-60.  As far as firmware goes all current ones will work with whatever setup you have.  Now if you do vary from the normal Cartesian, delta or polar then you might need to modify it.  The 2 main versions of firmware are Marlin https://github.com/ErikZalm/Marlin or Repetier Repetier-Firmware - Repetier Software | Repetier Software.  I personally like Repetier more as the host software is also available from them which adds a couple more features than does form say Marlin with Pronterface.  As far as a electronics go you might want to start getting into the 32 bit controllers which is not the typical 8 bit.  You are going to start to see a shift here real soon so you would be ahead of the curve.  The 2 are Smoothieboard Smoothieboard - Smoothie Project or Azteeg X5 Azteeg X5 mini 32BIT All-in-one Controller.  They are very similar but the real difference is the stepper drivers that are used.  They both use the same firmware but are a little more expensive than the standard boards.

Nate

Wow, that is cool, I wish i could build something like that. I'm just trying for something small, cheap and fast(ish)...but mostly cheap.

However, after several hours waiting for a print I seem to have found this: Azteeg Controller Compatible With Sanguinololu Arduino Reprap Extruder Atmega HQ | eBay  and this Geeetech Teensylu REV 0 8 HI3D Reprap Prusa Mendel 3D Printer Driver Board | eBay along with $2 stepper drivers. They'll probably blow or something sooner than most, but at that price I can buy them in bulk. I'm not sure which to board get though as I can;t tell if they can run lcd, control buttons and an sd reader at once given their size and limitations.

Anyway thanks, if I can, I might try to build something like the nano.

I have not had good luck with the cheap stepper drivers off ebay.  As far as the boards go working with an LCD the answer is yes.  Since they state they are Sanguinololu compatible the pin-out will be the same.  Here is one example with an LCD hooked up to Sanguinololu Think3dPrint3d: Panelolu2.  If you have any questions just search for Sanguinololu LCD.

Nate

Cool, I think I must get one. I went for a teensylu board as it appeared to have more pins than the other one and it is smaller than a ramps board (also I'm bad at soldering boards and pins). I've seen people do stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq-7SJajFf0 too, but it looks like they may be using some hack or something. I don;t really know, but it'll be fun figuring out what exactly I'm doing and need to do.