3d Printing Electronics for RepRap Prusa Mendel?

Question

Hi everyone,

One of my members has a question:

"

Hi all!

I am working on getting my Prusa up and running, but I can't seem to get my electronics configured properly. I am concerned that there are problems with some of my other components, mainly my stepper motors, but i cant test them properly without working electronics.

If anyone has any that they don't need I would be happy to pay for a set that has been confirmed to be working with my printer model, or if anyone knows where i can get cheaper sets to experiment with (even the open source boards + components are usually ~$100) i would be quite appreciative. I am willing to pick up for boston-area folks.

Thanks,

-Max"

Original request here:

http://www.engineerslooking.com/need-stuff/3d-printing-electronics-for-reprap-prusa-mendel

Any help is appreciated!

Former Member · Answer

Richard, you should be able to test your stepper motors using an Arduino and some basic transistors, or using a simple tester like this one from Sparkfun (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10267) that runs around $15. If your stepper motors drivers are damaged, you can test those using a multimeter to measure the voltage across each of the leads in sequence. If the control electronics are not working, then you would need access to a digital o-scope or something similar to let you observe the signal paths. Since most controllers are variations of Ardunio+RAMPS or something similar (RAMBo, RUMBA, etc are just single-board variations), you might be able to test the Arduino component itself by uploading another script via the IDE but then you would have to reflash the electronics back to their printer configuration afterwards. As Nate asks - can you say what exactly is wrong/not working properly?

Kirk Hausman