How hard to add an extruder?

How hard would it be to add an extruder? would i have to reflash the firmware, or just remove a jumber and plug in an extruder and extruder motor?

You’d need to flash the firmware. The cnc firmware has a dummy thermistor value. The dual endstop firmware uses the extruder ports, so that would also require some changes.

How hard would it be to reflash the firmware back to what it came with

1 Like

Ryan works hard to keep some standard features across versions of the software. So you can flash the firmware back to something that resembles the original firmware. But you’d need to save a copy of the same version to be able to flash the exact same firmware.

If you aren’t interested in returning to the existing firmware, but you just want to switch back to milling, you can leave the printing firmware on it, and either just leave the extruder plugged in, or replace the thermistor with a resistor. But you can’t have dual endstops and an extruder without flashing the firmware.

1 Like

Where can i find documentation on copying firmware off the mini rambo and flashing new firmware?

I dont know all the steps (just the general idea really) however i think you will need and arduino to change the firmware

I don’t think you can read the firmware back of the board once it is flashed.

@racerflea, you do not need a separate arduino to change the firmware. You do need the arduino software (the IDE program running on your computer) to change what firmware is installed on the mini rambo.

@jchaager, @BlueSandbox, The firmware goes one-way. So you can put new firmware onto the mini rambo anytime you want, but you can’t get it off (at least, not very easily, and not in a way that would be very useful). Flashing new firmware though, is easy, and there are instructions in the docs:

https://docs.v1engineering.com/electronics/marlin-firmware/

1 Like