I am thinking about getting a ramps board for my mpcnc, because the rambo 1.4 is out of stock everywhere I have looked, what version of ramps/stepper drivers will work best for dual endstops?
Work on getting your rails good and square until the Rambos are in stock again. 99% of the Ramps sets out there come bundled with cheapo Mega clones with dodgey components (esp the surface mount 5v rectifier). Mine did, and it blew within an hour or so of just having it plugged in to flash and test with steppers, much less actually do anything useful with. Granted, they’re cheap enough to just replace the whole dang board, or you can replace the 5V rectifier, if you’re comfortable with that sort of thing. Or you could even rig up a separate 5V PS just for the Mega. Regardless, you’d probably be better off waiting for the Rambos to come in, or going for a different controller like one of the SKRs. Personally, I picked up one of Bart Dring’s ESP32-Grbl boards, and will be using that. But that’s a bit off the reservation…
Oh, and for bog-standard drivers, get the DRV8825’s… Much better than the A4988s, and a smidge less confusing than the TR-series drivers (no UART vs SPI vs Standalone, although they are nice, what with the digipots).
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It looks like ultimachine might actually have rambo 1.4 boards in stock
If we were to buy it from UltiMachine vs Ryan, would it come with the firmware and the kit like Ryan offers it?
Why is Archim2 cheaper than Rambo if the Archim seems to have more functionality? Am I missing something. I am very new to dealing with control boards.
Also, any ideas on when they might be in stock through Ryan again?
AFAICT the kit is the same as Ryan offers but you would have to flash the board yourself
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Ryan has bought them, but UM is taking their time getting them to him.
I would be very careful with the archim it is still having teething issues with the firmware. If you are comfortable with the risk, then you can try it.
Thank you for the updates.
One other question I had was in regards to the SKR control board when building the MPCNC. Is it a good option for upgrades, or is Rambo still the best way to go to start since we know so much about it and it is familiar, etc.?