I’m not an expert at what’s accepted for ramps with repraps but could I get a Y or N on if a power supply that output 18v instead of 12v . I would assume No but I thought I’d ask to save money if possible.
You should be able to go up to 24v but check if your motors and heaters can handle it.
wouldn’t 16v rated caps on some ramps be an issue
Okay I’ll give it a try. The output is 190w and 8.5Amps but I’m not using a heated bed and only 4 Nema17s. XYZ and E.
Check the capacitors, some are 16V, some are 35V. I used to run mine on 24V with replacement automotive fuses (replaced the polyfuses). I woul not recommend it if the capacitors are rated 16V. If it’s one with 35V cspacitors, you are fine.
Caps, fuses, and also back feeding high voltage to the arduino is dangerous. I have fried more than 2 arduino megas because the voltage regulator failed @12v, so I would be even more cautious at the higher voltages. I like smoothie and designed boards that run it.
@raykholo What’s up with your Smoothie Brainz revamp? I forked it but haven’t been able to get it to pass the the dru for Seeed, Dirty or Pentalogics. I’m more than happy to have some boards made and pass on a couple to you. It’s a great design.
@Joshua_Taylor RAMPs is good, it’s easy, its ubiquitous. But like the others are saying, it’s a bit long in the tooth. Peter’s original Smoothbrainz idea with Ray’s revamp has the potential to be a go to part for entry level as well as mid level machines. Once the 32 bit ARM boards gain traction you’ll see the prices come down though it may take a while.
If you are handy with a rework station you can replace the polyfuses, caps that aren’t to spec and voltage reg but once you factor in the time it may not make any sense compared to buying something. I think the best 8 bit board out there is the Rambo and Mini Rambo but it’s not cheap.
The RAMPS board itself will need a couple of modifications. Remove D1 from under the X/Y axis driver modules (this is normally used to drop the 12V input to 5V for the Arduino, but since you are feeding with 18V this won’t work). Also remove the big poly fuses F1 and F2 next to the green terminal blocks and then short their pins. You then need to supply the arduino board with 5V somehow, since we have now removed the diode. So it ends up being about the same cost, with a lot of unnecessary work.
@dstevens_lv I had 20 boards made and it works. Assembling more now. Not ready to show it to the public until it’s been tested a bit more. re: source I sent you a hangout and can send you the files if you want. I’ve had some issues with that github repo so the latest won’t be up.