Been thinking about driver board if this is to be a possible 3d printer

[philtrum]

Hi

was having a think and chat to Mark (Quad_Pengu) about the project as im keen to make a dual purpose cnc miller / 3d printer adn I';ve come across a stumbling block with the current electronics

it only has 3 stepper drivers, x/y/z axis, so theres no provision for driving the stepper motor on the extruder to actually make the print

I was originally looking at this for my electronics

http://www.emakershop.com/browse/listing?l=342

mark has sent a link to this .. as another option

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Axis-CNC-TB6560-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Controller-Board-Mach3-KCAM4-3-5A-Router-/251315556613?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Automation_Control_ET&hash=item3a83931105

not saying which is best as i dont know, the one mark linked to looks to be a 5 stepper version of what the project is currently using

Phil

[barneyg]

ideally you need 6 channels - x,y,z, extruder, head temp, bed temp ... the head temp and bed temp need analogue inputs to the control board too.

[philtrum]

whilst looking for 3d printer parts, i found this ...

http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-compatibles-1/stepper-motor/sainsmart-cnc-tb6560-3-axis-3-5a-stepper-motor-with-toshiba-tb6560ahq-chip.html

seems a good price, 3 axis for cnc, same board type as you have been talking about / software, and only $42

might be of some use ?
Phil