RAMPS series 1 of 5 - Intro and board comparisons
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- Sorry about the sound. I uploaded an unmastered version, and it just takes too darned long to pull it down and upload the right one... you'll live... ANYWAY, this is Video 1 of 5 in a series about the RAMPS 3D printer control board / Arduino shield: multi-board review and comparison with test data and options.
Video Timestamp index:
3:50 - BigtreeTech / BIQU RAMPS 1.5
5:27 - Robotale RAMPS 1.4A
7:09 - Keyestudio RAMPS 1.4A
8:40 - ZYLTech RAMPS 1.4
10:32 - generic eBay and AliExpress RAMPS 1.4
12:36 - Summary and wrap-up
My contribution links:
Background music by my band Solamors, you can contribute by buying a copy on bandcamp.com, or iTunes, Google Play, etc etc:
solamors.bandcamp.com
MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION:
patreon.com/AlexKenis
ONE-TIME CONTRIBUTION:
PayPal.me/AlexKenis
PRODUCTS:
AlexKenis.com (under construction at the moment)
AFILIATE LINK:
www.amazon.com/?tag=alexkenis...
The Arduino clone I used for testing:
amzn.to/2EmUtgH
IRLB3034PBF MOSFET (you can get these cheaper if you check Octopart for deals):
amzn.to/2DIIaKz
RAMPS 1.5:
amzn.to/2DUYQ54
Keyestudio RAMPS 1.4A:
amzn.to/2DOgsAk - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Wow man. Super intelligent and glad I spotted this video. Watching the rest and subbed. Really glad I watched this before I went and bought my ramps assuming they were all the same.
Solid Video!!! Any1 looking to build a 3D printer or just install or customize a CNC control board needs 2 c this video!!!!! 17 minutes well spent!!!
Best DIY printer guy on the utubes... best descriptions and clearest 'thoughts' on topic.. Man, I hope you keep making these vids!
Very vid must have annoying music so you can't hear and watch what you came for..if you want noise go to an airport
metal playing in the background and some solid knowledge. Fkin right man.
\m/
Legendary man. MOSFET mayhem getting sorted. Cheers mate.
Awesome intro and music
thanks, excelent, fantastic job
Now my way to go is using a separate SSR for my bed, this is far more secure and the Watt limit is way higher. Plus I can use a AC silicon heat pad.
It works like crazy with a 250W@110V heater, Ramps (1.6) is cold, even the SSR is barely warm.
You just have to be careful with main power, but on the long run it is pretty safe if well done.
I've been using a 1.4a board for a while now and agree that the upgraded mosfets are nice. Unfortunately my jumpers are shorted as well and the wire connectors are too small for the silicone wires I've been using so sometimes they would work themselves out of the connector and short out with other wires. Just today the connector for the bed has melted down.
Great presentation! I would like to see more of these on "prepackaged" RAMPS architecture boards as in "Makerbase" Arduino knockoffs...
Fantastic
Thanks for sharing :-)
Alex...love your videos on the RAMPS 1.4 board. Do you know where I can get an Arduino sketch to allow me to control a NEMA motor connected to one port on the RAMPS board, such as the X-axis motor without using the other 4 ports. This may sound pathetic but I am NOT a software guy. Thanks in advance
Question - would this safety tips still be valid if i would be using external Mosfet with huge heatsink (if they are not defective)? Coming from Airsoft & Anet A8 printer, I've instantly ordered 2 external mosfets ($4 on ALI), and would plan to use them with MKS GEN L. Why not always use external mosfets ? It would be cool if you can take a look at one of those.
External mosfets get around the problem of improperly spec'd board mosfets and connectors without having to trplace them but they don't solve wiring problems, and they are isolated, so unless they have a built-in fuse there is no protection against short circuit or opther over-current condition part from the power supply's internal polyfuses. And obviously if the external boards use counterfiet/underspec'd mosfets or under-spec'd connectors they will have the same problem as the cheap RAMPS.
Thanks for the comparison !
I am looking for one specific information, to prevent electromagnetic interference issues. Does any of these boards have some RC filter or any other EMI shielding feature ?
I'm trying to decide what ramps board and steppers to use for my cnc build.
My 5 nema17 motors are 2.0 amps and I want to run them at 1/4 stepping
Do you have a Link I could follow to Robotale RAMPS 1.4A? You have my interest in this board...Outstanding video!
Unfortunately, you have to fish around a bit if you just want the board. Robotale/Keyes/Keyestudio usually sell kits, so you can get them in a package like this amzn.to/2KaZ3Qp but if you don't need the mega/LCD/drivers, they pop up on ebay and Alixpress occasionally. There is also no guarantee with many of those import boards that the parts will remain the same from one run to another, so bear that in mind.
I feel the "RAMPS 1.4 SB Premium" by Staticboards is missing since they claim "premium" .. would be interesting to see how that stacks up against the "regular" ones
I have seen those boards. They look solid, but for what they cost, I would have liked to see on-board fuses and 24v-ready components... and 'premium' to me would also have to solve the problem of overheating the MEGA's regulator, so I would have included an onboard unit to knock the voltage down before it hits the D1 diode to the MEGA. The output diodes are redundnt. As it is, they look solid for a 12v setup, but I wouldn't run any higher than 18v-19v since they used 25v capacitors. Also, the mosfets seem good, (even though they are 10v-logic FETS and have no curves for the 5v that we use) but they could have gone better for cheaper (unless they have a cheap source for those), and had the additional benefit of being compatible with future upgrades to 3.3v logic (re-arm, etc).
Here is what I would want to see in a 'premium' RAMPS version:
- up the capacitors' rating to make 24v-32v+ (or more) possible and safe
- use on-board blade fuse sockets
- use 3034 (or better) MOSFETS that will work with 3.3v logic and higher voltage
- either scoot the bed mosfet over a bit for a proper heatsink, or spec good surface mount FETs
- include an onboard regulator that would knock the voltage down to 7-9v for the MEGA
- add another header for the unused ICSP port on the MEGA and the 4 pins that aren't hooked up (for more peripherals or trinamic soft-serial, etc)
Then I would gladly pay those prices.
What do you think of RAMPS-FD 32bit Controller Cortex M3 ARM Shield For 3D Printer Arduino Due?
There is no safe version of ramps-fd available as-is. The current models were all taken from an early, incomplete design and have to be modified a bit. See the notes linked from this wiki reprap.org/wiki/RAMPS-FD
Have you looked at the ramps 1.6?? Looks like it solves the mosfet issue.
I had one on order for this test, but it was only available via China, so I didn't get it in time to make the video. I'll review it soon though, because I have gotten a bunch of questions about it.
Awesome video ! and now KISS... eh no... i mean..MKS , Mks gen-L, Mks 1.4, Mks base. Would be awesome.
THanks man. I'd like to pull some MKS boards apart int he future and see what their limits are, but they are a bit pricier so I'll have to wait until I get through this huge pile of other subjects first. As far as KISS, I'm waiting until IceSL gets solid mac and linux versions going before comparing any slicers... and alternative firmware comparisons will be coming when everyone gets Trinamic driver support working.
true, cheapest i fund is this, got it yesterday, from the looks... way better quality as the cheapo ramps.
Mks gen-L 15 bucks - de.aliexpress.com/item/controller-PCB-board-MKS-Gen-L-V1-0-integrated-mainboard-compatible-Ramps1-4-Mega2560-R3-support/32802151924.html
hey alex good work ...i have question bout cnc shield and tmc2130 any possible been looking here on YT but cant find anything so thats why i ask this question to you, due no info...how to spi uart connect on cnc shield grbl....maybe with extra arduino nano to control the tmc2130 .....2nd question... ramps and tmc2130 which version i have to use 1.1.1,2.or v3 this confuses a bit .....keep us informed ;) drumrolls cheers keep up the good work and info
I am interested in the Robotale RAMPS 1.4A but am unable to find note of "1.4A" in any buyer or seller list. What should I see advertised to know I'm buying the "1.4A" version?
You would have to look at the silkscreened label on the board (if they have a high-rez pic to zoom in on), and be aware that the jumpers won't work.
what motors are recommended for ramps 1.6?....As brilliant as you are you forgot didn't yo? Well I don't know you probably mentioned somewhere? Thank you
It's pretty tough to suggest motors without knowing the particulars of the printer's kinematics/size/voltage/etc, BUT, I have had good luck with 17HD48002H-22B if you need a bit more torque, or 17HS16-2004S1 for less torque but more speed (and both are pretty cheap).
Ideally though, to pick optimal motors, you have to know how much torque you will need, what speeds you are printing at, which driver chips you are using, how much current you can put through them, etc, but there are many options that work just fine under a wide range of conditions.
If you use either of them with DRV8825, you'll probably need smoother diodes to avoid moire patterns, and if you are using Trinamic drivers, I would lean toward the 17HD48002H-22B or something with similar specs because it gives a bit more torque at lower currents (and trinamic chips get freaky if you crank the current up too much), but I have used both with a range of drivers and they can be made to behave.
Alex Kenis Awesome information brother! thank you for you can't really and in detail and your support, will stay tune and help with you channel!!
Please do a vis on software i spent hrs trying to d/load Merlin..
Alex! Great video, lots of great content! Just some pointers, it might be wise to turn down the background music a little bit, it can get a little distracting :O
I truly wanted to watch the series but sorry the music distracted me so much.
Please let me ask a fundamental question:
.
Why such board?
.
Why not use the GPIO pins of a PI and develop a Driver shield for the PI ?
A java Version of Marlin or grbl could then directly control the drivers ...
.
Any Ideas why this did not happen ?
That's it! Now I am completely confused as to which board to go for. All the ones shown are, well, have an issue.......just need to know which boards do not :-) Swap in a new board...connect a couple of wires...bit of firmware here and there....all done. :-)
Best bet is probably the 1.6, which wasn't out when I did this series. It's basically a beefed up 1.5 with a better PCB and connectors, and the source files are available, so no mystery, unlike the 1.5
Uh, great video but gives more questions and worries than answers :) What can I do with chinese board? You say to limit bed current to 6A but how? Can we use Marlin's MAX_BED_POWER to do that? And live with slow heating times until more permanent solution is found. Then, replace mosfets with some better ones and maybe soldier wires directly, bypassing bad connectors? Would that make them OK with full power?
If your board can do 24v, that's not a bad option since it lowers the current significantly (usually 24v beds run around 5 Amps). If you are stuck with 12v, then you have a few options: you can either limit the power in Marlin, or use a lower power bed if you can dig one up (like 2 ohms or higher), and then use dirty tricks (like insulate the bottom well, and lay a sheet of cork or a silicone baking sheet on the bed while it heats up to speed up the process) or go with an external mosfet board, if you don't mind that route (they don't pull a lot of current from the connectors, so you can leave them, and the RAMPS mosfet is then only used for switching a signal, not power, so it is fine). Even the bad connectors should be ok at either 24v or 12v with a low-wattage bed.
@@AlexKenis, thanks. Completely forgot about external mosfet. I have one used on the old Anet A8 board that I'm replacing. Because currently I'm limited to 12V :/
Yes the 1.6 is well not good I thought I was upgrading but I'm getting a lot of stuff from bigjip tech that just doesn't work everything needs some kind of bug fix I wish I could get away with that at my job LCD broken graphics ramps 1.6 motors won't move reset keeps kicking off drivers are facing the right way wiring correct triple checked oy! What could be the problem ? Bed works nozzle works . LCD even turns on with its skewed graphics . I built an entire giant robot with all the trimmings and this 3d printer scratch build has just eclipsed it totally can't wait to take my foot off the gas and get back to programming the robot.thanks for any suggestions👍🌞.
So if I connect a 2 pin endstop to the wrong two pins...did I fry my board?
OOf... well, it depends on a few things, but hopefully it's okay. If you literally used just a normally open switch and plugged it from plus-to-minus instead of IN-to-minus, but didn't trigger it with the power on, then you are fine. If you did trigger it with the power on, then that is a short circuit across the power supply, so hopefully your fuse popped to protect it before anything burnt out. There is always a chance that something burnt out before the fuse and/or PSU protection kicked in though, so unplug the psu and make sure it powers up, then make sure your controller board powers up. If that's all good, then hopefully you are okay, and you should be good to check if the endstop is working
@@AlexKenis I did trigger it unfortunately. No smoke, or noise, it seemed to restart the ramps. But im guessing she's gone because I cant compile anything to it due to a communication error. Just ordered a new one. Thanks
Great content , useful, intelligent and precise. However it would be great that your videos be offered In two flavour. One option with No background music. I feel like I am about to go into epileptic breakdown with this noise.
rrrRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaammmppppssss!
Your band's music reminds me of Frank Zappa
What ramps board do you recommend
It depends on your setup i.e. 12v or 24v, heated bed or not, Trinamic drivers or Stepsticks. If you pause the vid at 12:45, you can see a color coded rating of the various boards. This review was for the cheap boards, so none were perfect without modification. I would stay away from the generic ones because they were built so badly. But with a few mods, the others are fine (depending on your setup). Check out the v1.6 review as well because even though I was annoyed by the surface mount fuses and unified power input, it was usable out of the box if you get one with straight sockets.
Alex Kenis thanks for your reply. I am more interested in what boards you use. You also made made mention that you use a ramps but did not say which one.
Gotcha. For my personal setups, I always run at 24v and I always replace the bed mosfets with IRLB3034, so I just check to make sure the build quality is decent, the connectors are good, the surface mount parts are rated high enough for 24v, and the jumpers work. Everything else is an “easy” fix. So, I am using a few Frankenstein boards that are a mix up of parts from other boards and parts that I ordered. The only one I am using close to stock is a v1.5 that was converted to 24v by snapping off the D1 diode, but there is no heated bed on that one. I am also using a modified ZYLTech (don’t try using it stock because the mosfets are so bad), and one of the Robotale 1.4a-type boards where I modified the PCB so that the jumpers would work.
I really really wanted to watch this, but metal at 9:25 in the morning couldn't make it possible.
I don't think I could even wake up without metal in the morning :p
I had no idea it would be possible for me to be even more confused about which ramps to buy before I watched this video. Now I'm just afraid to buy anything, since no trustworthy option was given in the comparison.
To me a choice between burning your house down and burning up your stepper motors just isn't a real choice.
Agreed. Part of the problem was insufficient error margin on original specs... and then mass manufacturing of clones dropped that even further. Switching to 24v helps a lot with waste heat and connector ratings though. It seems that some manufacturers are catching on though, example: if you search "ramps colormix" on gearbest, it should pull up a $5 ramps that is 24v-ready (after you remove D1) and has upgraded mosfets and connectors... but build quality is not great, and I had to re-seat two mosfets and one connector to get it to sit properly. The surface-mount clones are decent at 24v too (if you don't mind surface-mount fuses).
Before I watched the video I had my heart set on the keystudio board. Is the stepper bridging fixable or is it a design flaw? Could I just reflow the jumper connections and fix the bridging problem? If that's all that is needed to fix that defect, I would be happy.
They etched the board wrong, but You can fix it by scratching out the pcb traces between the jumpers. i have done it, and it is not too bad. just make sure not to damage other traces close by. A bright light shined from the bottom should show the traces threough the board. If you are running regular steppers atr meximum resolution, you can leave the traces alone, but if you want to run lower microstepping OR run Trinamic drivers, you'll have to scratch out the traces
I think I found the board I'm buying. It's expensive, but it looks solid. The Trinamic Trams board. At ~$60 it looks good. The only thing I don't like is the onboard drivers, but I can live with it for the peace of mind that it won't burn my house down. LOL
The music kinda screws it up. Trying to hear what you say but the tunes are screwing with it.
The background music is so annoying that I had to stop the video.
Educational, Technical, Mind concentrating stuff, Turn the bloody music OFF
The backgroundnoise is annoying. One big reason to not subscribe to this channel.