RAMPS or RAMBO

I'm still saving money and researching but this weeks question is about the electronics.

I recently watched a Tom's review of RAMPS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJn6FuWOv4

After watching it I felt:

1. RAMPS is out of date and prone to issues since it does not have real fuses like the RAMBO does.
2. RAMPS requires manual voltage adjustment for the stppers not digital
3. RAMBO does not have the ability to swap out the stepper drivers.

So I was wondering is RAMPS really prone to more issues? Do folks modify the RAMPS boards to put car type fuses on to them? Should I be hoping that Colin starts offering an upgrade option for the 8" and 10"?

Thanks for your thoughts.

It doesn't appear that Colin offers the RAMBO boards anymore with his kits and instead offers RUMBA which does allow the stepper drives to be swapped out.
VIA the FAQ @ http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/f...ked-questions/

RUMBA:
Support for 3 Extruders
Controls the temperature of the Heated Bed (needed for printing with PLA, also works with ABS)
Removeable Stepper Drivers
Support for SD Card (Needs Kliment's SD RAMPS)
Support for LCD interface (Print without connected to a PC)
1/16 Microstepping
5 Thermistors
2 fans

ultimately they are all the same chip wise, rumba is the nice middle ground between rambo and ramps as noted above

I had not noticed that RUMBA had the removable drivers, awesome.

How about the concerns that Tom brought up about the RAMPS boards, do you RAMPS users agree?

I haven't watched the video yet, but since I haven't had any trouble with my RAMPS, I'll have to say "no".

I think if you watch more of Tom's reviews, you'll find he likes the Smoothieboard better. There's a lot to like - higher processing speeds being just one of them. If i was to put a system together from scratch, i'd be inclined to go with that board. The only downside i can see, might be the limited community support compared to the ramps/rumba/rambo configurations.

You might want to check it out.

i have a makergear m2 which runs a rambo. its a very nice board and in the year and a half i have had the printer and been on their forum i have never once heard someone pop a stepper driver. very few board issues actually. hundreds of people and i can count actual board issues on one hand. only real common issue is that the older 12v m2's bed heater could pull enough current to max out the power connector from the supply. i like the smoothieboard. it looks and seems like a nice piece of hardware. the real issue is that the firmware is still not there yet. its getting better as time goes on but its definitely not as mature as sailfish and marlin. those 2 are just maxed out at this point. i will give it another year then i will definitely consider it for my next printer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SgtToe

I recently watched a Tom's review of RAMPS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJn6FuWOv4

After watching it I felt:

1. RAMPS is out of date and prone to issues since it does not have real fuses like the RAMBO does.
2. RAMPS requires manual voltage adjustment for the steppers not digital
3. RAMBO does not have the ability to swap out the stepper drivers.

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How is this controlled digitally? Is there a dedicated Mxx command to set the values? Can those values be saved in EEPROM?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roxy

How is this controlled digitally? Is there a dedicated Mxx command to set the values? Can those values be saved in EEPROM?

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It can be set in firmware and there are also M commands for it.. This thread may explain better than I can.

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?267,201481

So I have not heard anything about RAMPS fuse issues. Do you RAMPS users have any problems with that? Have any of you modded the board to use auto fuses like Tom talks about in the video?

Nope, haven't had any issues with my fuses, and haven't changed anything on my RAMPS board from how I received it.

Same here have not had any issues yet.

What I am looking at now, if I should move to another firmware version, I am using Marlin currently.

havent used Ramps but im very happy with the Rambo

I've been using RAMPS for about a year now and have had zero issues.

My Ramps polyfuses have worked great for months.