Hello everybody!

I am Black Rabbit, sorry for the somewhat lame name... Let me introduce myself. I live on my own in a town in holland, and i work 8 hours a day assembling racks. Early this year i was thinking: i'd like a new hobby. Ofcourse i went on a search on the internet, and i found info about 3d printing. Immediately i thought: that's me! I couldn't wait for my vacation money (due in july) and after a thorough search i bought the reprap protos v2, a reprap mounted in a sturdy stainless steel frame. I also bought a heated bed, since i assumed it was a necessary extra. All together it was a little more than 1000 euro's. When the package came, i ripped it open and started building.
I worked on it a couple of hours a day in the evening after work. It took me a few weeks using the german instructions (germany is next to holland, the languages are somewhat similar) and there it was. I installed the necessary software on my laptop (repetier host and arduino software and slic3r), installed the firmware on the arduino, fired it up and... nothing happened! Yes, the heated bed got hot but that was it, no motors running or nothing!
After some research, and talking to some other "3d-friends" in the reprap community i decided the RAMPS board was fried for some reason. After a email to the seller i got instructions to send the pca's back, which i did. In a hunch i ordered some "mockups" from china, thinking it might take a while to get the pca's back, and i was right. After 4 or 5 days i got the chinese pca's (arduino, ramps AND pololu's for 80 euro's), i build them in, and... it worked!
Ofcourse there is lots more to tell about it, but i will do so in a future message, to keep this relatively short. I love the printer, let me tell you that! It's making a case for my 8" monitor and 3.5" computer, and a ssd drive, at this very same time!
Oh yes, forgot to tell you what happened with my original pca's; i got them back after more than a month, AFTER sending an email to ask when it would come....
Well, that's it for now, keep up the good work and ask me anything, i might just know the answer

Bye now!

Black Rabbit (sorry again)