I am trying to control a 3D printer extruder motor, heater and thermistor through Arduino coding. I am very new to this and having a lot of difficulty in understanding. The motions required for 3D printing will be provided by a Robotic Arm. If I install the Marlin firmware, it will not allow me to communicate with the Robotic Arm. This is the reason why I am trying to control extruder motor, heater and thermistor through Arduino only. Can someone help me with this? I will be really thankful.
Using a RAMPS board would assume you have loaded a suitable firmware to the MEGA first and then use a suitable sending program such as CURA to control the actions.
As you seem to be using a non standard method you may need to make a lot of adjustments in the firmware first to set up the correct movements.
You may be better linking to where you got the ide / project ?
It should be straightforward to control the RAMPS board with the OP's own software.
The only slightly complicated bit is interpreting the thermistor. I did figure that out some time ago but I'm afraid I have forgotten, I presume that Googling "Arduino Thremistor" will find a solution.
Or dig into (e.g.) the Marlin code for the thermistor stuff.
Robin2:
It should be straightforward to control the RAMPS board with the OP's own software.
It should be, but rather than a straightforward X or Y value being interpreted and parsed it would need to pass at least two parameters per movement to keep an extruder parallel to the bed.
An X movement would become an X + Z and similar for a Y axis change so a dual X + Y movement becomes 4 commands rather than two interpolated movements.
And if it has more than 3 DOF that adds further complications as you get into the different A axis sometimes referred to a X1 or E1 or S1 or W1 axis etc.
ballscrewbob:
It should be, but rather than a straightforward X or Y value being interpreted and parsed it would need to pass at least two parameters per movement to keep an extruder parallel to the bed.
I suspect the regular 3D printer software would be no use for a robot arm. I think it all assumes a very restricted system of motion.
But keeping a complex arm at a very precise distance above the build plate is a maths and a mechanics problem - not a problem of sending signals to a RAMPS board - that would be the easy part.
Normally you would TEACH a robot (at least industrial ones) how to perform a task and then lock in the program.
Seen them and installed them for automotive applications.
It would make for a fantastic 3D printer as it would not be limited to planar movements.
Even more so if the bed was actually a turntable as the possibilities would be endless.
Caveat is that each axis has the possibility to introduce and error factor and I doubt a home brew version would be able to achieve the reliability and accuracy needed for most 1.75 filaments without being a closed loop system (more complexity)
