Reprap is a cool open source project aimed to have people build their own inexpensive 3d printers that print its own parts.
more and more people are joining and more and more people with a little less skills want to join. some people are making the electronics at high prices, others are making them at reasonable prices but don’t have the capacity to handle all the orders (they stopped accepting orders for the next couple of weeks, let alone shipping them). then i remembered ordering a few arduino things from this site.
the electronics are arduino based and use stepper motor and drivers, all things seeedstudio already know how to handle.
i am still orienting but this is what seedstudio could make:
I have looked at those a lot, a couple of comments. A cost effective Mendel kit with most if not all parts would be best, IMHO. The print head is more central to the machine than many realize. Without it you have a complex 3d stage. That could be fun, but many people have made stages and than learned to there embarrassment how hard and key the print head is. Just the electronics leaves you with 2/3 of the issues out standing.
It needs to be able to be completed. Multiple printheads, or tools are the way to go.
Getting all the pieces to work well together is the trick, and there is more inter-connections than most assume when they start.
I have thought of doing one in stages, but I would want to know I could get the parts for the next piece from the same place and that would work together is something I can’t find a source for today.
yea the print head had its own arduino to control the printing. it seems to be the most rapid evolving part of the reprap project (and the most problematic with jams and everything)
We are not sure of the license and attitude of reprap team. If everybody is happy, we could make and distribute it with some loyalty fee forwared to the designers.
Reprap is completely open source and I am sure they will have no problem wit you making electronics kits. I have been involved with reprap for a few years now. If you would like me to put you in touch with the project leader I would be more than happy to.
