RAMPS 1.4

It is a Mega Pololu Shield, or RAMPS for short,designed to fit the entire electronics needed for a RepRap in one small package for low cost.
RAMPS interfaces an Arduino Mega with the powerful Arduino MEGA platform and has plenty room for expansion.

The modular design includes plug in for stepper drivers and extruder control electronics on an Arduino MEGA shield for easy service, part replacement, upgrade-ability and expansion.
Additionally, a number of Arduino expansion boards can be added to the system as long as the main RAMPS board is kept to the top of the stack.This board is mostly based on Adrian's Pololu_Electronics and work by Tonok. Copper etch resists methods suggested by Vik. Also inspired by Vik's work with EasyDrivers. circuit design based mostly on Adrian's Pololu_Electronics Joaz at RepRapSource.com supplied initial pin definitions and many design improvements. Much inspiration, suggestions, and ideas from Prusajr, Kliment, Maxbots, Rick, and many others in the RepRap community.  

Arduino Mega 2560

Arduino Mega 2560 is an ATmega2560 as core microcontroller development board itself has 54 groups digital I / O input / output terminal (14 groups do PWM outputs), 16 sets of simulation than the input side, group 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), using the 16 MHz crystal oscillator. With the bootloader, download the program directly via USB without having to go through other external writer. Supply part of the optional USB power, or as an external power using the AC-to-DC adapter and battery. Arduino development IDE interface is based on open-source principles, allows you to free download for use in project work, school teaching, motor control, interactive works.

Pololu/Stepstick

This product is a carrier board or breakout board for Allegro's A4988 DMOS Microstepping Driver with Translator and Overcurrent Protection by Pololu; we therefore recommend careful reading of the A4988 datasheet before using this product. This stepper motor driver lets you control one bipolar stepper motor at up to 2 A output current per coil.  

Endstops

The mechanical endstop is a simple solution to a simple problem. We want to be able to detect when an X/Y/Z stage has reached its minimum or maximum. Instead of messing with flags or complicated light beam interrupters, we use a mechanical switch. If we place the switch in the path of the stage, then the stage itself will simply close the switch when it moves against it. Other than properly positioning the switch, we do not need to modify the stage at all. If you're worried about reliability, you can sleep well at night. The switches we use are rated for 1 million operations before failure. Since we only use the switches once per print, that means you'll be able to do one million prints before having to replace the switch. Cables are not included.

Ramps 1.4 FAQ

Q: No 5V to Arduino?

A: You need to put solder on the solder jumper SJ1 (next to D1) in order to enable board 5V power via 12V.

Q: How do I set the microsteps?

A: We have replaced the 2X3 pin header used to set the stepper motor resolution with solder jumpers.
The solder jumpers are pre set with MS1-2-3 connected to 5V via solder jumpers for all 5 stepper drivers which is the most common setting.
To change the microstepping settings simply cut the connection between the solder pads.
To reconnect simply solder the pads together.

Q: Do I need cooling on the MOSFET transistors?

A: If you experience the MOSFET's are heating up, you could add a heatsink, or use our new product the Power Expander.