Need some advice or reviews on SainSmart products

I'm a new to the 3D printing world, am in the process of choosing & buying the patrs for a 3D printer I'm building, and I've been debating on whether I should go with an *official* more expensive Arduino Mega 2560 V3 or a cheaper SainSmart Arduino compatible Mega 2560. Is SainSmart a reliable and quality brand/product? Has anyone had any serious problems with the company or their products?

I purchased a SainSmart Megatronics 2.0 kit with GLCD back in February. It was lovingly packed (can you sense the sarcasm?) by someone who didn't care, and the "kit" was a pile of random parts heaped into a box with zero documentation. Picture five stepper motors rattling around loose from China to North America, with a bit of thin bubble wrap around the boards. Amazingly, nothing was damaged, but the heated bed was warped enough to not be useable unless camped to a piece of glass to hold it flat.

One of the two GLCD ribbon cables had an end that was crimped on backwards, and unfortunately I didn't notice it until it blew the on-board +5V regulator. The board still runs getting +5V from the USB port. The A4988 adjuster potentiometers were not set to any default value, making me wonder if they were tested at the factory before shipping. Otherwise, the boards have not needed any retouch soldering, and are generally solid.

My biggest gripe (other than zero documentation in a "kit") is that SainSmart does not include simple things like jumper caps and stepper motor plugs with their kits. When buying a bundle with stepper motors and a controller board, one should reasonably expect the stepper motors to have connectors on them or at least in the box! Not SainSmart. You'll get bare wires, which I guess is one less thing to rattle around loose in the box damaging the more expensive bits. I had to go out and buy jumper caps at Radio Shack, since my parts drawer was about a dozen short for all of the micro-stepper jumper pins on the Megatronics 2.0 board.

The cost savings compared to the aggravation factor are a wash, IMHO. I got everything working in the long run, and it printed nearly 2Kg of filament without any additional problems. If you are looking at a SainSmart bundle thinking that everything you need is in the box, this is not what you will get. If you read the reviews of their RAMPS/Mega2560 bundle on Amazon, there were a few reports of bad solder joints and other problems with those boards IIRC.

On the other hand, I replaced my Megatronics 2.0 board with a 32-bit Azteeg X5 Mini from Paucatt, and have nothing but praise for them and their product. Their order page offered my choice of motor connectors on the board, and an add-on complete wiring kit that has pigtails for every connector on the board. I ordered the required microSD card as well, and it came with a full-sized SD card adapter in the package! Guess which one I will be doing business with again in the future?????

For the most part, SainSmart has been pretty good to me with their Mega2560 boards. Heck, I sell them myself.... =) I think vreihen is correct on most, if not all, of the complaints regarding SainSmart. They are a big time manufacturer from China and they produce Mega boards by the thousands at a time, and I honestly don't think they test each one, as it's simply not cost effective to do that. I had ordered a few SainSmart Mega2560s in the past and I can remember having issues with 1 or 2 out of the lot of 10. But they were minor issues, primarily not having the Arduino bootloaders on them already. So, since I test all of my boards (yes, each and every one!) prior to shipment to clients, I was able to correct the issues and simply flash the boards myself.

When it comes to their RAMPS 1.4 Boards on the other hand, I was not very excited when I first got them. Just like vreihen's issue with his/her Megatronics board from SainSmart, mine did not come with any jumpers! How ridiculous is that? My first thought was that "I hope they know that the jumpers are NECESSARY to operate my machine!" That just told me first hand how much they know exactly about RAMPS... =) Secondly, some of the female headers on the board for the Stepper Drivers were CRACKED! I was going to buy a wholesale lot of their RAMPS to re-sell, but just decided to make them myself. I thought that my clients would be a lot more happier and would have a lot more confidence if they could deal with someone who actually makes these boards here in the U.S. For the most part, I was right.... =)

I'm new to the 3D printing world, am in the process of choosing & buying the parts for a 3D printer I'm building (Prusa Mendel i2), and I've been debating on whether I should go with an *official* more expensive Arduino Mega 2560 V3, or a cheaper SainSmart Arduino compatible Mega 2560. Is SainSmart a reliable and quality brand/product? Has anyone had any serious problems with the company or their products?

It's certainly a good idea to support Open Hardware developers and buy from them. Developers make new products, not copycats.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

You should be OK with Sainsmart, Geeetech or many of the other discount suppliers. There is at least one thread on the forums here about Sainsmart and as with most other companies there are good and bad experiences. Use the search here and you'll find many opinions.

The Arduino license encourages others to build compatable hardware. As long as it's not a counterfit part, meaning they are telling you it's a real Arduino and using the logo and trademark illegally, there isn't an issue with using a clone. Massimo Banzi (basically Mr Arduino) has stated he has no qualms about using clone products as long as they comply with the license. Open Hardware stalwarts like Adafruit and Sparkfun have both made variants of the boards at one time or another.

Quote
vreihen
I posted my response to your duplicate thread in the Electronics forum:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?13,382327,382491#msg-382491

I think the docs issue and hoping you get what you need in a kit has more to do with the buyer's expectations and how well they have researched what they need. In DIY one needs to be responsible for knowing what they need and how to put it together. You are basically buying raw parts at that point. There are options where there is more comprehensive support but you are going to pay for that. Unless it's speciifically mentioned and you are buying on low price alone (particularly from a Shenzhen fab house) you aren't going to get much in the way of documentation. There are some exceptions, for example Geetech has a Wiki as do some of the other discounters but it's largely the same info as on this Wiki.

I agree that for many builders, particularly first time builders the cost vs. time consumed factor isn't worth it. Particularly when one factors in transit times and shipping costs. At that point I think it's a wise call to spend more upfront and get something that is an end to end package. Like a Printrbot or Makerfarm. There are others as well. What I think we are seeing in general is a new breed of builder that doesn't necessarily have a hacker/maker/tinker background or the DIY experience and are looking for an inexpensive printer rather than a project. They may not have the skills, tools or space to easily complete the project and in turn wind up frustrated. I think a way to address the issue is to communicate what is involved in a DIY build. One will need minimal mechanical and electronics skills, some basic hand tools, ability to research and a good bit of patience. While they may or may not make a better informed decision at least the information will be out there should they choose to take advantage of it.

Quote
vegasloki
I think the docs issue and hoping you get what you need in a kit has more to do with the buyer's expectations and how well they have researched what they need. In DIY one needs to be responsible for knowing what they need and how to put it together. You are basically buying raw parts at that point.

Exactly the issue that I was trying to point out. If you buy a SainSmart kit, don't expect it to be anything more than a pile of parts (literally) heaped into a box. No instructions, no jumper caps, no stepper motor connectors, and no after-sale support. It isn't like assembling a PC from parts with idiot-proof connectors, and I'm trying to clarify this misconception.

I've seen too many people turn up here after having purchased these bundles and realizing that they are in way over their head, looking for a bail out on wiring/firmware or a shortcut to get around not having a basic multimeter to tune the A4988 stepper drivers. As you suggested, buying a complete printer from a regional vendor that offers tech support is the best way to start if you don't have the electronics background or experience. In the long run, you will save yourself a lot of grief.

In my case, I have hand-soldered surface mount components, written firmware and device drivers, breadboarded my share of TTL circuits, and know how an RS-232 connection works. I knew very well what I was getting into when I started, and was confident that I would be successful when I accepted the challenge. The missing jumper caps and stepper motor connectors were just nuisances, since I had to source them after receiving SainSmart bundle. The biggest frustration on my part was that I couldn't find my wire wrap tool to save my life, and Radio Shack doesn't sell them any more. I was going to wire wrap the micro-step setting pins when I ran out of jumper caps in my parts drawer.....

have you ever ran into the Ramp1.4 overheating? I have a 12v source feeding 12.48V force. Should i lower it back to 12?

Great info on this vine btw.!

- Janski

if its overheating, I bet its either the fuses or the mosfets or the stepper controllers. 12.48v is perfectly within spec. I belive the arduino voltage regulator gets sketchy after 15v or so, so your within a good range. I would try to use a fan and install the heatsinks on the stepper controllers and see if that makes a difference. My own printer seems to like a bit of cooling on the ramps. I will be 3d printing a case for the ramps soon enough to have a place to mount the fan on.

---

My Personal Blog. Build blog.
[engineerd3d.ddns.net]

Modicum V1 sold on e-bay user jaguarking11

I've had mixed luck with SainSmart, and I wouldn't go with them unless you have a lot of time to spare and can take the chance that something won't work.

I bought 4 Megas and 4 Unos from them. When I finally got around to using them all, one of the Megas and two of the Unos didn't work. But he problem is that your 90-day warranty begins with the day you place the order, so if they're on the slow boat from China like mine were, the first 30 days of your warranty period is spent shipping the product. Customer service asked me to send screen prints of the problem (can't upload sketches, and I've tried every solution such as resetting the device just before the upload begins, making sure I have the right board selected, etc.) and their response was that they were very busy and my warranty period had already expired.

When you figure the total cost for what works, three Megas and two Unos, you negate quite a bit of your savings.

I haven't had the same problem with their shields, such as the Motor Controller and Xbee shields. Those have worked fine. The only problems have been with the controllers themselves.