I'm confused Reprap vs Makerbot

I was under the impression that Reprap and Makerbot electronics are the same....but looking at the reprap gen6 electronics...it's not based on arduino is it? Am I wrong?

The "official" RepRap electronics are equivalent to the MakerBot Gen 3 electronics. I say "official" because there are many options, and I believe there are better options. I use RAMPS and it works great. Gen 6 or 7 are other options.

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Thanks. That helps a lot. I have the makerbot electronics set, perhaps I'll go for the Gen6 hardware to have a more elegant all in one solution. Before I buy it though, can you help with a few more questions:

1. I'm using a different heater design to heat up the plastic. I'm not sure how the extruder function works on these boards....there is a thermocoupler that goes back to the board, then the board turns on or off the heating element..... The way my system is designed now, I have an external PID temp controller that activates a solid state relay, which turns on/off the heater. Can the output from this board switch my relay on or off? the signal for the solid state relay is 3 to 30V DC....

2. If it cannot control the relay, can I skip this function and only use the stepper motor function to extrude the filament? I mean can I use my PID controller instead of the integrated controller?

Thanks.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2011 03:37AM by HereinCS.