MakerBot® MotherBoard v2.4
The MakerBot® Motherboard is a shield for the Arduino MEGA. This board is the heart of your MakerBot® and controls all the other boards... It's all about connectivity! The Arduino MEGA provides the USB interface, and the motherboard has an SD card slot for storage. For motion control, it has headers for five stepper drivers, so it can drive your XYZ positioning system and have room left over for controlling two extra stepper motors. Along with steppers, it has headers for 6 endstop cables (X+/–, Y+/–, Z+/–) and an e-stop switch. The interface connector is can be connected to an interface board for controlling the machine without a computer. To control the extruders, it comes with 2 rs485 ports and can support up to five RS485 ports. It accepts a standard ATX header for power.
Powerful Arduino Mega 1280 Core (Not included!)
The motherboard is build on top of the Arduino MEGA from the open source Arduino project. This board has more IO pins, more memory, and more program space. This translates into a more powerful motherboard with more capabilities and lots of room for modification. It also means bigger print buffers, normal USB to serial support, and better future compatibility.
Control up to Five Stepper Drivers
With all the extra pins available on the motherboard, we decided to add headers for five stepper drivers. That means you can easily control five different stepper drivers. You can easily drive an XYZ cartesian bot and have two steppers left over for extruders, rotary axes, or whatever else you can dream up. The headers are compatible with both v2.x and v3.x MakerBot® Stepper Drivers.
Full Endstop Support
Endstops are a critical part of a successful 3D printing experience. That's why we integrated the endstop connectors directly onto the motherboard. We switched to a 0.100" pitch, indexed connector that fits perfectly with our endstop cables. There are a total of 7 endstop connector headers available: X+, X–, Y+, Y–, Z+, Z–, and an E-Stop header for those who wish to add an emergency stop button to their MakerBot®. Most machines will only need three endstops, so the other 4 are available for your modification.
20 Pins to Expand On
We want you to be able to hack your MakerBot® easily and simply. That is why we've provided a 20 pin IDC header (2 rows of 10 0.100" spaced pins). None of these pins are currently used for anything else, so you are free to hook up whatever you'd like here. More steppers, an LCD screen, or an interface board with buttons are all easily within your reach.
Both the motherboard and extruder controller now natively support serial over USB, so you can connect to them with any standard USB cable. This makes connecting to them much easier and eliminates the need for a custom cable. This also makes uploading firmware a breeze as the USB allows for automatic reset of the board. Additionally, it has an SD card slot which you can use to run builds from, eliminating the need for a computer.
Ships with:
1 GB SD Memory Card -1 piece - Factory fresh!
-Note: this is the shield board only, and you'll need to purchase your Arduino Mega 1280 separately.