Just wondering if anyone would be interested if I started a project to retro fit the current Ramps 1.4 to enable 9 steppers and more heaters, fans, etc. than the current RAMPS. I know there are other boards already out there, and CNC Shields to attach and RAMPSFD, which I currently have, but I like the idea of a Single clean unit, so looking to pull some long-shelved Electronic Engineering skills out of moth-balls to update the design a bit. Inclusive to be honest of fixing some of the issues I see with the Current RAMPS boards as they are - mainly SPACE. I get that we are trying to decrease space used by electronics, etc. but looking at how these get used, i.e. predominately on CNC / 3d Printers the areas reserved for electronics tend to leave a far bit more space than is actually used by the electronics. However - the RAMPS boards themselves are still designed to fit within the footprint of the underlying Arduino board, which means there is Very little space for inserting the Steppers, some poor builds even tend to have steppers almost overlapping from what I have experienced (perhaps knock-off builds...) - and further to this, there is no room to neatly run Stepper cabling in between Steppers to get them out of the way for nice air flow, etc. RAMPSFD is a far better design to get around this... Last thing I want to do is step on the toes of the original Reprap designers of course, but willing to discuss the merits first of all...
More heater and fans, especially something like an SSR to control the heaters (my bed heater is 120V, for example) would be something that will interest me. More steppers are not needed, in my opinion. I use one stepper per axis and one extruder. I had to order some add on board for the RAMPs, about $2 shipped, to control an extra fan (two are possible with this board). It will stick out from the side of the RAMPs. It would be nice if it would have been integrated.
