1

Topic: DIY Strife

I bought a kit, an i3 clone from a well known vendor on the 3D market and thought that I would be getting something that would be a reasonable quality item that I have had to redesign some elements, rework others and bodge together as the instruction video was lacking, like was not in the box and online version has two videos with at least 4 steps missing and the biggest and most important one of all, the wiring and the firmware flashing.

So finally I get the item built, the probelm I now face is that the board supplied does not seem to be communicating with the outside world.

I plug the USB cable in to it without the power turned on and its drawing a 5V supply from the USB port, the LCD lights up with a display.

I have tried three computers, well a Windows Table (Windows 10) and a Windows 10 Laptop and a Windows 7 PC and none of them pick up the com port for the device, the USB recognises the board, installs the drivers to access but the com port is not there. Other devices that use com ports all function.

So.. I fire it up after electrically testing that it is not leaking anything to ground and that its generally sound and all metal parts that should be grounded are grounded.

I flit through the controls and find the motor stepping to move the motors, great, move the Y axis, fine, move the X axis, fine, great stuf.. No menu option for Z axis...

Z axis is shown on the main display but not in the meny to move the motors.

Then theirs the issue of the "Auto home function" which for X and Y worked a treat, Z on the other hand, makes a right old racket, does not move the lead screws and seems to be very under powered for an axis that has TWO motors on it working in parallel.

The lead screws are level and round, that much I did check and they are quite tight in the lead screw bushing but I do not see anything that is out of alignment, I have checked with a set square that everything is as square as possible given the limitations of the materials. Both lead screws do this and the digital callipers read that the OD of the lead screws is 7.81mm, so close to the 8mm spec. Lubrication of the threads did nothing, the scres are binding up despite being able to turn freely when they are parallel, as soon as theirs any deviation from true, the screws get very hard to turn.

The other problem is that I have been in contact with the vendor several times and still had no response from the vendors site, their community forums are impossible to sign up to and really, I am fed up of this.

I have tried the usual methods of solving the problem but sadly shouting and threatening the build, pulling my hair our, banging my head against the wall and blood letting have not solved the problems I am facing.

So can anyone here relate to the problems of building a Geeetech i3 Pro B clone of a Prusa i3?

The way I see it is this,

Pulling my nails would much less painful and simpler in the long run, however, the options I see are to retap the lead screws to fit the smaller lead screw bushings... or to retap the lead screw bushings to fit the lead screws.

Chuck up the GT2560 board as it is clearly not up to the job and use a genuine Arduino board and parts that I bought as part of a second build I was planning once I got this printer sorted.

Well the build has been going every weekend since January and the machine is looking nice, I would like to use it, however, things are not working out that way.

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

2

Re: DIY Strife

Wow a frustrating adventure to say the least. I will be pondering this an get back to you this evening . I would expect others will chime in later today.

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

3

Re: DIY Strife

all I can say is Geeeetech (anything) is probably one of the WORST choices you could have made.

did you actually research the printer, and all of it's known issues, before you bought it?
or did you just go with it because of the price?
yes, they are cheap, and there is a reason for that - they are known to be junk.
A similar mistake was made here with a Geeeetech Kossel - got maybe halfway through the build and gave up on it, it was so bad.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this thing really is not worth pulling your hair out over.
Save the motors, and maybe a few other bits as emergency back-up parts, but forget the rest of it and start over.
There are far better options out there. Do your homework before making a choice, however.
I can personally vouch for Folgertech if you want to do a kit - I have built 3 of their machines and while not perfect, they are decent kits.
They will also actually help if you have a problem - unlike Geeeetech.

As for the communication part - most "drivers" that are automatically installed by Windows (of any version) are NOT going to work correctly.
You need to download and install the correct driver for your board manually.

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

4 (edited by yizhou.he 2018-03-27 15:29:52)

Re: DIY Strife

Ok, in summary, i only see two small issues, not something I would pull my hair or banging my head against the wall and blood.

1. Windows found USB device but not the com port.
2. Z-axis motor is weak.

For problem 1, looking for com port in device manager is not always good idea, it sometimes show up in com port, sometimes show up in usb device, or even in other devices if you did not install right driver. It is usually lot easier to check available port in Arduino. Also you need to install driver for FT232RQ from the cd-rom that come with the board or download from their website. See instruction here:
https://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php … nd_Setting

For problem 2, two small issue can contribute to it.
1, z-axis motor wire connection is not solid. check for resistance with multi-meters. Also double check if the wire is in right order for z-axis.
2. Motor current is too low. There is small pot on motor driver on the GT2560 mainboard, you should google for instruction on how to adjust motor current.

moving z-axis in menu is a firmware setting, some machine only allow move z-axis in 1mm in menu but not in 10mm in menu. You can change this setting when you have access to firmware after solve USB port driver issue. In the mean time, try move z-axis from the 1mm section.

I have no experience with Geeetech i3 Pro B clone of a Prusa i3, but the problem you hit is very common small issues with most DIY kits. Most other people experience missing parts, bent rods, heated bed temperature increase slow, power supply issue etc. So I would not call your Geeetech i3 Pro B clone of a Prusa i3 kits junk yet.

(Da Vinci 1.0, Jr. 1.0 RAMPS, miniMaker) X4, (Creality CR-10S, CR-10 mini, Ender-3) X4, Anycubic MEGA X4, Anycubic Chrion X1, ADMILAB Gantry X2 (MonoPrice Maker Select V2, Plus, Ultimate)X4--Select mini X1, Anycubic photon X4, Wanhao duplicate D7 X1.
iNSTONE Inventor Pro X2, CTC Dual X2, ANET-A8, Hictop 3DP-11, Solidoodle Press, FLSUN I3 2017X1

5

Re: DIY Strife

First of all you should be able to turn your z axis screws over the full range off movement. by hand . and they must be dead parallel.
if it is a parallel issue this should be a simple adjustment if you have a bent lead screw it needs to be replaced. 
Also does this machine actualy have lead screws or threaded rod with nuts ?

IMHO you are very close to getting this kit up and running. hang in there.

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

6

Re: DIY Strife

To recap, The USB was getting power, the board was getting power, the display lit up.

The computer detected the USB device, up popped the new hardware notice, the drivers were eventually installed but Arduino does not pick up anything and I can't see where in the Arduino settings you get to select the com port, I distinctly remember that a version of Arduino I have did list in a menu the option to select a com port.

So my PC can not communicate with the printer board, either powered on or powered off states, the board seems to pull its Arduino power supply from the USB when plugged in to the PC.

NOW THE Z- AXIS.

Holy Mother of ... What a head noodler they were, I was trying to figure out what is wron with the lead screws, well the problem is three fold.

1, the brass bushings that fit the lead screw had a tap size that is obviously off a worn tool as it was very tight.

Then the lead screws were... wait for it...
a) slightly oversized in their thread, the Die I sent down the screws kept on snarling up every so often and this indicated another worn tool.
b) the thread is not at right angles to the body of the lead screw, over the length I have extrapolated that the thread tool was not set right and was off by 5° which meant the longer down the thread you went, the more the divergence in the threads tendancy to rotate with some bias, making it bind up in the threads of the bushings because the lead screws are so bad. Both the lead screws and bushing appear to be off by 5° so this over such a short distance may not be an issue other than premature wear on the bushes.
c) The fan in the video is fitted to the frame and I am still scratching my head as the air flow is pretty poor and if fixed in the way it is designed to fit, the Z axis is blocked by it but mounting it on the other side in its proper orientation mean that the screws are too small by about 5mm

Really I wanted to buy this kit, it was so annoyingly obviously full of junk that it was begging to be bought and possibly turned in to a Youtube Comedy for the layman.

So what I did was my best to clean up the lead screw to bring it to diameter and also pass a tap through the bushing and the threads now turn much more evenly and a dash of WD40 on to the screw at the bushing join and it was rotating very freely.

I do need to get some decent lubrication for the linear bearings, this machine is constantly being taken apart to improve parts, got a set of linear bearings that I can replace the method that they had shown in the video... IMHO cable ties are just cheap considering that the kit once complete has lots of metal work left over. Makes you wonder how many iterations and substitutions have gone on.

The real aim is to get a look at and build one and then build my own and pass this machine to my son to use.

I do have components like the 2560 board and a RAMPS 1.4 board in case this Geeetech version is dud as the 2560 board I have accepts the Blink Script off the same machine that can't see the printer... Thats whats bugging me the most.

Also there appears to be software already running and the Z axis does not have the option to setp up or down but when auto home was attempted last time, it made a racket. I will be attempting to do another test tonight and I will update people.

I appreciate the feedback, input, ideas.

Ciao.

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

7

Re: DIY Strife

yizhou.he wrote:

Ok, in summary, i only see two small issues, not something I would pull my hair or banging my head against the wall and blood.

1. Windows found USB device but not the com port.
2. Z-axis motor is weak.

For problem 1, looking for com port in device manager is not always good idea, it sometimes show up in com port, sometimes show up in usb device, or even in other devices if you did not install right driver. It is usually lot easier to check available port in Arduino. Also you need to install driver for FT232RQ from the cd-rom that come with the board or download from their website. See instruction here:
https://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php … nd_Setting

Yes I have already installed it, the driver was adjusted,

yizhou.he wrote:

For problem 2, two small issue can contribute to it.
1, z-axis motor wire connection is not solid. check for resistance with multi-meters. Also double check if the wire is in right order for z-axis.
2. Motor current is too low. There is small pot on motor driver on the GT2560 mainboard, you should google for instruction on how to adjust motor current.

I already have seen a video and adjusted the trims to around the suggested 650mA

yizhou.he wrote:

moving z-axis in menu is a firmware setting, some machine only allow move z-axis in 1mm in menu but not in 10mm in menu. You can change this setting when you have access to firmware after solve USB port driver issue. In the mean time, try move z-axis from the 1mm section.

I have no experience with Geeetech i3 Pro B clone of a Prusa i3, but the problem you hit is very common small issues with most DIY kits. Most other people experience missing parts, bent rods, heated bed temperature increase slow, power supply issue etc. So I would not call your Geeetech i3 Pro B clone of a Prusa i3 kits junk yet.

Oh I wouldn't be so strong in my wording, lets just say that "It's an experience" one I would rather not repeat but a valuable learning opportunity in all sorts of way... and yes, I am being a bit facetious.

I haven't had this much fun since the international paint drying championships and the scandal of the paint doping in the finals... Yes, someone managed to slip in some thinners to speed up drying... Tut Tut.

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

8 (edited by yizhou.he 2018-03-28 17:31:06)

Re: DIY Strife

Hmm, I think your kits may have been water damaged. It is just one of my wild guess since you did not show any picture of any part of the printer yet. Looking for signs of water damage on PCB board, it looks slightly different for different board, you can google "water damage pcb" in google image. If everything looks brand new to you, then something else is happening.

I got one of my Mono Price maker select V2 from ebay, x-axis motor can not turn by hand even with tools, water damage sign on power supply and display board. I WD40 all the motor and rods and lubricate them afterwards. Also cleaned the salt on water damaged spot on pcb with water and ethanol and wait for it to completely dry. And everything seemed to work just fine after that. Except the power supply smoked once. I replaced the power supple even thought I was able to fix it, simply can not trust the water damaged power supply anymore. Replace the main board is probably a good idea too, but I want to do that after it gave me trouble.

I don't know where you get your kits from, but some problem can be hard to tell from the picture on ebay, got to be careful with those deals that don't accept returns.

(Da Vinci 1.0, Jr. 1.0 RAMPS, miniMaker) X4, (Creality CR-10S, CR-10 mini, Ender-3) X4, Anycubic MEGA X4, Anycubic Chrion X1, ADMILAB Gantry X2 (MonoPrice Maker Select V2, Plus, Ultimate)X4--Select mini X1, Anycubic photon X4, Wanhao duplicate D7 X1.
iNSTONE Inventor Pro X2, CTC Dual X2, ANET-A8, Hictop 3DP-11, Solidoodle Press, FLSUN I3 2017X1

9

Re: DIY Strife

Hate to say this but i am with heartless on this one sounds like you got junk. I have a prusa kit from folger tech and while it was not without a couple of faults and frustrations it was build in IIRC about a month and it works.

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

10

Re: DIY Strife

yizhou.he wrote:

Hmm, I think your kits may have been water damaged. It is just one of my wild guess since you did not show any picture of any part of the printer yet. Looking for signs of water damage on PCB board, it looks slightly different for different board, you can google "water damage pcb" in google image. If everything looks brand new to you, then something else is happening.

I got one of my Mono Price maker select V2 from ebay, x-axis motor can not turn by hand even with tools, water damage sign on power supply and display board. I WD40 all the motor and rods and lubricate them afterwards. Also cleaned the salt on water damaged spot on pcb with water and ethanol and wait for it to completely dry. And everything seemed to work just fine after that. Except the power supply smoked once. I replaced the power supple even thought I was able to fix it, simply can not trust the water damaged power supply anymore. Replace the main board is probably a good idea too, but I want to do that after it gave me trouble.

I don't know where you get your kits from, but some problem can be hard to tell from the picture on ebay, got to be careful with those deals that don't accept returns.


And yet again with the garbage from someone that knows nothing about anything.
Go back to your damn DaVinci's and just shut it.

I honestly can not take anymore of the garbage being posted by you, yizhou.he
You continue to post like you know everything there is to know, and yet you know NOTHING.
you spout piles of garbage like they are gospel - ENOUGH ALREADY!

You are making things harder for this person, not easier.

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

11

Re: DIY Strife

http://soliforum.com/i/?UyW6Nv7.jpg

Sd4 #9080 with a glass bed. E3d chimera duel extruder. Paste extruder , duet wifi.
Lawsy carriages. linear bearings. Y axis direct drive, Kinect scanner
SD4#8188 glass bed, lawsly carriages, E3d v6, octoprint http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hotrod96z28
Filastruder/filawinder, Custom Delta 300mm x 600mm

12

Re: DIY Strife

Mark sounds like you need new lead screws and possibly a new board . sad but the risk one takes with these ultra cheap Chinese kits.

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

13

Re: DIY Strife

LOL @ the image.

The kit arrived without a single transit mark on the box, that meaning things like tears, gouge's, dents, ruptures, leakages, crush and collapse incidents (how we used to term the package failure in the company I used to work at.)

The electronics was packaged in the static plastic film (Silver Mylar) stuff, some electronics were shipped in the red plastic anti-static bags but not the main board.

I have been looking at lead screws as the one way of dealing with this but I then need to remove a screw that became jammed because I didn't realize it at the time, was offset by about half a thou and may as well gone in sideways, so I thought what the f... Too late, will have to drill that bugger out.

I did give the old girl a run through autohome again and the Z axis was starting to turn and move but kept on stopping and needed a helping hand and then noted that the problem again of the wrong screw type stated that triggers the end-stop was 20 mm too short. So that occasion got a helping hand byway of the off switch.

I shall be passing my local DIY store, will have a look at what rod they have on offer, last time I needed something like that, the internet were quoting prices like £19.95 with free delivery and the local Home Improvement Chain Store was offering the same threaded rod for ... £3.95 , so naturally I bought the stuff off the internet... Really? No, you will be amazed at how much stuff on ebay is available in your local stores or companies who will likely do you a better deal and you could take stuff back...

Anyway, its progress as I now found out that despite tramming the bed so it is level, the hotbed is not straight and the glass I don't think is 100% flat because it can be level at the edges and dip at the center mark of the outer edge and also bow a bit in the middle, but then thats why I bought the bed levelling sensor that does not come with a mounting kit... but offer an STL file for you to print a mounting bracket for the probe. You know, a couple of pence for a metal part to be stamped out isn't much to ask for given the price these chinese sellers are selling their kit at. I figure that my motor mount and axis are pressed metal parts, granted not 100% accurate but made of metal, I have seen Acrylic parts being used on stress locations and I think that it is important to get this stuff out there on youtube to force vendors to stop over pricing, provide proper kit of parts that fit as described.

So far the Y axis has been modified to reduce the risk of belt tearing itself apart and I bought a part to grip the teeth to the aluminium block, I drilled and tapped an M3 hole, fitted the part and it fits better with zero stress on the connection points as they now travel parallel to the belt below it rather than a near tapeziod (belt not parallel) type drive. So I have reduced stepping errors at the outer edge of the Y axis.

So the hilarity continues.

In this image, I used a metal set square to set up right angles as a guide, then set a protractor up so I could set the Die faces so they were (eyeball) perpendicular to the baseline I was measuring from. I then inserted a lead screw and rotated the die along the axis of the rod so that I could see maximum divergence, The Die is not perfectly placed and the leadscrew is back on the printer but thought I would show just how bad these lead screws are. So the lead screw is the angled line and imagine the rod being threaded  5° from centre, IMHO this was a case of the tooling was off or the work was pushed too hard through the die, either way, a slower cut would have produced an adequate thread and a more accurate pitch.

http://soliforum.com/i/?iVSyvoM.jpg


In this image, the display is powered by a USB powerbank plugged in to the USB port of the GT2560 board, as you can see, the board powers via USB and there is software on there...

http://soliforum.com/i/?xToOIMC.jpg

WHEN this works is when I will be stripping the electronics down and boxing the hardware so theres no cables trailing all over the place plus get the mains encased in a metal box (which I have) so it can be referenced to earth properly, I am not trusting the PSU with this machine as I looked at it and was horrified to find that there is no air gap in the board keeping High side from the low side from possible shorts and leakage in moist conditions. So it is going to be replaced.

So my lead screws are going to be replaced with a new set and for that I will have to wait for the bushings as I am not going to buy lead screw rod on-line when I know I can get it at a fraction of the cost locally.

Ciao 4 now()

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

14 (edited by carl_m1968 2018-03-29 16:26:29)

Re: DIY Strife

heartless wrote:
yizhou.he wrote:

Hmm, I think your kits may have been water damaged. It is just one of my wild guess since you did not show any picture of any part of the printer yet. Looking for signs of water damage on PCB board, it looks slightly different for different board, you can google "water damage pcb" in google image. If everything looks brand new to you, then something else is happening.

I got one of my Mono Price maker select V2 from ebay, x-axis motor can not turn by hand even with tools, water damage sign on power supply and display board. I WD40 all the motor and rods and lubricate them afterwards. Also cleaned the salt on water damaged spot on pcb with water and ethanol and wait for it to completely dry. And everything seemed to work just fine after that. Except the power supply smoked once. I replaced the power supple even thought I was able to fix it, simply can not trust the water damaged power supply anymore. Replace the main board is probably a good idea too, but I want to do that after it gave me trouble.

I don't know where you get your kits from, but some problem can be hard to tell from the picture on ebay, got to be careful with those deals that don't accept returns.


And yet again with the garbage from someone that knows nothing about anything.
Go back to your damn DaVinci's and just shut it.

I honestly can not take anymore of the garbage being posted by you, yizhou.he
You continue to post like you know everything there is to know, and yet you know NOTHING.
you spout piles of garbage like they are gospel - ENOUGH ALREADY!

You are making things harder for this person, not easier.

Now Heartless, don't be so harsh. You might run him off to that Facebook group for good. tongue

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

15 (edited by Kronikabuse 2018-03-29 16:46:37)

Re: DIY Strife

carl_m1968 wrote:
heartless wrote:
yizhou.he wrote:

Hmm, I think your kits may have been water damaged. It is just one of my wild guess since you did not show any picture of any part of the printer yet. Looking for signs of water damage on PCB board, it looks slightly different for different board, you can google "water damage pcb" in google image. If everything looks brand new to you, then something else is happening.

I got one of my Mono Price maker select V2 from ebay, x-axis motor can not turn by hand even with tools, water damage sign on power supply and display board. I WD40 all the motor and rods and lubricate them afterwards. Also cleaned the salt on water damaged spot on pcb with water and ethanol and wait for it to completely dry. And everything seemed to work just fine after that. Except the power supply smoked once. I replaced the power supple even thought I was able to fix it, simply can not trust the water damaged power supply anymore. Replace the main board is probably a good idea too, but I want to do that after it gave me trouble.

I don't know where you get your kits from, but some problem can be hard to tell from the picture on ebay, got to be careful with those deals that don't accept returns.


And yet again with the garbage from someone that knows nothing about anything.
Go back to your damn DaVinci's and just shut it.

I honestly can not take anymore of the garbage being posted by you, yizhou.he
You continue to post like you know everything there is to know, and yet you know NOTHING.
you spout piles of garbage like they are gospel - ENOUGH ALREADY!

You are making things harder for this person, not easier.

Now Heartless, don't be so harsh. You might run him off to that Facebook group for good. tongue

we can only hope we're that lucky

Sd4 #9080 with a glass bed. E3d chimera duel extruder. Paste extruder , duet wifi.
Lawsy carriages. linear bearings. Y axis direct drive, Kinect scanner
SD4#8188 glass bed, lawsly carriages, E3d v6, octoprint http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hotrod96z28
Filastruder/filawinder, Custom Delta 300mm x 600mm

16

Re: DIY Strife

carl_m1968 wrote:

Now Heartless, don't be so harsh. You might run him off to that Facebook group for good. tongue

LOL, You wish, Carl! I need to lower myself to high school level to take JoAnne and Jacob seriously. All their post are ignored!

(Da Vinci 1.0, Jr. 1.0 RAMPS, miniMaker) X4, (Creality CR-10S, CR-10 mini, Ender-3) X4, Anycubic MEGA X4, Anycubic Chrion X1, ADMILAB Gantry X2 (MonoPrice Maker Select V2, Plus, Ultimate)X4--Select mini X1, Anycubic photon X4, Wanhao duplicate D7 X1.
iNSTONE Inventor Pro X2, CTC Dual X2, ANET-A8, Hictop 3DP-11, Solidoodle Press, FLSUN I3 2017X1

17

Re: DIY Strife

So all these lead screws that I looked at in the DIY stores were all suddenly caked in zinc coating and that's no good. Looks like I got to wander down to the engineering works and see if they have any stock stuff.

In the meantime, I have managed to get the PC finished (built) I just need to install an operating system. First thing I will be trying is if the board connects to the PC... If it doesn't, it looks like I will have to break out my other arduino 2560 board and utilize it with the driver boards I have.

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.