I'm curious what is a good way to use the Kraken, e.g. 4 filament extruder and controlling 4 heaters / thermistors. I've found a blog that shows a clever 2 stepper motor setup to switch which filaments are extruded / retracted, so you only need to control 5 stepper motors. But you will also need 3 more high power outputs on your controller board. Any advice or info on an compatible electronics board or "easy" solution? I bought a BeBoPr that only has 3 power outputs and thermistor inputs. I think most boards will be limited there too. The best way would seem to switch the thermistor / heater when switching the filament, so you can only control one of the four at the time. You could either use a mechanical 4 way switch to select them when the second stepper motor changes which filament to drive, or some kind of electronic relay(?). What would be a good solution? Probably the Kraken is way to advanced to even think about for a newbie like me, but I'd really like to print using multiple materials for filler material and multi color printing for patterns and flexible / rigid material. I'm confident I could handle the software side. Any info / link / ideas would be appreciated! http://coherent-reprap.blogspot.de/2014 ... lor-2.html https://github.com/CaptainChemist/CoherentExtruder
If you need all 4 HotEnds then yes, the Azteeg X3 is probably the way to go. That or the Duet (http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2013/12/ ... oller.html) which will be very future-proof, but is still a little experimental on the software side. When you first start out with the Kraken, the best thing to do is probably just run 2 or 3 nozzles off whatever electronics you have at the moment, you can always upgrade later!