After repairing my Due, I have been getting it set up with the Getech v1A RAMPS-FD.
I'm not impressed with the Getech board, apart from the issues previously noted, poor washing, sub-spec components for power connectors and substitutes for recommended MOSFETs, when I replaced the power connectors I discovered that the quality of the soldering is *really* bad. All the joints are quite dry. That is difficult to fix, it would need the whole board reworking.
To cap it off, I was struggling to get the SPI working for the SDRAMPS adapter. I discovered the problem was a break in the track for SCLK. The track was etched to nothingness at one point. I couldn't see any other broken tracks, but breaks are hard to spot if under silkscreen or connectors etc. Such a break should have been spotted if they had tested the PCB before assembly (or after!) so I guess they don't.
I don't like to use the term "pile of junk", but I really would not recommend anyone to buy the Getech boards, unless you fancy spending time debugging random problems and solder rework!
I appreciate Getech's attempt to bring lower prices to the customer, but if costs are cut too far quality suffers and then it becomes a net waste of time and money. If they built a better board for $50 it would still be good value.
I'm not impressed with the Getech board, apart from the issues previously noted, poor washing, sub-spec components for power connectors and substitutes for recommended MOSFETs, when I replaced the power connectors I discovered that the quality of the soldering is *really* bad. All the joints are quite dry. That is difficult to fix, it would need the whole board reworking.
To cap it off, I was struggling to get the SPI working for the SDRAMPS adapter. I discovered the problem was a break in the track for SCLK. The track was etched to nothingness at one point. I couldn't see any other broken tracks, but breaks are hard to spot if under silkscreen or connectors etc. Such a break should have been spotted if they had tested the PCB before assembly (or after!) so I guess they don't.
I don't like to use the term "pile of junk", but I really would not recommend anyone to buy the Getech boards, unless you fancy spending time debugging random problems and solder rework!
I appreciate Getech's attempt to bring lower prices to the customer, but if costs are cut too far quality suffers and then it becomes a net waste of time and money. If they built a better board for $50 it would still be good value.