This may not answer your question(s) fully, but I hope that it will give you a start... ;)
A buddy of mine is also building his own RepRap style of the TAZ and would like to put it up for sale some day. We have discussed over and over which board to go with, as there are so many to choose from out there. Anyway, he decided that he is going to use the Megatronics board. When you look at the BOM for the TAZ, they clearly say that the RAMBO is their electronics board of choice. I like the RAMBO and was going to start building them myself for sale, but decided not to. I like the idea of having everything embeded into one single board. I think it's much cleaner and does not require you to have a separate hardware (Arduino Mega 2560). One thing I don't like about it is that if you "burn" one of the stepper drivers on the RAMBO, you would be stuck with either trying to "desolder" the chip and replace it, or buy a new complete board (which is probably what most folks would do) for another $150 or so.
On the RAMPS or Megatronics, if you burn one of the Stepper drivers, it's easily replacable. You simply buy another stepper driver board (some are really cheap now for as low as $3.00 (StepSticks) each on eBay). Meaning, you don't have to desolder anything and try to put the chip back in (which by the way these chips are really tiny and has a very fine pitch), or you won't have to purchase a new board and spend another $150. One last thing, I also read somewhere that the RAMBO is only capable of 1/8 microstepping while the RAMPS and Megatronics is at 1/16 (I am not 100% fully sure yet on this though). Anyways, just having the thought of having to replace the whole board when one driver blows, got my buddy convinced to not go with the RAMBO.
I have seen a long list of debate between the RAMPS and RAMBO, and they continue to get longer. I guess it's just really up to you. Are you planning on selling your printer(s) or are they primarily just for you to use?
Take care.
Romel
A buddy of mine is also building his own RepRap style of the TAZ and would like to put it up for sale some day. We have discussed over and over which board to go with, as there are so many to choose from out there. Anyway, he decided that he is going to use the Megatronics board. When you look at the BOM for the TAZ, they clearly say that the RAMBO is their electronics board of choice. I like the RAMBO and was going to start building them myself for sale, but decided not to. I like the idea of having everything embeded into one single board. I think it's much cleaner and does not require you to have a separate hardware (Arduino Mega 2560). One thing I don't like about it is that if you "burn" one of the stepper drivers on the RAMBO, you would be stuck with either trying to "desolder" the chip and replace it, or buy a new complete board (which is probably what most folks would do) for another $150 or so.
On the RAMPS or Megatronics, if you burn one of the Stepper drivers, it's easily replacable. You simply buy another stepper driver board (some are really cheap now for as low as $3.00 (StepSticks) each on eBay). Meaning, you don't have to desolder anything and try to put the chip back in (which by the way these chips are really tiny and has a very fine pitch), or you won't have to purchase a new board and spend another $150. One last thing, I also read somewhere that the RAMBO is only capable of 1/8 microstepping while the RAMPS and Megatronics is at 1/16 (I am not 100% fully sure yet on this though). Anyways, just having the thought of having to replace the whole board when one driver blows, got my buddy convinced to not go with the RAMBO.
I have seen a long list of debate between the RAMPS and RAMBO, and they continue to get longer. I guess it's just really up to you. Are you planning on selling your printer(s) or are they primarily just for you to use?
Take care.
Romel