I started working on a Bill of Materials. The problem I was finding with the I3 was there were quite a few variations. I believe I have narrowed it down to the MK2S version and I need to come up with a BOM for that. I selected that one because it seems to be a good balance between ease of parts acquisition and sturdiness/features of the printer.

In regards to my current printer, I remembered something about removing a diode if you wanted to power it externally, so I did a little digging. There's a diode on the RAMPS board that if removed, requires the printer to be plugged into a computer. However, the advantage is that the USB power and the main printer power are separated. I decided to go with this since I was pretty paranoid after having the printer blow up the USB port, keyboard, and trackpad of a laptop I had used. While attempting to remove it, it seems I accidentally loosened a capacitor, so I went and pulled out a spare RAMPS board and successfully removed the diode on that.

I went ahead and plugged in the board into the printer and hooked up the wires for the hot end and heated bed and placed the first stepper motor driver into it. Then I played around with plugging various motors in until I had the first axis working correctly. I continued doing this for the other axises and extruder. Then I got the end stops plugged in and finally the temperature sensors. Each time I unplugged the printer between installing stepper motor drivers or plugging in motors so I wouldn't damage anything. I was able to get all of the functions working correctly. I went ahead and adjusted the power screws on the stepper motor drivers. While doing that, I noticed something strange. While I touched a screwdriver to the screw, if the motor was attempting to move, it would play some foreign radio station through the motor.

After everything was set up, I loaded Slic3r and entered my printer settings and decided to print a cube for testing out the dimensions. It went terribly wrong. The infill wasn't printing very good. I slowed the printing down for the inside and increased the heat. I then tried again and it was a bit better, but failed mid-print because it shifted over a few millimeters. I increased the power to the X-Axis since that was the axis it slipped on. I still have a few more things I want to try such as different filament and slowing down the speed. If that doesn't work, I may try a one of my newer how ends. It appears I can take the bowden tube holder out and it should fit right in. However, it's a little taller, so I would have less print area height-wise.

I want to make sure I can print off the printer parts for the I3 before I spend any money on the hardware, so this will be my focus. I'm quite certain I can do it if I adjust enough things.