I decided to go with the RAMPS setup. I bought an
assembled version from Ultimachine. It is basically just a breakout board for an Arduino Mega. The only active components are a couple MOSFETs for the heaters and some PTC fuses.
There are a lot of firmware and interface options. Right now I am going with
Sprinter firmware,
Skeinforge and
Printrun Interface. I know there are other options like
Marlin and
Slic3r, but I am only testing the basic funtions right now.
I'll post all the configuration changes I need to do soon.
So Far I have all three axes working at the right resolutions and directions. The extruder stepper and heater is working. I need to calibrate the extruder. The limits switches are working, but not mounted yet.