Dr Tony introduced us to the Marlin firmware, the firmware created by many computing scientists for the utility of the 3D printer. In Ramps 1.4, the five motors were controlled by x, y, z, E0 and E1 (with E representing the extruder). The extruders and the x,y, and z were coded differently in the Marlin firmware – with the extruder being able to turn the peristaltic pumps in the way that we desired – hence if we were to use the Marlin firmware, we had to undergo the tiring process of converting x,y,z to extruders.  

The other alternative was to program the pump from scratch (thank you, coders). This way, the steps taken together with the volume dispensed by the pump would be standardised for all five motors connected to x, y, z, E0 and E1. The coding for the peristaltic pump was then settled.