To get the free shipping on that item from Amazon you would of needed to order at least 35$ of eligible stuff anyways. The one good deal on Amazon, will minimal shipping cost, also comes from China ... with estimated delivery in late January/early February. With nearly 80 0rders with BangGood (what a name, eh ?) I had just one major delay (for a Husban quadcopter long ago - high demand?)

 

I have ordered from banggood before, but I have amazon prime so shipping would of been free from them. No big deal either way

 

Hello! Newbie here, planning my build... I am concerned about the fact that the Nema23 motors on the Openbuilds store are rated for 2.8A and the CNC xPRO's DRV8825 are only rated for 2.5A max (1.75A RMS)... So how does that work on the OX?
Also, looking into the 12V-vs-24V discussion above, I am wondering if it isn't better to eschew that ATX power supply and instead get one of these.
From my reading of the CNC xPRO specs everything can be driven from a single 24V supply, correct? And, is 15 amps enough?
(Sorry for the many questions - don't want to mess this up, as I am on an Extreme Budget)

 

The motors will handle up to 2.8A and the board can deliver up to 2.5A
What that means is that if you put some cooling in place you can crank up the current to 2.5A.
I tried to turn mine up to about 90% of max and they would go into thermo shut down. If I turn them back to about 70% everything is happy.
I did order but haven't had a chance to install some heat sinks, then I will play and see if I can go higher.
What this does for you is lets you run faster without loosing steps. I can't say how much because I don't know, but if you are running 30ipm I would think you might be able to run 40ipm if you can run about 90%.
What I had read was that 12v is slower than 24v, I never hooked up my 12v supply I went straight to the 24v. I don't have a problem I like my setup.
Oh yhea my supply is 24v 15amp no problems.

side note...
I think you will be happy with the cncpro or any grbl board. They are cheap, don't require expensive software to control the board. Many different choices I use grbl controller and like it.
Bet you are excited.
good luck have fun
Bob

 

Thank you very much! I appreciate the explanation. I am not too concerned about speed at this point, and I did order some heat sinks also so hopefully that will help.

I am totally excited and a little scared also because I just plunked down a solid chunk of change on this - I sure hope it works!

 

Is anyone using Vcarve Pro with CNC xPRO? Not sure of exactly how to use/create a post processor. Will the Vectric post processor files supplied for Shapeoko work?

 

After creating your toolpath, save it using the save toolpath icon (select it from the top list first) select the "G Code (mm) (*.tap)" post processor, give it a name eg. House.nc, (note the.nc extension) and save to disk. At other times I've jusst renamed it to .nc when I transfer it across to the computer running the CNC.
Hope this helps.
Ps. make sure you use the metric version if designed in mm other wise the first move is inches down into the work surface.

 

Hi Mike,
TLDR:
Xpro board driven @24V
Need 2 software controlled general purpose outputs 24V 56mA
GCode to do it and where to plug it.

Long version:
I have a hard time finding an extensive source of information on the XPro board. I use it to drive 4 motor with GRBL 0.9 and the controller. I am lost concerning the outputs on the board, what I am looking for is the general purpose outputs. Driving the board @24V, I am looking specifically for 2x24V outputs @ 56mA controlled by software and the Gcode associated with it. Can you point me in the right direction?

 

What is a shunt jumper? I would like to change to 1/16 step but don't know what you mean.

 

looking at the above comment, it refers to grbl 0.8. I noticed in wikipeadia grbl .9 that the hard limits and homing is $21 and $22 respectively
is this correct or is the wiki incorrect?

 

Here's a thought as I experienced a few situations with myOX - why do the limit switches 'kill' a job instead of just pausing it ?

If the limit switches triggered a 'PAUSE', the operator could then decide whether to 'CONTINUE' (as with an occasional false trigger, dirt getting in the way, etc.) or 'KILL' the job because the machine DID ram into the set boundary. In the latter case, the operator has no choice but start over. But in most instances, one could just continue as if nothing happened.

This should not be a big thing to program in. You could actually have a flag to let the user decide 'NORMAL' limit switch operation or the suggested 'PAUSE/CONTINUE' mode.

For now, I just turned the limit switches off as I am always watching myOX at work ready, at worse, to pull the plug.

 

Okay I need some help, I built the OX build and it is operational with a few flaws. Please keep in my this is my first CNC build and very new to this!

I used everything in the parts list for this build.

1. Steppers are cumbersome and noisy
2. Calibration/settings seems to be needed. When I design a 1" x 1" square in sketchup, the machine cuts something that is less than one inch on both x and y.I did the calculation and also checked other people's settings (on this thread) and we came out the same. What I am seeing is the machine says it is going 1mm when I give it the command to go to X1 Y1 Z1 but I am not getting the same results in reality... well at least I don't think so because of the square.

My thoughts on how to solve these issues, but we will see what you guys think.

1. I believe the Nema 17 and 23 are set for 1/8th step? Would changing to 1/16th step make it smoother? If so, how do I do this on the board? someone mentioned shunt jumpers or something?
2. Modify the settings? I did modify the x and y steps/mm to get that square to like 1.0013 or something but then the readout on the GRBL controller does not read 1mm.

My ox build is ready to cut out some cool things, I just need your guys help to tune it and make it run like I thought it would!

 

How do you perform this? I can get mach 3

Please guide me in what info you would like. I would be happy to provide any additional info but I am new and don't know what is useful. For starters:

12amp power supply
Attached is where my voltage settings for my steppers is. when the board is positioned normal the notches are set to the 11 o clock position.

 

How do I connect this board to mach 3? My laptop doesn't have a parallel port and from what I can tell the xpro only has usb output but again new to this so I could be totally wrong.

 

Here is a reply on another thread. I seem to still have two issues. CNC steppers lock up when I plug the machine in. It is like i have the wrong leads connected but I don't. This is a new occurrence. Any ideas? Second is EDIT LINE 2 below. I have the steps/mm down but my x axis is cutting out. It will go for partial of the command then stop. The Y axis will take over then it will just use the y axis when the codes on the job are called.

Is this another setting besides the steps/mm?

 

Okay I have solved the dying stepper issue. the current was turned up too much. My next questions is, why do my steppers move so rough? like they are actually stepping and it is not a fluid motion. looks and sounds jabby

 

How do you guys mount your xpro? Do you put it in a plastic box with a small fan on it? Can I wire the fan from the board's output? I got an ATX power supply from an old computer. Should I splice the wires to make them longer or is there a better way?

 

Pbmaster,

I had the same issue, and this has been discussed before in the main OX thread. Current and speed/acceleration settings seem to fix things up.

The GRBL wiki has some good info on testing for the best settings for speed and acceleration.
https://github.com/grbl/grbl/wiki/Configuring-Grbl-v0.9

I had similar "buzzy" z axis, which was cured with increased settings for speed/acceleration.

My settings that seem to be working well:

$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$110=7500.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=7500.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=2000.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=150.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=150.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=150.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)

More discussion of tuning is in the myOx build thread:
http://www.openbuilds.com/threads/myox-a-4-x-2-ox-with-potential.530/page-8

Also check out the discussions in the CNC xPro build:
http://www.openbuilds.com/builds/cnc-xpro-driver.643/

-- John

 

Indeed, but a false trigger, even if only occasional, should not be the case of having to restart the job. Continuing would make more sense unless the tool wondered between the limit switch trigger and the tool actually stopping. I would prefer having the option of continuing.

Investing in a Mach3 setup - software, USB module like the HyTechWorks HyCNC-6L if no parallel port is avail. plus the drivers and such, is still way down the road for me given the added cost. It seems adding a bit of code in GRBL to make the limit triggers more forgiving would be a nice upgrade for many at little to no cost nor being in the way of anything for those who could care less (and would turn off the feature).

Just a thought thinking CNC xPro could have this extra bit of code given some of its target audience (like me). It would be like using the limit switches in homing (it doesn't kill operation forcing a reset) but instead of nudging the tool to a home position it would either sit and wait for a manual 'continue' / 'kill' or act 'normal' stopping all.

 

Interesting as somewhere in the sleep deprived state of mind at this end as well there seems to be something of value even if not to be done exactly as described above.

The thing is I have thought of using the limit switches more of a virtual boundary for the somewhat larger work area of myOX. I would slide the appropriate physical limit switches along the respective axis to give me a bit of safety margin when working smallish work pieces. If the tool hits one of those bounds, I just want it to stop and let ME think about the situation rather than forcing me to restart everything. As an example, if I open myOX's bottom to work my Z down towards the ground instead of the usual 1 or 2 inches for 2.5D type work, the limit switches would basically make certain I don't start cutting into my table, keeping the tool within the 20'x20' or thereabouts 'mold work area'.

As such, your suggestion of wiring a bunch of 'sensor' switches to behave as one 'pause' (feed hold) with an over ride switch to let the job continue (maybe me adjusting the artificial boundary a bit wider so I could release the over ride switch at some point soon after the 'continue') or decide to 'kill' it for rethinking the job and starting it over from the beginning.

I'll have to chew a bit on that one ... there's gold in them sleep induced thoughts.

Sometimes, the simpler approaches, even if sleep induced, are the best ! I'm simple, why didn't I think of that ?

 

I mounted mine on the side of one of the Y gantry plates with a 'dust shield' in the works :



The photo above is the initial prototype with no opening for fan/filter and control 'panel' switches. Follow the link in my signature below for a bit more details.

 

What about build a box to hold everything? I am thinking put the power supply and controller in it with some buttons on top. Then run wires out for steppers and limit switches. Can you run a fan off the xPro board?

 

hmm ... as I clean the design of the dust shield, I should look at measurement of the power supply and see how I could integrate it ? Maybe have the fan for controller on the cover plate, blowing straight unto controller and have the power supply on the long vertical back face ... like a back pack of sorts ? The little wheels in my head are spinning on possibilities ... But let's get that moved to the resource, not here in CNC xPro thread. Thanks.

 

having a problem with grbl. I run some GCODE, seems to go fine, if I try to repeat the same code without reset, it appears to run in inches instead of metric. Looked through the code and cant find any g20 commands. Any clues? It is really getting annoying having to close and open. Also won't accept $21=1 which means I can't run my limit switches.

 

I wired up the pause/resume, abort. Etc buttons identical to the diagram but they don't work?

 

I am having trouble getting the cnc xpro to function. I have connected the correct power. Connected my stepper motors. And have made a sample gcode in sketchucam to try and test the motors. But even the manual controls will not do anything to the motors. Is this an issue with the board or something else? Grbl, upon opening the com4 port, is sending a CTRL-X command. Is this a faulty board or do I need to reflash it? and if the reflash is necessary, Where would I find the file?

 

@Michael Englmaier do you perhaps have the homing cycle active ($22=1)?
In that case, you need to run a homing cycle or unlock the machine sending a $x command to enable any move.