Hi Mike,
I received my board today ... Thank you so much!
Can you tell me What software was meant to be used with the USB input. I have been using the Mach 3 with the parallel port setup, and never the USB port.
Thanks for all of your support!
Jim

 

I received my populated xPRO yesterday (well, picked it up yesterday while it came in a day or so earlier).

It is about to go into the myOX build as the Arduino with CNC shield does not seem to drive the steppers. Here's hoping the xPRO makes the task that much easier for me. GRBL Controller is communicating ok with the Arduino and should do as fine with the xPRO.

 

It worked right out of the box !

I pulled the Arduino/CNCshield out and dropped in the xPRO. I connected one stepper directly while an other through the cable I had made and thought was the problem when trying the Arduino path. Loaded GRBL Controller on the MacBook and ... tada ... steppers are stepping !

I might be sick tomorrow, unable to go to work, as I look at the work left to get my myOX making chips.

 

Well, I ended going to work ... bad idea, but bills have to get paid somehow.

 

Good afternoon all,

Firstly, brilliant work on the controller.

With myself looking into making a CNC router and having stumbled onto here (great resource by the way). I'm intrigued with this little controller.

I was wondering if these are going to go into production (and if so what are the prices going to be like) or if not are the schematics for the PCB's available?

I only ask as I'm in the process of costing a router at the moment and think this little chappy would be perfect.

Regards,

Mr Me (D Jvr)

 

This is definitely the controller I'm going to put into my OX build. The last shipments of my mechanical installation should arrive early next week.

 

@dawie22
I'm in the same boat as you dawie. I took a break from building custom gaming PCs for people for a few years, and just recently decided to get back into it. I saw during my absense that the "competition" has heated up a fair bit, so in order to bring me back into the top tier of builders, I decided that I had to go with some extreme builds. So in order to do that, I decided to get into custom case building as well, which brought me to using nice compact power tools. I have a Rigid 1.5HP hand router which is perfect size for anything I need to do, but I found that my hand routing skills were not quite up to snuff, so I started looking around, and came across this site too. Only took a couple hours of digging around to figure out that the OX is the system for me. I started gathering everything up. The only thing left to arrive is my OX plates from a fantastic shop over in Calgary which is laser cutting the plates for me out of 1/4" aluminium, and 1 pack of 25 T-Nuts coming in from Protodrake.
I've decided to make myself an all in 1 solution. Design - Cut. So, I am placing a custom rack mount liquid cooled computer inside my "router table" which will act as both a design system, and controler for the OX. Once my physical build is completed, I'm going to get this controler, mount it inside the computer case where I'll be able to properly provide more than adequate cooling for it, and start cutting up some acrylic and aluminium for my next showpiece build.

@Michael

Thanks! I'm sooooooo looking forward to completing this build, and cutting some stuff up! I had my dad help me with cutting the V-Slot because he has all sorts of fancy dancy saws n stuff because in his retirement, he has taken up woodworking hardcore. When I'm done mine, and he sees how well it works for me, he is wanting me to see about a 4' x 8' version that we could create. I'm thinking that could be a fun challenge to try out!

 

Hey Justin.
Normally, I would agree with you. But I'm far from normal. The computer I'm using for this project is just spare parts I have kicking around. AMD 1090t 6 Core proc with 16Gb RAM, and an AMD HD 4890. It's going to be running headless (I will be controlling the system with VNC, and it will be on it's own DMZ Subnet and therefore completely isolated from the rest of my network, and the internet). My OX is going to be setup in a little chamber I'm creating for this project with a dedicated dust collection system. (aka shop vac) Also, the radiators for the liquid cooling have their tubing running out of the chamber so there will be no dust or debris to clog up the rads, and as such no fans or normal heatsinks on the PC itself to get clogged up from any debris that may find it's way outside of the cutting chamber. I'll be doing most of my cutting and stuff in the evenings, and overnight hence the separate chamber for the OX. going to try and make it as soundproof as I possibly can. Thankfully my neighbours are all in their 80's, and nothing but open fields across the road.

 

Aaaaaah! They are out of stock now. Do you know when you will have more in stock?

 

Mike, when driving the CNC xPro with ATX power supply, what voltage does the xPro controller use to drive the steppers? 12V or 24V? If 12V, does it mean I need a a 24V power supply to drive steppers with decent amp/speed? Thanks

 

Mike,

I am in the process of connecting the limit switches, this may be a dumb question but do I set up the switches to complete or break the circuit? Also, for the OX are there any of the jumpers or settings I need to tweak for the machine.

I do have the board running and can move all of the Axis [carefully] and I have a nice 3D printed enclosure for the board. I will post a photo once I get the wire nest cleaned up a little inside.

 

Actually, "more" would of included the possibility of putting more than one switch in ... parallel - as in one at each extremity of the possible movement. The goal being to stop movement no matter which switch is being triggered. Where the logic (program) keeps track of the actual travel direction, it could figure out which limit switch was triggered.

In the case of myOX, I'm planning on having 'stoppers' that can be positioned depending on the mode being used since myOX could be working in the deep opening in the middle of my table rather than the full width, hair over 4', or its 2+' length.

 

I think I figured a somewhat simple, maybe too simple, way. Details over at myOX. Basically : sliding stopper on respective V-slot with the limit switches on the moving part so they are mounted in a fixed location... Just loosen stopper, slide to new position and tighen.

Now the trick is how to mount the limit switches in just the right places, not to be triggered by the chips and dirt ...

 

I connected one of the switches and hit a jog of 10mm and pressed the switch while it was moving and nothing happened...
With the switch wired up, i can touch the 2 terminals with my multimeter and get no continuity. If I press the switch, I get continuity.

I'm confused!

Any one able to take a high quality photo of the back of their board? Mine is mounted already and I need to see how to set the jumpers and it would require a total dismantle of the box to get the photo

 

On the Pause, Resume, and Abort buttons, Should they be momentary switches or On/Off switches?

 

Michael,
Thank you for the help. I will go check that now.
By the way, for those of you connecting to the limit switches, are you soldering direct to the switch or using a female spade connector? I have looked and the smallest I have seen listed is an 18-20 fitting. That seems a little to big for these connectors. They are less than 5mm wide.

 

IT"'S ALIVE... MWHahahah....erm... Sorry!
That did it Michael

 

I keep going to the Kickstarter page which has the image : https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets...b10d6840a0b1475c204d5d61_large.png?1400262949

 

FYI, here's the link to the xPro wiki:
https://github.com/Spark-Concepts/xPRO/wiki/2.-Connecting-CNC-xPRO

 

Good score!

 

Is there an ideal "minimum" atx psu to be used for this controller? IE all 4 drivers being used at near max capacity, is there a minimum wattage psu recommended or perhaps a certain amperage on the 12v rail or something to that effect. I have access to a few spares, but what is good enough?

 

From Mike @ Spark:
The main thing for spec-ing out the ATX PSU is the AMP rating on the +12V line. Anything over 12A will do. Most supplies above 400W provide this amperage.
Personally I like this one from Newegg -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822008&cm_re=atx_20%2b4-_-17-822-008-_-Product
The CNC xPRO can also be powered from a standard 12/24V supply like these two from OpenBuilds:
http://openbuildspartstore.com/12v-30a-power-supply/
or
http://openbuildspartstore.com/24v-20a-power-supply/