Hi all When Mark was building the OX he used a grblShield v.5, but was saying at the time that he may update it as the Nema 23 would need more current (Amps) than this board could provide. My build is still scattered around my living room, but I just bought the board from Adafruit in the US ($89 including UPS fees) about £59 + £23.70p Customs and Excise duty. (thieves) (it only weighed 45 grams) So if I have to get another board, I'll hunt for one here in the UK. Thanks. Michael.
I am now using the xPRO board (will be back in stock in a couple days) on my OX and really like it. It runs the 23's with no problems I also have other machines running the CNC USB boards with Planet CNC drivers (soon to be available on the Part Store) Hope this helps Mark
Thanks Mark Of coarse it helps. I owned several boats when I was younger and building my first CNC router reminds me of the bottomless pit. There was always something that needed to be done or bought. How long did you use the original board for and what was the reason for getting the xPro instead. Thanks.
Further to my first post here, the board turned up this afternoon (Tuesday) damaged I'm afraid to say. Several pins on the bottom of the board were bent out of line. I have rectified them so I could attach the board to the Arduino. I have yet to connect it to my computer. As you can see in the photo, 6 or more pins are bent sideways on the top of the board. This was sent by Adafruit who I have complained to bitterly, in a Jiffy bag. You'd think a big company like them would know the harsh treatment their products have to endure at the hands of International carriers (UPS). At least put it in a plastic box like the Arduino came in. Wont be going back to them in a hurry. Can't return it as I will be robbed for a second time by Customs for more import duty.
Hi Fabian, Sorry to hear of the damaged board but glad to see your have it rebuilt. Hope that it works when you try it out. I still use the original board on my first OX build and its still working without problem. The main reason I am using the xPRO is that I was looking for an all in one (not a shield) robust control board thats being actively developed. So we found the xPRO and it works great and looks to have a promising future. It can get that way but I enjoy building machines and coming up with new machine ideas to solve problems and to be honest its a lot cheaper then most hobbies out there .A plus is that a lot of the machines can also produce products that can be sold to help support the hobby as well.
Thanks a lot Mark Well firstly I have some good news. Adafruit offered to replace the board, but I said no, because I would have to fork out another £23.70p to customs import duty. So they gave me a refund for the board + the amount I was charged for UPS ($89). So now I'm worried that I jumped the gun by posting that rant about Adafruit. Still can't do much about that now. They did send it in a crappy bag and not a nice little plastic box for its 3,000 mile journey. That refund will go towards an xPro board if the original board doesn't work out as planned. What you were saying about machines creating other components to support the hobby was one of the reasons I started this journey. I wanted to make a wooden toy to sell on Amazon both here in the UK and in the States. I think you all ready have a talent you haven't realized is a money maker and that is making video's. Without your excellent OX video I would never have contemplated doing anything so bold as building a cnc machine. Michael
