Does anyone know if the xPro can be used to run external drivers. I like the board well enough but I will need more current capacity than what the onboard drivers are limited to.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for boards that will accept external drivers (that are not Breakout Boards, I'm trying to avoid Mach 3, I do not want to be reliant on a parallel port). I'm currently looking at the following three boards. CNC xPRO V2 CNC xPRO V2 Controller Stepper Driver I'm considering this board as it's sold through the parts store and we seem to have some folks on the forums that are using it. Smoothie Board 4X Smoothieboard - Smoothie Project I really like this board, the fact it is open hardware is appealing to me, but they are currently out of stock in North America. PiBot PiBot Controller Board Rev2.0 (CNC and 3D Printer 2 in 1) This board seems interesting, but I'm looking for some feedback from anyone that's actually used one.
Hello @Paul Stoller, Check out the post here: GRBL driver shields? . I'm still working on a write up of the limit switches. -Ronald
Thank you for the info, I had come across the protoneer shield for the raspberry pi not too long ago, but wasn't sure how hard it would be to wire it up to external drivers. I really like the idea of going that route as the Pi can add a lot of nice connectivity options to the machine.
O yes, for sure. I'm using a net-book (Atom 1.6Ghz, 2GB, 10" screen) for communication and I'm going to use the G-code "sender" build into ESTLCAM.