I bought a cheap Chinese 3040 CNC off of eBay a few years ago and caught the bug. I've been lurking on here for months and learning and now I'm looking to upgrade to a bigger machine with a little more capability. I am planning to build a Workbee in the 1000x1000 format. I am going to start off with just a cheap Makita spindle and possibly look to upgrade to a water cooled VFD controlled spindle in the future (2200w/240v). Similarly, I also plan to start with lead screws and upgrade to linear rails if I ever decide to upgrade to the heavier spindle. For the steppers I have decided to just go for the beefier 346oz NEMA 23 off the bat because the cost difference is negligible. Will these heavier motors cause any flex in the aluminum extrusion?? Are they completely overkill for a machine of this size? I need 4 of the motors and each one has a peak draw of 3A. Will a single 24V/350W/14.6A PSU be enough to power the 4 motors or am I going to need more power? I feel like its enough but I see lots of kits online where they are recommended 2 PSUs for 4 motors. I plan on using an arduino+cnc shield and TB6000 drivers as the controller. Can anyone point me in the right direction here? Thanks in advance
Thanks. I had seen the BlackBox controller and I am considering that as well.. it would probably be about the same price once I factored in the cost of the enclosure to store all the electronics in (and my time). I had really only ruled it out as I heard it was better to have separate stepper drivers that can easily be replaced if 1 goes out instead of having to buy a whole new controller if one of the stepper drivers goes bad. Is that something that even happens often? What about my question above on the 345oz steppers? Are those completely overkill for this machine?
If you go with an arduino and separate drivers, there is no need for a CNC shield. Save the money and just use the pin-out on gnea/grbl
SO! The Blackbox was not a option at the time I bought all parts for my controller setup. I ended up going the Arduino Mega 2560 route with 4xTB6600 drviers and 4xNema 23@296 oz in steppers. I powered it with 2 24v 15a psu. I put 2 drivers per psu. I also have the Mega plugged into AC power. I probably could of ran all drivers on one PSU. But my thought was if you can use 2 PSU 50% draw its 100% efficient. Compared to running 1 PSU at close to 100% plus heat and possibly only be 75% efficient. I use a Mega shield and opti coupler board for the limit switches from the same vendor. As its been stated you don't need a shield but the one I bought was not that expensive and had nice screw down terminals and labeled and I didn't have to figure out how to attach wires to the Arduino to keep them solid. I built with Arduino controller to learn how things tick. I wanted to know when a part failed "I built it" I can figure out how to fix it. If I was not on a personal growth path to learn how to build with Arduino. I would buy the BlackBox. Really thought out and ready to go.
I would really like to know the answers to these questions as well. I share your concerns as the blackbox is a relatively high price item in relation to the machine itself.
BlackBox comes with a warranty unlike that special import drivers you were thinking of (; Driver failures on BlackBox is extremely uncommon: The output stage is protected with additional transient voltage suppression circuitry that protects the drivers against accidents, transients etc, its got way overkill thermal management so it doesnt suffer issues from heat (which kills most of the small pololu style drivers) and it has protection against short circuits, overcurrent, overtemp and low input voltage. Use a good quality power supply (cheapies overshoot on powerup), and don't spin motors by hand (only jog machine from software - motors act like generators and backfeed power into the drivers, kills any driver, this generic advice for any stepper driver), thats about the only two things to watch out for
Something to consider about the TB6600 drivers you see on the market. Most of them are not really built with the TB6600 chip. The real chip doesn't have 1/32 microstepping yet all those drivers seem to have it. Miracle?
I have leaned into the Blackbox direction myself for a few reasons. The one you mentioned above is support/warranty. The 2nd one I hadn't thought about before is just how compact the controller is. I'd never be able to get something that small with external stepper drivers. I plan to mount my CNC to a torsion box style table that can be flipped up out of the way when not in use. The more compact I can get the controller the better
Just wanted to confirm with everyone that I did end up getting the Blackbox during the Black Friday sale and couldn't be happier. Thanks for the advice. This thing is even smaller than I thought which is great! I got my 1010 workbee built and running last weekend and the plan this weekend is to build a table and get the spoilboard on there. I hope to be actually cutting something soon. I wanted to get the RoutER 11 as well but that thing sold out quick so I settled for a cheap knock-off makita for now until they are back in stock.
For the fear of invoking the wrath of the OB moderators.. a slightly (okay it's a littler over double....).. and if the Router11 is not available for some time.. there is always AMB.. I have zero relationship with them, other than being a customer. I have their 1.4HP 220v digital controlled spindle which I am happy with. They have a 1HP 110v version, both manual speed control, or digital (note the digital control one cannot be manually controlled at all, it must be turned on and speed set via the cnc controller). Note, it uses a 43mm mount (and there is a guy on the forums who sells them from Denmark, took about a week to make it to Maryland. I'll post a picture later.
Not to worry, AMB (aka Kress) spindles have been being discussed on this forum for a long time. Many of the EU users have opted for them. The only reason they are not more common in the US market is too many users either lack the 220V infrastructure needed to run the 1050 or are too cheap to dole out the $380 for the 110V model. (You'd be amazed as to how many of the users here operate off the $59 generic trim routers.)
I think supply is another problem.. As far as I can tell, only Midwestcircuitry sells them in the US. I think Stepcraft sells a Stepcraft branded version made by AMB or Maffel. The 220 should not be an issue. a long extension cord and a dryer plug.. which is what I am using right now.. I made the cord, it was to get me up and running while I waited on the circuit breaker to be shipped (a problem when you buy stuff not regularly stocked, I upgraded my house panel to the Leviton Smart Breaker system.. home depot sells them, but online only and they drop ship from Leviton in Nevada or something). When I split my massive garage in 2 and built a gym, I ran conduit to wire the gym, and tee'd off into the garage. Granted, I also have table/band saws, planer, jointer and couple of belt and spindle sanders. Most can use 220, but are wired for 110... Maybe I am the exception.. or I am weird.. and posting way too much till I start a new job
Hi all I am new to this world. I am building a laser engraver using an Arduino 2560 on the wiring the switches Reset/Abort, Feed Hold, Cycle start, coolant do these switches need to be latchable or momentary are they controlled by Grbl?
Under GRBL, the Reset / Abort, Feed Hold & Start (really Resume) switches are momentary. Coolant is an output.
