[neilb]

hey guy's

new to the forum and to cnc, i have a 3d printer and have been using rhino 5 for 2 years, also have fusion 360 which i am learning to use. so my questions are:-

i am converting my rf-31 bench top mill to cnc (been done many many times) so i have lots of information on that. but what i am finding i need help with is the electronics side of it.

i am doing my ball screw conversion now and have my stepper motors, drivers and power supplies. i would like to use my spare laptop to run this, so my questions are... which is best?

earthnet motion controller?

usb motion controller?

what is a break out board? and do i need one?

do i have to use mach 3? or can i use fusion 360 to run this thing lol

i'm sure there are plenty of other questions but this will do for now...

thanks in advance



neil

[CS900]

Hi Neil,
Welcome to the forum. There's lots of good people and information here so I'm sure we can get you on your way.

So before I get to your questions, let me try and explain the "work flow" that your CNC will need.

Fusion 360 is the CAD/CAM. it creates the actual Gcode that mach3 will read. Fusion itself will not directly run your CNC. Mach3 will than take that gcode and interpret that into motion commands for the steppers. If you are using a motion controller mach3 will send that info to the motion controller for it to do all the heavy computing. Either mach3 (or the motion controller) will generate the command pulses that your stepper drives will need. The breakout board is used as an easy way to take those signals and wire them to the stepper drivers.


Fusion 360--> mach3--> (motion controller if you have one)--> break out board--> stepper driver--> steppers -->fun!

For the motion controller there are LOTS of options. I run mach3 and I'm very fond of the ethernet smoothstepper but I have also had good luck with the UC100 USB controller. The UC100 is cheaper, but it has a pretty limited number of I/O connections. The ESS on the other hand has lots of I/O points but is kinda pricey. You actually don't HAVE to run either. If you are running mach3 and your computer has a parallel port you can run it right off there, but I think the investment into the motion controller is well worth it.

[neilb]

thanks for the reply CS900,

i don't have a motion controller as yet as i was waiting for the site to come back on lol, i am looking at the earthnet UC400ETH. it seems relatively well priced compared to anything else that you can buy in australia lol. $229 aud which i think is acceptable as long as it does what it say's on the tin, or box. so i'm guessing i need to buy a breakout board or can i wire the stepper drivers to the motion controller?

along with MACH3 which i gather has been around for a long time and used by many with great success, i am going to ask about UCCNC software? anyone have this? anyone have any experience with this?

thanks in advance

[OlfCNC]

thanks for the reply CS900,

i don't have a motion controller as yet as i was waiting for the site to come back on lol, i am looking at the earthnet UC400ETH. it seems relatively well priced compared to anything else that you can buy in australia lol. $229 aud which i think is acceptable as long as it does what it say's on the tin, or box. so i'm guessing i need to buy a breakout board or can i wire the stepper drivers to the motion controller?

along with MACH3 which i gather has been around for a long time and used by many with great success, i am going to ask about UCCNC software? anyone have this? anyone have any experience with this?

thanks in advance

UCCNC does what it says. I'm running it on 2 machines one plasma and one router and it is far superior to mach3. I have used both softwares.
Ethernet is better than USB due to noise immunity.
Yes you need a breakout board to connect sensors and switches.

[neilb]

thanks OLFCNC,

i'm just researching breakout boards right now, minefield springs to mind! it's quite confusing the first time doing this.

does anyone have recommendations for a breakout board to work with a UC400ETH along with the UCCNC software?

thanks in advance