Hello
I bought a CNC router (2000mm X 3000mm) without a breakout board, What is the best breakout board available now?
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Hello
I bought a CNC router (2000mm X 3000mm) without a breakout board, What is the best breakout board available now?
I have no idea of the best but would suggest that anybody replying with a recommendation should list at least one other board they have used as a comparison.After all,if you asked a butcher whether you should buy fish or meat for your supper what would you expect him to say?
I suspect you need the entire electronics package and not just a breakout board
traditionally breakout boards just enable you to connect a PC printer port to your stepper motor drivers
Are you looking for an all in one breakout board and 4 axis stepper drivers ?
At one end of the spectrum you have cheap chinese boards using TB6560 stepper IC's that may not last very long
Running off a 24V DC power supply your not going to step the motors very quickly
see this thread
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/gener...-software.html
At the other end you have the Geckodrive G540 or the newer Leadshine MX4660
using a 48V supply for the G540 or 60V supply for the MX4660 will be an advantage
The other question is what spindle motor are you going to use ?
A 3 phase spindle motor with a VFD drive or small DC motor with a PWM speed controller ?
How many mains outlets do you need to be CNC controlled - eg for vacuum dust extractor
If you want to use a USB or ethernet connection instead of PC parallel printer port
use an original version of a motion controller like Warp9 tech designs smooth stepper (EES) or cncdrives UC300
With hacked chinese copies can find your on your with own with little or no support
John
If you plan on using a motion controller like an ESS or UC300ETH, then CNC Room makes the best ones for those devices.
HelloQuote:
Originally Posted by john-100
First thanks for answering and explaining
Second, I only need a breakout board because I have the full electronic (driver spindle vfd.. ). As for the spindle motor, it is a 3 phase with a VFD Delta
I will attach pictures to you so I need my advice regarding the best breakout board available now
You still aren't helping us to help you. You show some basic stepper drivers and a vfd. You can run all of those with a cheap Chinese $6 breakout board, but it might not be the best one for the controller you are using or for your ultimate goals. What we need to help you is:Quote:
Originally Posted by tah306
What control software/hardware are you going to use? Grbl, Mach 3/4, UCNC, LinuxCNC, parallel port, smoothstepper, Arduino?????
What do you ultimately want? 3axes, 3 limit switches, probe input, spindle dir and speed, coolant control, other???
What control software/hardware are you going to use?Quote:
Originally Posted by 109jb
I use mach3, parallel port
What do you ultimately want?
3 axes, 3 limit switches, probe input, spindle dir and speed
for a parallel port breakout board, PMDX has long been considered to be one of the best. Not sure if they've updated their design in the last 10 years, though, as very few people still use parallel ports. Those that do, usually want something really cheap.
CNC4PC makes a lot of parallel port breakout boards, which are used by a lot of people.
Using Mach 3 and parallel port and those limited features and you can use just about any parallel port board you want. The real deciding factor is the VFD spindle. With that, some breakout boards can interface directly with the VFD while others cannot.Quote:
Originally Posted by tah306
You asked for the best, well I don't have experience with the best, but I can give you a link to the cheapest that will achieve what you listed
https://www.amazon.com/Breakout-opti...s%2C198&sr=8-6
I have one of these on my mill and it has performed flawlessly for years but I don't currently use it for spindle control. I bought another one for a new project and will be using all inputs and all outputs including spindle for this new project.
The breakout board has 5 inputs, 12 outputs. One output (pin1) can be PWM or 0-10V for direct connection to VFD. Another can be a general output or used to activate a relay for something like coolant, air blow, vacuum, etc.
So your requirements of 3 limits and a probe takes up 4 inputs. For 3 axes you have 6 outputs plus one enable output. For the VFD you can have 2 general outputs for forward and reverse, and one PWM/0-10V output for speed. So you would have one input left, and 2 outputs remaining.
the VFD for the spindle gives you a wider choise of breakout boards
with machines using sieg FC250J speed control board for example
you need a breakout board with a PWM to analogue 0-10V converter that's totally isolated from the rest of the board and can withstand mains volfages
your VFD will have its own built in isolation so a chinese board like this would work
Attachment 421306
with your stepper drivers having opto-isolated inputs I would not use a breakout board with opto-isolated outputs
unless the BOB's output opto-isolators are a high speed type - not the slow PC 817
Another possible solution if you don't want opto isolated inputs would be CNC4PC's
C11G or C10 bob plus C6 variable speed control
old versions with socketed IC's has the advantage that you can easily replace the IC's if you have an accident
both options gives you 2 relays to control the spindle and an analogue 10V control
the other question is do you want to have a watchdog / charge pump circuit as on the C11G to guard against the loss of the PC / mach control ?
John
Thank you all for replies
John, thank you for your suggestion.Quote:
Originally Posted by john-100
What board is this one above in the picture?
Mine existing one does not support PWM, unfortunately. So I'm looking for an upgrade.
Thanks!
Michael