[EZMEF]

I’m looking to add a break out board for my ESS.

I have Gecko g540 and smooth stepper ESS, Mach4.

I was looking at the c25 and the c25s from cnc4pc,

Does anyone know the difference between these boards. I like that they plug right into the ESS.

Thx EZ

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
not a great deal of difference between them.

They occupy Ports 1 and 2 of the ESS. Port2 pins 2-9 are assumed as inputs only.

The C25 plugs down directly on top of the ESS and connects to Ports 1 &2 but obscures Port 3. Thus if you wanted to use your G540 in Port 3 the port is physically obstructed by the BoB.
The C25S on the other still plugs into Ports 1 & 2 but does not obscure Port 3.

Neither the C25 nor the C25S have any relays nor PWM to analogue conversion circuits. They are extremely basic and that is reflected in their price.

An MB3 breakout board by CNCRoom also plugs in directly to the ESS, but with all three ports occupied. It has a good balance of inputs and outputs. All the motor Step/Direction outputs are
differential, just the ticket for servos or highspeed steppers, have relays for spindle control and a quite sophisticated isolated PWM to analogue conversion circuit. Where the C25/C25S are basic
the MB3 is 'full house' but also costs more at $196USD

I made my own breakout board. It has six differential Step/Direction output pairs, six servo alarm inputs, 25 24VDC sourcing inputs, 4 uncommitted 24V sourcing/sinking (50mA) outputs, an Enable output (for the servos),
a Reset output (for the servos), a relay for spindle control and highly linear PWM to analogue output for spindle speed. Not counting my time it is probably about half the cost on an MB3.

Craig

[EZMEF]

I see the difference, now.
I’m just looking to add a few inputs, I don’t need all the other stuff.


I do have a few more questions.

Right now I have a ribbon cable from port 1 of the ESS to gecko g540. Should I get the c25s to leave port 3 open?

Can I connect the ribbon cable from port 3 to the g540?

Then I’m assuming that I can connect all my home/limit wires to the C25s BoB. Also connect the wires from the probe that I’m going to add.


The reason I’m adding a BoB is because one of my input ports on my g540 is burned out, I need 4 input ports with the new probe, I only have 3 on the g540.

Thx EZ.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

I’m just looking to add a few inputs, I don’t need all the other stuff.

Heard that before....in fact said that myself before!!!! and was wrong. Eventually you want it all. Your choice.

Can I connect the ribbon cable from port 3 to the g540?

Yes, I think you can.

Should I get the c25s to leave port 3 open?

I think that is the correct approach, but then again I don't actually have either a C25 or a C25S, so I don't know for sure that the Port 3 IDC header remains exposed in order for you to plug
in a cable.

I need 4 input ports with the new probe, I only have 3 on the g540.

The G540 is as has been a venerable workhorse for many hobbyists....buts its starting to look very limited, especially if an input is burnt out.

An MB3 or something like my BoB avoid all those problems.

Craig

[EZMEF]

If I build another machine I will add all the goodies.

I’m contacting cnc4pc about port 3. They were very quick at responding to my last question.

Looking at cnc4pc website and the response from them. Same electronics, the C25S does leave room for access to port 3. The C25 has same electronics different layout which blocks access to port 3. Why???.

Thx for helping and sharing, EZ

[EZMEF]

Cnc4pc responded quickly.

Using a C25s, I can plug the ribbon cable into port 3 and change the configuration to map it to that port.

[EZMEF]

So I got my break out board, C25S.

I pulled the ribbon cable from port 1 of ESS and put it on port 3 of ESS. In ESS configuration, I redirected my outputs to port 3 .this ribbon cable goes directly to my G540.

In ESS configuration I had to disable my limit switches to get my motors to work. My motors do work properly now.

The ESS configuration of the limit/home is in the pic below. I left these the same, because I put the wires on to port 1 of the Bob and used the same PIN numbers on the BoB as the PIN numbers in the configuration. (Example, port 1-pin 11)

So a couple of questions. How can you tell if the BoB has power? I did put the jumper on the ESS to power up the BoB for port 1, per instructions from ESS.

If you look at the wiring diagram below. I just took the wires off the g540 and put them on the corresponding pins on port 1 of the BoB.

I’ve got 3 wires from my limit/home switches. One wire connects to the shielding of the cable, this connects to chassis ground. Another wire, now goes to BoB (port 1-pin11,example) and the other wire goes to v- on the power supply.

On the BoB, I see some of the pins say GND. Do I need a wire from v- to the BoB GND?

My g540 is wired exactly like the pic below for port 10, 11 and 12.( g540 power and E-stop)
Like I said, I pulled the wires from g540 port 1,2 and 3 (limit/home) and put them on BoB.

Do I need a v- or a GND wire to the BoB?

[arturod]

The only difference between the C25 and C25S is the footprint and terminals, they have the same electronics. The reason is that the C25S was made to make it compatible with the footprint of the warprunner. They are simple boards, Just the I/Os, LEDs on I/Os, and good buffering on outputs. It would be great if +5vdc TTL logic worked for you. You can use the G540 on LPT3 of the ESS.

Arturo Duncan
https://cnc4pc.com