[mr_westie]

Not sure if this is in the right place as there are a 'few' area to post.

A continuation of this thread so the other one does not get too off topic
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72555

After sv1eps report of damaged I inspected mine.

- -

No damage but could have been better packed.
The spindle motor in it's own bag so I don't have to fish out foam beads.

Bits from thinktink.com
Won't be ably to go much further till the weekend.

[jalessi]

mr_westie,

Who did you buy the machine from?

Please post a link.

Jeff...

[PeterBKK]

I moved my post to http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96821

Peter

[mr_westie]

Sorry, my bad. Was mentioned in the other thread.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=110389535528
http://stores.ebay.com/verycnc

us$200 shipping to NZL.
Gotta love China Govt subsidised shipping

All up us$780 Landed.
Didn't get stung by customs so I was very happy.

[jalessi]

mr_westie,

Is it all aluminum construction including the table?

What is included?

More pictures would be awesome too.

Welcome to the Zone,

Jeff...

[htrantx]

What is included?

Jeff...

I think they have two models. This one they asked for $780. It seems to be in all alum.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CNC-router-engra...3%3A1|294%3A30

ht

[Valisk]

Any progress mr_w?

If you and Theo have positive comments then I'll be buying...

[Dougal]

I'm watching with interest. Good to see some more kiwis here.

[mr_westie]

God has it been that long?
Finally made space and some time to get this thing going.
It 0730 on a Sunday, see how far I can get today.

Have unpacket, connected and powered on.
Used the controls on the box to test movement.
Looks all good.
Just need to do the ground mod to the board.

Not it's final resting place, just testing location for now.
-

Info compiled by rayellam
http://www.island-instruments.com/stuff/TonsonCNC/

[mr_westie]

Didn't get very far as I suspect the Parallel port on the laptop may be bad.

Will have to grab something tomorrow.

[mr_westie]

The laptop printer port tested ok with a printer but I set up on a desktop just in case.

Got furthur.
The diagnostic screen show a state change when I push the emergency stop button.
I loaded up a demo file and hit run.
It move the machine. IT's ALIVE.

Now to setup the rest of the settings.
This learning curve looks pretty steep.

Might look at EMC later.

Will keep you posted.

[srk2040]

I bought a 3020T, it has Tonsen driver and control board.
Two of my driver boards are dead and no solution to replacement.
It's TA3977.
Picture included.
Has anyone found a replacement site or a suitable replacement board?

[eubelhor]

Hello srk2040, you can buy the board from the link below. I have purchased a couple of boards from here as I have had a similar issue. the boards are pricey unless you can find them on toaboa.
2.5A stepping stepper motor driver for tonsen mini cnc engraving machine accessory of cnc router machine-in Other Electronic Components from Electronic Components & Supplies on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

I found the tonsen machines to be best for doing small parts. I had issues with missing steps. Replaced all tonsen boards with gecko ones recently.

[srk2040]

Yes, I found the replacement board from Alibaba, soon after I posted the message. Since then the replacement boards have tested it with much success.
I'm still learning how to make this machine work to my satisfaction but having hard time working with Mach3 in general since there's lack of information on both youtube and here on cnczone.
Specifically, I'm trying to use it for PCB and I have no idea how to set the depth and home area. It's been hit or miss thing and I wish something was more consistent with Mach3.

When I purchased this, it came without the end stop and I plan to modify this with end stop and z-axis touch homing sensor. Again Youtube shows lot of these modification are done but it lacks detail for me to duplicate their modifications.

[mr_westie]

It's ALIVE

Easy once you know how.

From eagle to paper.


Please excuse the camers phone's quality.

Update:
The laptop now works, user error, I didn't know how to drive Mach3 at the time.

[mr_westie]

There is room for improvement

-Optimize the g code conversion.
-Flatten the work area better.

[mr_westie]

I am happy

About the smallest component I can hand solder.



Milled with a 60deg bit from T&T
http://www.precisebits.com/products/...oreengrave.asp

[Valisk]

Thanks very much for posting this info!

I take it that you agree with Ray - you would reccommend the Tonsen?

[sv1eps]

I'm wondering if anyone could help me with my new Tonsen machine. I bought it 6 months ago and now I'm trying to activate it with my laptop and a pcmcia card OX12PCI840 PCI Parallel port. I'm using Windows XP SP3. The problem is that stepper motors seems to stack and to move like they have a block. They are moving very nervous and sometimes they stop but the counter in the Mach program continue to count.
The manual control of the Mach program, controls the stepper motors the same way like the auto milling procedure. Sometimes in the auto situation, it moves smoothly the steppers when I pressed several times the tab key (open/close the manual window).
I'd tried to close all the running programs, security programs, internet and I left running only the Mach. But the same bad behaviour of the machine happened again.
Could anyone help me?
Thank you.
Theofanakis Konstantinos

[sanderz]

Things seem to have gone quiet about this machine. Anybody have anything else to say about it now that thye have had it for a while, I'm considering buying one for small scale pcb prototyping and doing plastic box engraving for mounting electronics.

Interested in seeing more pictures and opinions from everyone before I drop 1k or more onto a machine.

Cheers

Sanderz