I'd been living with some issues on my NM-200 for several years - no estop, ref switches not working, occasional lockups. So when I had to drive up to Toronto in April I took the CD100 control box with me. Met John at the shop, and he quickly confirmed to me that the sensors on the BOB were bad. I decided to leave the unit with him, and ordered a new BOB to be shipped to him from CNC4PC.com.

After some weeks waiting for customs both ways, I got the unit back. estop and ref switched working, but spindle refused to turn on. Last night with John on the phone, we diagnosed the problems (loose wire, bad Mach config) and the spindle is now working. I still need to adjust the BOB's output voltage (via an on-board pot) to make the spindle speed correspond with the commanded speed, but I'm pretty happy with the support I've gotten. I'll be interested to see the lockup issue had gone away. Usually it would occur after the mill was standing unused for a period of time, and needed a Mach restart to come back to life.