[SteveC68]

Their forum seems all but dead, however they still sell the kit version of their 3 and 4 axis controller on their website as well as ebay.

CNC Hobby Kits and Parts - A Quick CNC

I can find very little info on their controllers which seem reasonably priced. It looks like the interface is an IDC26 to DB25 cable which they sell on ebay only.

Steve

[North Country]

Their controllers use Unipolar drivers which are incredibly primative in this day and age. You are going to loose roughly 30 percent of the stepper motor rated output. The motor is only using one half of a motor coil for each direction. This was a cheap way to build drivers back in the 90s before dedicated ICs to drive stepper motors were produced. These use a dedicated unipolar IC but I have no idea why anyone would use a unipolar system.

[SteveC68]

So you would loose roughly 30% of holding torque then? Is that the only real drawback to a unipolar system?

[North Country]

What exactly are you trying to accomplish so I can give you a better answer.

[SteveC68]

I was thinking about using this on a JGRO machine.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/jgro-router-table-design/

with these steppers.

Nema 24 Dual Shaft CNC Stepper Motor 3.1Nm(439 oz.in) 24HS34-3008D|24HS34-3008D|Nema 24 Stepper Motors

[North Country]

1- Read the Wikipedia article on Stepper Motors. Learn the difference between Unipolar and Bipolar. wiring of the stepper along with serial and parallel wiring of the stepper coils. Then you want to learn Chopper technology which is how current is delivered to the motor from the driver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor
I did not see any information on parallel vs series wiring. Most motors have enough leads to be wired in any of these configurations.


2- No sense in buying unsupported old technology from a dying company just to save a few bucks. The board you saw is a actually driver board, somewhat wrongly labeled as a controller. You would still need Mach3 software or other to "control" it. Try downloading the spec sheet and instructions for it.

3- I bought one system from Stepper motors online and one from Wantai on ebay. Shopping around, I received great value. Look at this system from Stepper online. It contains the stepper motor you are considering:
3 Axis 3.1Nm(439 oz.in) Nema 24 Stepper Motor & M542T Driverr Kit For CNC Router|3-M542T-24HS34|3 Axis CNC Kits
It includes 3 state of the art M452T Drivers with chopper technology and microsteppeing. That is $100 of the package price. You can download the spec sheets and instructions right there. 20 to 30 dollars more than your bargain controller driver.

Shipping is expensive from China but if you are patient you can find suppliers on eBay in the US. You will still need to purchase a breakout board and controller software such as LinuxCNC, Mach or Path Pilot. Configuring your software will be challenge enough without having to work with an unsupported bargain board. I would avoid the combination driver boards as they have tended to be buggy in the past..