[cephjedi]

Thanks for the advice, but I wound up using Fernando's "Mechatronics" board- also available on eBay. I tried The HobbyCNC board, but fried it with an incorrect power supply. Some people crow about Hobby CNC's service, but I found their attitude rather rude. If I knew that much about electronics, I'd build my own darn board, thank you.

There isn't a lot of information on the mechatronics board anywhere on CNCzone, but the designer was really cool about helping me troubleshoot it (yeah, I blew that one too.) I'm looking to upgrade it because my motors can be driven much harder than that board can deliver.

Currently, I'm holding out for Kreutz's new controller project, which should be tested very soon. It looks like a really promising design.

[cncengineer]

I too have noticed this board on ebay as well. Although this board seems to have everything a cnc machinist could imagine, I am a bit skeptic about it. First off it does not have micro stepping errrrr, little to no protection if something goes wrong (as others have pointed out), and most if not all out the worst thing to do is using a micro to control the phases. I am an electronics engineer of 19 years in high current drives, power supplies and industrial robotics control applications. If you are in to high end CNC "ONLY" go with controllers that have been tried and tested in the worst case environments to ensure proper operation. The cheaper controllers look great and say they will do the job but is this really true for this market??? The output stage MUST be robust enough to handle shoot through or stall conditions and to be quite frank there are only a few companies in the field of robotics who can stand by their products.

I have read too many stories of people trying to get their dream machine to work with disappointment and worst case money lost!

What if I were to come up with a simple high current, microstepping design that would give what the customer wants????

Any input on this???? I want to finally give to the community after long years in the engineering field.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect:

1. STATE MACHINE microstep control (full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32)
2. Phase drive blanking control
3. Current adjust/current limit per axis
4. Resettable overcurrent protection per phase
5. 55 volt @ 25 amp continuous (STANDARD MODEL)
6. 75 volt @ 20 amp continuous (ADVANCED MODEL)
7. Parallel port step/dir control on any of the I/O lines
8. Emergency manual/auto shut down
9. Spindle/fluid control
10. USB, ethernet, RS-422, RS-485 control at a later date if requested

If many request it I may design the computer and all required components into one COMPLETE panel PC design running linux or Windows!!! This will include all software and equipment ready to adapt to your CNC retrofit!


All inquiries please send to [email protected]

[dwschool]

I bought one of these of eBay. Although it seemed pretty bleak at first i now have it running like a top.

[quadrant2005]

may i ask what your running from the board, thanks regards Richard

[dwschool]

I'm running a home built Mill with about 24" X 12" X 6" travel. I have Nema 23, 192 oz motors, a matched set. The Machine works incredible and i can cut at 250 units per minute, but i have to put it back to 150 when moving because for some reason the X axis starts skipping steps as it moves from one cut to the other. I haven't had time to get to the bottom of that one.

Although i would love to know how i could connect a 12v relay to it to control my spindle, i haven't had time to figure that one out, maybe someone can give me a push in the right direction.

[blackbeard52]

dwschool

Please send us a video of your machine running... many have had problems with this board and would like to see a motor over a 17 frame run in a working senerio.

[dwschool]

Sure, i tried this morning before work but i wasn't aware that there was a cap on the file size that can be uploaded. So my file ended up being to large so now everyone will have to wait until tomorrow before i can post, unless there is a way to get past the cap.

Another questions: Does anyone know a cheap place to buy rotary encoders, and what is the recommended resolution that i should be looking for.

Just for comment: Does anyone experience a noise after the motors stop, like a humming noise which stops after about 5 seconds. What would be the cause of this?

UPDATE: View video on youtube
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvKWULrwVCA"]YouTube - Home Build CNC MC433 Controller[/ame]

[blackbeard52]

Good job on the cnc...when did you purchase the card and have you processed the firmware?

Bob

[dwschool]

I purchased the card last november. It took a while to finish the machine so i would guess i've been running it four months now. I've only gotten it working to standard in the last month because i needed to do some production work so i finally rolled up my sleeves. I never did anything with firmware, i think the single most important thing i learned is that all the motors have to be set to half step. otherwise it skips steps.

Thanks for the compliment.

[stan2323]

I got a MC433 a month or so ago. I followed the directions in the manual and it was working within 30 minutes. I have not had time to do a lot but I did draw a picture to test the machine and it came out just fine. I have it attached to a home build machine similar to the one in the top link. The software I am using now is K-Cam. I have not tried to adjust anything yet.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy...lling-Machine/

Stan

[blackbeard52]

Stan
What size motors are you running?

Dwschool
I was curious as no-one here has had much luck... Others did not try as they were scared off by the failures. Check about the firmware and post it here if possible... Some here have the older firmware and SOC did not post the update...

Bob

[stan2323]

What size motors are you running?

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...3/DCP_3872.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...3/DCP_3874.jpg

I read somewhere that these were made for Canon and as such they were considered proprietary so Japan Servo Company will not give out the specs and Canon would not give out the specs. I found some that were close but not exact. Using the power dissipated as a semi constant across motors of the same size I calculated the voltage to be about 5 volt using the measured resistance of the coils. I have run them on up to 6 volt with out a problem. I have them hooked up to a power supply at school so I can tell what the voltage and current are all the time. They run about .75 amps unless they are shorted out. When they short out they can draw up to 3 amps.

I was curious as no-one here has had much luck... Others did not try as they were scared off by the failures. Check about the firmware and post it here if possible... Some here have the older firmware and SOC did not post the update...

Below is the paper that came with the board. The CD had the manual and some other things on it. I have not looked at it too much as it is working.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...withboard1.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...withboard2.jpg

I am using K-Cam and an old PII 366 running Windows 2000 (just got a replacement for the old computer.) I had a problem at first with the computer sending signals out the parallel port until I set it to EPP instead of Bi Directional in the computer bios. I was building a controller from scratch using a microcontroller. Then it took me a month before I realized I had to read the bits that control the motor individually not the byte the port put out. The byte changed depending on what the states of other motors were used before but the bit that controlled the motor did not change only with the motor signals.

Below are some pictures and a link to a short video of it drawing. I use that as a test so it is not too great but it shows that it works. I will answerer any other questions I can.

In progress
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...Picture1-1.jpg

basically done
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...3/Picture1.jpg

K-Cam shot
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...3/Picture2.jpg

Drawing shot
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...3/Picture3.jpg

Video
http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u...t=MOV03450.flv

Stan

[blackbeard52]

Stan
Good job on the build.BTW

I suspected the motors were small. those seem to be a 17 frame motor which is about the limit of this board. Most of these motors are about 1 amp, no where near 10 amp...this is what the ad claims. I have seen this board running on these cards but it will not run what most are looking for on this site. Great luck on you masters!!!!

Bob