[slyguyfry]

It is unfortunately a little late for that, but, thanks for the advice, sorry to thread jack. Please continue with the reverse engineering of the board.

[cmanning]

It's unfortunate that DG1 is no longer using the Xylotex boards (the one I bought back in Feb '08 has one.) When I had problems with my board I just went straight to Jeff at Xylotex. I know his boards aren't the best on the market, but he has been helpful (which seems to be rare these days...)

Chris

[MechanoMan]

Thanks, but honestly I don't see any reason to try to make this board "work" through extreme means. Even if its current could be improved, its voltage (24v) could not. There are ceramic caps onboard whose values are not labeled so there's no real way to tell what they can handle. The TO92 is a 5v reg IIRC and probably has an Absolute Max Vin of 30v. Very very uncommon to find a 5v reg that handles 48v supplies, such a reg would not be there by chance.

That is a pretty mind-boggling array of components there. I'm not even sure what you'd need that many for, unless maybe there IS a switch-controlled divider for Vref. Frankly while it LOOKS neat, it's probably bad design because the distances for many components need to be absolute minimums and this won't be. And the weird thing is, DIP switches are sort of expensive. Why you'd add masses of ones which don't need to be switched is beyond me. I think it was designed by someone with no experience and without a prototype and he thought he'd figure out the right settings once the boards came back. A cheaper thing to do for one-time reconfigurations is use solder-glob SMD jumpers. They're "free".

Assuming he was truthful about this being an Allegro chip, it's probably got the limitations on-board which would prevent its microstepping from functioning correctly. I don't think it can be an A3986 though, because that chip doesn't have 1/8th microsteps like this device does.

My plans are to direct my efforts towards another controller, and use this one with its very slow speeds until I have a decent one.

It CAN work... just at very slow speeds. It might be decent with smaller steppers. If you speed it up, it may SEEM like it's working at first (or it may stall), I could get 30 ipm back and forth and it looks fine. But then you actually try to run code and hear it stall pretty soon.

Again, it's probably got nothing to do with "resonance". I understand that principle and tried various dampers. It's unlikely to be related to that. Not when you can see that the current level is way below what the motors were intended to use.

Well the other fellow here eBay'ed off his 4-axis and got like $100 for it, without the box or 24v power supply or fans. That's something, I guess. I can probably get more with the power supply and case and all.

[fretsman]

Does anyone have any video of one of these deepgroove mills running?

Dave

[rowbare]

In all fairness, the Allegro/Xylotek variants are quite affordable and worked well for a lot of people. Go back a mere 12 (maybe even 8) months and, at under $500 for a 4 motor setup, they were still an attractive option for the CNC beginner (notwithstanding the fact they can't get the most performance from the bundled motors).

As a newbie, I bought a Deepgroove1 setup in the fall of 2007 after humming an hawing for several months. I looked at various packages being offered and his was no better or worse than any others in that price range (all of whom were offering Xylotek controllers btw). There were a couple of other higher end packages available but these were well beyond what I was willing to spend. As well DG1 stocked some other accessories I wanted so that influenced my decision as well. Never underestimate the power of one-stop shopping or the attractiveness of the near-turnkey solution!

Mine worked fairly well, allowing me to cut UHMW and wax at speeds in the 10-20 ipm range. I wasn't dissatisfied with the performance but I wasn't thrilled either.

But that was then. The introduction of the G250/G251/G540 this summer has totally changed the game. After following the Cheap Drives thread for several months, I replaced my DG1 controller with a G540. While waiting for my 48V power supply I did some testing using the DG1 28V power supply and motors and found that 60 is the new 20 (on the X axis anyway). I have since installed my 48V supply and also bought a couple of sets of motors from Keling (387 and 185 oz/in) to play with. While I haven't had much time to test the various combinations yet, things look promising indeed.

Hopefully someone will soon market a near-turnkey Gecko-based CNC Taig. I may be wrong but I don't see anyone hitting Deepgroove1's price point. Realistically it will have to be at least $200 more with similar accessories and service i.e. forward the two boxes from Taig along with the controller. However the value added is way out of proportion to the few extra dollars spent.

bob

[jimbo_style]

Hi All,

I recently bought the Deepgroove1 Taig Cnc machine, and I thought I'd lend my experiences. I got the machine over Christmas break, so I was able to spend some intense time getting it going. I had the machine up and running in about two days, and machined my first 2.5D part on day three. I've machined over 50 parts out of sheet Delrin since then and am really happy with the machine. The capabilities of this machine are really amazing for the price, its hard to believe that something like a sherline costs more, with significantly less robustness, and a smaller work area (not to mention you're forced to use their proprietary control software!).

As for the problem described above, something similar happened to me when I left my machine unattended, and the y axis screw came out of the brass retaining nut. I put everything back together, but the machine was stalling and I could not move jog my mill at even the low speed setting reliably.

What I figured out was that this was actually a mechanical problem. I took the base apart completely, and brushed out all the chips out of everywhere and lubed everything up with motor oil. After reassembling the machine completely, everything worked fine and it has been going great since!

I hope that helps! I'd hate for people to be fearful of this machine since its been a fantastic learning experience for me, and I've been able to finally make pieces I've been imagining for years!

[jimbo_style]

Hi All,

I recently bought the Deepgroove1 Taig Cnc machine, and I thought I'd lend my experiences. I got the machine over Christmas break, so I was able to spend some intense time getting it going. I had the machine up and running in about two days, and machined my first 2.5D part on day three. I've machined over 50 parts out of sheet Delrin since then and am really happy with the machine. The capabilities of this machine are really amazing for the price, its hard to believe that something like a sherline costs more, with significantly less robustness, and a smaller work area (not to mention you're forced to use their proprietary control software!).

As for the problem described above, something similar happened to me when I left my machine unattended, and the y axis screw came out of the brass retaining nut. I put everything back together, but the machine was stalling and I could not move jog my mill at even the low speed setting reliably.

What I figured out was that this was actually a mechanical problem. I took the base apart completely, and brushed out all the chips out of everywhere and lubed everything up with motor oil. After reassembling the machine completely, everything worked fine and it has been going great since!

I hope that helps! I'd hate for people to be fearful of this machine since its been a fantastic learning experience for me, and I've been able to finally make pieces I've been imagining for years!

[TOC Admin]

Hi All,

I recently bought the Deepgroove1 Taig Cnc machine, and I thought I'd lend my experiences. I got the machine over Christmas break, so I was able to spend some intense time getting it going. I had the machine up and running in about two days, and machined my first 2.5D part on day three. I've machined over 50 parts out of sheet Delrin since then and am really happy with the machine. The capabilities of this machine are really amazing for the price, its hard to believe that something like a sherline costs more, with significantly less robustness, and a smaller work area (not to mention you're forced to use their proprietary control software!).

As for the problem described above, something similar happened to me when I left my machine unattended, and the y axis screw came out of the brass retaining nut. I put everything back together, but the machine was stalling and I could not move jog my mill at even the low speed setting reliably.

What I figured out was that this was actually a mechanical problem. I took the base apart completely, and brushed out all the chips out of everywhere and lubed everything up with motor oil. After reassembling the machine completely, everything worked fine and it has been going great since!

I hope that helps! I'd hate for people to be fearful of this machine since its been a fantastic learning experience for me, and I've been able to finally make pieces I've been imagining for years!

Thats Good to See....

Have Fun with it, thats what its all about....

[fretsman]

jimbo_style:

Welcome to the group -

It sounds like you'd be the perfect person to help these guys out who are having issues with their systems.

Dave

[steve323]

Buy a cnc ready tiag and add the g540.

Mike

It looks like Deepgroove has an option using the g540 for $1700 ($150 more than the unknown motor controller). Maybe you could see if he will swap the controller and give you a credit towards the g540

Steve

[fretsman]

Now that's pretty interesting.....

Dave

[japroach]

Damn, I wish he would have mentioned that they were adding a new gecko setup. I would have gladly paid the few extra dollars. Great deal IMO.

btw, anyone know what driver IC the g540 (g250) uses?

[TOTALLYRC]

Damn, I wish he would have mentioned that they were adding a new gecko setup. I would have gladly paid the few extra dollars. Great deal IMO.

btw, anyone know what driver IC the g540 (g250) uses?

The G540, and in fact all of the recent drives are CPLD based and according to some Gecko posts, all the drives will be updated to this type of construction due to the obsolescence of the current parts.
They are not using a discrete driver chip like the other guys are using.
This gives the drives flexibility and allows for a bunch of cool things to be added when needed by Mariss and the crew.
IIRC the first cool thing that was done was to allow the g203v to be available in a vacuum version, which means it has a current go to zero, instead of 70% or something like that when idle. It was very easy to implement, as it just required a firmware change,

Mike

[TOC Admin]

That is Great that he has added the Gecko as an option....Good price too

I was hoping someone would offer a Taig/Gecko ready to run Package..

now if people still have problems we can direct them to the Mechanics of the machine.....

Anyone know what voltage power supply he is using with the Gecko

[japroach]

That is Great that he has added the Gecko as an option....Good price too

I was hoping someone would offer a Taig/Gecko ready to run Package..

now if people still have problems we can direct them to the Mechanics of the machine.....

Anyone know what voltage power supply he is using with the Gecko

"38vdc linear power supply". Which could be an unloaded ~24VAC transformer.

http://www.deepgroove1.com/gecko%20d...eckodriver.htm

[MechanoMan]

Hi All,

I recently bought the Deepgroove1 Taig Cnc machine, and I thought I'd lend my experiences. I got the machine over Christmas break, so I was able to spend some intense time getting it going. I had the machine up and running in about two days, and machined my first 2.5D part on day three. I've machined over 50 parts out of sheet Delrin since then and am really happy with the machine. The capabilities of this machine are really amazing for the price, its hard to believe that something like a sherline costs more, with significantly less robustness, and a smaller work area (not to mention you're forced to use their proprietary control software!).

What controller did he send you? He apparently packaged Xylotex inside the box at first, then quietly switched to something designed at home which isn't the same thing at all. I knew Xylotex was kinda "low end" but figured it would be a good starter set.

Took a better look at the driving current... yeah when you look for the sine wave as it jogs, 0.75A peak. Into a 2.8A motor.

[MechanoMan]

Awww hell, I just put 2 and 2 together here.

DeepGroove1 is listing his auctions as the Taig has like a 1-yr warranty, but "no warranty on electronics".

At the time, I thought he was buying from someone else outside a dealer structure and isn't on the books as an OEM. Which happens at times, and it leaves you unable to do anything with busted hardware. But the chances of having a Xylotex or whatever break in the first year is fairly low so I didn't worry about it much.

BUT... that was before I learned DG1 made his own boards in-house (with his name on them). Now WHY would someone exclude their OWN work from the warranty? If you know the board, repairs shouldn't be difficult, or really since you should have a load of boards put together at-cost then replacing them should be cheap if there's a problem.

I think he was quite aware that these boards weren't going to work properly and he wouldn't be able to fix anything by replacing them.

[jalessi]

MechanoMan,

Is there a reason why DeepGroove wont exchange the house brand drive for the Gecko upgrade?

If the house brand does not work, it would make sense to pay the upgrade price.

A happy customer might sell a lot more machines too.

Is there a problem contacting Deepgroove and asking for a upgrade?

Jeff...

[MechanoMan]

I heard back from DG1.

He said Xylotex stuff was always breaking down.

Yeah volunteered to "upgrade" his house brand to the G540 to make me happy. For $350.

Yeah. I'm serious here. The G540 which only costs $299 off the shelf to begin with. He'll make me happy by taking back this house brand box and upgrading to the G540 for $350.

[jalessi]

How much was the Mill with the house brand stepper drive?

Did it come with the nice aluminum chassis and power supply?

Are you making a apples to apples comparison?

Jeff...