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View Full Version : eBay: CNC Breakout board cheap - that will do me !



Lee Roberts
09-08-2009, 07:36 PM
Managed to grab myself a little bargain tonight, its not much but i did pay about £10 for the first one direct from routout.

Why do i want it ? well i just thought it would be handy to have spare, should i need to expand !

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220461410259

£3.45 all in, THAT WILL DO ME !

If its any intrest to anyone he's got a few...scrap that they have ended !

John S
09-08-2009, 07:53 PM
Why do they insist on calling these breakout boards when they are connection boards.

A breakout board BREAKS the connection between the computer and system by either opto's or buffers to form a protection.

These connector strips do neither.

Mind you I must admit they have a use as we have two of these daisy chained back to back so we can put a scope onto the parallel cable on any connector without having to hack a cable or wiring about.

.

Gary
10-08-2009, 07:15 AM
Not all breakout boards have optos on them.
Breakout is a general term, and i have worked with many control manufactures who have breakout boards with no circuitry on board.

Get the point though.

Gary


Why do they insist on calling these breakout boards when they are connection boards.

A breakout board BREAKS the connection between the computer and system by either opto's or buffers to form a protection.

These connector strips do neither.

Mind you I must admit they have a use as we have two of these daisy chained back to back so we can put a scope onto the parallel cable on any connector without having to hack a cable or wiring about.

.

ptjw7uk
10-08-2009, 08:59 AM
Having a quick look on the web shows that breakout boards fall into 2 camps active ones and passive ones. The active ones will give an electrically isolated input/output whilst the passive just allow connections to be made between cables and plugs I think the later is the most common for the use as johnS has used.

Peter

John S
10-08-2009, 09:16 AM
It's probably all about semantics :tongue:
The active ones are breakout boards, the passive ones are connector strips.

Given the cost of some of the cheaper ones, Roy's at DIY-CNC start at about £13 ? it's false economy to skimp on an item like this.

I know many are on tight budgets but one of the most important things a decent breakout board does is to amplify the PP signal to a genuine 5 volts.

Many modern computers, laptops etc run at 3.3 volts on the PP and many of the modern drivers like the Leadshine drives that Gary and ARC sell require 5 volts at the opto's to work.

Sometime they do work, just, off 3.3 volts but it's that borderline that you don't realise, and have problems that's hard to trace further down the line.

.

irving2008
10-08-2009, 11:23 AM
It's probably all about semantics :tongue:
The active ones are breakout boards, the passive ones are connector strips.

Given the cost of some of the cheaper ones, Roy's at DIY-CNC start at about £13 ? it's false economy to skimp on an item like this.

I know many are on tight budgets but one of the most important things a decent breakout board does is to amplify the PP signal to a genuine 5 volts.

Many modern computers, laptops etc run at 3.3 volts on the PP and many of the modern drivers like the Leadshine drives that Gary and ARC sell require 5 volts at the opto's to work.

Sometime they do work, just, off 3.3 volts but it's that borderline that you don't realise, and have problems that's hard to trace further down the line.

.
I agree John, but Roy's PCPPS-2 (£14.5 as a kit inc P&P) or PCPPS-3 (£17.50 ditto) don't buffer the signals.

You have to go to the PBB20 (£25.50 as a kit inc P&P) or Uniport (£39 as a kit inc P&P) for that... still not a lot of money really, but then you might as well go for the OptoBoard (£41 as a kit inc P&P) and get the benefits for not much more...

Lee Roberts
10-08-2009, 07:19 PM
When i think connector strips John i think of one of these:

http://www.toolstation.com/images/library/stock/webbig/85099.jpg

John S
10-08-2009, 07:23 PM
When i think connector strips John i think of one of these:

http://www.toolstation.com/images/library/stock/webbig/85099.jpg

Yup get one of these, an old centronics printer cable and you have a 'breakout board '

:toot:

.

templecorran
14-08-2009, 03:51 PM
Why do I get the idea that someone is extracting the Michael?

John S
14-08-2009, 05:52 PM
Why do I get the idea that someone is extracting the Michael?


Talking of Michael where is the ugly bastard ?????