Arduino CNC Shield Power Routing

[AcrimoniousMirth]

3d printing is mainstream so lots of development has been done for it and a lot of money has been made by people in the process. CNC is still niche for the home user Mach 3 offers excellent value, linuxcnc even better. Open source tools are only just starting their development cycle and not had tme to mature like 3d printing has.

The big thing is you can't use an arduino with those you need breakout board and suitable steppers a more expensive but more professional setup.

When I've spent a month with grbl and a month with linuxcnc working I'll be able to make a better conclusion.

grbl is very powerful there's little reason for many firmware settings as you do everything with gcode, you can't run headless with grbl I remember reading it's just too much for the uno so it won't be coming to the Uno version at least but you can use a PI to control the Uno to create a nice all in one solution.

From what I've seen the open source CNC stuff has been around a good deal longer but yeah, as a niche area has had much less development by able bodied parties.
My CNC only exists because I inherited an old RapMan printer (made in like 2008) so it's very outdated and practically useless nowadays, especially compared to my own-design machine. So I took it apart and am reusing a good portion of the parts. Including the NEMA23's.
Having run some calculations my CNC shield and the drivers I'm using (DRV8825) will be adequate for the power requirements. The spindle I decided first off to modify from an old cordless drill, stripping down to the motor, epicyclic gearbox and added an ER-11 collet. Tests show that's running adequately but I may upgrade to a proper spindle if needs be...
I'm currently getting started with the higher level control electronics for the spindle, again reusing stuff as much as possible and in theory it'll work without a hitch. Planning to make that "in practice" tomorrow!

So basically, what are my goals with this thing? To make a cheap and reasonably good CNC out of scraps I have lying around and other cheap materials where needs be. So far so good.


And yes, I'm aware. Again, in many ways the CNC has been relatively straightforward compared to 3D Printers because they're less demanding on the code and setup front. The mechanics are more demanding because of the forces involved but hey, it balances out. Naturally the Pi would control the Arduino separately (much like the Octoprint setup I use on my printer); it's basically running as a computer to replace your laptop/desktop and receiving files over the web. I wouldn't dream of trying to get the uno running that on its own, it's a microcontroller and not a computer, so not designed for that sort of processing.