Which kit???

[John11668]

Hi folks
Having built my own CNC mill (if you can call it that) I have had a spate of recent problems which have led me to suspect the kit i chose for the project. I did not know whether I could make a success of it so was maybe a bit frugal when buying the gear.
I am beginning to wonder if I might have been better advised to spend more in order to get better quality.

But which equipment should I buy ?
Which drivers ? Where should I go for stepper motors ? Do I go for an all singing/ dancing breakout board or one which is little bore than a joint box,
Is it better to have discreet electronics such as a spindle board or is it ok to have that function incorporated in the BOB.

Take for example stepper drivers .
For a middle of the road price of just under £40 but carriage and Vat takes it to pushing £60 I can have one of these . https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/Microstepp...tepping-CW5045

Or I can get four of these carriage paid for the same outlay .https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal...2/333613460893

And how on earth do I know if there is any difference .

If you were putting together a kit to build a CNC mill then which kit would you select.and which suppliers would you use ??

[JAZZCNC]

To be honest John it's not that simple because without knowing more about the machine you intend to fit these too no one can advise you reliably.

Many factors like voltage and motor inductance etc come into play and not just motor size.

Give me some idea of the machine and I'll gladly point you to suitable gear. Best advice at moment is to Stay away from Ebay Kits.

[dazp1976]

What about stepper online?
Some of their steppers / drives are available in uk.
I would get some of these myself:
https://www.omc-stepperonline.com/di...or-dm860t.html
This will cover you for both nema 23 & 34 size steppers.
My 860 drives are running my nema23 566oz motors sweet at 4A, 60V.
You could use a simple AC toroidal power unit on those ones too.
I put 3 in basket and came out at £142 for 3.

With motors you want a balance of the torque you require and the lowest induction possible.
Mine are 3mh inductance, the absolute highest I'd want. Hence why I put them on 60V. (3sqr rt * 32 = 55V)

I did start off with an ebay kit but dumped the motors pretty quickly so saved nothing going that route.
CNC4YOU shipping prices make you suck your teeth in.

[John11668]

To be honest John it's not that simple because without knowing more about the machine you intend to fit these too no one can advise you reliably.

Many factors like voltage and motor inductance etc come into play and not just motor size.

Give me some idea of the machine and I'll gladly point you to suitable gear. Best advice at moment is to Stay away from Ebay Kits.

Lots of detail about my machine here Jazz. No laughing allowed or even aloud

http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/13746...ld-Deckel-mill

I am not doing anything professional, Just a toy so that I can hopefully get a handle on the CNC process . I am currently running with the switches set for 2.84amps at half current which I presume means I am sending about 1.5 amps to my motors and this seems to handle the loads I am putting on so far . I have not been flogging it

[John11668]

Will have a look Daz

I did use CNC4you for breakout boards and for a single replacement driver
As you say it looks like they use shipping to jack up the prices .

Useful help line initially but getting a bit abrupt now

[Doddy]

As a fellow northerner I'm also sometimes a bit reluctant to part with the readies. My concern with your approach is that you're proposing to replace what you have with new gear, without looking at what's wrong with what you have already. Perhaps stretching a point, but a bit like taking your car to the garage and asking them to replace everything to fix a problem - it might work... it might not, but it'll cost you to find out.

My suggestion - for OP to ignore or accept (equally at his peril) - use this thread to solicit advice on new kit, as titled, which I'll back out of, and a separate thread to investigate the specific problems that you're having. I was following your earlier thread and was wondering power-supplies, grounding strategies etc. But, these are two separate topics and deserve their own threads.

Of course, you're totally entitled to replace all your control system...

[JAZZCNC]

Lots of detail about my machine here Jazz. No laughing allowed or even aloud

http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/13746...ld-Deckel-mill

I am not doing anything professional, Just a toy so that I can hopefully get a handle on the CNC process . I am currently running with the switches set for 2.84amps at half current which I presume means I am sending about 1.5 amps to my motors and this seems to handle the loads I am putting on so far . I have not been flogging it

John I wouldn't laugh at anyone who is willing to have a go at CNC only applaud them for trying. I will go take a look at your thread.

My advise is don't buy anything yet and like Doddy says maybe look to what you have and why it's not giving you what you expect or want.!
Often your better taking a step back to go forwards and concentrate on getting a better and fuller understanding of what's needed or the parts you have already.

For instance the Half current actually refers to switching the drive to half current when it's NOT moving to reduce motor heating, when spinning it gets the full 2.84A. But don't worry things like this are often misunderstood which is why it's worth taking a step back from the building to do a little research or ask questions about things you don't understand, no matter how daft you may think they sound.

[John11668]

Thanks for the replies guys
Will come back shortly and give you a potted history about what leads me to wonder about the quality of the kit

[John11668]

Right , so todays news
I switch on and I open Mach 3 (mill)
Reset the onscreen button and try to jog to a start position. Y(negative ) does not respond but Y positive does .
I can jog Z+ and Z- and then Y - will work
I can then carry on and run a job from start to finish.

If when I switch on and find Y- not working I wonder if it is my keyboard so hit tab for the onscreen pendant and find it does not work on Y- either .
I cant understand this at all.
I am wondering about downloading a clean copy of Mach 3 and starting afresh but worried what will happen to my licence in the process.

I have downloaded and bought licence for UCCNC and copied into the directory , but it is still showing on my screen as demo mode . Maybe I should persevere with UCCNC as I do find Mach 3 often does things I am not expecting.

Any ideas ??

[John11668]

Further to above I resolved the licence issue with UCCNC managed to get running in that.
It shows the same issues , sometimes a motion will move , sometimes it wont .
Sometimes this one , then that, then the other .

If it happens on both platforms that suggests to me it is not the software which is the issue ,
I have changed both leads so they should not be the problem. Breakout is CNC4you, KK01 with 5 volt supply via usb.
I dont think it is the microstepper driver wiring cos the problem occurs on different motions, rather than any particular one.

So where do I go from here??????????