Offline CNC controller

Hello everyone, my name is Ian, I am 73, retired and have made a basic hobby, 3 axis CNC machine.

All was well until I broke the electronics board to the PC and damaged the PC as well.

Whilst looking for a replacement, I came across a videos of the SMC4-4-16A16B Control Panel. They impressed me and had me seeing this as a better solution to my needs.

I have looked at how it is wired up and to be totally honest I am lost. I am not electrically minded.

My CNC consists of 3 NEMA 17 Stepper Motors, each of which have 4 wires (red,black, blue and green) and a spindle motor.

Would it be possible for you to advise me on how to connect my CNC to the SMC4-4-16A16B Control Panel.

I will provide specifications of my CNC should you be kind enough to agree to helping.

Regards in anticipation, Ian

Ian,
If you've had the machine working before from a PC with a breakout board you presumably have drivers for the stepper motors which will have been wired to the motors already?

Do you have a handbook? There's one at the link below if not.

https://purelogic.ru/data/docs/elekt..._manual_ru.pdf

Kit

https://purelogic.ru/data/docs/elekt..._manual_ru.pdf - the instruction manual for the controller. This includes a basic wiring diagram on page 16 (you only need 3-axis, not 4 - just ignore the A-axis wiring).

The challenges for you...

You need 3 stepper drivers to convert the step/direction signals from the controller to signals suitable for driving the stepper motors. These will be part of your existing CNC driver board - likely integrated onto one board. A (decent) photo of the driver board would help us take this further.

You need a spindle controller to take the PWM output from the SNC404016A16B to drive the spindle motor. This is likely a separate box that the spindle plugs into - again, a decent photo of this would help us advise further.

What's missing from the wiring diagram are any axis limit switches - these should be easy to get working once you have the basic machine under control.

EDIT: Apologies, Kit, think we answered about the same time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doddy

EDIT: Apologies, Kit, think we answered about the same time.

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Great minds......:thumsup:

Sorry for the delay, family matters. I failed to let you know that when I broke my CNC it also broke one of the drivers.

I brought the CNC as a DIY project and the company I got it from have gone out of business. I will require drivers and your help in selecting them would be indispensable. Would a copy of the original wiring diagram be of any help?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IanAngus

Sorry for the delay, family matters. I failed to let you know that when I broke my CNC it also broke one of the drivers.

I brought the CNC as a DIY project and the company I got it from have gone out of business. I will require drivers and your help in selecting them would be indispensable. Would a copy of the original wiring diagram be of any help?

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Hi Ian,

More information the better I suspect!

I'd say we'd need to know what the old drivers were (Manufacturer, Model Number, link to manual if possible).

What your current motors are would also help (I know they're NEMA 17, but are there any model numbers or max currents listed on them?)

And finally, some information about the PSU the drivers are connected to - how many motors its running, and what capacity it has.