Breakout board recommendations

[davegrennan]

The board I have looks identical to the cnc4you kk01 board, so far I have had no problem with it, but I'm failry new to all of this. I might suggest that for early stages there is a possibility that you might convince a board to produce the magic smoke. If that were to happen I'd rather it be an el-cheapo board.

[magicniner]

The board I have looks identical to the cnc4you kk01 board

Some details here like where from, what model and how much would help the OP.
All cheapo BOBs are not equal and you're more likely to toast a rubbish BOB trying to persuade it to work than a good one which works as advertised and has decent documentation,

My little benchtop mill has an old Routout CNC box running it, inside the box are 4 axis controllers and an unbuffered BOB! It's been working for a very long time on multiple PCs without issues ;-)

- Nick

[GND]

Many thanks for your input guys. I had a look through Eddycurrent's build log, and the only mention I found of his was a DIYCNC one - but it was a hugely long thread and I could easily have missed what you had in mind!

Agreed on the el-cheapo BoB though - I feel something more sophisticated will be required in the future, but whilst I'm learning and commissioning what is a largely unknown bit of kit, I just want something that will do the basics without getting in the way as well as insulating my PC from the worst of what could go wrong.

I guess my current favourites are the BoBs from DIYCNC and CNC4YOU. The first are designed and made in the UK, but I read some negative comments from John S on these in one thread on this site. The second look like Far Eastern in origin, and certainly the downloadable manuals appear to support that theory, but if people are using these successfully than they could be just what I am looking for.

Any more opinions?

Cheers
Graeme

[dodgygeeza]

I think it comes down to what you are willing to pay? and the features you want. If you are looking at something like £20-30 then there are a lot of choice and it will be the chinese boards if bought in the UK.
If you need features like more than one relay, charge pump and or a 0-10V output for spindle control then you are looking at spending a lot more.
There are some good boards like the PLC4X from Zapp, the PMDX from pmdx and so on, but because you are asking this question means that you may also need support, so also consider this as well.

[GND]

Fair question! I guess up to £40 would be ok if it offered fully buffered signalling, a charge pump and one relay I could use for the spindle. I'm not fussed about opto isolation as the drivers include that already, and won't need any more relays initially. I'm just looking for a solid solution to get me started, because when I have looked at motion control options, the choices are overwhelming - and I've not yet even decided what software to use, hence really don't wish to invest in too much before I have a play.

Does that seem reasonable? Maybe I'm being over cautious, but the more you read about the cheaper BoB's, the more you think they are all unreliable - and that is what I'm hoping to avoid at this early stage.

[dodgygeeza]

Then you are looking at either the opto board from DIYCNC, the £20 cheap board form Zapp, or what cnc4you are offering.
All are ok.
Then there is the support, i know you can get support from Roy at DIY CNC and also Zapp, but never bought anything form CNC4you.

[Clive S]

Then you are looking at either the opto board from DIYCNC, the £20 cheap board form Zapp, or what cnc4you are offering.
All are ok.
Then there is the support, i know you can get support from Roy at DIY CNC and also Zapp, but never bought anything form CNC4you.

Do any of those boards provide buffered signalling?

[magicniner]

What kind of buffering do you want?
Anything which can result in any variation to the relative timing of LPT pin signals being presented to the drives will mess up the part, there is no RTS/CTS handshake involved in the open loop with Mach3, the whole set up relies upon the data at the parallel port being presented almost instantaneously to the drivers, all timings are configured within Mach3 to work within the limitations of the system being driven.
External motion devices are fed move instructions via their plugins and can thus use buffering,
- Nick

[dodgygeeza]

yes it looks like it.
The ZP5a and ZApp and the uniport are buffered.
The HG8 at cnc4You is opto isolated.