Parts needed. Power supply and USB board.

[ukracer]

Yes need an external motion control card this will do what you want. http://www.shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?productID=310

Regards spare parts then forget it they are basicly throw away if they let out the magic smoke.

Cheers Jazz

without sounding ungrateful I dont suppose there is a UK supplier not keen on stuff from outside the UK as shipping costs can get high and that one is listed as 80 euros plus vat and shipping if I read it right??

OR am I missing the point and does that card control the motors directly?? THereby replacing the 3 small board and the single parallel controller in one go??

Nothing cheaper around that will control a single or 3 axis :) AS I say its not going to be put under much load and as long as it gets from A to B and stops it wont matter.

I wonder if any one has purchased a cheap chinese engraver and upgraded and they want to sell the old boards...just a thought (Yeah I am a cheap skate. If it does the job I am happy to put more money into it later though ;)

I was hoping someone who has one of these machines (there are loads on ebay like this lol) would be able to tell me whats missing...there is a big gap and a couple of wires cut for some reason.

I appreciate the machine is not overly useful BUT I plan to stand it on its end to just use it to raise and lower using one axis.

I DO appreciate you get what you pay for but my project is at a very very early stage and I dont want to throw money at it unless I know its the right direction to go......even if I have to use the parallel controller to test it ...I do need to know what is actually missing as I can see a power supply but not sure if it should have two???

Thanks again

Regards ANdy T

[EddyCurrent]

It would help greatly if you could clearly explain what you are trying to do.

[ukracer]

It would help greatly if you could clearly explain what you are trying to do.

Ok I swapped a non working chinese CNC engraver , which included that box I have photographed in my first post. (swapped it for a vinyl cutter)

I just did it because I wanted to learn a bit of G-code and about CNC in general. I learn best by "doing" and "watching" I cant assimilate tasks by reading easy...for me a picture does not paint a thousand words (some do but many dont.) lol

Anyway in the meantime and before I could get round to finding out what parts I need to get the CNC moving I have the need to make a machine that will raise and lower. As I already had the engraver I thought about using it as a one axis CNC to test things....

This will help you understand what I am doing ...but wont help fix the CNC control box pictured in the first post. (What I am making is at 1.00 minute in....)

Thanks to jaz I know a quick way of using a PC with only USB to control, it all when its working...........

Regards Andy t