Hello from Reading

[sgreven]

By way of introduction, I got my Mill nearly 4 years ago, and had many an enjoyable hour/day/weekend making all sorts of things, some practical, some beautiful, some very impractical, and some downright ugly:) I relocated from South Africa to the UK, 9 months ago, and in the move, either somewhere over the sea, or somewhere in customs, some things got damaged on the Mill. The mechanical damage was thankfully mostly cosmetic, and has been repaired, however the electronics is a different story.

I chastise myself for not learning how everything worked while it still worked, however it was so much easier to just use the mill to mill circuit boards, than to understand how the drivers actually worked. I now find myself having to do this, and hope that I can draw on the experience of this group to try help me get it working again.

here are some pictures of my mill during happier times.



I won't do into detail about the tests that I have done so far, however I have isolated the problem to the Breakout Board.

Basically as soon as I plug in the parallel port, the 5v circuit draws nearly 700 mA and the poly fuse gets really hot. I cannot see any obvious shorts, and nothing measures short on the board. Basically I would like to get some advise on a decent Breakout Board. My Stepper drivers are M542 Microstep Drivers. I have 3 Axis limit switches (Electronic limit switches, currently configured pull-up), one tool-setter with e-stop and an estop on the front panel and override button.

The current BOB that I have has a 24v supply isolated with optoisolators (I suspect it is to better deal with noise), however any advice in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

[Clive S]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your mishap etc How about posting some pics of the bob and wiring etc. as that would help. ..Clive

[sgreven]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your mishap etc How about posting some pics of the bob and wiring etc. as that would help. ..Clive

Thanks Clive, I sure hope so.

The BOB is out of the machine currently, since working in the box is a near impossibility. The BOB is not a standard commercial BOB, and has been isolation milled. I have noticed a number of tracks which were lifting, and have repaired them as best as I can, however I honestly suspect that what I am needing is a new BOB, and was kinda hoping for some advice on a make and model of a decent one.

Attached, please see the picture of the BOB, I have marked on the photo, what the connectors are.

[Boyan Silyavski]

... however I honestly suspect that what I am needing is a new BOB, and was kinda hoping for some advice on a make and model of a decent one.

This week i again browsed main different boards and compared what they do for the $$, basically nothing has changed much:

-if you want to stick with LPT - PMDX126 or couple it with ESS/ ethernet smooth stepper/ for even better Ethernet connection and smoothness

-CSMIO/IP-M given that its ethernet and is EU made so no customs


Other options are to sell the drives and buy all in one with DSP drives like Leadshine mx4660 or Mx3660

Or dive in Lunux and buy some Mesa cards

[Clive S]

Sgreven Ok as have been mentioned and I have used one of these http://www.zappautomation.co.uk/mx36...Xb4aAiAQ8P8HAQ would greatly improve your machine it is a driver and bob all in one box with spindle control as well. or you could just buy a simple bob from ebay to get it working.. what power supply volts is it run on now? ..Clive

[sgreven]

Hi Clive, the power supply is a 36v power supply. This certainly seems like a promising solution, willl this work well with mach3?

[Clive S]

Hi Clive, the power supply is a 36v power supply. This certainly seems like a promising solution, willl this work well with mach3?

Yes it will and its a doddle to set up. it will also take a higher voltage power supply which also should be a big advantage depending on what motors you have. .. Clive