Hello Like the title says..... I wanted to build a CNC to mount my plasma cutter to, I searched DIY CNC and watched some video's on-line and it all looked very easy. I bought a kit from amazon and it arrived the next day. I built a cool board to mount everything to only to find out my computer doesn't have a 25 pin port..... I bought a port to add to my computer then found out Mach 3 doesn't work with windows 10 ……. long story short the port I added to the computer doesn't work with Mach 4. I got a PMDX 411 and struggled to get that all installed and software downloaded. I now am getting signal's to my drivers ( the run LED come on when activating jog) but no movement of the motors. With all that being said I am ready to throw it all out and start over if I need to, Question is will a blackbox run my drivers? or does it have its own drivers? Or if anyone has any suggestions to get me up and running it would be much appreciated P.S please don't beat me up to bad for buying china junk
Blackbox has its own drivers. It is very easy to hook up and has great support. However, Mach 3 will not work with the Blackbox. The Blackbox is grbl-based controller. It can control a plasma cutter.
I think you are beating yourself up enough, no need to add! It happens to a lot of people so I wouldn't fret over it too much. I do think Grbl in some form is a good solution for you. Mach 3/4 are fine but run on the PC and control all aspects of the machine directly. They need a "fat" connection to the breakout board that connects to the motors/spindle/etc. Grbl on a controller board directly drives the motors/spindle/etc and so needs a "skinny" connection to the PC - USB or Ethernet - for feeding GCode. The good news is that all the wires that parallel port version uses can be driven by Grbl. In the simplest form, you could get an Arduino, install grbl and directly hook up to the steppers, spindle, etc. A better way is to get a breakout board that supports isolation and the various interfaces.(stepper drivers, input switches, ...). The BlackBox does that though has integrated stepper drivers so you would be getting more than you need. There are lots of BOBs out there to choose from. This might help you understand how Grbl fits together with the various pieces of a CNC machine. It is for a specific flavor of Grbl but is applicable to any Grbl based system.
Thanks for all the replies, I have been looking at the Arduino with the Grbl shield. I have decided to get the black box for the sinuplasty. I looked at the Docs. for the BlackBox and figure with its easy hookup that would be better for me now. I can use my drivers down the road with an Arduino I was hoping my box would be here when I got off work today so I could play with it this weekend but it wasn't...…
Talk about autocorrect run amok. (Or at least I hope it's an autocorrect issue. OpenBuilds does recommend the use of their systems for nose jobs.)
