Hello all, I'm new to this forum and I hope someone can help me. This may be simple to some of y'all but not so for me. Let me start by saying I do have a desktop cnc (onefinity) and I'm very pleased with the ease of use and tutorial's available online. However, I decided to go big by buying a 4'x8' cnc table at an auction. I was so excited because I got it for $100!! It has 3 stepper motors and the control box has a LPT port that connects to the computer which did not come with the table. I then purchased a UC100 motion controller to connect to my laptop which has Mach3 trial downloaded. I got both led lights on the UC100 to light up but the reset button on the mach3 software won't reset. I'm not sure which pins are controlling each motor for proper setup. I'll attach a few pictures of the breakout board which has no mfg info on it. So I can't even determine who made the board or if it's a diy board. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
You know, a Mach3 license will cost you, I think, $175. You will need the license since the trial version is only good for 500 g-code lines. Ditch this board and buy yourself a Gerbl board and connect it through a USB cable. My CNC is 4x4 with NEMA 34 motors and I run it on Gerbl with an Arduino like this (OK, mine is a clone ) and with Openbuilds Control. Way less money and way less complicated.
^^^everything he said except the clone part. Real Arduinos are cheap enough to not even mess with clones.
'Gerbl' is you might say it, 'GRBL' is the actual software (-: read all about it here Home · gnea/grbl Wiki What does this involve? remove the existing breakout remove the UNC100 (send it back for a refund wire the drivers directly to the Arduino UNO, each one needs 3 wires, GND,STEP,DIR (note1 and note2) USB cable from PC to Arduino OpenBuildsCONTROL | Wizards and tools | firmware flashing tool select controller type as 'arduino uno' select machine style as '3 axes'. click 'flash' the rest is just tuning parameters, the defaults will work enough that you can check you have the correct axis connected to the correct pin, you will need to change the stepsperMM setttings and the max rates and accelerations. start with low speeds, calibrate, then work up speeds to a reliable balance between speed and acceleration. note1: a screw shield like this Screw Shield For Uno - Micro Robotics makes connecting easy or like this Screw Shield for arduino - Bot Shop note2: the drives have 'enable' inputs but should be enabled by default if these are not connected. I have a power switch that acts as an Estop, power on = drivers enabled, power off = disabled, no real need for software control at all.
Ok, Thank you! So, if I understand you correctly, ditch my current breakout board and parallel port. Buy the Arduino board. I looked it up and it's definitely cheap enough. My real concern then is reconnecting all the stepper wires to the correct pins, currently I don't know which wires are for each stepper or limit switch. I could possibly pull all the wires and run new ones but I was hoping for a more simple method of checking which one runs each motor. I run vcarve pro on my other cnc, but it's control box converts it to gcode.
Wow! This is amazing advice. Like I replied to Justin Time, my only issue is not knowing which wire is for each motor. How do I isolate each motor?
With everything switched off, take good photos of the motor connections on the drivers. Gently move each motor by hand, noting the feel and resistance (do not spin fast, that can damage the drivers) Disconnect the left most motor from the driver. Lets say it was connected with 4 wires as 1,2,3,4 connect 1 and 2 together now move the motors again, one of them should now be hard to turn and 'notchy' with distinct steps in the rotation. That is the one for this wire. Reconnect exactly as it was. Now disconnect the middle driver and do the same thing. The 3rd driver is obviously the remaining motor. What would *I* do? I would just connect them to the Arduino and test the motion with slog jogs. Then rewire.
Well, the machine is not doing me any good just sitting here and you have been very helpful with your advice. I'm ordering the Arduino Uno R3 board and screw shields. I will keep you posted on my progress!
I purchased the Arduino Uno R3 and a screw shield, I've attached what is my current wiring configuration but quite honestly I'm in over my head with switching the wires over. I've watched some videos but they were not much help. Fortunately, Amazon sent me two Arduinos but I only ordered One. Thought that may come in handy if I happen to fry it. Also, do I need a 35v resistor on the arduino like is on the existing board? Thanks!
you need to do this https://www.circuitspecialists.com/dcs3/documentStoreContentServlet?documentId=418118 which is linked from Stepper Motor Driver with 5 Amp Max Output and 20-60 Volt DC Input for each driver: connect GND (on the signal side) to the GND on the Arduino connect step to CP+ (for this axis) connect direction to CW+ (for this same axis) your motor sides are correct already, leave them alone. the GND of the motor power supply MUST NOT be connected to the GND of the Arduino.
I've got movement!!! I only connected one driver so far but I did a slow jog and X axis moved! Baby steps but at least in the right direction. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your guidance. Thank you!
Ok, so I'm trying to wire in my limit switches to the Arduino. I have three switches, one for each axis. The GRBL Wiki shows how to wire two switches per axis. I first started by wiring NC and common and when limit switch was enabled in the grbl settings it immediately went into alarm. I then rewired using NO and common and the same thing happened when I enabled limit switches and would not come out of Alarm mode unless I disabled limit switches. I'm confused to say the least. I feel like I am really close but overlooking something?
With NC wiring, remember to set $5=1 too (To invert the logic as Grbl was expecting NO wiring) That would need $5=0 (Grbl default - unless you changed it) - if it still alarms you have something wired wrong. If you disable Hard limits (to stop the alarm) - you can use the Troubleshooting tab in CONTROL to view and test the switches before enabling Hard Limits. That'll show you which one is stuck on - indicating which axis to check for incorrect wiring
