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I am certainly very well-pleased with it. If I was going to purchase the X-Carve again, I would definitely upgrade to both the X-Controller and the relay box. It’s just neater, cleaner, and easier to use. Not to mention it’s not being pushed anywhere near as hard as the G-shield is to drive the NEMA-23s. Plenty of juice to spare, and I love how much more professional the whole assembly is.
Functionally, the only real difference is the built in port for the touch probe, and the ability to use the relay box. The X-Carve works just fine with the stock electronics as well.
Thanks all for the additional information and feedback.
I will throw in my 2 cents here on the “value” of the X-controller. For me personally it will provide an immediate upgrade with many of the features I want. While I like the fact that the original controller design allows for much customization the X-controller provides virtually all the features I would have wanted to add in one nicely packaged unit. This will allow me concentrate on a quality initial assembly of my X-carve and then get to using it with less down time for troubleshooting and incremental upgrades. I can certainly see how for some people the additional cost would not be justified but for me, and I suspect many others, it appears to offer a great value in terms of functionality and convenience.
Now by this time tomorrow I will be in Chicago heading to the Inventables office to pickup my 1000X1000 X-carve kit with the nema 23 stepper motors and no other electronics. I can take my time assembling everything, wiring the chassis, and building my work station while I wait for the X-controller to start shipping.
Thanks again for all the feedback and thoughts from everyone.
Be sure to get longer stepper cable than what you need with the standard install… Maybe 1.5 meters more. This will allow you to run the full length stepper cables for each Y-axis stepper motor from the start and not have to splice them together later. At the end where you connect to the X-Controller you will end up with 4 stepper cables that each go all the way to their motor terminal block.
Thanks for the heads up on the longer cables. I am not buying the wiring kit from Inventables and will be sourcing my own so there will be no one else to blame if I come up short on any of my cable runs!
I also plan to use some Molex style connectors to clean up the install and ease any future repair / replacement needs.
This evening, I disconnected the vacuum from the relay box and put it back into conventional service. It was really cool to have it fire up with the router and shut down when it was done, but not being able to clean up after the carve was kind of a pain. I think I’m going to most likely end up with two vacs, one for a dust collector on the relay, and a second for cleaning up the chips.
I was thinking about this issue this morning too, another way would be to modify this http://www.rockler.com/dust-collector-remote-switch . If the signal to the AC controller also triggered a relay, then the relay could be wired across the switch on the remote. as well, in effect doing a closure of the remote button. Might take some playing with
Dan, my first thought is that a 5V DC source, run through a simple simple switch and connected to the Relay 2 and ground connectors on the back of the AC Relay box will solve the problem. When the switch is on the 5V supply will energize the relay and power the vacuum, when the switch is off the 5 volts to energize the relay will come from the Accessory connector on the X-Controller.
Only thing I’m worried about there would be that I’d be applying a voltage to an “off” circuit in the X-controller. I’m not entirely sure what effect this might or might not have. I’d actually considered that too, but couldn’t come up with a good way to do it without having to add a DPDT switch, at which point I may as well just add a switch for the 110 and not worry about the relay entirely.
applying voltage to an “off” circuit can be avoided if we use a double pole double throw switch. Then only one source (5V constant or X-Controller) is ever connected to the relay box.
When the witch in in the constant 5V position the vacuum will be on, when the switch in the X-Controller position the vacuum is controlled by Gcode.
If you have a way to do Manual Data Input (MDI) depending on what you use M7 mist coolant ON or M8 flood coolant ON and M9 coolant OFF You should be able to turn on the VAC manually.
@DarenYoung
I believe based on what I was told when I picked up most of my components a week ago from Inventables that they are hoping to have them ready to start shipping by the end of the month.
Like you I also decided that the new controller would be enough of a step forward that I would wait for it. By purchasing all of the other components before the controller I figured that would give me ample time to get all of my mechanical assembly completed before I started on the electronics. This will also prevent my desire to rush through the assembly process so that I can start making a mess while carving.
I got my X Carve in late Sept I too decided to get the machine built while I wait for the X controller. I am glad I waited, I got the machine put together, added X & Y support mods, made an adjustable height fixed dust shoe, and a custom T-Track bed. I am still waiting but I am glad I didn’t rush threw the build process.
HI Craig,
Thanks for the info, im not in a rush to get my X carve, but would like to ship all together if possible as im shipping to Australia,
so not sure if that will affect the shipping price by much by getting them separate.
Well, just had my first interesting little “whoops!” with the X-controller. This was running that same exact program that I’ve been using for quite a while now, with no changes to anything. Same tools, same setup, etc. This is the roughing operation for this part, using a two-flute .250" upshear cutter. The program uses a HSM path to clear the pockets, then profiles the outside in quarter-inch stepdowns, all cutting is being done at 60ipm. This has worked great up to this point. I’m at somewhere around 40 successful runs for this one, with no failures since I figured out the G28/G28.1 thing back at about run #3.
THIS run, it cut out the pockets properly, made the first run around the profile properly, then made kind of a weird “GORNK” type sound and lost about an eighth of an inch on the Y axis, for no apparent reason. Out of curiosity, I let it complete the job (with my hand over the e-stop) and it completed just as I would have expected, except the weird little wobble at the top.
After I cleared the bed, I went through all the usual checks, and found nothing. Belts tight and good, pulleys not slipping on shafts, V-wheels and eccentrics all properly snugged, etc. Right after checking the system out, I ran another piece, just to see what would happen… no trouble at all, ran just like the previous 30+ runs. Weeeeeeird!
I can’t say for sure, but I’ve never had that problem before… I generally just vacuum off the top of the Y-rails between each carve, there’s not much up there. I’m using a good dust shoe, so the chips are mostly on the table, what few escape the vacuum.
