Making your own powerful Controller on the cheap side

Why not work with the Inventables team to spec out your wants/needs and see if they could develop a new and improved XController version? Just like v1 to v2 of the entire XCarve machine, the XController could enjoy a new revision. Perhaps all it needs is to replace the circuit board/driver and not the entire box with the power supply, etc. I’d like it to deliver a separate 4th axis driver not slaved as two Y drivers like it is now.

Don’t know if this would help out any but this is where i get all my stuff.

1 Like

Just curious but why not go with four so that the Y isn’t shared current? It’d be easy to slave two together. That is what the Xcontroller implemented.

1 Like

How about fastened together with a spiral inclined plane around a central core?

7 Likes

I had to contemplate using wood for nixie clocks that I build because of heat and an old man I know said “well when I was a young’n all of our gizmos were in wooden boxes , radios and what not and they all got hot as hell and never caught fire” I felt like an idiot afterwards …

I used wood.image

1 Like

No, but I’m running open frame with the drivers up.[quote=“PhilJohnson, post:36, topic:33328”]
Mind if I steal the idea and make my own?
[/quote]

Don’t mind at all.

3 Likes

Yeah, I tend toward the practical side, my artistic skills are rated - needs improvement – needs a lot of improvement.

1 Like

And rgb led lighting

1 Like

Definitely need to keep the evil spirits out of the electronics!

everyone knows that magic smoke keeps the chips working, If you let the magic smoke out they stop working. :slight_smile:

1 Like

2A ramps up and down with smaller steps
2B ramps up and down with larger steps

A really poor analogy would be the difference between a variable speed drill/driver and an impact drill/driver.

One gets you smoother action the other gets you slightly rougher action with a little more umph.

Mine is set at 2A for Z.

I haven’t done any testing with this, but now that you brought it up I may have to take a look at it.

[Edit] - Yes, the stock NEMA 23s are 2.8 amps/phase

1 Like

You’re supposed to use cardboard for design tasks like that. Don’t you know that CAD stands for Cardboard Aided Design???

4 Likes

Yes.

1 Like

Keep the updates going Phil, I’m building a component list and watching intently. Need a good setup for my new cnc.

2 Likes

This will be my next upgrade for sure. Thanks @PhilJohnson

1 Like

The current settings on that controller are peak amps. Try the 2.5 setting. If your steppers are running cool, try 3 amps. Assuming a 24 volt power supply. I have .1 " per revolution lead screws. 4x seams to work best on my machine. Our High School Robotics team has been using donated Gerber Dimension router with an Arduino and these stepper drivers. Things are working very well. They do generate heat. We have them mounted in a NEMA enclosure with a power supply. The power supply has a powerful 90mm fan that really stirs up the air in the box. We have a small 40MM fan exhausting the box and the drivers are running cool. We have run some marathon 10 hour jobs and everything is working well with these drivers.

1 Like

Follwing this thread with interest, currently rebuilding my DIY-rig and individual drivers (TB6560’s in my case) will be used. Main purpose is to move from Nema17’s to the larger 23’s and be able to utilize their torque potential. (ACME rods all axis)

X/Z Nema 23 / 270oz
Y dual Nema 23 / 140oz
Arduino / GRBL-shield and 4x TB6560’s
:smiley:

1 Like

Be ware of the TB6560’s. That chip has some power up requirements that the cheap drivers did not follow. The net is full of people complaining about failed cheap drivers. I wanted to go with drivers that use discrete FET’s. The budget knocked this down to Toshiba chips. Screw shields are the way to go. 3d printed a Arduino mount.

1 Like

I recommend the screw shields as well. So much simpler for the connections.

1 Like