alien cnc

[GEOFF]

These controllers are offered on ebay for what appears to be very good price and come complete with an external power supply.I have a router with a centroid controller which I intend to upgrade.Does anyone have any experience of these controllers please? would such a move be forewards or backwards?Thanks,Geoff

[jmanz6]

I just got a 2 axis Alien CNC card in the mail today. I hooked it up in a few minutes. It worked great with both motors I hooked to it. I really like it so far but I haven't really worked it out yet.

[GEOFF]

Hi jmanz6, sounds like a good start, would be interested in any comments when you are fully up and running. Thanks,G.

[jmanz6]

So far I'm very happy with it. I am going to use these in an industrial part manipulator we are building at my work. We will see then if it gets too hot or has any problems. But, for the cost I can't go wrong. I just need to work on the interface for the user now.

[mxpro32]

I have an alien cnc 3-axis board, and it works well. the performance is identical to the xylotex I have.

[whoafat]

I have the 3-axis and plan to use it with my CNC conversion of X2 mini mill. The company lists Mach 3. Any information as to whether or not this board will work with other software such as DeskCNC, KCAM, EMC2?

[jmanz6]

I'm pretty sure it's a "universal" type controller. It uses a step and direction signal only for input. I found it to be very easy to hook up and use. I did only try it with Mach 3 though. I am only guessing that the other programs use a similar pin-out for interface.

[whoafat]

That sounds right. I have MACH 3 on my wish list. However, in the interim, right now I am looking into using the EMC2 program,
wilfred

[jmanz6]

I only have the demo version of Mach running on my project right now. You can get up to 200 lines or so with jut the demo version.

[whoafat]

Same here for the Mach 3. However, I'm still in the planning phase and settle on Bobcad for CAD-CAM stages. Hopefully, alien will satisfy my requirements criteria when I transition into the nuts and bolts stages,
Wilfred

[whoafat]

Anyone still interested? Alien has confirmed what mxpro said "Our drives are similar to a brand by the name of Xylotex, any info in regards to that driver should apply to ours."
Wilfred

[tmechanic]

Well, I just picked up a Taig mill with a StepmasterNC 4axis controller running with Quickstep 3, used, but not used much. The problem is, there is no documentation, sincve you AlienCNC guys seem to have fared bmuch better than the others, MicroNC, DrivemasterNC, JewelmasterNC, and StepmasterNC, I'm hoping some of you guys might have some documentation on how to hook this unit up and calibrate it.
A PDF, scanned jpegs, anything would be helpful.