Newbie- Getting the consept.

[Odeott]

Hello im a Norwegian newbie who needs a little help.
Im planing on building myself a smal cnc router to make stuff out of wood and alu but i dont know much about it. I startet to thing bout a CNC mill but then I thought I wantet do do bugger signs and stuff so i'm leaning towards the Router road.


The first thing i need help with is the consept and parts i need. So ill start with a diagram to get my head around it all.
Could you have a look at my diagram so i can ajust it and fill in the blanks?
Im starting with a overview and and to fill in more and more details.

Otto Ø

[Gir]

The electronics are the driver boards such as the Geckos or HobbyCNC boards. They take the output from a parallel port which is sending a counting binary signal and a direction, and it translates those signals into powering the proper coil of the stepper motor to make it turn. Each motor is hooked up with between 4 and 8 wires, depending how you're running it.

[LeeWay]

In electronics you have each drive for each motor, breakout board is usually needed, but can be simple in some cases and even omitted with some drives. Power supply is needed for motor voltage. This is in addition to your normal supply in your computer. Relays, limit switches, estops etc are all things I consider in the electronics portion of a cnc router.
his is also an area where cost can vary wildly depending on what you use and how elaborate the setup is.

[Odeott]

How about the computer part? Did i get that right?

Idea--> CAD --> CAM --> GCode---> P-cable

[Odeott]

How about this is this a better diagram for the electronics?

[ger21]

You need control software to read the gcode and send the output to the parallel port. Mach3 is the most commonly used.

[Odeott]

Something like this?

[MrWild]

Close. Some folks use a dedicated computer for the control. Some use the same. So depending on what you want, the control and P cable can be seperate from the CAD/CAM/Gcode box.

Breaking down further downline of the Pcable, you need a BreaK Out Board (BOB), then off of that your limit switches and drives. The Bob also needs power.

The power supply for the motors is a different higher voltage power supply too.

You are in luck though. By the time you're ready to leap, Ghecko will have the "Cheap Drives" up and running. A major major bang for the buck. These new drives will make all the rest scramble to catch up.

Where it comes to CAD/CAM programs, everyone has their favorites. One I really like after trying many, is the one put out by Dolphin. Check it out. Affordable for Hobbyists (Many have Hobby Pricing so always pays to ask) and very intuitive. The intuitive factor is a major plus.

[Odeott]

OK i see. i can do the designing on one computer. and have another in my workshop controlling the machine. What about this diagram?




close?

[Odeott]

No thoughts on the elecronics diagram?

[LeeWay]

It's not really accurate. There are a few ways these things can be hooked up depending on what hardware you have. You can't draw a global schematic and expect it to be right.

For instance, Xylotex doesn't really require a BOB for 3 or 4 axis to work. The PP cable connects directly to a single card which has all three or four drives on it. It requires only the pos and neg from the PS to be connected at one spot. Estops and limits are also connected directly to this board.

Other drives like Gecko, do need a BOB and require a star connection from the PS that then splits off to each drive. Each motors wire then connects to each drive. Estops and limits are connected to the BOB on this type.

Depending on the BOB, you may require an additional PS of 5 or 12 VDC. This can usually be taken from the PC PS, but not always. Wall wart supplies are sometimes used to power the BOB.

Then when getting more sophisticated, there are router or spindle relays, encoders, MPG's etc that can be included.

Most of the companies offering drives for sale also have possible drive layout schematics. There are some on this forum scattered about as well.
If you can narrow down your scope to specific drives, perhaps we could help you nail down a schematic according to what you are looking to make.