Hi fellow cnc members, I am in the process of building a cnc plasma table and have been looking for months at various pieces of electronics have honestly become completely overwhelmed with the number of choices out there. The table is a 5x10 with a fairly light weight gantry possibly 15kg or 35lb. I would like to run 2 nema 23 motors on the x axis, and one each on the y and z axis. I would prefer to use higher torque motors should I ever decide on a larger machine. Where I have become stuck is what electronics to actually use. I like the candcnc kits out there and the fact that they are ready to go and have an Ethernet interface. But I would prefer to put a kit together myself if possible. I have approx $1500usd to spend on all electronics including torch height controller. I would like Ethernet interface and a good reliable machine. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks steven
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If you are willing to piece the system together yourself, $1500 should be plenty. I built my system using a G540 Gecko driver, LCTHC torch height controller, 48V power supply, 12V power supply, additional C10 breakout board, 425 oz steppers, and miscellaneous switches, etc. Total cost was less than $1000.00. This doesn't include Mach3 which was about $150 when I purchased it. My system has been running for over 6 years and I've not had an electronics failure and the table does very high quality work.
That being said, I would do it differently today. Instead of the G540, I would use Gecko 201X drivers (or the latest model). The reason for this is that the 201X can handle 7A instead of the 3.5A limit of the G540. This will allow you a wider choice of steppers. This will also require the use of an external Breakout Board and a higher voltage power supply. I would use the Ethernet Smoothstepper with a terminal board. CNC4PC makes a very nice terminal board which plugs directly into the Smooth Stepper.
I would continue to use the LCTHC for a torch height controller. CandCNC doesn't make it anymore but it has been picked up by CNCElectronics and costs about $250. This unit doesn't have the bells and whistles of the higher priced systems but it is rock solid and runs flawlessly.
The newer drivers and smoothstepper would add about $300 to my original cost but the system would be much more robust.
Good luck with your build.
Willy
2 different scenarios.
If you are using the G540, it has a BOB built in. The problem is that when you hook up the THC (LCTHC in my case), there is only 1 input left for ALL of your other limit and home switches. This will work but when one of them is tripped, you don't know which one. So, since I had a second parallel port available, I purchased the C10 terminal board which gave me an additional dozen inputs to Mach 3. You need a opto-isolated terminal board to interface with the parallel port.
The new way that I am going to upgrade my system is the use the ethernet smoothstepper (eliminates problems with the PC pulsing from the parallel ports). This gives you the equivalent of 3 parallel ports worth of of inputs and gets rid of the parallel port cables to the PC. If I don't upgrade the G540, I can connect the smoothstepper into my existing equipment (C10 and G540) with short 25 pin cables. If I upgrade the drivers to the Gecko 201X, then I will need another terminal board. I would use the C255 from CNC4PC because it plugs directly into the smoothstepper and eliminates all of the 25 pin cables.This is a relatively inexpensive way to hook up all of your equipment in a fairly simple package.
If you want to spend a few (?) more bucks, then I would go one of the packages from CandCNC. You'll get a lot more bells and whistles and Tom does make very good equipment. I thought long and hard about using one of his setups but 99% of my stuff is very simple and I just didn't need the features.
Willy