Question Before Purchase of Hobbycnc 4 Axis Board

[scratch_6057]

Dave Rigotti, (Or Others with Knowledge of the HOBBYCNC Boards)

I am seriously considering the purchase of the HobbyCNC 4 Axis
Kit, however the one question I have is in regard to running a
4 axis board with only 3 motors.

If I purchase the 4 axis board and I only have a use for 3 axis at this
time, should I . . .

1.) Install components for all 4 axis and leave the 4th with no load
connected to the motor terminals? Would this harm / damage the board?
Does the board have ENABLE lines on each so that the 4th axis could be left
DISABLED until needed?

2.) Install components for 3 axis to start with and leave the 4th axis parts
locations open until I have a real NEED for the 4th axis?

The first option would be preferred, as it would lessen the chance of parts
being lost in the MESS I refer to as a shop.

If in the first option, it was required to hook a motor up to the 4th axis
TEMPORARILY for the purpose of testing and making adjustments,
I could live with that.

[diecutter]

I built the HobbyCNC 4AUPC rev.2 four axis board with all components and simply am ignoring the 4th A axis till needed later. I set the 4th axis v-ref to the same value as the other three axis, but I don't think even that is necessary. This board worked first try and pushes my $10.00 Ebay motors along at 80ipm with little heating after hours of use. Happy camper here.

[HobbyCNC]

Dave Rigotti, (Or Others with Knowledge of the HOBBYCNC Boards)

I am seriously considering the purchase of the HobbyCNC 4 Axis
Kit, however the one question I have is in regard to running a
4 axis board with only 3 motors.

If I purchase the 4 axis board and I only have a use for 3 axis at this
time, should I . . .

1.) Install components for all 4 axis and leave the 4th with no load
connected to the motor terminals? Would this harm / damage the board?
Does the board have ENABLE lines on each so that the 4th axis could be left
DISABLED until needed?

2.) Install components for 3 axis to start with and leave the 4th axis parts
locations open until I have a real NEED for the 4th axis?

The first option would be preferred, as it would lessen the chance of parts
being lost in the MESS I refer to as a shop.

If in the first option, it was required to hook a motor up to the 4th axis
TEMPORARILY for the purpose of testing and making adjustments,
I could live with that.

EACH axis independantly adjustable between .5 and 3A. Use 1, 2, 3, or all 4. EACH axis independantly adjustable for 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 step.

Dave Rigotti
HobbyCNC.com

[paulC]

Your option 1.
Build the board up fully and simply don't connect anything to the 4th axis.
There will be no current draw so won't do any harm.
Just don't connect / disconnect motors with power supplied to board.
Paul

[DIzZy]

I have a brand new 4 axis HobbyCNC rev2 board for sale. Assembled never used for $80 if interested.

[HobbyCNC]

I have a brand new 4 axis HobbyCNC rev2 board for sale. Assembled never used for $80 if interested.

Rev level 2 is the latest and greatest version.

HobbyCNC.com

[joecnc2006]

I am running the 4 axis board with three motors connected now on my CNC Model 2006, with the 200oz motors and power supply, the complete kit. Cutting at 80ipm. No problems at all with it, this is my second board, 1st one went with a cnc machine i sold.

Joe

[DrStein99]

Damn. I just bought my kit. Wish I read this forum earlier; that $80 assembled board is a good deal.

[tintruder]

Skip the HobbyCNC.

There are two very good alternatives to this board which use the same driver chips:

http://www.ohmikron.com/

and

http://www.cncresource.com/store/

These guys looked at the "state of the art" which used to be the HobbyCNC board (the 7062 chips are pretty new) and improved upon it in terms of form and function.

Also, read the posts concerning poor customer support and childish behavior by a certain vendor over at the Yahoo groups "CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO", "DIY-CNC" and then decide.

Note that until you buy a HobbyCNC board, you will simply not be granted access to the support group to look at the history of problems in order to make an informed decision about a purchase. You would be surprised how many people have to buy replacement SLA7062 chips from Dave at $15 each (lowered to $12 this week when I posted where they could be purchased for $8). Quite frankly, I believe more profit is (was)earned by the sale of replacement chips than by sales of complete boards.

The measure of a company is not how they provide service to those with no problems, but rather how they handle customers who do have difficulty, and here, HobbyCNC simply comes up short. Really short considering price gouging on spares.

Seriously, go with Ohmicron, CNCResource, Xylotex, Rutex or Gecko and spare yourself the headaches.

I have known Ballendo of CNCResource as an on-line "buddy" for a couple years now and he is a consummate professional who eagerly and freely helps out other hobbyists with advice, information and his time.

Phil from Ohmicron has built a website full of free information which will help you build a functional CNC system, plus he answers emails promptly and professionally. I really don't know him well, but so far, I have a very good feeling.

On the other hand, Dave only answers until he has your cash. Try emailing him with a support question and he won't answer except to say "go to the Yahoo group". But if you say something he doesn't like there, he'll kick you out and you're SOL for support. Just like the schoolboy who takes his ball and goes home if you don't let him win.

[joecnc2006]

I take it you are not talking from experiance? and you have not put one of the HobbyCNC boards together. Well as far as Me i have gotten two boards from HobbyCNC and they worked out with no problems at all, If someone Blows a chip it is in my opinion their fault by not following the assembly instructions, you need to follow them and they are not hard at all. The instructions tells you in bold letters to check certain things before proceeding to the next step, and it also causions you about disconnecting things ie. motors while the power supply is on. which will blow a chip. To put it bluntly It is a Hobby Board hence the price, so if you do not follow instructions of course it will mess up on you. Like I said I have Two of them with no problems so for me that is the way to go if like most DIY'ers who want a machine for Hobby and some smaller industrial machines it forks just fine.

Joe

Skip the HobbyCNC.

There are two very good alternatives to this board which use the same driver chips:

http://www.ohmikron.com/

and

http://www.cncresource.com/store/

These guys looked at the "state of the art" which used to be the HobbyCNC board (the 7062 chips are pretty new) and improved upon it in terms of form and function.

Also, read the posts concerning poor customer support and childish behavior by a certain vendor over at the Yahoo groups "CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO", "DIY-CNC" and then decide.

Note that until you buy a HobbyCNC board, you will simply not be granted access to the support group to look at the history of problems in order to make an informed decision about a purchase. You would be surprised how many people have to buy replacement SLA7062 chips from Dave at $15 each (lowered to $12 this week when I posted where they could be purchased for $8). Quite frankly, I believe more profit is (was)earned by the sale of replacement chips than by sales of complete boards.

The measure of a company is not how they provide service to those with no problems, but rather how they handle customers who do have difficulty, and here, HobbyCNC simply comes up short. Really short considering price gouging on spares.

Seriously, go with Ohmicron, CNCResource, Xylotex, Rutex or Gecko and spare yourself the headaches.

I have known Ballendo of CNCResource as an on-line "buddy" for a couple years now and he is a consummate professional who eagerly and freely helps out other hobbyists with advice, information and his time.

Phil from Ohmicron has built a website full of free information which will help you build a functional CNC system, plus he answers emails promptly and professionally. I really don't know him well, but so far, I have a very good feeling.

On the other hand, Dave only answers until he has your cash. Try emailing him with a support question and he won't answer except to say "go to the Yahoo group". But if you say something he doesn't like there, he'll kick you out and you're SOL for support. Just like the schoolboy who takes his ball and goes home if you don't let him win.

[bkukowski]

I've built two hobbycnc boards and have had no trouble. They're great! Just ask hobbycnc related support questions through the yahoo group Dave (the owner of hcnc) has setup and you're fine.

[tintruder]

Your opinions are great, but both of you claim no problems, so you have no frame of reference to obtaining useful support from HobbyCNC.

By the way, when my board blew, I was one of two people that week who had entirely unexplained disasters when the only change made to boards which had been working fine for some time was to upgrade from 12v "testing" power supplies to 32v+ "operational" supplies. Vref checked, board working fine until then.

Quite frankly, during the time the board was working right, I had no qualms about Dave's service. I thought it was a great product. But once it blew, it became obvious I made a mistake in vendor selection.

Also note how many spare 7062s dave has been selling for $15 (just last week reduced to $12 when I posted a source that sells them for $8). It is clear he realizes there is a problem beyond what can be reasonably assigned to "user error" and instead of addressing and rectifying the problem, dave has decided instead to profiteer from it. Sort of like Ford not fixing the exploding gas tanks in Pintos.

Bukkowski, you can't get support from a group Dave kicks you out of for asking questions he doesn't like or is incapable of answering. Basically, dave has set a standard of support only for those who don't need it, or those who ask questions about problems he can blame the customer for. That isn't support, that's pathological.