Hobby CNC

[irs]

I dived in and purchased a Hobby CNC 3 axis board before I saw all the comments late last year. I notice that there was a lot more support then criticism, however I was disappointed to find that there was no circuit, especially as it will be expensive arranging problem solving from Australia. The board looks nicely made but before I start soldering what are the pitfalls if any, that people have discovered?
cheers

[bigz1]

Did you buy the new "Pro" board or the Rev4?

Did you just purchase the driver board and not the kit?

I purchased the kit make life easier(Perhaps if you ask Dave if he could send the additional kit parts seperately if you have only bought the board?) . I had to buy a different transformer to the one recommended, and change the plug and the cable to make it more suitable for the UK's 240V. But apart from that if you follow the instruction you should have no problem. I had never soldered anything electrical before.

I have had both the Pro board and the the Rev 4. The only problem I had was whilst using my machine I knocked the the driver box of the table. Unfortunately the stepper cables pulled out and the chips blew. That was with the the old Rev 4 board(it shouldn't blow the chips if I had done it with the new Pro board which also reduces stepper hiss).

Dave was extremely helpful and from my experience his customer care is second to none.

[irs]

I have the Pro board. As said it looks very well laid out but being conservative I am interested in finding out about pitfalls before I launch into it.

[gacrwell]

I have the Pro board but haven't powered it up yet. Was waiting for a good heatsink - see other thread.

Following the yahoo forum, the board seems to work fine. Most issues with it are assembly problems - getting the resistor packs in backwards seems to be a common error.

PM me your email and I can send you a schematic - I backed it out before assembling the board.

Gary

[thkoutsidthebox]

I covered every tiny aspect of the board assembly in my previous thread here: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25504

It should have some useful information for you I hope (It took long enough to write up! )

I've been using the supplied heatsink without any problems at all. I've recently bought the 4th axis upgrade package, and I'm adding that into my current board soon.

Hope this helps.