Newbie question about breakout boards

[airbrush]

I am just researching now on what components to buy before building. So far I leaning towards the Xylotex 4axis kit.


Can someone explain to me the purpose of the breakout board?

Can you wire home, limit, estop switches directly to the controller board?

[cjmerlincnc]

A breakout board is used to isolate the high current/voltage of your cnc machine from the delicate and sensitive electronics of a computer.

All your home,limit,e-stop can be wired to the breakout board. You definatly need one, make sure it is opto isolated and not a cheap one on ebay. Which one is up to you.

[airbrush]

Alright, thanks for the explanation.

Recommendations on boards to use with Xylotex 4 axis kit?
If they all require one, why aren't they built into it?
How does this then connect to the driver board?

What about this controller?
http://www.mikebeck.org/cnccontroller1.html
It says it has the breakout board built in...does anyone have opinions on these?

[cjmerlincnc]

One of the main things to do in building something is to read all the info there is available. In this forum there is a vast amount of knowledge in building cnc machines.

On the web page of the Xylotex 4 axis kit it say's it is plug and play which is ok.
Lower down it say's

The stepper motor drive board plays NO role in Home/Limit/STOP switch inputs, or other various I/O, other than to provide screw terminal attachment points for the parallel port I/O.

If you want these you'll need a breakout board.

The other controller you mentioned, http://www.mikebeck.org/cnccontroller1.html

the main concern is:

3 or 4 axis Unipolar Chopper control.
Individual or simultanious control of 2/4 Phase Steppers.
Accepts 5, 6, or 8 wire stepper motors. NOT 4 wire.
----------------------------------------------------

Most modern steppers are 4 wire. Bipolar chopper control is better and faster.

It all depends on what you want, a hobby machine to play with or a real engineers machine.

My advice is to read everything you can, I'm building a cnc mill, and have been reading this forum for the past 6 months for info and I'm still not done.

Buy the best you can afford or buy the best. Well chosen pieces put together to build a project are generally better that buying an 'all in kit' you might end up needing an extra input or ouput to the software and your 'kit' cannot supply this, good money spent gone to waste.


Hope this helps.

good luck

[ger21]

Most people will tell you that you MUST use a breakout board to prevent frying your PC. But I think if you look around, you'll have a hard time finding anyone. You might find a lot of people who've fried their Xylotex and other boards (usually due to miswiring), but not their PC's.

Having said that, if you want to add limit switches, relays, or any other devices to help control your machine, a breakout board makes it very easy to do that. The best choice for a Xylotex that I've seen is the mini IO from www.candcnc.com The xylotex plugs directly into their board, where as most other breakout boards would require you to make a custom parallel cable.

[High Seas]

Airbrush -
I used the cnc4pc board - high quality product (even though I went with less expensive board).
It gives you good posts for mounting the home/limit etc. Also can use it as the 5 volt enable for your xylotex board.
Yes, as ger21 said - I did have to make a special parallel cable - but it involved tearing down/stripping a ribbon cable - no drama if you use sharp fingernails and not an xacto blade. Ribbon parallel cables are pretty easy find at the op shops and about a buck -so room for a mistake if they happen.

I went this route to gang 2 xylotex boards into one controller.
BTW CNC4PC was fast delivery and good support on email too.
The slightly outa focus will show the BOB buried under wires!
Jim

[cyclestart]

If you do go xylotex, the candcnc BOB really keeps things tidy. In fact candcnc can also supply the xylotex stuff and whatever cables. That said, I have a mini-io and remote relay still sitting in the box. It was just easier to wire the home switches directly to the xylotex pin access. The BOB will come into play as I add a few more gadgets.

[cjdavis618]

Here is one that is simply used in a loop before the Xylotex. No making a parallel cable here.

This is what I plan on ordering along with the spindle controller. (Once I get something figured out)

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/prod...products_id=47

For the price and the added safety, it's very worth it. While I do not own any of the products yet... If you look at the bottom of the page on the products. You will see the manual and wiring guides in good clear language. Very impressed with the products there.