Converting CNC Router Parts NEMA34 Pro Plug & Play kit from ESS to CNC Drive UC300ETH

[Ctbjdm]

Hi all,


I’ve learned a lot here and wanted to give something back.


I was a bit frustrated with Mach3, it’s dated and feedback seems to be that UCCNC controller software has more frequent updates and has a future (vs. Mach3). A recent Windows 10 upgrade broke Mach3 and required a fix. [I don’t want to hear ‘don’t update your CNC PC’ - not the purpose of this post]


So I converted the Plug & Play Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS) controller over to a UC300ETH-5LPT controller which enables me to run UCCNC.


The conversion wasn’t too difficult, hoping this helps someone else who may want to attempt this.


OBVIOUSLY I MAKE NO CLAIMS THIS WILL WORK FOR YOU! You should carefully consider what you’re doing.


My equipment:
I have a CNC Router Parts NEMA 34 Pro 4’ x 8’ router.
NEMA34
Their 2.2kw plug & play spindle
Plug & Play electronics
Homing sensors for all axis
CNC Router Parts’ three axis probe (NOTE: I subsequently wrote an enhanced UCCNC macro for this; see alternate post).

Using Vectric Aspire, with the StepCraft UCCNC post processor which seems to work fine.


I work in metric - carefully review units!


Note that while I’m technical, I’m not a CNC expert, so feedback/advice on my settings welcome.


Physical changeover


Physically this is really pretty easy. Open up the electronics enclosure. On the bottom right of the enclosure mounted parallel to the bottom of the enclosure is the ESS. Stock pictures of the boards:


ESS



UC300ETH-5LPT:





Disconnect the two ribbon cables running to the ESS.
Identify the power leads running to the ESS - mark the leads + / - as appropriate and unscrew the positive and negative leads powering the ESS.


Connect the ribbon cable from port 1 to the UC300 port #3
Connect the ribbon cable from port 2 to the UC300 port #4
Connect the power leads + / - to the appropriate terminals on the UC300.
Unplug the Ethernet connection running to the ESS and connect it to the UC300. I disconnected the internal Ethernet cable which runs to the ESS and ran my own cable inside the enclosure to the UC300. I’d recommend using a high quality Ethernet cable.


I used Velcro to (at least temporarily) mount the UC300 to the power block within the enclosure. Will probably do something more permanent now that I know this works (replace the ESS with the UC300 using the standoff mounts).


In the real short term you can carefully support the UC300 using a non-conductive material. Be certain nothing shorts out!


That’s it for the physical connections!


Software Config
Install UCCNC on your PC; setup the Ethernet port IP config as appropriate (not going into that here, follow CNCDrive’s instructions).


You should definitely validate your Mach3 settings and match the pins/ports to UCCNC; I arrived at this through careful matching and some research to get this to work.


Here are the pinouts from my CNCRP Plug & Play setup. Again this is a NEMA34 setup, including a probe, the homing sensors for all the axis. Also I work in metric - the units might be different in imperial (I am not certain - be careful!)


X-Y-Z Axes



A-B-C Axes





Spindle Settings




Happy to try to answer any questions you may have

Similar Threads:

• Swap Mach 3/ESS for UCCNC/UC300ETH-5LPT on CRP PRO with Plug and Play Electronics
• New Machine Build- Switching ESS in NEMA 23 Plug and Play Kit for UC300ETH-5LPT
• Need Help!- Converting to UCCNC & UC300ETH-LPT5 (From Mach3/PP/SS)
• CNC kit ?(Plug n' Play)

[LeeWay]

That looks pretty cool.
I attempted the same thing, but with the Acorn. I ran into some issues with some connections. Not wanting to take the production machine offline to resolve the issues, I reverted back to Mach 3 and sold the Acorn.
The first step involved with the acorn was break out boards for each ribbon cable. That was the easy part.
Good to know that the UCC can accept the ribbon cables without that.

Is there a post processor in Fusion 360 for your setup?

[OlfCNC]

UCCNC post for Fusion360: https://cam.autodesk.com/posts/post.php?name=uccnc

[LeeWay]

Hmm.
I may have to follow suit with you soon.
I have only started using Fusion on this machine last week.
Prior to that, everything was done with Sheetcam or Vcarve Pro.
Fusion is where I want to be. Thanks a bunch for posting this.
I will definitely check into it.

I have the tool setting puck on this one and it is the Nema 23 version.
It would mean a different macro for the tool setter, correct?

- - - Updated - - -

[Ctbjdm]

Is there a post processor in Fusion 360 for your setup?

I'm using Vectric Aspire with the StepCraft UCCNC post processor (added this to my original post), have not tried Fusion 360 yet. Looks like someone else responded though.

[Ctbjdm]

I have the tool setting puck on this one and it is the Nema 23 version.
It would mean a different macro for the tool setter, correct?

Yes, and funny you say that...I've spent a considerable amount of time working on a revised probe macro, re-working the 3 axis one from CNC Router Parts. I will post all those details in another thread with details around it.

Short version - you can grab my code here - you want m20522.txt - this is for ger21's awesome Screenset 2017. If you aren't using that I am pretty sure (but not certain) you want to drop this into the m31.txt file for your profile (the default zero tool button macro).

This has worked fine for me for the last and can be X, Y, Z or all three. I've been using this for a week or so, it works great but read through the macro before running it! I added a debug mode which I highly suggest starting with to slow things down initially (using G01 vs G00 to move at the feedrate vs rapid rates). It's well commented (if I do say so myself) so should be easy to follow. And note again that I work in metric, am not an SME when it comes to UCCNC and units, so you may need to modify my code.

[ger21]

One thing you might want to add to that code.

On rare occasions, when doing math in UCCNC macros, the result can be an exponent. When this gets passed to a gcode move, bad things happen. This seems to happen more frequently with metric users.

If you look at my X or Y probing macros, you'll see some code that converts everything to a 6 decimal place ( I think) double when it's used in g-code.

I changed all the XY probing macros after this was first reported (by only one user), but I never changed the Z probing macros.
A few months ago, one other user ran into this when auto zeroing.

So two users out of a few hundred have run into this, but it can happen, and will usually cause a crash.

[Ctbjdm]

On rare occasions, when doing math in UCCNC macros, the result can be an exponent. When this gets passed to a gcode move, bad things happen. This seems to happen more frequently with metric users.

Thanks Gerry - I did run into some weirdness with math at one point, and ended up using a temp variable to do the math as a double and then convert it to text in the text string (but I honestly don't know if that is right / addresses the issue). I will definitely look at your code for the conversion and add that in - thanks!

Any other feedback? You seem to be the resident expert here!

The only other issue I'm aware of is after probing X or Y, it doesn't return to the exact center of the touchplate...I haven't wrapped my head around the math to figure out why but am still working on it. Probably something to do with the diameter of the bit.