I decided to make things much harder for myself by going a different route from the basic Arduino based GRBL board and went with SmoothieBoard instead ~ more powerful, supposed to be better results (resolution/steps etc…) and having 4 stepper drivers ~ SmoothieBoard 4X ~ allowed me to drive the Y Axis with two drivers, the drivers slaved together so each Y motor gets their own driver and no splitting up the amps as would be the case with driving the Y motors in parallel.
It was tricky figuring out the wiring to and from the Inventables power supply ~ and a few other issues, but Arthur Wolf and crew from Smoothieware.org ~ were ever so helpful ~ the Smoothieboard community (IRC, Forum and Google+) are all a very supportive community ~ couldn’t have done it without them.
I very much recommend SmoothieBoard with the X-Carve ~
here is a video of my first test ~ https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0RDKYEUhVKCNFNCdUF4S2lrVDA
If anyone is working on setting up their X-Carve with the SmoothieBoard ~ let me know if I might be able to help you out. ;{)
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Yeah, I used an Azteeg X5 mini Smoothieboard on my SO2 when I configured it as a 3D printer: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable
Have you done any milling yet? What are you using for communication / control?
Hi Will ~ My next step is all about finding the right software to generate tool paths/gcode ~ not so many options as there are for 3D printing ~ especially due to the fact that I use a Mac! And especially that I am going from an STL model to tool path gcode ~
For control I am testing Pronterface ~ kind of like it ~ and Repetier with the cnc plugin ~ I like Repetier host a lot more ~ but I am getting some indications (rumors I guess I would call them) that Repetier host doesn’t play so well with the smoothieboard (or visa versa ;{P ) ~ but once I get an actual gcode generated for what I want to do ~ then I can test both and see for myself what works best. I have a windows Asus laptop that I loaded Linux Mint into ~ as I hate windows with a passion ~ (sorry ~ I am just used to stuff working ;{P ) ~ so Pronterface and Repetier on Linux is my control setup ~ Repetier can connect by ethernet to the SB ~ and for some unexplainable reason Pronterface doesn’t seem to be able to do that ~ so usb in that case.
I am prepping to download ArtCam Express ~ 30 day free trial ~ it can be used to generate standard Gcode and it is more the type of software that an artist type like myself would prefer to use ~ so I will have to go back into Windows mode on my laptop and see what I can do with ArtCam Express… crossing fingers ~
Going the CNC route has proven a greater challenge I suppose than if I would have gone the 3D printer route ~ but my choice is about the kind of resolution (high is the key word!) I can get with the X-Carve ~ compared to most diy / hobby 3d printers available at this time… Gonna role the dice and see what comes of it. ;{)
Any updates? I would like to switch over to smoothie, just started looking into it.
In the process of building a 1000 with a Smoothie controller, will be using external drivers to get the max out of the NEMA 23 motors. curious to see what anyone else is doing.
