Planet cnc
- Thread starter JoeyInCali
- Start date
RBC
Deceased
Joey
I've looked at this before, and I don't really care for it.
It's very limited on I/O's, it only operates at 110 khz, it must work with their motion control software and not Mach3. It also looks as though all homing is pretty much fixed so you don't really have any control. You have to buy all those little extra boards to hook things up to it.
Plus, it's USB! Most anything that's reliable has now gone to ethernet.
I'll stick with my Ethernet SmoothStepper.
It's software actually works within Mach3 and Mach4, it has 3 parallel ports worth of I/O's, and it runs at 4mhz.
The board and a pinout board is roughly $250 with shipping and all. I have them hooked to Gecko G540's, and Gecko discrete drives like the G203V or G201's. I also have one running Clearpath motors, with 2 more in the build stages.
I'm building a simple ESS based control box.
1 normal 110 AC plug to power the box. (motors get separate power)
Power on switch and Enable switch on the front.
4 to 6 aviation screw down connectors for Clearpath motor leads
2 connectors tied to internal relays. Each can switch 10 amps AC or DC, and will have both normally open and normally closed contacts.
1 Ethernet connector for the PC
1 Ethernet connector for the Home Switch board (uses Optical switches for more accuracy)
1 DB25 output cable for the 3rd parallel port. This can be used for additional I/O's, an MPG, or other hand held pendant etc.
All you need outside of this box are the clearpath motors with power supply and a home switch board. It can turn 2 relay switched items on and off like air solenoids and spindle on/off. The only thing I don't have is spindle speed control. With the additional DB25 there's tons of connections for other things as well.
I've been looking for something simple and compact like this for quite a while, and the clearpath motors are what makes it possible.
Royce
Great info Royce, thanks.