control board?

Hi all. Great forum. Super stoked to be printing parts for the MPCNC. Zero experience, building mostly to learn and have something fun to tinker with, but virtually all of my tools have found purposes AFTER I acquired them, so I expect I’ll be using this thing a lot more than I imagine.

Quick (I hope) question about the controller. The order page says the dual endstops aren’t user friendly, and a novice might consider ordering the series version RAMBo with a dual wire kit, and the blog post from 2017 says the endstop firmware makes endstops much easier to use. So, are they still a pain, despite being easier to use? Or are they easy enough for a novice?

I know background has a lot to do with aptitude, sooo…I’m fairly inclined for this sort of thing. Built several car engines, building a kit car right now, and passing actuarial exams. I realize that puts me somewhere below the halfway mark in terms of experience and education, but pretty far from zero as well. I’m quick to learn, but building electronics will be new for me.

Thanks in advance.

The general recommendation is to start with series wiring and no end stops and then work on getting it working. Upgrading from that to the dual endstops is straightforward particularly if you’re not afraid of doing some wiring (building connectors and such) - it sounds like you’d be willing to tackle that based on your car experience.

Starting with dual endstops and trying to get the machine working can cause confusion, difficulty, and general headaches when it comes to troubleshooting symptoms.

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OK. Looks like that means a RAMBo board and two sets of wires then? I’d like to order everything at once. Thanks for the quick reply.

Hi Ryan,

I was about to send you a note when I saw this post. I currently am controlling a new CNC creation with an Arduino Uno board using GRBL. I am about to setup end stops but this process is not so clear as that you presented with the Mini-Rambo board. I also have an Arduino Mega 2560 that looks like it will work with GRBL. Again I am clueless about how to set up end stops with these boards. This leads me to ask about the Rambo 1.4 board you sell.

I am using TB6600 4A 9-42V Stepper Motor Drivers to drive NEMA 23 steppers.

(1) Can I control these drivers from the RAMBo 1.4?

(2) Can I easily set up min/max endstops AND soft limits?

Thx in advance,

Gary

FOrgot to check notification box

Ryan,

I forgot to mention that I am thinking about using LJ12A3-4-Z/BX Inductive Proximity Sensor Switch 3-Wire NPN DC6-36V for the stops… at the very least I will be using for setting Z height. Does the RAMBo support this?

I have very little experience with GRBL, Never touched those drivers, do not recommend 23’s with my machines, and never used a proximity sensor.

That is a lot of questions for not using any of my recommended things. You might want to follow the know path before you venture that far off with all those questions.

Ryan, I built your machine, MPCNC and it worked well enough that a friend bought it from me. It was perfect for his plastic cutting needs. My new machine is not your design. My interest is in whether or not the RAMBo board will support a full blown CNC environment or should I be looking MACH3/4 solutions?

THx,

 

Gary

You are beyond my experience. Any advice I could give would be speculation.

I have no idea if mach or grbl works on a rambo. But if you are using external drivers the rambo really isn’t needed as far as I know.

Ryan, to be clearer… I am not tied to GRBL or any other firmware or controller. If I used a RAMBo board I would likely use Marlin firmware. My question is more about I/O. Can I control external stepper drivers with the Rambo and is there I/O to support on board to accommodate min/max limit switches and a Z probe?

Since you are selling the board a reasonable price I see it as an option if it will support my needs.

thx,

Gary

I don’t know that there are enough free pins to remap for external drivers.