I use this board because… I can ?
More IO, more fun.
Hi,
I’ve recently ordered such a Estlcam mega board from cnc-technics.de as well because I like the opto isolated inputs and also the possibility to wire an emegency stop for switching off the power rail in case of the cases…
But I want to go a more profesional wiring and looked arround and found the following steper motor drivers on Bangood:
I haven’t wired it up because it is curently to cold in my shop, but spring is comming soon… 
On question to Christian: You mentioned, within Estlcam, the best way to switch the spindle motor is by using a solid state relay… Now on the mega board from cnc-technics.de the spindle output is througth a mechanical relay. Can I just use the mechanical relay to switch the solid state relay from the spindle motor, which I’ve already wired up from the previous Ramps 1.4 solution?
Why you prefere solid state relays? Is it because of the cross zero switch capability of the solid state relays?
Cheers,
Juergen
Hello,
I prefer SSR with zero crossing capability because they cause much less interferences.
Mechanical relays can cause the whole Arduino to reset if you’re unlucky.
Something also often forgotten: the current ratings on many small mechanical relays are for resistive loads - not inductive like a spindle motor. If you look at datasheets the ratings for inductive loads are usually way lower. (Usually works at first but may fail after some time)
Christian
Thanks Christian,
in order that the cnc-technics.de board doesn’t support configuring the Spindle-Output as either relay output or digital output, as it is possible for the other two generic relay outputs, is it possible to add this to Estlcam for generic seelction of the Spindle-Output or schall I rewire the board and deactivate the Spinle Relay and wire the output to some generic output?
Is it possible to use the PWM output of the spindle to switch the spindle motor via a solid state relay?
Thanks,
Juergen
Hello,
PWM and SSR is a bad combination - do not do this.
The most simple solution is to use the mechanical relay to just switch a 5V signal for the SSR.
(switching a 5V signal does not cause much interference - unlike switching 110 or 220V on an inductive load)
But maybe also use the external power connector of the board instead of USB power alone - relays require quite a bit of power and some USB ports are weaker as they should be.
Christian
Hi…i am a new user here. As per my knowledge the current ratings on many small mechanical relays are for resistive loads not inductive like a spindle motor. If you look at datasheets the ratings for inductive loads are usually way lower.
Hi,
I just have some free time on hand and work on adding Ramps compatibility to version 11 again.
In version 10 we got the issue about the spindle on / off signal colliding with other hardware.
So: which pin do you want to be used as spindle on / off signal?
It should be one that is:
- Never used as input (risk of damage to the pin)...
- Never triggers any unwanted actions...
- Independent of whatever other hardware is connected to the board...
1 Like
I believe 44 would be the best pin for a ramps, PWM. 40 can be used for enable, 65 is used for direction.
Can you leave the pin map editable perhaps? I haven’t sold the ramps in a long time. I still use boards based on the mega but some of the pins are a bit different. The current boards are so much more reliable.
Hi,
editable is difficult - I like to keep it hardcoded.
Can you send me documentation of your current boards?
Christian
These two.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Rambo_v1.3, pins http://reprap.org/wiki/Rambo_development
http://reprap.org/wiki/MiniRambo, pins http://reprap.org/wiki/MiniRambo_development
Thanks,
so unfortunately yet another completely different pinout - but at least with some logic in terms of port assignment unlike the complete clusterf… Ramps uses.
What are those Microstep pins?
Do they replace the physical jumpers found on many boards to set the step resolution of the drivers?
Christian
Yeah these boards have digipots so you can set steps and driver current in the firmware.
Hey Christian,
I would say stay away from the Rambo, and stick with ramps 1.4. As far as the PIN to use, I imagine that any of the heater pins would be best and the least obtrusive.
I originally like the idea of RAMPs because I could switch between a CNC and a 3D printer while using the same board.
I am not trying to change the subject… incidentally I just bought an xpro version 3 because I thought you would never bring back ramps support and wanted to upgrade controllers. lol…
My X Pro comes with grbl version 1.1. I do not see anywhere whether that version is supported by Estlcam or not… there seems to be conflicting information between your website and Spark Concepts.
Do I have to downgrade the grbl to support Estlcam??
Thank you for your time, and thank you for working on ramps again.
Terry
Yeah honestly I can’t imagine people using your firmware with the rambo boards, they would be sacrificing the accuracy of the dual endstop update.
Ramps might be the best bet but now so many people are jumping to trinamics and all sorts of other boards. Maybe stick with the uno and the small shield that goes on it for the super budget builders?
I am confident the PID I have been working on will be available soon, so it would be best to stick with a 5V PWN pin for ease of use, that pin I mentioned earlier is the standard laser/spindle pin. I do not think using a heater 12V PWM pin is a good idea.
I use EstlCAM to generate gcode, and I run the gcode on grbl 1.1.
What Christian and Ryan are talking about is running EstlCAM firmware on ramps or rambo. The EstlCAM firmware would replace grbl if you wanted to go that route, but grbl 1.1 works fine with it. There are some features, like the estlcam gamepad joystick that don’t directly work, but the “normal” CAM parts do.
Thank you Ryan, and Jeff -
@Ryan - I think we’re on the same page then - I forgot they were 12V and so yeah wouldn’t be good - I use(d) the 12v from those pins to turn on a solid state relay and or run a Laser driver-
With a RAMPS, I can have (had) a 3D printer, Laser Cutter, and CNC all on one board and one machine - I only had to change the firmware when switching to 3D printing (which was quick).
It worked extra great because my “bed” was already perfectly level and straight since I ran a flattening routine with the CNC lol.
@Jeff - Im aware, thank you - I mentioned the XproV3 cause I was being a jerk and hijacking the thread while I “thought” we had Christians attention lol.
The whole point of me asking is because I would like to only use 1 piece of software to do it all - which is all I need when using the Uno and CNCv3 - Well two - Sketchup and EstlCam 
- But the big update in v11 was the Xpro support - and the spark concepts website mentions EstlCam - I digress I won’t Hijack this one anymore 
Thanks all!
Terry
Hello,
I use the Mega2560 + Ramps 1.4 for my multitool (ROOT 2). Now I have to engrave a logo on a curved object so I would appreciate if Estlcam supported the ramps.
Thanks
Hi,
sorry - I’ve now finally decided to keep Ramps support dropped.
It is just too much work with all those new forks with changing pin configurations.
@Terry: the Xpro is available in Estlcam from V11.008 upwards - just update to the newest release.
Christian
Bummer. If you can figure out a way to break out the pin maps I am sure we could all help with mapping and testing.
Totally understandable though, so many new boards with all sorts of great features it is hard to commit to one. So many are jumping to trinamics even though I do not think they benefit us in the non-3D printing realm.
Love the CAM side of your software I just can’t lose the dual endstop features and 3D printing ability of the current firmware.
Hi Ryan,
for Estlcam it is unfortunately not just a matter of simple definition changes.
This works for firmware with little to no optimizations in terms of handling multiple pins together.
The Estlcam firmware is written in Assembler and the pins of my proprietary pinout are carefully choosen so I can process multiple signals in a single clock cycle as often as possible.
E.g. the X Y Z dir signals are set in a single cycle on a single port - fast and efficient.
I unfortunately cannot just relocate them to other ports and bit locations with a simple definition change but instead need to change the code itself to shift the bits in the right positions, mask them to avoid affecting other pins and do 3 instead of just one output operation.
Of course I could change the whole principle the code works to handle all signals individually without optimizations - but then Estlcam wouldn’t be so fast anymore (160kHz on each axis) - so this unfortunately is no alternative for me.
Christian