Low Cost 4 Axis GRBL Board

[ddbuster (David Heath)]

I’m currently putting together an Arduino based low cost board.
The components are as follows:
Uno R3 Board.
Source: MicroCenter
Price: $6.99

Protoneer 3.51 Shield
Source: Robot Shop
Price: $20.00

(5) DRV 8825 Drivers with Heatsinks
Source: Ebay - many vendors some cheaper, I chose stepperonline.
Price: $10.00

So for under $40.00 hopefully I will have a 4 axis capable machine running GRBL 1.1 and be able to run OpenBuilds Control software as a bonus.
I’m doing this more as an experiment, I already own a genuine Open Builds Control system, and am happy with it.
I’m just thinking that this might be a budget intro control board for someone just thinking about a conduit MPCNC.

[ttraband (Tom Traband)]

I’m running a very similar setup, Uno, v3.00 CNC shield, and A4988 drivers. Working well on my Burly (so far). Ebay packages still abound for the full kit with options of DRV8825 or A4988 drivers.

What do you plan to use the 4th axis for?

[Tom7039]

I also have almost that exact setup and it works great for me. If you’ve got some of that laying around (I had the drivers and an arduino already) then the incremental cost is very low.

Also curious what your plans for the 4th axis are.

[ddbuster (David Heath)]

I was just going to clone one axis since GRBL 1.1 supports automatic homing.
I had none of it around, but with the prospect of moving my OpenBuilds control over to the LR2 I’m putting together, I needed something for the MPCNC. Figured I would give it a shot.
Not that I was on a tight budget or opposed to marlin, I just figured I could use the same software (and pc) for both units.
24V Meanwell power supply showed up today, which in respect to costs, is a major expense I did not include, you can go with a cheaper p/s but I bought the first one for the MPCNC, figured again, keep things the same and go with a quality 24v supply for the Arduino.
As far as the Arduino, since MicroCenter had them on sale for 7 bucks, I bought four. I’m always reading about neat things being built around them, now I’ve got something to tinker with over the winter (provided I get the LR2 put together in the next week or 2…).

[jeffeb3]

My first or second setup was a protoneer pi cnc board. It was because of that setup that I found cncjs and I really liked it. Very smart stuff.

[C6SUMMER (Claus Dieners)]

I’m also running the Arduino Uno, CNC shield v3, currently 4988 steppers. Open builds to control thru USB. In addition I now have wireless control using bluetooth and G-Code2GRBL on my phone or tablet.

play.google.com

G-Code2GRBL

G-Code2GRBL This App provides the interface between a tablet (10” preferred) and a GRBL controller. The connection is using Bluetooth. The preferred receiver is a Bluetooth device called HC-06. More details about the connection is shown on the Help-Tab „Hardware Prerequisites” inside the App. You can use raw G-Code commands as well as predefined buttons to control your CNC device. But the main feature is sending G-Code files to the GRBL controller. GRBL Versions 0.9 and 1.1 are supported. So...

Free

[ddbuster (David Heath)]

If you are running openbuilds on a pc via usb, why not just connect to the built in webserver on the pc at it’s address:3000?
you can have the full openbuilds screen on your tablet or phone

[C6SUMMER (Claus Dieners)]

Mainly I want to keep the pc out of the equation! The Openbuilds was the initial software that I used. With the Bluetooth connection I don’t need anything but the power supply plugged into the machine!

Also because I wanted to try it and was able to make it work with a 5.00 HC-06 bluetooth adapter I had laying around.