First of all, I have to say that I’m new here and in the world of CNC. In the next month/years (depending on the time I get) I plan to build my own LowRider.
I already read many threads on this forum and I really like your way to work together!
My first question I have for you guys is about the controller board. First I thought to by a JackPot board, but I encountered following Issues:
No Support of FluidDail and RS485 (without rewiring)
No Support of FluidDial and 0-10V (without rewiring)
No Support of SPI (i. e. for a digital potentiometer)
I’m from Germany and it is not possible to ship Jackpot expansion Boards such as “Isolated RS485 CNC I/O Module” to me
Is it too good to be true?! Has anyone experience with it?
What I have found is that it only uses TMC2130 and TMC5160 as supposed onboard drivers. Does anyone know this drivers, are these compatible with the TMC 2209.
It looks like a legit board, but it is the first time I’ve heard of it.
So, I can’t say if it is too good to be true or not.
It does still use an ESP-32, so there will be limitations on the configurations you can create due to the limitations of the ESP-32 itself. (For example, FluidDial and RS-485 simultaneously may still be problematic for you).
That said, if it runs FluidNC without any firmware changes, then it’s just a matter of getting a suitable config.yaml file for it and you should be able to build a LowRider with it.
If you go that way, start a build thread here on the forum and the community can help you along.
You may need to iterate a bit because no one else here has that board, but we’ll do what we can to help you get up and running.
I’ll add that shortly after I posted my reply above, while I was looking over the content of that site, the site went away and hasn’t resolved for me since.
I’ll lower my assesment to one of skeptical that it is legit.
If you are in Germany you should seriously consider the OpenCNCShield2. It can run nearly any controller like FluidNC or Estlcam via different control chats directly and is pretty dope.
V1 doesn’t sell the optional modules. You have to source them directly from Bart’s tindie webpage, or his other international vendor (elecrow i think it is)
It would be nice to have a jackpot that has the spindle pins as a default option, but it is not mandatory, you can activate one of the 5v pins to run a relay, and use the expansion slot yo run the rs485 module and have the router and fluidnc dial.
This reminds me about the dude in the FB page giving advice to not get jackpot boarda insted the estlcam boards
So, @FranzD to give an answer to your question:
-these boards (the one you linked) they run for about 49-60usd.
-they are featured into the fluidnc board makers page
-thats a board bo one use in here so a couple of things: you will need to make your own config.yaml to work with a v1 machine, support for you with electronics will be almost non existent because nobody runs that in here and we will be shooting in the dark.
Not stock. The non-isolated RS-485 uses 3 GPIOs, FluidDial needs 2 (and a UART as well), so there’s too few GPIO on the expansion header of a jackpot (only 4 are available)
With the Isolated RS-485 module you only need 2GPIO, but then have to make an adapter to break out the GPIOs from the upper 2 locations on the jackpot to swizzle them for Bart’s adapter (or roll your own.)
I’ve done some work on this, but it’s tricky and involves configs that are beyond normal.
I’m not sure even with that PiBot board that you’d overcome the UART limitations; I’m going to see if there’s a sample(working) config with both enabled.
I’m paying more attention these days to the FluidNC STM32 IO expander and @jeyeager’s experimients with a web socket (wireless) pendant.
Thank you for all your answers!
I reviewed the OpenCNC-2 and I think it is a good choice. I can use it with a Estlcam Module and parallel with a Fluidnc Modul (switching between boards by HW-switch). Also I realy like the option to use the Estlcam control software. As far as I know, the estlcam control software has much more functions then Fluidnc (Worksheet alignment, surface scan,…) Only drawback is that it has noRS-485.
Is there any other drawback on the open-CNC-Shield-2? Maybe the old Arduino-Mega-Board?
Is it possible to use this board with the Dual-Adapter (ControllerModule - Dual Adapter | SW10044)? But I cannot address the I/Os on the Estlcam module over my second Controller?
I would like to use the OpenCNC-mini. But it has no onboard driver sockets. Do you know a nice little Board I can use to mount i. e. 5x tcm2209?
Yes, I mean the one you linked above. When you are using the dual adapter, I am pretty sure you cannot use the modules from the Estlcam adapter for the first one, there are some universal in/out on the mini anyway, though.
I don’t know of any solution. The normal version lets you use an adapter for the little drivers, I’d just buy bigger ones (not the TB6600 though, that’s what I have… the DM542T should be great).
