As my controller electronics have grown over time, so has the size of the controller box. This is the third box for my primo, and I wasn’t about to set myself up to need to build a 4th. So this time I splurged on high quality components. I probably went overboard on some things, but I’m not regretting any of it. It is a pure joy to work with/on, and has lots of room to grow with my hobby.
…yep, it’s got retropi installed, lol:
So much room… but I could not resist adding a ratsnest to the bottom:
All of those copper colored PCB’s on the controller were made with the Primo. The same with the fan control PCB that is hiding between the PSU’s and drivers.
The VFD box hides below the table (I use gcode and a touchscreen slider, so access to the controls is not needed):
The VFD box is oversized, but there wasn’t much $ saved in downsizing to a smaller one. It is also extra room for filter chokes, etc in case that’s ever needed.
Here’s the box it replaced:
I milled the parts on my primo. It didn’t have enough room for the the 48V PSU and drivers. The mag-reed buttons on top were a very poor choice as well; they were very prone to being pushed on accident).
Here is my first box with RAMPs… more typical of what you see on an mpcnc:
I am sure some will see this and think the budget for something like that has to be like double what an MPCNC is supposed to cost. You would very close. This was all about having fun and pushing my Primo faster, improving safety, and putting together something that will likely be able to run any cnc project I have in the foreseeable future. I didn’t post a list of parts because I don’t want anyone to think any of it is necessary. Ryan’s supported configuration is more than adequate for 99.9% of the things most are doing with a cnc.