V1 Jackpot CNC

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Troubleshooting
1

Hello guys/gals. I am a machinist apprentice in Switzerland and I am so fascinated by machine tools, that I’ve decided to build my own 3 axis CNC milling machine, but i need serious help. First off, sorry for my grammar, english is my 3rd language.

I have bought the V1 Jackpot CNC Controller with ESP 32. It is currently equipped with TMC2209 drivers, but I want to use DM556 drivers because I considered to use NEMA 23 stepper motors → higher voltage. I already have the UGS (Universal GCode Sender) and Fusion 360 / Mastercam to make CAM programs. I am planning to use 6 steppers (each 3,6V DC, 3,0A and 1,2 Ohm) and a MeanWell PSPA-1000-48 power supply.

Now to my questions:

  1. How do I connect the DM556 drivers with the board?
  2. I know that my drivers need external power supply, but does this apply for the steppers too?
  3. Two stepper motors and drivers for each axis (X,Y,Z): How do I change the orientation / layout of the board?
  4. VFD: How can I turn on the spindle with M-Code like M3 / M4 and turn it off with M5?
  5. Can someone please explain the inputs and output on this board and what they could be used for? Havent found anything related or easy to understand.
  6. Can I use 1 power supply for the board, the 6 steppers and their drivers? Or do they each need their own power supply, and if, please recommend models or requirements.

I am eagerly waiting for your responses. Any help is welcome. Thanks!

2

Well, the Jackpot is designed around the TMC2209 drivers. As far as I know, you cannot use external drivers with it but I will let someone else confirm.

Also, the Jackpot runs on 12 or 24 volts. You cannot use 48 volts.

There is a different FluidNC board (not V1) that supports external drivers.

1 Like
3

Greetings, and welcome to the V1 community forums. Building machines with V1 hardware is one of the things we do here, as well as helping our fellow builders/makers get their projects done.

You can use external drivers with FluidNC and therefore with the Jackpot, but it will take some work. We’ll need to do a fair amount of config work and likely some iteration with @SwissMFG to get it right.

You’ll also need to buy or make adapters to pick off the Step/Dir and enable signals from the board.

This is well “off the beaten path” so we’ll need to work it carefully together.

I will elaborate more a little later this evening (US/Mountain time zone) with some more details and likely a bunch of questions.

1 Like
4

Anyone here tried this?

4 Likes
5

Can just use pins, or better still…

There’s an adapter already, $2/port.

Won’t get back to this tonight, will try to put more commentary in tomorrow.

3 Likes
6

That should work. You lose the close loop connection to the driver (not to be confused with a closed loop stepper or servi).

7

If I’m read the info about Bart’s adapters, they reroute the control signals to the pin that
normally be the output to the stepper motors.
Next question I suppose is, what changes, if any, would have to be made to the yaml file?

8

Have you read through the documentation on using external drivers here?

http://wiki.fluidnc.com/en/support/external_stepper_motor_drivers

Bart Dring mentioned 556 drivers need 5v logic and the esp32 is 3.3v I don’t know if the jackpot has a level shifter built in.

9

Thanks for the reply. I’ll consider using the solotion as shown in the video which @Rocco85 sent, because the shippment and customs fees are insane. Now, has anyone ever done this? Combining the V1 Jackpot controller with external drivers? I mean is it possible to supply both the board and the steppers with seperate power supplies and not short circuit and damage the board?

10

Does the stepper reasure / give feedback to the controller in a close loop connection? Isn’t this just a regular closed loop stepper and driver connection?

11

Hi. There might be a problem because the MST is 8h behind ours (UTC+1h). But I’ll try to get all your answers, do you have teams, whatsapp or anything similar to make elaborations a little bit easier?

12

I do all of my volunteer support of the community here in the forums.
First off, it’s so the whole community can benefit from the collaboration.
Second, as a volunteer community member I do this on my own time and pace.

I understand the time difficulty as in my day job I work with partners in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll have to manage the pace and flow for this activity through forum communication.

It’s been done ocasionally with Jackpt, and it is done regularly with the boards Bart designed specifically to run FluidNC with external controllers.

It is possible to run your controller and stepper motors from different power supplies.
The key is to do the grounding (power returns) correctly.

That said, it isn’t clear why you’d want to do this.
We’ll need some machine specifics to start with (See below).

No. without position encoders or true closed loop stepper/servo control the system is open loop for motion control.

That’s not regular or standard for this class of controller electronics.

Out of curiosity, what is the shipment/customs fees for those parts to your location? (Curious if perhaps your location is better suited to having JLPCB build them from the sources)

You can go as simple as plugging pins into the step stick driver locations and routing the wires to your external drivers, which is easy and reliable if the board is in an enclosure.

What we should start with here is you should give an overview of the machine you’re planning to build.

What is it?
What kind of motion system are you planning to use, and what forces/torques are you intending the motion system to handle?

What external stepper driver module are you planning to use?
ESP-32/Jackpot are designed using 3.3V electronics, so you either need to use an external driver that is 3.3V control compatible or plan to use level shifters.

Why do you think you need closed loop motion control?
Why do you think you need to run your steppers and controllers on separate power supplies?
Why do you think you need external stepper drivers, and what power supply voltages were you planning to use for either side of the system?

Finally, have you done analysis of your proposed motion system and know the delivered power you need for your stepper motors? How does that compare to what a TMC2209 can supply?

2 Likes
13

I have a wiring question. I have the MPCNC and purchased all the parts from V1. The wires that come to setup the stepper motors to the Jackpot have 4 pin and 2 pin attachment points. the 4 pin connect to the stepper motors directly, what do the 2 pin wires go to? I must not have something that is needed to setup the MPCNC. Please let me know.

14

The answer is to connect the switches for the endstops. Please create a new thread for additional questions about your build.

15

Hi, thanks for your answer. I wasn’t available due to school the past couple days.

Well, if it’s possible I’d use 1 power supply for the entire machine. But because of the difference in voltage and current of the controller, steppers and drivers, I’d much rather use one for the controller and one for the steppers+drivers.

The goal is to at least machine low carbon steel alloys like St37. The reason is because I want to step up my prototyping capabilities without buying a UMC.
A closed loop stepper control would be a cherry on top but my budget is limited.

I paid 45 USD for express shipment via USPS and an additional 15 USD for costums. Delivery from China may be less expensive, but my knowledge about PCBs is very limited atm.

Can you please elaborate what a motion system is? And with forces/torque you probably mainly mean the cutting force, right?

Because I want to make precise cuts on Steel, and loosing steps without noticing is not very ideal.

The NEMA17 is not suited for cutting steel, compared to the NEMA23. The NEMA23 (4.2A, 3.78V) would overload the TMC2209, while the DM556 could hold them easily. Higher voltages (up to 50V) on the DM556 allow for higher speeds while maintaining torque. DM556: Up to 25,600 microsteps. TMC2209: Up to 256 microsteps, but loses accuracy under high loads.
For a CNC machine, a stable microstep system is more important than the “StealthChop” technology of the TMC2209.

And also thanks for your answer.