Hello, I have a X3 I converted to cnc about 8 years ago.

General CNC CNC Routers
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Hello,
I have a X3 I converted to cnc about 8 years ago. It’s about time I put the electronics in a case, so I’d like to upgrade to stepper drivers while I’m at it. I currently have the x & y axes powered by two American Precision Instruments CMD-260 drives and the z powered by a Parker OEM-650. The CMD’s love to overheat and the system has its issues in general.

Essentially I have no idea what people in the hobby are using these days in terms of stepper drives and breakout boards. I’d like to step away from parallel port control move to usb also. Can you guys kindly point me in the right direction?

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I plan to upgrade my X3 to use the ethernet Smoothstepper in combination wtih the PMDX-126. PMDX now has their own boards that support USB or Ethernet with an onboard processor to supply motion control. You didn’t mention what control software you are using.

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My Kelig steppers have been quite reliable. If I only had three axes, GRBL would look pretty attractive. However, the more I use linuxcnc the less I’m willing to try to relearn so much material on another controller software.

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I have Keling steppers actually. I should add I use Mach 3 ans plan to add a fourth axis. Ethernet is an attractive option.

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By the way, have you considered servos? Someone on here recently posted some stuff about all-in-one servo units, that have the motor/encoder/amp/ps in one (expensive) housing. I wish I had servos on my machine.

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@John_Bump I just bought two of http://www.parkermotion.com/products/Rotary_Servo_Motors__5208__30_32_80_567_29.html from my machinist at work the day he quit. I’m saving them for a gantry router. I have one drive for them at work, the other will be all of about $100.

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I would love to hear how those work for you. Totally envious.

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I too have a converted X3 machine. I bought it from my friend’s Widow after he passed. He used it to route wood for projects, so I completely dismantled, cleaned, lubed and replaced any parts on it that were worn. I am now at the electronics stage and have settled on 4 Gecko drives. I am sourcing a power supply now. I bought one of the cheap ($10) 5 axis breakout boards from the Bay. I’m almost ready to power up for testing, but I will be watching this thread as I would also like to convert to a USB interface. Thanks for posting!

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You’re welcome. Gecko’s are at the top of my list unless someone here convinces me otherwise.

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Geckos are good from what I have read. USB, not so much. USB is not real time, so, controlling a machine is said to be difficult.
Mind you. I am only parroting what I have read.

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Hi,all, I am just an old retired woodwork machineist who upon retirement decided to come into the modern digital world and so I built a small cnc router useing my old elu moff 177 router as a base I built the machine from scratch useing readily available materials and I found Brian at CNC4you.com to be a knoledgable guy and very helpful with the electronics perhaps he might be worh a call.

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@Kyle_Kerr not real time - that’s my fear.

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Goodbye moneys, hello 4x Gecko G210x’s, Keling 72vdc/12amp power supply, and an A axis that arrives tomorrow. I’m going to keep the C11 BOB I have for now. I don’t intend to update the computer, so using a parallel port is fine with me. A case, fan, and some automation extras (terminal blocks, wire raceway etc) are all I should need.

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Totally looking forward to seeing this thing in action.