Would this kit be over kill for a small desktop mill like the MaxNC15?
http://www.cncrouterparts.com/3-axis-electronics-kit-p-74.html
I want to replace the electronics and having a whole kit designed to go together is appealing. I just want to make sure I’m not going to do damage to my mill if the motors are too powerful.
Looks good to me Mark. Not sure on the price. But I think it is reasonable.
Little weak motors.
Check out http://www.kelinginc.net/CNCNEMA23Package3x.html (570Oz-In)
The only thing you need better in that kit is the breakout card.
@Runar_Holm You do realize this is on a small extruded aluminum desktop mill, right? http://www.maxnc.net/product_p/maxnc15.htm My current motors are rated at .8A and don’t even list a torque. Upgrading to motors that can take the full 3.5A of the G540 will likely bend my mill frame before slipping the steps. Am I wrong? Is there something missing?
@Stian_Medby_Petterse The G540 already has most of those functions, at least the ones that I care about for my little crappy desk top mill. What am I missing?
Just wanna give you the link on the breakout board Runar might thinking about 
This is a very good board
But it’s not a motor driver, just a break out board. The G540 already has 4 switch inputs, an E-Stop input, two outputs and a VFmumble who’s exact name I’m blanking on, but I gather is a feed-back for measuring spindle speed. For my little mill, what more would I need?
I’m using EMC2 to control it and it can handle all those inputs and outputs with the proper config.
Assuming MaxNC is still putting the same motors on their mills now that they were 15 years ago when this one was made, it’s populated with 175oz motors. I think going to 320oz, with proper matched driving electronics, would have it performing much better.
What exactly are you looking for? I was referring only Runar which motors he seems to be good. He also wrote that you should maybe consider better breakout board for this kit he was referring to. So I just gave you the link to it
Sorry, I misunderstood. That was a proposed replacement for the breakout board in the kit that @Runar_Holm suggested. I get it now. Sorry, it’s still early in the morning here in California.
Hi Mark.
I was just thinking about the freedom the other kit gives.
Stronger motors is nothing bad with, you can adjust the torque if you need weaker or more power.
I rather tune a motor down than buy one that could be to weak. the prize is about the same range.
Gecko is a good product but I rather build things my self instead of all in one unit (more freedom).
If you go on Ebay you could get a better price on different components
If I can help you just let me know, I have built several machines so I have some experience.
Mark no problem
This raises the age old question: Build Or Buy. I’m a DIYer, but to me the mill is a tool, not the subject of my DIY interests. In this particular case, I think I would rather buy a system that is designed to work together at the expense of cost and flexibility, than risk have a Learning Experience™ of buying bad or mismatched components to save a few bucks.
That is not to say that the kit I linked to above is the end-all-be-all kit that I must get; I need to come back to this thread on a real computer (not my phone) and look more closely at the kit @Runar_Holm linked to, see how it compares.
What do you think about the low impedance argument that http://cncrouterparts.com makes? Low inductance means a faster current response means more current sooner means more torque sooner means a faster RPM than even higher torque motors. It makes sense to me from an EE perspective, but I don’t know if there’s a rubber-hits-the-road reality there.
The Gecko G540 is a good choice but it does still need the dying parallel port.
Gecko will announce an RS485 replacement (no Idea when).
There are very good USB cards with dozens of additional opto-isolated inputs and outputs and an isolated 5V and even an instruction cache and their own clock generation (so your timing doesn’t screw up when the PC spins up the HDD to load some file).
They are extremely cheap (I upgraded from an LPT-solution to one of them).