Hi There all,
this is my first retrofit and I hope not the last.
Anyway the system is a Chinese Drill Mill Part number ZX-30 x movement is 500mm now and the y movement is about 200 ish and the z is standard what ever it was it is.
I am using the USB-POD break out board and this works good, as long as you know of a couple of things.
The LED blinking makes you think it is ready for work, but you need to supply it the voltage on the input pins to make it work, even the e-stop will not work with out external supply, another thing if it is a 5 volt main in do-not exceed it 5.18 volts makes it mad, just be warned.

So we have a ZX-30
a USB-POD for controll
a set of MA860H for stepper driving
set of KL34H260-42-8B steppers
reduction on drives are
X & Y are 2:1
Z is 1.5:1

movement up till I did something was sweet the X axis movement was very nice full speed was scary, Z was quick but this machine will do was I could never do.

I was going to put a bearing stay on the end of the ball screw for the Y axis but I have seen people cut part of their mill away to make stuff fit, OK I made it so I could move the head in one piece from the main bottom where I needed to cut, So I let lose with the 5 inch cutting away and not a care in the world, then I cut a bit out on the bottom of the riser, found out this is a solid casting did my best.

Bolted it back together after a bit of spring cleaning,tighten down the four bolts to 140 lb/sq inch before they felt lose, I really did not think much of it at the time.
Now testing the Y ball screw humm, error, still not enough, hang on I just cut out 30 mm, something in my head went off, test the axis stupid.
well z not touched works fine, x on the long travel fine, bugger me I can not even move the Y axis, before I could move it easy.

I have cleaned the slides still no good, apart from pulling it 100% apart again has anybody got an idea, or have I turned a good hand mill that use to work into a pile of scrape cast steel.

The long of the story is I have been going like nuts to get this thing working this year, even waited 2.5 months for a power supply from a dealer on eBay got mucked around by the seller and eBay them selves.

I hope that some one might be able to give me a pointer good to learn on it.

This machine has going to be the small machine so I can make my bigger unit, the 500 x 200 is a bit to small, 800 x 500 would be great or 1000 x 600 yer that is the size I would love, complete cover in, coolant catchment, you know the stuff dreams get made of, just not having this machine running right is going to make it impossible to make parts.

cheers all

Paul