hi,

i live in the uk, i can't seem to find a stockist of hobbycnc boards, I have found a place that does driver boards for steppers, aliencnc.

has anyone used aliencnc boards?  does anyone know where i can get the hobby cnc boards?

thanks in advance guys,

aaron.

There are quite a few people on eBay selling breakouts etc, also there are a few businesses selling CNC hardware, some I know of are
www.eaziform.co.uk
www.motioncontrolproducts.co.uk
www.arceurotrade.co.uk

I dont have any experience of any of the above but also its worth mentioning that  getting hardware sent over from the USA is usually fast and worthwhile, especially with the pound being so strong against the dollar. I have had good experiences of getting drives from www.geckodrive.com and breakouts from www.pmdx.com and www.cncbuildingbloacks.com
  One thing worth mentioning is you have to allow for customs charges which can be as much as 30% (VAT and Import duty) , sometimes you get charged, sometimes you dont.

Hood

hi sorry to trouble you but i have just read your post and youmentioned aliencnc boards, i have recently bought 3 1 axis driver boards and the motors, did you buy the same ? if you did, was it easy to connect them upto mach software ?

many thanks
brian   ps i am also from the uk, st helens

hi, Brian, sorry for the long delay. 

I'm completely new to cnc but i have a bit of electronic/electric knowledge,

I have the single board which can control 3 motors in 3-axis mode.  Sounds like you have three individual single boards, but as i understand it, you can connect them up in series with the first board.  It says to not re-connect the power to each board, only the first. 

we followed the instructions that came with the driver board, seemed fairly straight forward, just check the motor wiring before you connect up because there's a few different ways of doing it for different motors.

Make sure you have a decent power supply, I used a 24v regulated supply, but when I was testing the motors with it, the maximum current when all three motors were running was about 1amp, so the driver boards are pretty good at not wasting power, so everything stays reasonably cool.  Our motors are 2.4A per phase.

the mach 2 demo software works well, we haven't got a gantry built yet, but the motors work all the same. 
 if you get stuck with it let me know, the program is complex, but it starts to make sense once you use it.

i guess by now you've proabably got it all working and know more than me!

thanks,

aaron.

O ordered a motor from arceurotrade last Wednesday, it came on Thursday at 12.25 - I have never known such a fast response. 220Ncm and it powers my Warco lathe without trouble. I am getting another when I have finished replying to this. I have no connection with them other than being a staisfied customer.

For drivers I looked on eBay and found one selling Stepmaster - I got a single drive, which works very well, and have just ordered a double. I power these from a pair of 12 volt bateries in series ( i.e. 24 volt). Neither motor or drive seems to overheat (and the Stepmaster is heat protected anyway)

Jim Pinder
Wakefield, West Yorkshire,