Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I sold my previous retrofit iron but kept my old MPU11/GPIO4D. I've been entertaining putting it on a little VMC but now it seems there is new kid on the block.

It looks like the MPU11 price point is still a tad higher than the Oak board. Is the Oak just a newer more consolidated version what what I already have? Anything to be gained by going with Oak over my MPU11 or MPU11 over the Oak? If it makes any difference I could see adding a 5 axis trunnion eventually if the hardware performs as tight as I hope it will.

Do I get a trade in credit?

The Oak is essentially an MPU11 & GPIO4D integrated into 1 unit. You really wouldn't gain anything by purchasing an Oak to replace your current configuration. In fact, you would lose a few outputs.(Though you could always purchase one or more of our PLC expansion boards to replace them)

The additional advantage of the Oak is that is has Position mode control built in (the MPU11/GPIO4D would need Optic Directs for each axis in order to support this). If you don't require position mode with your drives than I would recommend keeping the existing MPU11/GPIO4D.

Oak also has an analog input if you want to do a spindle load meter. MPU11/GPIO4D needs an expansion board.

Looks like the MPU11/GIPO4D only supports analog spindle output 0V-10V. What I need is -10V +10V for my spindle amp similar to how the servos are driven. Is there an addon board that will do this or can I just remap one of the servo outputs?

If you are not using all four axis outputs on the GPIO4D, then you can address the unused -10V .. +10V analog output(s) through the PLC program (e.g. for spindle speed control).

If you are using all four axes, then you would either need the ADD4AD4DA board to get additional bipolar analog outputs, or, if your spindle drive uses an isolated (differential, floating) analog input, add a polarity-swapping relay to the 0 .. 10V output.