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Ok? I need it, so better than nothing?

Posted: Sun May 21, 2023 10:19 pm
by bertieboy
Ok, my funds to play with my cnc plasma are allocated elsewhere fir priority reasons.... so rather than have my new centroid brains sitting in the box THC the lots.... i was going to go down the path of building another machine but i need a machine period. Soooo i want to fit out my machine with centroid as its a great little cnc plasma, has good accuracy etc and give the grbl the flick. Question is will the centroid run these 23 nema cheapy motors? I will use the wiring thats there and im making my own crash ring thingy with censors. Then down the track i will retro fit some geared clearpaths. I just want thc and to get into knowing the centroid world. Ok to run her with just a change of electronics for now? Cheers Pete

Re: Ok? I need it, so better than nothing?

Posted: Mon May 22, 2023 7:23 am
by ShawnM
Acorn will run any stepper or servo drive that accepts "step and direction" signals. It has nothing to do with the NEMA 23 motor. The wiring is the most important part so so don't cheap here or you'll spend more time working on the machine that it does working for you.

Re: Ok? I need it, so better than nothing?

Posted: Mon May 22, 2023 11:54 am
by Joey
Like Shawn said the Acorn will certainly run with the cheaper Nema 23's steppers.

I like the leadshine drives since they have dip switches for a setting a variety of steps per rev. My leadshines go up to 6400 which is really nice. If you do not have gear reduction a higher steps per rev might be more cheaply acquired for this initial install

The cheaper motors and drives can be a bit noisy so good shielding is a needed. Also placing the THC's TX board as far away from the drives and motor cables is a necessary.

If you create a Google photo album with machine and cabinet photos we can better help with the setup process.

Re: Ok? I need it, so better than nothing?

Posted: Mon May 22, 2023 10:47 pm
by bertieboy
Thanks guys, yes i will do a drive album... the machine is running fine now with the grbl but no thc. So i bought the centroid to retrofit it out. I dont like to pull apart a running machine but no thc makes it a bitch. Had enough levelling etc, lol.... cheers for info 👍🏻