{"id":287,"date":"2020-12-10T21:08:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T02:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/?p=287"},"modified":"2020-12-14T19:18:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T00:18:19","slug":"cnc-router-electronics-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/10\/cnc-router-electronics-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"CNC Router Electronics Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I will be testing a new electronics package for my CNC router. I\u2019ve had these components for some time now but haven\u2019t prioritized setting them up until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back when I first designed my CNC router, Leadshine drivers were significantly more expensive than the Gecko G540 that I ended up using. They have since become an attractive option, so I have been wanting to try them out. I am also\u00a0interested in testing a toroidal power supply, using the Mesa 7i76e again, and seeing how the Raspberry Pi 4 works as the control computer running Linux CNC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The existing electronics will be left as-is except for the addition of disconnects that will allow easy swapping between the two configurations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The existing configuration is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>7.3A 48 vdc switching power supply<\/li><li>Gecko G540 4-axis stepper driver<\/li><li>Desktop computer running LinuxCNC<\/li><li>Parallel port interface to the G540<\/li><li>Tested a Mesa 7i76e ethernet FPGA board in place of the parallel port interface<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The new configuration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Toroidal 48 vdc power supply&nbsp;<\/li><li>Leadshine AM882 stepper drivers<\/li><li>Raspberry Pi 4 running LinuxCNC<\/li><li>Mesa 7i76e FPGA board (with ethernet interface to PC)<\/li><li>24 vdc switching power supply for the 7i76e board and for field power for all the I\/O.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The machine itself is not changing (steppers, homing switches, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m also designing an electronics cabinet that will hold all the components for the new configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started this project by laying out all my components on a table and coming up with a rough layout and footprint. Next, an electronics box was mocked up with some scrap wood to better understand the sizing, layout, and wire routing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.diycncdesign.com\/\/img\/diy-cnc-router-electronics-box-mockup.jpg?w=980&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of this mock-up, I figured out what to do differently and created a solid model of the new design.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.diycncdesign.com\/img\/DIY_CNC_Electronics_Cabinet_Render.png?w=980&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I will build this new design later. For now, I just want to get all of the electronics up and running and work out any other issues that may come up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I decided to try out the Raspberry Pi 4 as the controller computer since I had one laying around and I see there is now an official LinuxCNC build for it. I also didn\u2019t want to change the configuration of my existing CNC PC, so I can plug it right back in to the G540 if I run into issues getting this new configuration working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I took notes on the process and documented it in this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/linuxcnc-raspberry-pi-4-mesa-7i76e.html\">setup guide for the Raspberry Pi 4 with LinuxCNC and Mesa 7i76e<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I will be testing a new electronics package for my CNC router. I\u2019ve had these components for some time now but haven\u2019t prioritized setting them up until now. Back when I first designed my CNC router, Leadshine drivers were significantly more expensive than the Gecko G540 that I ended up using. They have since become [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,28],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cnc-router","tag-electronics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8t9Fx-4D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diycncdesign.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}