CNC Control Box - Part 1

Control box (pre)wiring

This will be the control box for my CNC. I bought the kit from Keling Inc. on e-Bay, with the NEMA 34 steppers. The KL-4030 drivers will control the stepper motors in a 1/4 or 1/8 micro stepping configuration. It will all be housed in an old PC case.

Control box wiring final

With a resolution of 1.8 degrees per step (for an 1/8 micro stepping) will allow about 1600 pulse steps per revolution. The motors will by their hand be coupled to a RM1605 ball bearing screw. This means that every pulse the driver receives the axis will travel about 0.003125mm.

The 1/4 or 1/8 micro stepping will be determined by the amount of vibration caused by the motors.

Micro stepping trades torque for vibration and smoothness and even more important trades resolution for accuracy. Make notice I did not mentioned precision because the loss of torque can affect the ability to make the structure move and the motor can actually skid under the force of the unwilling linear motion system. And micro stepping is a real torque sucker. Check this article to see what I’m talking about.

Next will be the wiring of the steppers to the control and testing the micro stepping configuration.