I’m planning to build a MPCNC and noticed that OpenBuilds is about to release their BlackBox motion control system for CNC motion control system. https://openbuildspartstore.com/blackbox-motion-control-system/
Would this motion control system work well with the MPCNC?
So it looks like just a drop in replacement for just your control board + power supply wrapped in a cool package. It uses Atmega328p and grbl which is less powerful than the offerings in the v1 store. That said maybe it’s still enough? I don’t know.
The packaging is cool, the LED indicators and powers witch look nice. At the end of the day I’m not sure how much easier if any it would really be to get going vs the typical setup.
I’d wait until it’s been on the market for a while and see what people think about it.
Less powerful, but more than enough for milling. A 2560 is great for 3d printing because the files are so big (and fast), but every implementation of GRBL runs on the uno/nano, even ESTLcam runs on a nano.
With that said, it will work fine for the mpcnc (drivers are kind of overkill) and grbl is very well developed. Software like bCNC is really close to Mach 3 in functionality too.
What about dual endstops?
Nope. It only has ports for one per axis.
The biggest difference in favor of the Blackbox would be the "Work zero". To my knowledge, with Marlin, Reprep and Repetier based software, you don't have machine and work coordinates, making all machining coordinates fixed to the machine which is ok for 3D printing. I've operate my MPCNC with a RAMPS with Marlin for a while, but this was definitely lacking, and I upgraded to a Tinyg but considering the Blackbox for my next build.
We have work coordinates, it has been available for about a year I think by default, it was available before but I did not have it on by default.
I have a tinyG that I got four years ago in my first foray into CNCs and thinking about building my own. How does it do for the MPCNC? Since it has just the four motor drivers, do you do the x and y both in serial? Power fine? It’s been a while since I looked at the specs. I do like ChiliPepr though. It’s got some good widgets.
if you want dual endstops with grbl, then the easiest available solution is Bart Dring’s board on tindie, he’s a member here too. Otherwise, I just have a hardstop on one of the x and y axis, and endstop switch on the other.
TinyG is fine for the MPCNC, I’ve also used the synthetos board.
You’d really have to go out of your way to find a board that doesn’t work, it just depends on how much work you want to put in.