Sounds good. I have a few more questions if you don’t mind answering them. I am still planning to put a fuse on the 12volt line. Do you know what amp fuse I should use? I am not running a heatbed or extruder off it. I am only connecting the motors & endstops. From looking at that config file, should be only 4.5amps for the motors, so maybe a 5amp or 7.5amp fuse. Are you using x & y endstops? I might have to change the wiring on those. Do you have a photo of yours all wired up? The last question is there a resistor plug required on the hotend thermistor connection?
Thanks,
David
-
Do you know what amp fuse I should use? I am not running a heatbed or extruder off it. I am only connecting the motors & endstops - From looking at that config file, should be only 4.5amps for the motors, so maybe a 5amp or 7.5 amp fuse. - I am not using fuses. I maybe should. I am not sure how to impliment a fuse - If you end up using fuses let me know what you did and I will follow suite. I know you would want the fuses to blow before reaching the max limit. The config file says 1.5 amperes per axis but each axis is wired in parallel so 3 amps per axis?? Not sure how that works - already forgot my RETS Electronics ohms law stuff
-
Are you using x & y endstops? YES - I am using the alpha, beta and gamma (x,y,z) min endstops for homing - I eventually want to use max endstops as well - I am using WGCD 20 PCS AC 125V 5A Micro Limit Mini Switch Roller Lever Arm Snap Action SPDT 3 Pin from amazon - pack of 20 for less than $10.00
-
The last question is there a resistor plug required on the hotend thermistor connection? - I dont know. I purchase my hotend from the vicious1 shop MK8 already built and have been using the same one for over a year and half without a single problem.
I have images of the smoothie board wired up inside my enclosure _ perpetually a WIP.
I have my cables punched down on a cat5 patch panel and have allowed for significant excess, I plan on building a better box. I have everything housed in the same enclosure. MKS Base 1.3, usb hub, power supply, 3 12v cooling fans, panic switch from vicious1 shop and my mini windows 10 PC.
I am in the process of adding a MKS TFT32
I have some more details on my blog - My Mostly Printed CNC Build Experience: Installing my MKS Base v1.3 into my MPCNC
Thanks for all the info. I like the way you have all your electronics in one box. I might have to eventually do something like that. In the mean while, I started designing a case to put my MKS Sbase board in for now. I used a design I found on thingiverse as a starting point.
I printed this one - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1917224 - it turned out ‘ok’ I should have printed the front with supports and had to sand a little. but everything fits inside perfectly.
I received my MKS SBASE board yesterday. This board looks a lot neater than any of the arduino boards I have bought. I started fine tuning my case design to make sure the dimensions work. I will probably print it tomorrow if I do not think of anything else to change. I used http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1256179 as a starting point & copied the design into openscad & made a lot of the dimensions variable. I did a test print with the mounting bumps & they fit perfectly. I made a rough 3d model of the board adding the components on the board I needed to check for location & size. Seems like these MKS boards are a little different between venders. I added holes which should be a good size for the network, USB, Power & Fan holes & made them with no overhangs. I also made the walls 2mm thick with a couple of reinforcing Ribs since I made it thinner than the 5mm original. I also added mounting holes on the outside to mount to the shelf under my CNC if I need to. I am still contemplating redoing this design to make a short base & essentially make this the cover. That would make the bottom openings simpler, something like this raspberry case design http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:795786. Here is what this MKS SBASE case currently looks like.
Well that definately looks better. I looked on thingiverse for a case for the MKS BASE and didn’t find anything close to as good as your design.
I am on the lookout for an old server case that I can use to put everything in it and mount it to my network rack. one with slide out rails would be even more awesome.
Where are you located James? I wish I had known I scrapped about 35 blades the other day… I may have others around.
Neil
I decided to make the base the shorter part & make the top cover the taller print. I printed the base tonight. The top is probably going to take 8.5 to 9 hours to print. I have 4 outside mounting pads to connect the top & bottom together with screws & 2 mounting pads to mount it to the wood shelf under the MPCNC. I extended the reinforcing ribs to hold the 2 parts together, so I may not need to screw the 2 parts together.
I am in small town of livingston tn.
I have about finished my enclosure for this board after making one last change to it. I am now looking at the couple of jumpers on the board. This page seems have a good writeup on setting this board up. http://www.instructables.com/id/Configuring-MKS-Sbase-V12-32-bit-Controller-Basics/. Since this has the DRV8825 drivers on board, should I set the jumper J3 to 1/32. Also, do I need to change the Jumper J4 from 3V3 to 5V? That jumper seems to be related to the limit switches. I may not hook them up initially, but the switches I am using are mechanical limit switches.
Thanks,
David
I have mine set to 1/32 stepping and left the limit switches to three vilts. I think the reason you can set it to 5 volts is if you are using 5volt powered endstops.
I published the MKS SBASE enclosure I customized on thingiverse. You could actually use this for most any electronics board by adjusting some variables in the openscad files. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2218534
Which is the best firmware to use for this Gowoops MKS SBASE V1.3 board.
The firmware listed here:
http://osoyoo.com/2017/01/10/mks-sbase-3d-printer-control-board-guide/
or the firmware from direct from Smoothie.
That instructables article on the MKS SBASE board recommends using the one from Smoothie.
I am personally using the one linked on osoyoo’s site. No issues with it, yet.
I diffed those 2 firmware’s & they are actually the same.
After a few tries, I finally got it to move the motors in the correct direction & have the jumper J3 set to the 1/32 steps. I used Ryan’s config.sys. I still seem to have some hiccups in the communication between the MKS SBASE board & my laptop because the Repetier host is sometimes timing out connecting. I hooked a network cable between my laptop running Windows 7 & the board, hardcoding 192.168.1.1 for the network card on the computer & hardcoding in the config.sys file, 192.168.1.100. I tried bringing up the web interface using http://192.168.1.100. It brings up the interface, but it does not seem to work. I see there is a way to put that interface on the SD card & I might try that tomorrow. Looking at the video on this page, looks like that might create a better web interface.
http://smoothieware.org/install-web-interface
I was using IE11 for web access, so I might try firefox with it tomorrow. Looks like this board is going to work well. I just need to get past these minor problems.
I got the web interface working today. I used a different laptop, so that might have been my issue. Here are a couple of photos of how I have it wired up. The little plastic part between the P/S & the board holds a 5 amp ATC fuse. I have some 7.5 amp & 10 amp fuses also, but 5A seems like it should be enough for the x, y & z motors. I am going to put a plastic cover over the electronics & a wood cover all of it to protect it more.
I have mine all wired up & should be ready to cut something tomorrow. I had to change Ryan’s config.txt file a little with regards to the limit switches. My 2 wire mechanical limit switches are wired the way my 3d printer is which I think is opposite of what Ryan does. I noticed James’ config.txt had the endstops inverted from what I used. I included a photo of how my limit switches are wired. I am also only using the X & Y limit switch
Here is the portion of the config.txt file I changed:
optional enable limit switches, actions will stop if any enabled limit switch is triggered
alpha_limit_enable true # set to true to enable X min and max limit switches
beta_limit_enable true # set to true to enable Y min and max limit switches
#gamma_limit_enable false # set to true to enable Z min and max limit switches
alpha_min_endstop 1.24^ # add a ! to invert if endstop is NO connected to ground
alpha_homing_direction home_to_min # or set to home_to_max and set alpha_max
alpha_min 0 # this gets loaded after homing when home_to_min is set
beta_min_endstop 1.26^ # add a ! to invert if endstop is NO connected to ground
beta_homing_direction home_to_min #
beta_min 0 #
alpha_max_endstop nc
beta_max_endstop nc
One thing I was wondering about changing was the 1.5amp gamma_current. Since there are 2 X & Y motors & only 1 Z motor, I was wondering if this could be half the current that the X & Y are using? Mine is wired the way it was with the original MPCNC. With a short test of running the X & Y motors, I noticed the Z motor stays on & is a little warm & the X & Y motors are room temperature after this test. That motor does not get very warm after a 20 minute run, so it is not really a problem for me. Does that Z motor stay engaged to keep the Z axis tight?
Any recent updates for people using Smoothieware? I’ll be doing an MPCNC build soon, and I’d like to go with one of these MKS SBASE boards - I’m wondering how this worked out for people a few months down the line.
Well I hacked on it for 3 months and gave on smoothie board. Good for 3d printing. But not for cnc . Can’t do better than going with the standard already established by the admin.
I’m not a fan of the board but there should be no issue with cnc it is much easier than milling. What was your problem? Did you try my setup file?