This is one of my CNC projects and it is currently a work in progress.

CNC Controller Motion Board Project

The goals of the CNC motion controller project have evoloved over time. The first versions were targeted towards using a parallel port to be used in conjunction with parallel port driver software (e.g. TurboCNC, EMC, etc.) Over time, I concluded that the parallel port was headed for extinction and that I needed to architect my solution to work with some combination of USB and serial ports.

The various verisons are listed below with revision D being the most recent. Only read the previous versions if you feel like digging through old stuff:

Revision A

This board was completely designed and layed out, but it needed close integration with another board (called the buffer board) to be fully functional. I ultimately decided that I had partitioned the functionality between the two boards incorrectly, and decided to redesign the motion board to be one that could be used in a stand-alone fashion. So, I never sent this board out to be fabricated.

Revision B

This board is a great deal closer to what I wanted. I moved all of the microstepping on board, eliminated the fat connector connecting to the buffer board, etc. The only problem I had is that I couldn't get everything to fit reasonably well on this board. So, I paused and tried again with Revision C. This board was never completely layed out, let alone fabricated.

Revision C

This board has actually been fabricated. It eliminated most of the limit switch logic from revision B and went to a completely horizontal orientation for the integrated circuits. It all just barely fits in 6.3 by 3.9 inches, so it meets my Eurocard fabrication goal. This board was manufactured and worked poorly.

Revision D

This is a new board that uses some newer microcontrollers from Microchip and is quite a bit simpler to boot. ` This board was manufactured and DID NOT WORK!!! The A/D's on the PIC microcontroller are simply not fast enough to do current control and everything else.