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Gallery of images for the 3step stepper controller

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they tell me.

The pictures below were originally posted as part of the thread on cnczone for the build of my 'Junkbox router'. They might help if you're contemplating building this thing.

Images

Click on the images for a larger view.

Basic 3step
Shot of the basic 3Step with just the PIC and mosfet resistor pairs, this was during initial test debug of the board.

Basic 3step
Testing the basic board with 3 nema 17 steppers.

Basic 3step
Installed in it's case, clearly showing the additional components of the 'full' version, and the resistor current limit board with mandatory cooling fan.

Basic 3step
3Step controller completely mounted in the case. Bottom right is the relay for the spindle control, and the fourth board is the original controller I used for the Junkbox router which used four seperate PIC16F84's, LM324's for level shifters and some BUK456A mosfets which were not logic-level devices, hence the LM324's.

Basic 3step
The front of the controller case, showing the two IEC connectors used for the spindle control cable. The switch in between the two sockets is in series with the relay, and acts as a manual 'arm' switch for the spindle.

Basic 3step
The arm switch box on the side of the Junkbox router. Also visible is one of the Y axis limit switches.

Videos

The first one is in the context of a post to the forums on cnczone. In this I was testing the pulse stretching solution on the inputs. I had increased the step table in the software to be 16 times longer than required, which has the effect of requiring 16x the frequency of step pulses to get things moving.

Next up stuff about the E-stop, and the router moving, but not cutting anything. More of general interest if you followed the thread on cnczone. There's also a cameo appearance by one of our cats, Bonnie.

The odd knocking noise as one of the axes running is a bent leadscrew, which I have since replaced!

Lastly, something really not related to the stepper driver itself, but interesting. Cutting alloy with my junk-box router.

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