by BrianV | Jun 15, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
Had an interesting tech support problem last week. The customer was measuring wrong voltages all over his HobbyCNC board. The 5 Volt test point measured 4.85 Volts. The test point should be between 4.95 and 5.05 Volts (5 Volts +/- 1%). The output of the LM317HV should...
by BrianV | Apr 22, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
Should you use shielded wire or not? I don’t use any shielded wire on my DIY CNC, and I haven’t had any noise or ‘phantom triggers’. I do notice interference (like a ‘fuzzyness’) on my computer monitor when I hit the power to my...
by BrianV | Apr 13, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
I needed a quick-and-dirty 36VDC unregulated linear power supply to drive some HobbyCNC boards on my test system. I wanted the bridge rectifier to mount directly to the PC board. The beefy bridge rectifier that I had in my stock was the type with the large spade-type...
by BrianV | Mar 22, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
EDIT: I have documented the KiCAD to G-code process here: hobbycnc.com/pc_board_isolation_routing/ As a follow-up to my last post on Autodesk and Eagle, I did my first PCB isolation routing using the KiCAD and FlatCAM to LinuxCNC toolchain. I did schematic capture and...
by BrianV | Mar 14, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
One thing I use my DIY CNC machine for is milling PC Boards (it’s technically called “isolation routing”). This is fairly fast, inexpensive, accurate and uses zero nasty chemicals. I’d been using Eagle Schematic & PCB design software. Great...
by BrianV | Feb 2, 2017 | HobbyCNC Blog
A BreakOut Board – a BOB for short, takes an input, typically from a computer or a ethernet/USB-to-parallel converter and splits up the signals into individual pins. These pins are then wired to individual stepper driver boards. Most stepper driver boards...
by BrianV | Oct 7, 2016 | HobbyCNC Blog
Is cheap electronics a good value? It depends if you decide to play around with it using online tools like Upverter.com to arrange your schematic to ensure that the cheaper parts can deal with the electrical loads correctly. In this case, “Value” means the...
by BrianV | Sep 13, 2016 | HobbyCNC Blog
“My X axis stopped working. What’s wrong?” I was in pre-and post-sales technical support professionally for about 20 years of my career. I’ve provided support over-the-phone, in the shop and in the field. I consider myself to be pretty good at...
by BrianV | Aug 17, 2016 | HobbyCNC Blog
Why does HobbyCNC use unipolar stepper motors? And what is the difference between bipolar and unipolar stepper motors? Is one better than the other? Let’s start with the differences between the two types of motors*. A unipolar motor works from a single polarity...
by BrianV | Aug 9, 2016 | HobbyCNC Blog
I have been thinking about my decision to use a 1/4-20 threaded rod to drive the axis instead of an acme screw. The answer is the typical engineering answer: “trade-offs”. Threaded rods can be a very valuable tool for a lot of building projects, and you...
