Are there alternatives (already built) to the BB and or the Masso controller that we can look at? I am not an electrical engineer. Just a hobbyist CNC’r so I have no idea how to build a controller from parts. Nor do I want to. Surely there has to be another kind of controller. I don’t want to go back to BB, and hell I am already into a new machine for thousands. But I am not willing to be bent over by Masso and their John Deer attitude. What’s next? They keep going up on the subscription price? Very likely. After all they did it once and if people put up with it why not do it again, and again, and again. so again what are the alternatives and is Onefinity going to quickly give us a different alternative?
The 1F is is a simple 3-axis machine with 2 motors for the Y. All you need is a 4-axis (or more) controller with the ability to slave one of the axes. I’ve heard some that wire the 2 Y-axis motors together to use a single driver channel, but this is generally not recommended.
After much deliberation, I went with the Centroid Acorn controller. I have about $2k into it including the PC and controller software, but it can be done for less if you reuse the original 1F motor cables and go with a simple switching-mode stepper motor power supply. Count on around $1500 plus the time to set it up. I chose each component carefully, just as I would with a custom gaming PC. There isn’t anything too cosmic about setting this up, but having modular cables with connectors requires soldering and the tools to drill somewhat precise diameter holes in the cabinet’s sheet metal.
I chose the Centroid Acorn for a few reasons. It’s a well established US-based company that has been in the CNC business for many years. It’s not “cheap” but it’s reasonably priced especially considering the software’s capabilities. Their wireless pendant option was also a factor and it’s a joy to use for precise jogging and establishing job origin.
This cabinet arrangement is a little crowded and forced me to layer a few things. The Centroid controller is on the right, under the output relay board. Under it is a Gecko G540 4-axis stepper driver. To the left is the Huanyang spindle VFD, which doesn’t technically have to be in here, but I made it work. It’s better for EMI mitigation to house it in a metal enclosure and I didn’t want to house it separately. The upper left component is a 48v DC power supply for the steppers. To its right is a 24v PSU for the controller and homing sensors. All the components are mounted to the removable rear panel, which makes initial assembly much easier. The only component not mounted to it is the cooling fan at the very top, which chucks air out of the side. I still need to make a rectangular duct for this. At the bottom is a filtered air inlet.
I use 2 power inlet cables- 1 for the VFD through a noise filter (under the VFD) and another for everything else. I could use separate circuits, but so far it’s all powered by a common 220v multi-tap outlet strip, which I use as a master power switch. Mounted above the 48v PSU is an acrylic panel and din rail for mounting my AC and fused DC power distribution.
The other part that took a little while was setting up the control software (which runs on a compact Windows 11 PC) and calibrating the steps per unit of movement for each axis. There are a few good YouTube videos that I found and followed and was able to get it very precisely dialed in. If you are interested, I can post a YT video of a typical job run, from power up, jogging to zero a workpiece, loading G-code, etc.
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holy moley you built that? It looks very intimidating. i want to do wood working not electrical engineering sorry but that is not for me. now if you wwant to build me one let me know what the price would be
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I’ll take that as a compliment, but it’s not nearly as intimidating as you might suspect. It’s simply a collection of parts arranged with care.
I can break down each component further and a list with a link to each. It’s probably not practical for me to build one for you mostly because of the shipping costs since I’m located in Germany.
I can refer you to Vince, located in Florida. I purchased my shielded cables, VFD and spindle from him. He also assembles turn-key controller enclosures for reasonable costs and supports what he sells. storm2313@gmail.com
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Oh and yes it was a compliment I am thoroughly impressed.
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