Good afternoon,
I’m coming from the laser world and wondering if the DB15 breakout connector would allow me to upgrade the steppers on my X50 woodworker with a BB controller to closed loop steppers?
I’ve done it on my Co2 with a Ruida controller, but not familiar with the BB controller just yet.
Thanks in advance.
Hey Jeremiah,
yes, the Buildbotics.com controller allows exactly that. But there is no such connector on Onefinity’s software and hardware fork of the Buildbotics controller.
Buildbotics.com introduced that auxiliary connector after one user really succeeded with accessing to the solder points for STEP±{X,Y,Z,A}, DIR±{X,Y,Z,A}, Motor Enable, and Alarm on the AVR Mainboard (gerber source) and demonstrated the use of external stepper drivers (thereby bypassing the internal Texas Instruments DRV8711 stepper drivers). But Onefinity generally does not backport any new things, neither hardware nor firmware.
I had a look at the pcb, and although I am an experienced solderer, I would say, if you want to attempt this on Onefinity’s pcb, good luck! 
Better buy a Buildbotics controller that has the 15-pin D-Sub auxiliary connector.
Image 1: Buildbotics CNC Controller
Image 2: Onefinity CNC Controller
EDIT: Link to Onefinity pcb gerber file repaired.
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Makes perfect sense! I’m pretty comfortable around a soldering station as well, but I’m not set up to do “board based” mods any longer.
Thanks for the information!
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Only the elite is getting real upgrades. Looking at real Buildbotics controller or LinuxCNC.
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I would hold off for now. New things tend to be buggy. Reading the BB controller forum closely. And we still do not know what onefinity has coming.
Agreed!!
Who knows, 1F may come out with a 4x8 elite machine and make it all worth while.
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You could just do our elite upgrade program through the IPP and get our supported, warrantied masso upgrade to convert your machine to an elite machine.
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Yes, yes, I could. Looking at doing that and upgrading to a 48x48 machine, but may wait for the new announcement to make my decision.
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