I’m trying to help a friend get a raspberry pi based home build machine running well, i am horrible with control building but good with cnc. Would it be possible to use the onefinity control on another cnc router?
Hey Robert,
what do you exactly mean with “the onefinity control”.
Do you mean the Onefinity CNC controller? If so, the answer is yes, as it is a hardware and software fork of the Buildbotics CNC controller, which is a universal CNC controller, this could be possible. But wouldn’t you rather use an original Buildbotics from buildbotics.com, since it meanwhile evolved a bit further since the moment when Onefinity forked it (What’s new in Buildbotics 1.0.0, What’s new in 1.0.2). For example, a recent version of the Buildbotics CNC controller allows you to alternatively use external stepper drivers,
The Onefinity software and hardware fork is worked on by a developer too at the moment, but I think it’s mainly getting it to use a Raspberry Pi 4 instead of a 3 and to get around a few drawbacks of file selection interface.
Anyway, if you have up to four open-loop bipolar stepper motors / axes on your CNC machine, you can go with any of the Onefinity CNC controller or the Buildbotics CNC controller. If you have a gantry-style machine, which means, the Y axis are in fact two parallel axes with a stepper on each, you use two stepper outputs for Y and so you practically can use any X, Y*2 and Z axes = three axes machine and attach it to the controller. Of course you would have to configure the settings for the stepper motors and the pitch of the ball screws/lead screws and some other settings to match the machine hardware.
I have no idea. I don’t know a thing about stepper motor controllers, lots of experience with fanuc. Just would like to help this guy out. I will look into the buildbotics control. I like the onefinity control design and i know it well enough that i could teach him
Hey Robert,
do you have such a Onefinity or Buildbotics Controller, possibly second-hand, at hand? The Onefinity version is only available with a Onefinity CNC machine or as used second-hand (in this case you could post a “Want to buy”-request for a Onefinity CNC controller in the Sale or Trade section of this forum. Some people replaced their Onefinity CNC controller with another CNC controller system and have one lying around), this would be the cheapest way to get one; the Buildbotics is available as a universal controller but is a little more expensive.
Your friend should provide a few informations about the stepper motors that are present on the machine in question. The Onefinity and the Buildbotics controllers are both standalone controllers, which means they contain both a computer with User Interface, a CNC controller soft- and hardware AND the stepper drivers. You just need a bare machine with just stepper motors on ball/lead screws.
If your friend is running a Raspberry Pi, what’s its CNC software at the moment?