Look Who it Was Random video

Chinese CNC running on MassMind.org drivers

386 views · Published 17 May 2016 · 0:40 · Indexed 14 October 2026

Channel: James Newton · 2016 · Science & Technology

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A local client was having some problems getting the drivers upgraded on his Chinese CNC machine and since I've always wanted to see what one of those machines would do with better drivers, I stopped by and helped out. 

I was amazed to find that the connection between the break out board and the drivers was in PMinMO standard order: +5, GND, Step, Direction, Enable. But the +5 was more like +4.2 so he had to build a separate +5 logic supply for the drivers (could also have used the onboard regulator option). We removed the +5 and Enable lines from the cables and cut off one end to make room for the +5 supply... Yeah, it's a hack, but...

As you can see, it works... ok... ish... The Y axis flies. I think there are some mechanical binding issues with the X axis. For some reason, the Z axis, and I've NEVER seen this, likes to go UP but sometimes stalls going down at high speeds... And there isn't a spring in it that I can see... Very weird. We backed it off some and it appears to be reliable now.

Also, we can only pump about half the drivers rated current into the motors before the drivers error out. This is because the motors are really low inductance motors (and cheap) and the system has a 24 volt supply. A higher voltage supply would provide more speed and get better performance from those motors.

We actually couldn't even get to half the drivers full current because the power supply would error out on power up if we had the drivers turned up to far.

But even with less than 2 amps, and 24 volts, the machine now moves pretty fast and strong enough to do actual work. My client now has the job of finding a box to put everything in and cleaning up the power supplies. And re-calibrating the motion. He is also going to replace the power supply at some point which should help.

Summary: With an upgrade to a good driver, even a cheap Chinese CNC router can work. (Note: This should NOT be taken as a recommendation of any of those machines, or to imply that buying anything high power from China is a good idea... it's NOT.)

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