Tag: PiBot

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Genmitsu 4040 Pro Max Controller Upgrade

I discovered that the factory Genmitsu controller runs GRBL 1.1 that is only able to support 3 axes and isn’t upgradable to any other controller firmware. So that meant I wasn’t able to use the expensive Rotary Table accessory I purchased with the CNC Router…that was supposed to work with it….and that I had many plans for…and was one of the main reasons for purchasing a CNC Router at this time. That started a huge plunge into a Black Hole of time and effort for what I thought would have been an easy fix. It actually would have been pretty easy from the research I had done to date but the solution I found was from a company (OpenBuilds) that just announced it was going out of business and the pre-made perfect controller I needed was no longer available. Yep, perfect BCBH (Black Cloud/Black Hole) convergence once again.

So surely other companies sell complete solutions like OpenBuilds, right? WRONG!! Of course I hit the expert resources at various forums and FaceBook user groups only to confirm that there aren’t off-the-shelf controller solutions available. It was suggested numerous time to build my own like others had been doing for years using MCU development boards or purpose made CNC controller boards. The only problem was support and documentation. I found tons of generic CNC controller boards from Chinese manufactures that looked great and were really inexpensive. But none of them came with any documentation or support.

CNC Controller Firmware

So if GRBL 1.1 only supports 3 axes, then what supports more? GRBL 2.0? Nope, no such thing. I was expecting that the CNC firmware world would be very advanced and up to date. Turns out it’s NOT! GRBL 1.1h is the newest and it’s from 2019! Yikes. So what do I need then? There’s not much to choose from. I had pretty much settled on grblHAL, which is a fork of grbl with enhanced features and, most importantly, would handle a 4th axis. Then I came across mention of FluidNC. It seemed really good with lots of features. While researching FluidNC I came across purpose made CNC controller hardware designed by the same dev, Bart Dring, that created FluidNC. That seemed like the way to go. But it was still very confusing due to everything being so generic and configurable in order to work with a broad range of use cases and CNC machines. You still have to pick from a variety of stepper motor drivers. Some of which plugged into the CNC controller boards and some were external. Again, what to choose. Not to mention that Bart’s Tindie store was closed with a message he was on vacation and to visit his partner at Elecrow.com. I did my best and was going to order from Tindie but the products are constantly out of stock. So I was going to order from Elecrow but not everything was in stock there either and there were even more choices so I gave up for a while.

PiBot

There was an interesting CNC controller board on Elecrow from PiBot. They have their own web site so I started researching there. They reference the FluidNC WiKi, which in turn references the PiBot as supported hardware. I ended up ordering the PiBot 4.9 PLUS B from the Pibot web site. I also decided to go with external stepper motor drivers that would handle the NEMA23 motors I eventually wanted to upgrade to. After a lot of research I went with TB6600 drivers.

Everything Else!

Now that I finally decided on a controller and firmware, I needed, well, EVERYTHING else! So just what IS everything else? Yep, the Black Hole is sucking me in big time now.

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Genmitsu 4040 Pro Max – A.K.A. Black Hole For Money and Time

I purchased my first CNC router earlier this year. I’ve been researching forever and was pretty set on building my own for my use case of mostly machining aluminum. However, the longer I waited to get started, the better the hobby level CNC routers became. Then I came across the, then new, SainSmart Genmitsu 4040 Pro Max. I decided to order it with the A-Axis Rotary Table accessory and Hybrid Spoilboard.

A few weeks after ordering and not seeing the status on the SainSmart web site change to shipped, I sent an email to check on it. And that’s when the black hole of never ending time and money sucking began….so I thought…more to come. Turns out the 4040 Pro Max wasn’t actually released yet even though there was no indication on the web site or when I ordered it. The broken English email I received back informed me that it was a pre-sales order and would be another 2 months before it shipped, making a total of over 3 months since time of order. The customer service rep apologized and offered a free gift for my trouble if I didn’t cancel the order. I decided to wait and chose a $70 Genmitsu vise. I wasn’t in a hurry and was busy learning CAD/CAM using Fusion 360 anyway.

Free gift??? Heck Yeah!! (Spoiler: After receiving the vise I learned it is totally useless and won’t even clamp down on a part.)

I finally received the large heavy box with my shiny new CNC Router along with a couple of other boxes with the Rotary Table and Spoilboard. The assembly was amazingly simple due to a lot of effort spent on engineering mostly assembled assemblies that fit together with alignment pins. It was very exciting….except I didn’t have a place to put it. I was planning on repurposing an old cheap metal frame office desk but wanted to wait to have the fully assembled CNC in hand before making final measurements and placement. The desk was a little too long but just the right depth and height. It had a fairly thick MDF top and a thin metal square tube frame but metal non the less. It needed about 18″ taken off the length so I cut and welded the frame to fit. Yeah, I was being sucked in ever deeper into the black hole.

Finally got the table in place and the CNC fit perfect. Time to power on and try it out. Yep, the Universes Black Cloud that looms over my soul joined forced with the CNC Black Hole so the machine was partially DOA. Having no experience with powering on a new CNC Router, I joined the official SainSmart Genmitsu CNC user group on FaceBook to seek help. First post about the DOA here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BKBNrp19U/

I did a ton of troubleshooting and determined that the stepper motor drivers were not getting the full 24V from the power supply. No idea why. Eventually a user on the FB group suggested sending a controller reset command to set to factory settings via a gcode sender. The command $RST=* did the trick and the CNC worked!! However, there was still issues. I would still have to send the reset command occasionally. In the mean time, I had been sending emails to SainSmart support and they determined I needed a replacement main/controller PCB. An inexpensive $40 part according to their web site. HOWEVER, AGAIN the BCBH (Black Cloud/Black Hole) appeared and support informed me they were on backorder for 3 months!!. Yay.

In the mean time I was able to start using the CNC with the occasional reset command to make parts for my laser pointer hobby/business. That’s when I learned how CAD isn’t too hard to learn but CAM is a total BITCH!! I’ve been using a manual metal lathe for decades so I never guessed milling something on a CNC Router would be so different. But OMGosh it’s incredibly different. You have to know EXACTLY what you’re doing on a CNC Router milling metal. On a manual metal lathe, I can just adjust feed and speed intuitively by feel. If the tool bit is a little dull or maybe just sharpened, then I simply adjust the speed and feed to compensate. But on a CNC, as the name implies, it’s computer controlled and you better have the settings pretty perfect or there’s going to be a mess.

So I made a lot of messes but eventually figured out what works with the stock I was cutting and the capabilities of the CNC I was using. I spent the next few months refining the parts I needed to make and the CNC settings to make that worked best.