dual spindle controller

[Ken Rychlik]

I'm tempted to change this one to centroid, but I'm not sure if it will make it more valuable or not. There are some people in the sb3 world that prefer the devil they know.

The Orientalmotor ARD-A drivers and motors seem pretty smooth and I found a pinout for the signal in/out. They have different pins on the cn36 for 24v signals or 5v signals.

[Gary Campbell]

I'm tempted to change this one to centroid, but I'm not sure if it will make it more valuable or not. There are some people in the sb3 world that prefer the devil they know.

Thats a tough one. We in the know realize the gain of feature, function, smooth, speed, etc. that will be gained by ditching the kiddie code and mega slow output of SB3, but many long-time users will prefer to use what they are familiar with rather than be forced to learn a new way of processing CNC projects no matter what the benefits may be.

I would have thought that after ~7 years and 82,000 views of this thread: https://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?24425 that more of the "blue Kool-Aid" crew would be open to trying the controller that SB turned down because it doesn't run SB3 code.

In 2018 I did some testing with the Oriental AlphaStep motors and drives on both 5 and 24v. The tests shown in the video below were done with "off the shelf" drive programming from Oriental, results were not as favorable with drives that had been programmed by SB to be more compatible with their control systems.



A single DIN mount 4PDT relay toggled by tool number or a screen button can swap the spindle logic, analog volts, step and direction signals between the 2 cutting heads. And, as you have stated above, the head XY offsets are easily handled, just make sure that both heads are at machine zero when making the swap.

[Ken Rychlik]

These drives and motors are a different generation and seem smooth on sb3 although kind of slow. I ordered a few 36 pin plugs to play with taking control of the drivers. It's for sale as sb3 and I will tinker with the 2nd z controller, as it is not plugged into their board. Did you find any difference between the 5 and 24v logic on how they ran?

So to some it would be better left as sb3 and some would prefer Centroid. I looked up the prices on those vexta motors and drives. Crazy