BTW, I think you do have to realize that your CNC 3040 may not end up being as good a deal as you thought.? The Chinese are famous for copying (bugs and all) existing products without the background engineering in place to provide support.? So they have a black box from somewhere that came from somewhere that was copied from somewhere.

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Here’s an example of this sort of issue and it’s caused a lot of frustration for the original designer who put it all out as open source including 2D drawings.? Even the CAD files were available for an extra charge.

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That is an unlicensed copy of this project and the 2D and CAD drawings are no longer available because of the copying.

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What people buying it may not realize is the Chinese copy is an open loop version without encoders and instead has a couple of electric brakes on it to keep it from slipping without power connected.? That means only the AR2 software will run and upgrading it to AR3 or AR4 is a lot of work.? About as much as just buying the original kit from Chris Annin.? And it’s hard to know how good the Chinese mechanicals are anyway.

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So here we have a fantastic project with a designer who was trying to bring low cost robotic arms to a place where the average person can play (more than the Radio Shack Armatron)? and it gets poorly copied and the cost to bring it to latest standards costs and the labour now has to be done anyway.

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I think in the case of your mill your best option is to look at one of the North American Suppliers who create ‘black boxes’ compatible with MACH3/4 and swallow the money paid to the Chinese for the fake as a learned lesson.? At least you have the mechanicals.

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John

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