Author Topic: Smart bob with stock Sherline 4 axis driver box?  (Read 4422 times)

superuserg

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Smart bob with stock Sherline 4 axis driver box?
« on: January 18, 2021, 02:10:45 AM »
I'm wondering, is it possible or has anyone tried to wire a breakout board like the smart BOB to the stock Sherline driver controller box?
In the future id like to hook up a touch probe, homing switches, etc. I was thinking of soldering wires to the parallel port on the Sherline driver box, and then connecting those to a breakout board to the computer.

Doddjn

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Re: Smart bob with stock Sherline 4 axis driver box?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2021, 08:23:57 AM »
Yes - have had a 424 for years. Think it is a 426 now. It works great - have homing, probe, limit switches as well as spindle on/off and speed control. Very happy with both PMDX and Sherline. Note I also use the 407 for motor control.

superuserg

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Re: Smart bob with stock Sherline 4 axis driver box?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2021, 04:45:57 PM »
Kinda confused about how I would connect Sherline's proprietary driver board because there are only two pins for each axis DIR+ STEP+ and BOB's have 4 connections for each axis. Do you have any idea how I would do the wiring?

12strings

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Re: Smart bob with stock Sherline 4 axis driver box?
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2021, 12:16:48 AM »
A bit late, but... "4 pins for each axis"?  I"ve see motor drivers with 4 pins, DIR+/DIR- and STEP+/STEP- (or PUL+/PUL-).   Is that what you mean?  The PMDX-126 has 4 pins on each connector, but those are step, dir and +5V and GND.  In that case you would connect the step and dir pins and run one of the GND pins to the "ground" pin of the DB25 that you referenced.

Or am I totally missing something here?