Bart Dring

2,271 orders since Aug 14, 2017

River Forest, IL, United States of America

Ships from United States of America.

Custom Work Available

View Store

Hardware and Electronics for Motion Control and CNC.

Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.72)

Documentation: (4.52)

Shipping: (4.85)

Communication: (4.67)

All Reviews

Lucas | July 12, 2024

The best-in-class CNC controller on the market.

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I don't often leave true reviews but this is a product that easily deserves it.

I bought this product along with Dring's 0-10V spindle controller and two of the 4x input modules to convert my ancient Roland MDX-40 to a more modern firmware. For around $200 total (which includes the spindle hardware and five DRV8825 stepper drivers) I now have a fully capable CNC conversion that handles modern g-code with a wireless interface instead of requiring me to hack together outdated drivers and a machine language from the early 2000s. Originally I tried to use the most budget option for this build in the form of an Arduino CNC hat, but the extra $60 spent is easily worth it. If you're trying to decide between this and other low-cost boards, spend the extra money and go with this.

This product, along with his FluidNC firmware, is extremely well-documented and it took me only a few hours to fully understand the configuration process and get everything up and running on a machine that has never been converted using this hardware before. It interfaces flawlessly with the 500W spindle power supply speed controller and the motion system that came with the machine. The price point is also quite good - this product easily competes with other much more expensive options that I've used, with the added benefit that everything is open source, so I never have to worry about losing support or having to fork over hundreds of dollars for a software update.

Definitely will be continuing to use his products in the future for any other machines I may build.

Kevin | Jan. 29, 2024

This board is amazing

For 6x CNC Controller for FluidNC (integrated ESP32)

This is the second board I've bought here from Bart Dring.
The first was a 6-pack external driver board - very flexible due to its potential to add many different modules and great for experimentation (or use in a machine). This one (6x integrated version) is very, very comprehensive out of the box and will work fine as it comes, after a little tweaking of the configuration file. The production quality is great, and if it's as reliable as the other boards, it will be a winner. With a set of external driver boards (mine are 4 x TMC2160), it worked without problems. It comes with the latest FluidNC loaded, along with a generic configuration file. You will need to be prepared to individualize the configuration file to fit your particular build. There is a wealth of good readable information on the wikis as well as online support on the Discord if needed.
I also tested this with a Platformio-based build of GrblHAL, using a customized board map to match the pinouts and peripherals. It worked perfectly with that too.
There is onboard support for multiple spindle types and connections - including PWM, 0-10V and built-in ModBus. All work, but I still prefer 0-10V - and this is very linear across the range. Plenty of inputs and outputs, including a couple of MOSFET outputs for driving relays. Very little need for external peripherals.
The price is pretty good too, especially taking into account all of the built-in capabilities. To replicate these with the 6-Pack External + modules would cost a lot more. This is now in my production machine, relegating the 6-Pack to the testbed setup, where its flexibility is most useful.

Ian | Nov. 28, 2023

6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller is working well

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

I used fluidnc a while ago and was pleased with it so when I needed a controller for my cnc I got this. I use it on an old cnc knee mill from the late 80s that I finally got tired of fixing the control on. I'm using the old servos with Gecko servo drives which works well as long as all the terminal connections are done properly. Its all working well, especially for the price, a bit of working bugs out and figuring wifi out but that's to be expected. Next step now that everything works is to clean up the build which will help with reliability as most of the problems I have are with my wiring, the board itself is solid. I was surprised how much more work has gone into fluidnc since last I used it. Previously getting the yaml file figured out was a challenge at first but the online installer now is easy, super nice. I'm very happy with it, the value is hard to beat.

Lucas | Nov. 27, 2023

Upgraded from XPro V5

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

A great upgrade from the all-in-one controller I was using before. The ability to put 48v or more instead of 24v through the motors, the ability to have 4 motors controlling a 3-axis gantry machine plus a rotary axis if I want one, and just the sheer amount of customizability are the huge upsides I was sold on.

It was a bit intimidating since I don't have any background electrical or computer stuff but reading the wiki and browsing help threads on the Discord got me what I needed to switch my cnc over from the XPro V5.

Awesome product.

Brent | Oct. 21, 2023

Really cool product, and great support

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

I decided to switch to FluidNC from grbl, and it's a lot harder to homebrew that. Thankfully, this is purpose-built for FluidNC by the guy who wrote* it. Great software running on great hardware! I like external stepper drivers, so I went this route. As an added bonus, a couple of 5v output ports are built in--you usually have to buy those, and if you are trying to really automate your CNC work, you're going to need them.

It's hard to go wrong with this setup--everything is super-intuitive, and if there is a problem, the hardware is documented within an inch of its life on Github, and FluidNC has an entire, obsessively-complete wiki. And if that's not enough, there is support on Discord. It's not some rando farming responses for stars, or a series of "hey, I had this <exact problem you have>, but now it's fixed" followed by months of silence. It's the guy, whose name you see on this store, answering your questions, asking for info, and then more often than not telling you how to fix it.

On a Saturday, in minutes, in my experience. I almost felt bad about making him work on a weekend, but I figured I'd be lucky if somebody didn't just tell me to put an issue into Github and check my calendar.

In short, buy it and use and enjoy it. It's almost impossible to go wrong.

*I mean, I doubt he wrote it from scratch, but this guy's been leading the way in hobby CNC stuff for ages, so I'm going to pad his resume a bit.

Peter | Oct. 17, 2023

Hands Down the best Economy DIY CNC Controller available

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I have purchased a few products from Bart, ranging from his 4 axis SPI controller to the Six Pack board and Multiple Modules. I have run his GRBL ESP_32 firmware on both boards and have since upgraded to FluidNC . I am in no way an expert in programming languages but have a solid mechanical and electrical systems background. Disclaimer, Bart's products do require more than basic knowledge!!!

All of his products and software are well thought out and are more than capable of controlling most Hobby Machines with precision and have the capability to add external equipment with minimal trouble and programming knowledge.

His communication is excellent and is always willing to help troubleshoot any issues you have. Also 99% of the information required to set up the 6 pack is located here.
https://github.com/bdring/6-Pack_CNC_Controller/wiki
The information for setting up FluidNC is located here.
http://wiki.fluidnc.com/

Make sure to read both Wiki's thoroughly and when you think you understand it read it again. I can tell you almost all of the questions you may have are located with in these 2 pages. Most of the issues I experienced were self induced and the solutions were often just Bart pointing me to the proper page. There is also usually very little waiting time for a response as well. Be sure to check the FluidNC Discord Channel for more specific and detailed issue work throughs and ideas.

https://discord.gg/RsFGCAEF

Remember also Bart and Mitch Bradley have put tons of time into porting GRBL to GRBL ESP32 and FluidNC and have kept it open source for the community. Make sure to support/ donate to them on GITHUB
https://github.com/bdring
https://github.com/MitchBradley

Kevin | Oct. 14, 2023

Great if you're comfortable working with ESP32 devices

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

I recently purchased this external driver version of the 6-pack controller (bare, without ESP32 dev board). It arrived quickly and in good condition. I have a fair amount of experience with programming and using the ESP32 devices and others, and with general electronics. Once I found the correct 38-pin version of the ESP-32 dev board (many are not 38-pin), programming with FluidNC was easily accomplished. A look through the example configuration files gave a basic YAML configuration to begin with. After a few tweaks it was simple to upload it via the web interface and set it as default. The literature that Mr. Dring has generated in the various wikis for the software and for the boards is pretty extensive and certainly simplified the task.
Rather than buying the pre-built module(s) for spindle control, I put together a 0-10 volt module and a RS485 module to try each with my Huanyang spindle inverter, following the basic instructions and schematics. Both function fine and can be controlled via FluidNC. I'm sure the pre-built modules would work well too, since they are using much the same circuitry.
I'm still waiting for my external motor driver modules to arrive from the supplier, but I have little doubt that they will work fine with this board.
I have two suggestions for later revisions. First, add a fuse and perhaps a reverse polarity diode (or a bridge rectifier) to the motor power input. Mark the polarity clearly on the top silk-screen print. Currently, the power input connector polarity is unmarked except for the tiny print on the underside of the board, and a mistake would be very easy to make. Second, although the pullup resistors to the 5 volt line and the common ground connection for the six input opto-isolators can make some uses easier, bringing the bare LED connections out instead (or making the grounds and pullups jumper-selectable for each device) would give a lot more flexibility - particularly for interfacing with higher voltage inductive sensors - and would allow for true isolation from the board rather than sharing supplies and grounds across the "isolation".
All in all, this is a really nice flexible board that makes it easier to put together a multi-axis home CNC or laser in a wide variety of configurations. Mr. Dring has made it possibly to copy the entire design - open-sourcing the schematics and even board files, as well as the excellent FluidNC software - but buying a pre-built board allows some support of the project.
Communication would be left un-rated were it possible on this site. The standard of documentation made it unnecessary in this case.

Response from Bart Dring | Oct. 17, 2023

Thank you for the feedback.

Reverse polarity protection. A diode is probably going to overheat because many people run some higher currents. I will look into a MOSFET based reverse voltage protection. I will also put some big top side silkscreen voltage labels to the next batch.

Optos. The 6 Pack input modules use true voltage isolation and it has caused difficulty for some people. The power supplies are expensive, low current and easily damaged. I wanted to simplify it and reduce costs to users by not having to buy a lot of modules. There were pros and cons and I ended up with the current design. The original 6 pack has the advantage of allowing you to try multiple input designs. If you ever fork the design, I would love to see what you come up with.

Scott | Aug. 21, 2023

Works as a CNC 6 axis Robot arm controller, too!

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

It took me some time to get this all figured out. The help on Discord was great, including the seller, Bart Dring. I bit off a pretty big bite, and was trying to configure a 6 axis machine, as my first experience with this controller. Having said that, six axes is a main reason I bought it. The other huge reason, is that Bart is a major contributor to the FluidNC project. I really like FluidNC, so buying this controller is a way of supporting. Might buy another for future projects, and will definitely be ordering some more modules to go with this board.

Scott | Aug. 21, 2023

Started to make my own, but used these instead.

For External Stepper Motor Driver Adapter

As I was learning the FluidNC ecosystem I made some mistakes. In other to reduce mistakes I just ordered these adapters. On the face of it, it seems easy to just use dupont wires to jumper the appropriate connections. But in hindsight, there is enough other chance for errors, I decided to reduce the potential problem of a loose jumper wire, and just install these modules. They work great. I like have the option to throw in a little stepstick driver, or use the module to run a bigger stepper driver. Makes the whole control board really modular, and easy to diagnose issues. You can just swap components around as needed to troubleshoot, and hone in on issues.

Veronica | Aug. 13, 2023

Cost weeks of frustration and left me with a broken machine

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

Tried to use this on a 4axis cnc and it was a complete disaster. I am not a PLC expert so I ordered the ESP32 card that was supposed to come with preloaded config file and even went to the trouble of creating a wiring diagram to show all of the components and connections so I could be as close to plug and play as possible. What a waste of time. When the board came the config file was basically the same example file that I could have easily downloaded for free from the FluidNC github and Mr. Dring informed that he didn't set up the config files to that level and directed me to WIKI for configuration and setup. The documentation for the board is extensive but so horribly written that it is almost unusable unless you are a PLC expert or C++ code writer who already knows what all of the variable labels are for with multiple paths to rabbit holes for you to waste your time trying to figure just exactly what they are trying to convey and how it might relate to the config file settings that you are trying to fill in. It took several days but I finally managed to connect all the dots. Then the real trouble started. I am using ST-M5045 drivers that require a common positive and a sunk source for proper operation. After a short discussion about the config file being setup in the opposite fashion and providing the setup diagram from the user's manual, Mr. Dring informed me that it didn't matter because his controller could source or sink the control signals and that I should ignore the provided specs for the drivers because either option would work with his board. Since the controller only came with common grounds at the connection terminals for the driver outputs, I opted to follow his advice since it would make for a cleaner easier installation over trying to source multiple cards from a single connection from the small screw terminal connector. I have to give Mr. Dring credit for responsive, and answering questions in a timely manner, but he tends toward being rude, obnoxious and condescending, making communications unpleasant, leaving the impression that as a customer who needs assistance you are just an inconvenience that he begrudgingly tolerates, and you should stop wasting his valuable time. As I said it took several days to get through the setup and configuration process, but i finally managed to slog my way through and start the test and tune phase of the process. After a few minor bumps in the road like misconfigured switches and homing settings I only needed to invert the direction settings to account for the fact that I am using a fixed gantry with a moving table so the g-code sender could properly apply the commands for proper movement. Aside from needing minor adjustments to tune my steps per mm I thought I was there and even managed to run several of my NC files successfully but started having trouble accessing the web UI after I had changed the direction output to low. It would either take a long time to load or just hang up during startup, so I opened a thread in the help section to try to identify and rectify the problem. I am not an applications engineer, I don't design circuits, I am also not a software engineer, I don't write code, but I am a senior systems engineer who writes systems requirements and assigns system specifications in meeting those requirements followed by integration and testing to ensure proper systems operation and specification compliance and I am very good at it. I quickly honed in on the most likely probable cause being an overcurrent condition and relayed my thoughts to Mr. Dring who promptly dismissed my advice, claiming that the problem was probably due to the noisy drivers I was using and recommended that I review his WIKI on Controller Design Guidelines. It wasn't long after that the ESP32 board died and went to heaven but not before destroying one of my homing switches in the process. I replaced the bad ESP32 with one of my spares and managed to get the board to respond but from that point on it was all downhill. Long story short I spent over a week dealing with Mr. Dring who constantly insisted that the problem must be related to something that I had done and following his bad advice until every channel on the 6 pack was dead. After all of that he finally broke down and actually looked at the schematics I had provided when I asked him how much current the driver boards were drawing and he finally admitted that it was close to the max the outputs could sustain and that was likely an overcurrent situation involved in the failures. Even after all of this I was willing to give it another go and went so far as to order new driver boards so I could get up and running after spending weeks making cables installing the board and slogging through the documentation and replacing damaged components. When I asked Mr. Dring if I could expect a replacement since it was his recommendation to source the driver outputs instead of sinking them according to the driver specs his reply to me was an offer for a refund and the following statement "I don't think this controller is right for you, I suggest you find a different controller and firmware". Well Mr. Dring Maybe everyone should heed your advice. The six pack is a good idea and with a few tweaks might even make a decent controller, and if you are fluent in PLC programming, you might not have any problems, but if you are the average user looking to plug something in and get to work making the things you want and do have problems at least know what to expect as a customer.

Here is a link to our discussions on Discord that I would recommend reading before laying down your money.
https://discord.com/channels/780079161460916227/1136635413587558552

Update...Less than 24 hours after posting this review it appears that Mr. Dring has deleted the above referenced thread from discord. Well done sir...Way to show the world that you are a stand-up guy willing to own his mistakes.... NOT

Rebuttal to Mr. Drings response: I wasn't frustrated Mr. Dring. Integration and testing is what I do for a living and I enjoy the challenge. I think you just refused to ship a new board out of spite for being proven wrong in the end. As for your other comments and claims, I guess it's easy to misrepresent the facts after you have deleted the evidence. Where's that thread? And finally I think your opening statement speaks volumes about this situation....It's not about caring for the customer who has forked over their hard earned cash, it's all about you.

Response from Bart Dring | Aug. 14, 2023

This order was very frustrating for me (seller) as well. I gave many hours of support over many days. Much of the support was explaining how to use the equipment he purchased in China and how things like opto isolators worked. There was also a lot time spent helping him with wiring. It took over 20 email messages just to help him enter the order for 2 items.

My policy on creating a configuration is clear. I will create a custom configuration for your machine that covers the I/O for all the motors, switch, spindles, accessories, etc. The final tuning of speeds, accelerations, max travel, etc needs to be done by the user on the machine.

In the end the the controller got damaged. Rather than assess blame or argue, I refunded the entire order including modules that did not break. I did not want to replace the equipment, because I felt that it was likely that the same experience would be repeated at my expense, my time and further frustrations for him.

This is the first 6 pack style controller out I have had to refund. At this time I have shipped over 600.

Petri | Feb. 6, 2023

Awesome product

For 6 Pack External Driver CNC Controller

I bought this controller to control my CO2 laser with lighburn. Works like a charm!
The installation was very easy, as the seller helped to create the needed config-file for FluidNC, so everything was pretty much plug-n-play.

Olivier | March 23, 2022

Keep up the good work !

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I am very pleased with my new controller built around Bart's hardware, I was struggling before with an arduino uno based controller for my rather large home made rack and pinion XYYZ milling CNC, it is night and day !
Also, repos have docs and the seller has a great channel for communication where they are really responsive.

Thank you so much !

Josef | Sept. 29, 2021

I am very satisfied with the products from Bart Dring

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I use the product to control my cnc. I have already bought the second one and I am extremely satisfied with it. I use it together with raspberry pi and bcnc.
sorry for english translates google

David | Sept. 7, 2021

not received article

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

6 Pack Universal CNC Controller to this date i have not received article from you still stuck in usa

Fraser | Sept. 7, 2021

Great board with a bit of a learning curve

For TMC2209 4 Axis Grbl_ESP32 CNC Controller

Very good ESP32 board with TMC2209 breakouts that allow for things like sensorless homing. Software has a bit of a learning curve so probably not recommended unless you know your way around arduino's and esp32's. Overall no issues with the hardware and just having a bit of trouble getting the SD card to work due to software bugs with SPIFFS size. Not Bart's fault and it's just one or maybe two people developing an entire GRBL compatibility, GUI software, and web interface so understand that you may end up on your own. Only negative was I found it slightly difficult to reach out to the Bart until I discovered some bug reporting on github.

Romain | June 26, 2021

Probleme....

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

Hello,
I send an e-mail but no response...
I received the 6-Pack CNC Controller quickly in France, but the power supply was shorted, I had to unsolder the IC U5 on the board and re-solder an external power supply instead.
After several days of struggling to read the Github dozens of times, I managed to get ESP3D Web UI for Grbl_ESP32 to work and Upload via OTA.
I have another problem, on Motor Socket # 4, Z_STEP_PIN ....... I2SO (13), there is 4.6V going out continuously and can't find why.
Here, I am not happy and I would have liked to have an answer by email.
The product is promising but with the current state of affairs I am not likely to recommend it ....
😞 😞 😞 😞 😞 😞 😞 😞

Caecilia | June 12, 2021

Well be my top choice for my next Projekt, too!

For TMC2209 4 Axis Grbl_ESP32 CNC Controller

I bought this board to drive a heavily modified K40. I already have a smaller diode laser running on regular grbl and wanted to keep the easy modifiable grbl but with a faster hardware ( Even with the diode laser Grbl in the original hardware setup was slow) So this board has everything I need and a little extra. If you've worked with an Arduino bevor stepping up to an Esp32 is quite easy and only a few things extra to consider. Bart's board and his grbl Port for the Esp32 really make the transition easy. The Controller makes some ports 5V compliant so interfacing whatever you need is a breeze and you don't need to fiddle with extra logic level shifters. Haven't fully tested the PMW yet but I'am pretty sure it works as well as the rest.

Deveraux | March 30, 2021

Great product, with much room for future upgrades. Seller co

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

Seller help me alot with coding, highly recommend.

One thing I would like to have is a pendant for cnc.

Cory | March 6, 2021

These are awesome products. Very high quality.

For External Stepper Motor Driver Adapter

Bart Dring makes a flawless cnc router package. These external motor drivers allow me to use large motors with industrial stepper drivers (dq542ma). The connectors are perfect, soldering instructions are perfect, labels are perfect, and it works like it should with no fuss.
Don't hesitate to buy, you won't be dissatisfied in any way.

Nathan | Jan. 20, 2021

Good deal

For Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development Board V4.1

I'm in the process of using this for more of a robot than a traditional cnc machine. So far, everything is coming together fairly well albeit slow as I'm modifying the webui for my robot's functions. Bart and luc (esp3d web ui dev) have been very helpful in answering questions.

Alexander | Jan. 20, 2021

Really nice setup

For Pen Plotter Controller for ESP32 & TMC2130 V2

Board is great, repos have docs and the seller has a great channel for communication where they are really responsive.

Samuel | Jan. 18, 2021

Best controller for unique (or any) CNCs

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I have a kind of unique cnc machine and I could not find a controller to do everything I needed until I found this one. It is perfect for mine (or any) machine. It controls my 2x 1y and 2z 48v external drivers with auto squaring, switches between router and laser, auto turns my router and dust collector on, has plenty of inputs for my switches and shutoffs. The esp32 is fantastic, 32bit, it creates a wifi point that you connect your phone, tablet, or laptop to and the webui (control software) starts. It's very easy to use, you can craft macros for frequently used commands, the settings are easy to change, real time overrides and nice jogging interface. It's well made and Bart is a great guy to deal with. I've been recommending this controller to everyone that is researching controllers to use. Thank you!

Steve | Dec. 18, 2020

Perfect replacement for my machine.

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I have scratch designed / built a laser plotter / cutter and even went to the trouble to writing my own controller code on a PIC but, like Arduinos, it was too slow. The ESP32 running at 240MHz seemed like the perfect solution as a replacement for my own board.

Like others have also said in comments, communications with Bart have been excellent and he answered a few of my queries before buying the board and helping me choose the right daughter boards to meet my needs. I got him to program an ESP32 with the correct code based on my stepper config. Shipping was great and I got my new board in good time.

Opening up the box, the first and overriding feeling that you get is that this is a board that has been well thought out and done by someone who has done a few of these before. The daughter boards were shipped fitted in the correct slots which made it easy. With excellent connectors on it and clear PCB annotations it seemed pretty clear. I did have to grab a few pin jumpers to set the voltages but fortunately I had a bag of them on hand - but it might have been useful to have had them included for people who do not keep a stock of bits about the place. I had to build the external stepper driver boards but was pleased to see in the documentation a picture of the wiring up to reasonably similar external stepper drivers to the ones I was using. Soldering up the external stepper driver boards was easy and uneventful.

Documentation overall is good but I could not find just a couple of parameters like the maximum motor voltage allowed to power the whole board so I used a buck converter to 12V to power it and it has been fine on that. My motors are running on 28V and I was not sure if that was too much. Its labled as an open hardware project and I am sure it exists, but I have not found the schematic for it. CNC is always complicated but overall there is a lot of documentation and for all that exists it is very clear and unambiguous. Bart also sent a forum link in case I wanted to ask anything else.

I looked at the stepper driver's IO line ICs and found that the maximum allowable current on them for all IO pins is 70mA. My external drivers having 3 lines to run appeared to have about 120R input resistance to their opto isolators on each so I decided to add 100R in series with the stepper IO's to the external driver modules. It has been running fine with that and that works out at 18mA LED drive per opto isolator for a total of 54mA for the driver IC instead of what would have been about double that without the resistors. I dont know if thats required but I thought it safer - depends on your particular external drivers.

Running up the board it provided the required WiFi access point straight away and I could connect to it. I got good motion on the steppers first time and it sounds smooth. I had one axis being driven in the wrong direction but the GRBL settings allow you to invert them with a bit mask. Trying a few times it did not work but when I set AND rebooted it worked great. More of an issue with GRBL than with the board but something to be aware of. I added an SD card and I think that is more required than the documentation says because if I ping the board then it can get a little slow on the ping times when running. But when driving the CNC from SD card programs, it has been flawless - again YMMV as it could be my other WiFi end.

The laser drive PWM has been great and GRBL has a laser mode with dynamic adjustment on the PWM vs head speed and as far as I can tell this supports it. So far all of my cuts have been clean and even so I guess that has been working well.

I opted for an RC servo board too and this has not worked because I can see on my scope that it is running at the default PWM 5KHz instead of 50Hz. The nice thing about buying from Tindie with open source is that I can opt to recompile the code and set this correctly. The RC servo was an optional thing that has yet to be fitted to the machine so it was no bother. Something I can fix up later if I need to.

Overall I have been very pleased and my laser cutter is working just great now. Thanks Bart !

Aaron | Dec. 16, 2020

Amazing Board Quality

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

This was my first buy from Tindie and I have no regrets at all. I didn't know what to expect but this board has turned out to be way better than I could have hoped.

Bart even answered all my questions personally, which was much appreciated. If Bart comes out with a newer version of this board, I'll buy that one too.

If you're thinking about buying this board, what are you waiting for. Do it already.

Jay | Dec. 6, 2020

Excellent

For External Stepper Motor Driver Adapter

Great execution on these boards. They are rigid and well designed. No issues whatsoever. Very happy.

Taylor | Nov. 30, 2020

Blown way

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

Blown away by the quality of this product and the thought behind it. I bought one of my first products from Bart about a year ago for a 2 axis CNC controller and it has been amazing to watch the products, documentation, and support grow. This controller was used to bring a very expensive industrial machine into technology 3 decades newer.

David | Nov. 9, 2020

Great Controller for replacing X-carve controller

For 6 Pack Universal CNC Controller

I've been looking for a CNC controller for my X-carve and found this project. I had already started using GRBL-Esp32, so it was great to find a board that was tightly integrated with that software. This board is exceptionally flexible and has a number of features that make it very useful. In particular, it supports pluggable daughtercard modules that add extra interface options, as well as a number of different kinds of stepper drivers, including external stepper drivers, which is very useful if your motors are larger than normal and need more current.

I've integrated this controller with my x-carve and successfully cut with it.

Mark | Nov. 8, 2020

Great product, fast shipping, full documentation

For Pen Plotter Controller for ESP32 & TMC2130 V2

Wonderful board and great documentation. I had some pre-purchase questions and post-purchase questions. All answered in a timely, friendly manner.
I have more to learn about grbl32 before I can fully put this board to use in a sand plotter.

If this board fits your needs, buy it. You'll not be disappointed.

Daniel | Oct. 23, 2020

glad I chose to use this board as I move away from Arduino

For Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development Board V4.1

I added one of my ESP32's, loaded grbl_esp32 added some a4988 drivers, connected three steppers and that was it, worked first try! tweaking the grbl config and adding end stops next but my experience so far has been really good.
I'm very glad to have found this board as I start learning more about using ESP32's for different applications. The effort Bart Dring put into creating this shows and for me is well worth the price. Saving my pennies to buy the MPCNC CNC Controller to upgrade my mpcnc.
Update: ended up using the first board to fix my goofy little 3018 it actually works now without having to mess around with it for longer than the work takes :)
Bought two more for my original project and a spare....thanks for your effort Bart!

Daryl | Oct. 10, 2020

Excellent, well designed and made!

For 4x Input CNC I/O module

Fantastic product, works perfect. The module works seamlessly with the 6 pack controller which is another excellent product. Thank You Bart Dring for your excellent products.

Eric | Oct. 7, 2020

Exactly what I needed

For Grbl_ESP32 MPCNC CNC Controller Ver 1.2.2

Works great with the MPCNC. I upgraded from an UNO with a 4-motor driver board. Having the 5th motor driver and using auto-squaring gives me much more accurate results. Support is very responsive and the active Slack channel is great.

Sergei | Sept. 14, 2020

I'd wish i just got mach3 board from ali

For 4 Axis Trinamic CNC Controller for Grbl_ESP32

Bad:
1. Wifi is working like a garbage, hard to tell if this is signal issue or the board itself. I suspect it's a board, but i could be wrong as i don't have tools to investigate this. It's just "this thing is not working" condition.
2. Not all g-code senders compatible. At least i failed to get it working with j-cnc - the esp-32 board just crash after few attempts to connect with j-cnc. Needless to say there is no tools to debug this?
3. Very basic functionality may not work even from master branch, like i spent few days trying to figure out why spindle is not working. Apparently it was broken in a code.
4. The board may just crash wo any reason. I figured out that chance of this is higher when web UI is connected, so the only way to get it working is to: open webui, quickly start gcode file, quickly close web browser tab. You want to check status of a job? You can open the browser, but you're skating on a thin ice. And web-browser is the only way to get it working, due to #2 you cannot use TTY and due to #1 you cannot send via TCP port.
5. Needless to say that i screwed up tons of stock material?

Good:
1. Developers really responsive - i have managed to get answers and attention for moderately complex problems within one day. For bigger problem most likely noone will want to investigate these kind of problem unless there is critical mass of people with same issue
2. Uniq set of features - that is the only board that support for stall guard

Ken | Aug. 13, 2020

Great board just plug and play

For Grbl_ESP32 MPCNC CNC Controller Ver 1.2.2

Fast shipping. Great board just plug and play. Hooked it upand had it running in 5 minutes. Thanks

Kirk | July 26, 2020

Works Great!

For Grbl_ESP32 CNC Development Board V4.1

I ordered this board with the ESP32 module and 3 DRV8825s to replace a Gecko G540/LinuxCNC PC on a 2008 vintage Zenbot Mini that's been sitting idle for many years. The biggest installation issue was converting the bare wire stepper connections to dupont connectors, configuration was straightforward, and it's worked fine through it's first few projects. One of the included DRV8825 boards (set at 0.75V Vref, 1.5A for the 2A motors) erupted in the usual flames and cloud of smoke after a day of use (I've had several fail on other CNC devices, seems to be a common problem) but a generic Amazon replacement hasn't had any issues. I'm controlling a Paul Jones ER11 spindle through a DC to AC SSR, had to use the 3.3V spindle output since the 5V (no USB connected at the time) didn't work. No attempt to try PWM since it's an AC spindle, with the speed set to 1 as stated the spindle turns off and on as it should.

The onboard web server made testing and tinkering with the config easy, gcode uploads and runs from an SD although I use USB for actual routing jobs via a laptop. Grbl works as expected, no glitches.

Overall I'm favorably impressed, and would use Bart's Boards on future projects.

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