I am thinking about replacing our XXL Pro Carbide controller with a Spark Concepts XPro-V5 controller. Has anyone converted to this controller? Home · Spark-Concepts/xPro-V5 Wiki · GitHub I found a great setup video CNC xPRO V5 - Installation and Configuration - YouTube includes the VFD setup
I went and looked at the product. Here a couple of concerns.
Compatibility
The xPro-V5 is fully backward compatible with GRBL and can use all gcode senders.
So what exactly do you gain over the C3D controller. Seems to me they are capable of doing the same things. Plus you are not supported any more and likely CM will not work with the new controller. If you are already on a 3rd party gcode sender than no difference but if you use CM you would need to find a new gcode sender.
The next concern would be you would need to adapt your existing wiring to the new controller wiring. That is certainly doable but unless there is something really really compelling about using the new controller seems like a lot of work to get what you already got.
I guess the only advantage I see if it is wifi capable. Looking at Steve’s post above that may not be working as well as could be.
Why do men climb mountains, because they are there. So maybe this project is because it is there. However you may be biting off more trouble that you get in a ROI.
What do you find so unacceptable about the C3D controller that the new one solves?
@jcar01 I don’t think you’ll find many users here that have replaced the Carbide board on a pro unless they went to a non-grbl system.
What’s the reason for wanting to switch?
If you scan the Carbide 3D forum you will find a lot of discouraging issues, LOL
I decided to go with this controller. BlackBox Motion Control System X32 - OpenBuilds Part Store and this software OPENBUILDS CONTROL
That one makes more sense. Curious what the issue was you were having when the Carbide board?
It was a real pain to make the VFD work and QC on the board is poor in my opinion . You have to hack it to make upgrades work. I thought the Carbide 3d CNC’s were open source products? The Blackbox has many features for upgrades and is compatible with the XXL pro. Plus Open Builds control software blows away the offering of Carbide 3D. Who keeps deleting my links on my reply’s? Is it a no no to post external link to products?
The only opensource products Carbide 3D has been associated w/ are:
- Grbl — we provided funding when it was under active development
- Sparkfun Stepoko
and we’ve done versions of Carbide Motion for Raspbian, and Linux (the latter hasn’t been available for a while, but may be revisited).
Commercial links are something of a gray area — it was decided that a link to a competing product wasn’t helpful to this conversation, and that identifying them was sufficient.
Wow so much for open collaboration. Open Builds is a competing product?
OpenBuilds is an LLC. It is a for profit company. They do support opensource but not for free. They are in a business to make money just like C3D. I think that limiting links to their competitors is just good business.
The question is if you had a business would you let your competitors advertise for free on your company website. Well not if you had any business sense.
If you think that a 3rd party controller will work better then great. I wish you luck. However in my long experience if the OEM cannot make something work the likelihood of a 3rd party making it work better is possible but not probable.
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