Some of you might have noticed Ebay seller "cnccomponent", selling a desktop CNC router labeled as "2016" (the mechanical part seems to be the same as the Sable 2015, but the 2016 includes a cable carrier, an encoderless servo as a spindle, and all the electronics in the same small blue box used in most desktop hobby-level chinese machines).


Edit: They now changed their name to "happytoyou2011"

Well, I got this machine 2 or 3 months ago; let´s start with the problems:

- It took a while to ship after they said they would; strangely enough, it seems like they shipped my machine ONLY after asking for the expected tracking number (a few days after the day they told me they'd send it).

- They said it would be shipped in a wooden box, and I got a cardboard one.

- The paint job is horrible (paint missing and scratches everywhere)

- Leveling AND squaring problems (fixed by adjusting some screws)

- The splindle was wired BACKWARDS (it was spinning in the wrong direction); easily fixed, though. Good thing I noticed it before trying to plunge into something.

- No ground at all in the controller.

- One of the spare brushes included is in an unusable state.

- Cabling inside the controller box is extremelly tight, every wire is as short as it can be, hence some seem very prone to break apart from their plugs if forced.


Now for the "good" stuff:

After seting the machine up all seemed to work fine, until... I heard a "tic". I watch the machine only to realize the motors (all 3 of them) are sometimes moving on their own! It's continuous rotation, so I think "what the hell, my step signals are getting interference?". I start to freak out, thinking it might a problem with my new house's electrical installation or some external interference (I had just moved to a new house; my diy machine is on my workshop, since my new house is too small to have it here; no problems with my diy machine, btw). I was (still am) doing some repairs in my workshop so taking the small machine there was a no-go. I tried to figure out the problem to no avail. Then, about three weeks ago, I finally was able to take the machine to my workshop and do (and re-do) some tests:

- Grounding the power supply stabilized the voltage, but the problem persists.

- Grounding the machine frame didn't help either (no surprise here, considering the possible "extra step pulses" nature of the problem)

- Disabling the box's power supply and plugging an identycal one at a small distance (just in case the problem is interference caused by how close the psu is to the driver) didn't work either.

- Replacing the parallel cable was no good either.

- Raising the current on each axis: there seems to be a very small improvement, but still no good, and by no means a fix. Torque improved quite a bit, but I don't like the idea of leaving it at max even when the motor's aren't getting near warm, so I lowered it down a little. The problem is mostly (let's say 99%) on a single axis, but I remember having seen erratic behaviour on the other two as well.

So... it seems to be a driver board problem.

The random nature of the problem makes it difficult to see in detail. Longest work I've been able to do with the machine was about half an hour long, but a lot of times the problem can appear at the beggining of a work as well, destroying the material, so it's not a machine I'd trust.

I got the machine planning to resell it after testing, adjusting (leveling, squaring) it, and building a nice enclosure (built the day after receiving it). Now all I have is the most expensive paperweight I've ever had. The paint job makes the machine look no-good, so I'd even have to explain to any potential seller it wasn't used (now even I am not sure of that), but I really can't sell a machine as unrealiable as this one. Hell, I wouldn't sell it even if the problem happened once in a week.

I sent the seller an email explaining my problem a couple of weeks ago: no reply. Then last week I sent a new email, saying that I'm not even asking for a full controller box, but the bare driver board would be enough (I'd rather get that instead of nothing). Of course, not a single word from them.

It seems cnccomponent is the "we have your money, it's your problem now" kind of company/seller.

The board is labeled YOO CNC (and a number, which I can't recall right now; the yoocnc-number combination didn't give me any clue on Google anyway). It seems YOO CNC (I've seen their machines on Ebay) produces the machines/drivers and some chinese people/companies resell them, or something like that.

So... I'll have to spend money I don't have in order to buy new drivers and finally be able to sell the damn thing. I'm thinking about getting an Easy-CNC (Mechatronics) bipolar 3-axis board to get the machine working again, as people seem to like it and it's not so expensive on Ebay. Too bad I'll probably have to make a new enclosure to fit the servo-spindle driver as well, since the Easy-CNC board will most likely not fit in there. It'll will make my paperweight even more expensive. Actually, it is the most expensive thing I've EVER bought; the DHL shipping and customs alone nearly doubled the final price, but I decided to pay that just to be sure that the machine would arrive in fully working condition (yeah, right...) and didn't get lost in transit, but hey... at least after replacing the driver it will actually work so as to be able to sell it and finally turn the page to this horrible episode, even if I have to sell it at no gain; I just don't want to place my eyes on the damn thing ever again. I'm an independent CNC hobbyst trying to turn it into a job; I love what I do and I'm slowly trying to make a living out of it, and I sure could have used that money for some other things (damn, I didn't get a VFD and ballscrews so I could get this piece of junk?).


Well, that's it. I'm angry, I'm sad, I feel ripped off, I feel stupid, and I hope people will see this topic before buying anything from these guys, so they won't end up feeling like I do now if something goes wrong.


Thanks for reading this.

Tomás