January 8th, 2009 by admin

Every CNC machine must contain a controller. The controller is a physical array of circuitry that allows the computer to talk to the machine. The computer takes the CAD files, comverts that into a pile of code, g-code, with the help of CNC software. It then sends it out through a cable to the controller. Once the information reaches the controller, the controller takes it as signal pulses and sends it to the correct stepper, or servo motor making it move. Every single movement has its own piece of code which can make the code quite length in the end. Thought there are many suppliers of cnc controllers, there are also many people that take on the task of building their own controller. It takes quite a bit of skill to build one of these the right way but building your own keeps the cost down significantly. Another plus is that you can add ass many axis as you want/need where as if you bought the controller, you may have to spend another 200 + dollars to add another axis.