I have to apologize to all the trackhacker.com followers out there for letting the site sit so long without updating it. I lost my job in March and then had to deal with a host of medical problems my wife is experiencing while trying to fight depression myself. Life got complicated and busy really fast and I am only now just getting things back under control so I apologize for the hiatus. Not making excuses, just explaining what happened.
Craig Bickford
Jun 152011
Mar 232011
As you know from the previous update post, the raw GEN1 Parallel All-In-One CNC Controller Boards (click to check out the preliminary specs) are in hand. This post is just a very quick update to let you know that a small batch of the bare GEN1 boards are being put together with their electronic components to begin real-world testing of the GEN1 design in a CNC machine (specifically the boards will be tested with my Mantis CNC router). The pictures show a GEN1 board populated with most of it’s components as we prepare to begin testing. Some of the resistors are noticeably absent in the picture and that is because they have not arrived as of yet. Once the resistors are in, the first test boards will be finished and ready to begin operational testing (all GEN1 boards have been electrically tested and passed) using my Mantis CNC Desktop router.
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Yay!!! I finally received the first batch of the GEN1 Parallel All-In-One CNC Controller Board (click to check out the preliminary specs). The illustration seen in previous updates was cool but a picture is worth a thousand words so here are several pictures of the first batch GEN1 boards including one of me holding a GEN1 so you can get an idea of the size. Next JT is going to populate a couple of these boards to begin functional testing (the entire 1st batch has been electrically tested by the PCB fab and passed) to make sure they work according to design. Once they pass testing, I will make them available to purchase in the TrackHacker.com web store. 
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Ok so this post keeps popping up due to a scheduling plugin I have and my firm desire to get this designed and ready for testing . I keep rescheduling the post and then of course life comes up and prevents me from working on it and then before I can even blink, that darn plugin puts the empty post back up on the blog. Since many of you have noticed this happen several times now and due to recent events that now leave me a LOT more free time, I think I will leave this post up, not reschedule it and start to working on designing this cool gadget and blog about it as I go. So what the heck am I talking about? Ok, read on…
Mar 032011
Another update to let everyone know about the progress of the GEN1 Parallel All-In-One CNC Controller Board (click to check out the preliminary specs). You know that the orders have been placed to have the PC boards fabricated and for the components to populate a couple of test boards well the components are due in either today or tomorrow while I found out from the PCB fab company that the GEN1 PC boards are slightly delayed. While no reason was cited, I think it was mostly to do with the delays from Chinese New Year (are PCB’s made outside of China nowadays?). Anyrate, their normal processing time to go from Gerber files to shipping the boards is usually 3 days and we’re looking at 5 or 6 days so not too bad really. So within the next week, we should have a small stock of GEN1 boards in-hand and at least 2 complete GEN1 controllers to put through the wringer. I will, of course, be posting the results of all GEN1 testing right here so keep checking back.
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Just a quick update to let everyone know about the progress of the GEN1 Parallel All-In-One CNC Controller Board (click to check out the preliminary specs). We just placed an order to have the PC boards fabricated and an order was placed for the components to populate the board so within the next 7 to 10 days or so we should have a handful of bare PC boards on hand and a least 2 working GEN1′s for preliminary testing! How cool is that? If the testing goes well, I should be posting pictures and video of my Mantis running on the new GEN1 controller really soon and remember, the GEN1 is a stepping stone to the much anticipated GEN2 USB controller board! Keep checking back often!
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Feb 032011
So I mentioned a little while ago in a post about the upcoming FabricationStation CNC Router / CNC Engraver that TrackHacker.com was also coming out with our own CNC controller design. Our ultimate goal is to have an All-In-One board that has 3 or 4 stepper motor controllers built-in and/or a spindle control relay (3-axis will include relay) AND a USB interface! That is our ultimate goal so I am tentatively calling that the TrackHacker GEN2 USB All-In-One CNC Controller. That is a pretty ambitious project due to the nature of interfacing CNC hardware to a PC using USB but one that I feel the hobby CNC community would like to get their hands on. Many DIY CNC builders are building desktop sized routers and engravers so we think they could benefit from a small, all-in-one CNC controller that is well made, simple to use, and has a common USB hookup.
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Jan 092011
Well I have gotten some positive feedback and overall buzz about the upcoming FabricationStationTM Desktop CNC Router / CNC Engraver, particularly about my work on designing a new USB Opto-Isolated Breakout and 3-axis stepper driver all-in-one board (tentatively called the GEN2 CNC All-In-One). I think that will be the optional “upgraded” electronics for the FabricationStationTM , at least for a while anyway. That project has more far reaching implications since most everyone else is utilizing parallel port technology and/or separate driver and breakout boards. Anyrate, the purpose of this little post is to let all you TrackHacker readers out there know that work on the FabricationStationTM is still progressing and that I have all of the major, functional improvements worked out and in place like the much improved z-axis motor mount (no epoxy!), the XYZ axes table rods (linear rods) are now held in place with no epoxy and are removable, the z-axis has several more inches of clearance AND movement, and the y-table has been widened and the y-axis has more travel as well. All of this has been worked out and I am now working on producing the 2D assembly drawings and the assembly documentation. At this point I think I am going to offer the 2D plans (printed and on CD), the 3D models (multiple formats on CD), the illustrated assembly guide (printed and on CD), AND full size, cut paper templates (you can tape these to your material of choice and then just cut along the lines and drill right through the templates to get perfect results) as a package in the store (when I get that up and running). I will continue to offer the Track Hacker expanded Mantis 2D assembly drawings and complete BOM for free (click link then scroll down near bottom of the post to find the Mantis BOM and 2D plans).
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I’ve been getting some positive feedback and requests to sell wood, hardware, and electronics kits for the Mantis CNC PCB Engraver which is awesome. I got enough that I decided I am going to go ahead and do that! I have my Mantis working now and ready to start fabricating PC boards for model railroading electronics projects, several model railroading molding projects and a bunch more stuff but that got me to thinking about the build process and all of the shortcomings and gotchas I ran into – I started thinking about all the things I would improve to make the machine more functional for what I want it to do – make all sorts of model railroad pike stuff, buildings, figures, PC boards, control panels, etc… I’m not knocking the Mantis and David Carrs design in any way at all – it’s a great little machine and I am very thankful for all of David’s hard work but I feel some changes needed to be made to make the machine more functional for us model railroaders, especially if I am going be selling these to the community in kits along with documentation, plans, etc… I’d really prefer that the design be a little more personalized and the best it can be. So I am breaking the design off on a new tangent. Here’s how I got started on this path.
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Dec 282010
I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! I did! 
You may have noticed the site was down over that time period from 23DEC10 to today, 28DEC10 with only a notice saying “Suspended – Account exceeded bandwidth” or something like that. Ooops! 
During the holiday break, I hadn’t checked the back-end of TrackHacker and failed to notice that due to all of the hits I get now, that I was creeping up close to the maximum bandwidth I allotted for TrackHacker (I run my own web hosting) and it finally went over. Sorry, I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Well, I didn’t get a train set like I was hoping so I could start working on some of the model railroading hacks I have planned out but don’t worry, I’ll pick one up myself soon and get going on those. Well, Ill have more in a little bit. Keep checking back.
