Needing knowledgeable GRBL, Arduino & CNC advisor

I have recently been offered 2 small DIY CNC devices that are orphaned and have zero support or documentation. My hunch is they are built on the order of a Bob’s CNC (Bobscnc.com) which is designed to use GRBL1.1 firmware on the Arduino Uno.

Totally outside of my knowledge and experience, but am hoping someone can guide me enough to figure out how to get at least one of them running so I can give it to my woodworking enthusiast 9 yo grandson.

Open to any suggestions on how to proceed.

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Is there an Arduino in that mix?

Would you be open to someone getting one of them running in trade for the other one?

Beats me. There are a few circuit boards and some pretty barebones electronic thingamabobs lurking about. When I said “totally outside of my knowledge and experience”, I meant it.

That’s a distinct possibility. Could you sweeten it by providing some type of operating manual/documentation as well? It’s going to live 900 miles away, so it needs to have something for operating, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

I’m not sure I can take on the task, but I was curious if that was the deal. I have a Brother in Law who might be interested, I’ll ask him.

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Oh wait, I think I do have evidence of an answer!

@JohnK might be able to provide some insight. He’s worked with the Shapoko and Arduino with the DPRG.

He’s not on TALK much, though.

That is an Arduino Mega. It even appears to be an official board (expensive). An important note from the Grbl GitHub page…

NOTE: Arduino Mega2560 support has been moved to an active, official Grbl-Mega project. All new developments here and there will be synced when it makes sense to.

Next up: identifying the stepper driver. It was connected directly to the Mega.

V1engineering.com

Pretty sure that is a MPCNC

Firmware for Rambo mini board (arduino mega 2560 based board), source files, post processors all linked there.

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The board is a ramps 1.4 on the arduino mega if i had to guess. Pretty common older 3d printer controlle, should work almost similarly. I think they are using Marlin firmware variant.

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Great and yes that looks very similar. I understand these were built by someone in the Arlington area, but good chance the design came from MPCNC. Thanks Mitch.

Now I just have to translate all that cool sorta looks like English tech stuff into something an old sawdust maker can grasp!