instructables

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide

by masteruan

This CNC router is on GearBest for a little price. All for making pcb.
the structure of machine is really robust, and the
machine have also a 24 Volts motor for carving. The product is a kit. Then you can open the package
and begin to mount the structure and all the electronic
I wanted a CNC router for making my own pcbs. That parts, without any kind of instruments, all the
T8 machine is really ok for this kind of work, but is materials for mounting and work with T8 cnc are in
very good also for engravong on plastic, metal, wood. the package.
You can change the bit of machine, and you can use
them for many works. I've a laser engraving also, but After the Unboxing now is the moment for mounting...
with the laser is impossible engrave the copper table

https://youtu.be/l3boUDNzRBw

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 1

Step 1: T8 CNC Router Assembly

First af all, begin this operation with a cup of coffe, Ready? Go!
and a large desk. Consider that this procedure is long
almost 3 hours. Begin the mounting by divide the screws. For the

structure you can use the big one allen screw. Pay the screws and reposition the pieces.
attention!
After this step you have a structure of cnc machine
See the video and mount the main structure. After perfectly mounted, with motors, X axis and bed
this you can mount the support for motors X and Y, structure.
and after you can mount the motors. After this phase,
use oil on iron guide, and also on all bearings, and all
the parts that moving. Don't force the motor, if the
structure of the trolley does not easily move, loosen

https://youtu.be/Noa6hrM2tJM

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 2

Step 2: Different Kind of Stepper Driver

All the stepper motors works together with "stepper to test this component.
driver". Often the stepper drive (see figure), are
mounted on cnc shield like CNC shield for Arduino or Pay attention for the microsteps configuration. The
CNC shield for Arduino nano. jumpers, on the base of stepper driver slots, are the
There are different kinds of stepper driver. In this switch for setting the microsteps. I use ever the
project I use the A4983 stepper driver, and DRV8825 maximum value of microstepping. If you close all of
stepper driver. You can test if the stepper driver is jumper, like in figure, you have a 1/64 microstepping
good by using a voltmeter tester. Also you can adjust for DRV8825, and 1/32 microstepping for the A4983
the value of output Volts for use better the stepper stepper driver. See the scheme for more information.
driver. See figure and video. The stepper driver is a
very breakable component. Moreover this electronic You can buy other stepper motors.
component need for active cooling. The DRV8825
uses a radiator on top of main component for cooling Set all the jumper close, and try the moving of
the shield. I use ever a passive component for cooling machine. After you can verify the dimension of
or better a little fan for cooling better this kind of movement. If the distance of CNC is different by the
component. In the video I show two kind of stepper distance on the project file, you can set the step/mm
motor drivers. One is good, the other is broken. If value. But it is a future step.
after the mounting, the Z or X or Y axis not work, try

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 3

 https://youtu.be/lzIrnwtp4MA

Step 3: Electronics Mounting

The CNC shield is very simple. You can mount this After this you can connect the relay. See figure and
shield on top of your Arduino UNO. After you can connect the pin of relay in this mode:
connect the Arduino UNO to the computer, and you
can move the axis of cnc by using a serial command. SpnEn -- to --> Relay control pin

Connect all the stepper driver to the X, Y and Z axis +5V/GND -- to --> Relay vcc
slots. See the figure for orientation of stepper drivers.

The Relay have three output pins. COM - NO - NC. spindle motor to the NO pin. After you can connect
The COM pin is like common, the NO pin is like the GND (-) wires to the 24 V power supply directly to
normally open, this is the pin that connect to COM the motor.
when the relay is ON, the NC normally closed, this is
the pin that connect to the COM when the relay is Now you can connect the 12V power supply.
OFF. Remember, the 12 V is for the shield and Arduino,
the 24V is for the engraving spindle motor.
You must connect the + (RED) wire of 24V power
supply to the COM pin, and the + (RED) wires of

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 4

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 5
Step 4: Install the GRBL9 Firmware

Follow this step only if your machine not work, or for mac, or Putty for Win, and try to connect to the
if you want change the board. board. Select the correct COM port, and choose
115200 Baudrate value.
If you buy the machine by GearBest, do not follow
this step. All the machines of GearBest are ready to On your serial terminal program type:
go!
$100=3200
The machine work good with a preinstalled firmware,
but if you want upload a new firmware, or if you want $101=3200
change the Arduino board, you can upload the T8
CNC machine on your board. $102=3200

Download the files XLoader.rar and grbl9.hex. The 100 is for X axis 101 is for Y axis, 102 is for Z axis.
first one is the program to upload the firmware on This is the procedure for setting the steps/mm
board, the second one is the grbl firmware.
You can use this tool for calculating the values:
If the movements of machine are different in terms of http://prusaprinters.org/calculator/
dimension from your draw file, you can modify the
mm/step values. Open a serial monitor like CoolTerm

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FOY/CNIV/IVMPYA97/FOYCNIVIVMPYA97.rar
…

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FUO/IAIP/IVMPYA98/FUOIAIPIVMPYA98.hex
…

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 6

Step 5: Use the CNC Machine

There are many programs for cnc engraving. With the PAY ATTENTION!!
GRBL protocol you can use for example Easel.
Select X-Carve like machine
Easel is a very good program for beginner users, and
for who want a rapidly mode to work. You can design
directly by easel, or import image by your computer,
internet or Facebook and other social media.
Now you can engrave all that you want. Buy a T8
You can write text, and use many "icons" on your CNC machine on Gear Best, and start to engraving
design without installing other programs. You can with Easel Inventables program.
only open the web page, and connect the milling to
USB.

https://youtu.be/IExPaiEn2uc

I'm pretty sure it's 24v to the shield and 12v to the spindle motor.

It is a 24 volt spindle motor not 12 volt...

Lo scudo funziona a 12 Volts

Il motore a 24 Volts
Praticamente l'esatto contrario.
Thank you very much

Read this article and watched the videos on Gearbest.com a few times before starting build.
Mounted motor to backside and printed some brackets to hold t-slot further away from x-gantry.
Used ferrule connectors for the screw terminals and also printed
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2510680 to keep the spindle vents free from obstruction.

To control the spindle motor I had to connect the relay input to one of the Z-Axis end switches and
set S=1000. Then I can control the spindle with M3 and M5.
Because the X any Y directions were inverted I had to set $3=3.

Nice job. Thank you :)

For those of you with the Gearbest preprogrammed arduino I found the spindle control pin on the
CNC board to be the z-stop pin as the version of GRBL is configured for a variable speed spindle.
z-stop is moved to the spindle enable pin. To turn the spindle on you have to issue the code M03
with a speed. I used M03 S10000. From this point simple M3 and M5 turn the spindle on and off.

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 7

After construction I used manual grbl commands (G91) to perform manual verification for X, Y, & Z
stepper motor controls. I have not yet found the grbl commands to manually verify the cutter motor
relay On/Off. Can anyone name the grbl command to manually checkout the Arduino / shield /
relay control for the 24V cutter motor?

I read others used M3 & M4 for manual spindle enable/disable checkout. Didn't work for me. Using
M3 & M4 with the shield REMOVED from the Arduino I probed the outputs where I expected to find
SpindleEnable on the Arduino header. I found M3 & M4 changed output ONE PIN OVER from
where I expected. Using a VOM I found that this appears on the SHIELD one pin over from the pin
labeled SpnEn ... labeled SpnDir on the SHIELD. I moved the relay wire to match and I can now
turn on/off my spindle manually with M3 & M4.
My Arduino came with grbl 0.9j preloaded. On the GRBL wiki there's people talking about how the
Arduino output assigned to SpnEn was changed between 0.8 & 0.9 (a pair of outputs were
swapped?). I don't pretend to follow why, as I've just constructed my first CNC and am no further
than trying to verify operation. All (X, Y, Z, and spindle enable) seems to now be working after
moving the spindle relay control signal over a pin on the shield.
I put together info from the images and text into my own diagram for electrical connections. I found
no reference in image or text to any connections to the Arduino board (other than the mating
headers that connect the Arduino and shield together). But your column contains this text:
"Remember, the 12 V is for the shield and Arduino"
which makes me think I'm missing something ... my 12V does not power the Arduino (it only
receives power from the USB connector). What am I missing since the 12V does NOT power my
Arduino connected as shown?

Do you have a 12v in on the grbl shield? The Arduino receive power by this plug. The stepper
motors also receive power by this plug.
Are you sure?
The Arduino can power through 3 paths: the VIN pin, USB power, or the 2.1mm power jack which
is placed directly under the mounting standoff which blocks its use. The shield board does have a
mating header post to the Arduino on the VIN pin, but there is no apparent connection on this pin to
12v on the shield PC board. My VOM says there is no 12v connection, and if I disconnect my
shield board my VOM says it is an unconnected pin (infinite resistance to the 12v shield
connector). If I click the 12v switch "ON" no LEDs on the Arduino light without USB connection, nor
does the Arduino return 5v to the shield ... it appears unpowered. It powers only with USB
connection to the PC ... LEDs on the Arduino light up, and 5v is returned to the shield for jumper to
the cutter motor relay.
If other peoples Arduino LEDs light without USB connection, I could modify my shield PC board by
adding a jumper to the VIN pin to the Arduino from the 12v connector. It doesn't appear connected
on my shield board.
do you have a full set of instruction for mini router i bought one and it didnt have any , could you
post a link or pdf file thank you your video has very helpful

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 8

hi, thanks for this instructable. I got the machine on Gearbest. I Install it and every thingh is
working fine, x,y, z motaors are working. The problem is the spindle pin.Spindle pin is not working,
i use M3 and M5 commands on grbl, but nothingh happens, i already try the z-limit pin , but
nothingh happen. I think the pin is not configurated on software. What can i do to confugurate
spindle enable pin? please help
Can you hear the relay click?

No i cant. There is no Voltage on that spingle enable pin, when i toggle between M3 and M5 grbl
command. I believe that the pin is not defined on arduino software, so i think that the only solution
is to upload the software again. but i dont know how to do that
I bought my T8 from gearbest and when I tried to use Grbl Controller, it said I was using the wrong
com however I could hear the relay click on when powering the spindle but it never moved. I then
used Xloader to uploads Grbl it was a success however now nothing works and it comes up with
Error 22. Relay does not click on anymore.
Have you another Arduino UNO? Can you try the GRBL shield with another Arduino UNO

Okay, I got it running. any idea why in Grbl Controller, I cannot move X or Y because there is an
undefined federate. Im new to CNC if you couldn't tell. It is a bit different from a 3D printer. Also i
noticed no end stop switches. How does it know where home is without crashing?
I dont know how to set the feedrate

After I moved the Z up and down the X and Y feed rate error went away

See this: https://github.com/grbl/grbl/wiki/Configuring-Grbl-v0.9

Any idea on what current the steppers should be running? Mine seem to be running under
powered.
Depend from driver see this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM6T-GwXqPQ
Heres my current problem, more info in description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=k3ni4vKbRNQ
I think that is a problem of value of stepper motors. Control the voltage of driver, control the values
of stepper motor, use another program for verify if is a software problem.
Post your trouble on this forum: http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
am having a problem with my servo motors it doesnt return to its initial position and making my
engraving so difficult pls i need your help thanks
Can you feed , what will be the default setting of GRBL for T8 CNC.
Thanks Advance
See in the tutorial. There are the values for the feed rate.

Sir,
when i try to move stepper motor , it say error wrong feed .
How i solve it?
Have you reset the board?

Thanks for this, plan to buy one but there isnt much information online, and the "download software
here" buttons on gearbest page are broken now... This guide is good though might actually get
one.

T8 Mini CNC Complete Guide: Page 9