Has anyone installed a Ether1616 expansion kit? i would like to have more inputs. Looking for how it was done if you did it..
brian
I haven’t actually done it yet, but I have in my mind, which is all that matters right? 
I’m going to take my laser control box and re-arrange the guts so that I have the pnuematics, ether 1616 stuff, and 5V, 12V, and 24V power supplies for various things. I’ll keep all my sensor inputs on the Acorn, but I’ll move all my I/O for pneumatics and spindle control over to the new control box.
My biggest concern is if it will all fit nicely, or if I’ll have to buy a bigger box.
I’m in the process of building an Ether1616 kit for a friend to work with his AV40S spindle.
So it sounds like a separate enclosure will be needed for this operation.
The one I’m building will be in a separate enclosure. I wouldn’t want to try to squeeze the 3 boards into the main EX box.
And really the big value is not needing to be near the main centroid board anyway.
Agreed, you can keep it physically and electrically isolated from the main controller. The only electrical link is the ethernet line. This is pretty nice so you can keep noisy solonoids and relay circuits from injecting noise into the controller board.
Thanks Jim that explains a lot I haven’t even looked at any instructions yet but I was wondering how the hell am I going to wire it up if it’s going to be in a different box but now knowing that it just needs the cat5 cable that will make it a lot easier. I wonder when avid starts using their tool holder if they’ll use the same expansion board.
I don’t know, but the only two easy ways I know of to expand the centroid systems I/O count is to use the ether1616, or upgrade the Acorn to Acorn6. The Acorn6 is physically big and expensive, so I would guess the 1616 is the way to go. I thought about getting an Acorn6, but then I would still have the space problem so I’d have to wire all the I/O over to the pnumatics in another box, and I’d much rather just have the simple ethernet connection between boxes instead of a bunch of I/O and power connections.
Very clean! What all are you using it for? I see the pressure sensor. I want to add a pneumatic cylinder to move the tool rack and maybe a air spray to dust off the tool before clamping.
I’m building this for a friend who has the AV40S spindle and wants sort of an AVID ATC lite but wants to take advantage of the smart functions in the future but already has a fixed tool rack.
So on the main board inputs 1-4 are the smart functions from the spindle (draw bar closed, draw bar open, spindle stopped, MTC activated). This may be temporary, once AVID releases their solution they will get moved to match what AVID is doing to save having to manually edit the config after an upgrade.
Input 5 is the air pressure sensor. Might move too
Output 1 relay board 1 is the draw bar and output 2 relay board 1 is the draw bar inhibit.
Then there is power to the terminal blocks next to the relay board 2 for future expansion if desired and the DIN mount Ethernet switch included with the Ether1616 so the main EX box will plug in here as will the PC to keep things simple.
It looks like a job well done for sure. I wish I knew more about hooking up the things I was talking about. I need to make time to read the centroid forums so I can learn that stuff.
Hit me up in messages if you want. Happy to talk about what/why I did what I did.
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My favorite install of this is still a Centroid/CNCDepot build documented on Youtube by user Clough42. Check out how he builds his controller at: https://youtu.be/XsI71n6nt5g
I started building a very similar controller, inspired by his videos, before Avid moved to the controller and spindle he chose for his build. If you join his Patreon, all the files he uses for 3D printed parts, panels, etc., are available for download.
Clough42 was where I started my research to reconfigure a CNCDepot spindle controller for the EX system. He’s fun to watch!
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Michael,
I just wanted to jump in and say thanks again for putting this together. I’ve got the box installed and tested on my AV40S, and it’s working fantastic. I’ve currently got full ATC functionality running, which has been a huge help while waiting on the official Avid release with the expanded smart spindle features.
What I like is that it gives me that “ATC lite” experience right now, while still leaving me room to take advantage of the smart functions once Avid’s solution drops. Having the fixed rack already in place makes it pretty seamless.
Everything mapped out just as you described — inputs 1–4 covering the spindle smart signals (draw bar open/closed, spindle stopped, MTC active), input 5 handling the air pressure sensor, and the outputs driving the draw bar and inhibit. Really clean. The built-in expansion power and the little DIN-mount Ethernet switch were also thoughtful touches; it keeps the wiring neat and future-proofs the setup.
Appreciate all the work you put into making this happen. It’s been rock solid so far.
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Figured you folks in this thread would find this interesting:
This is a sneak peak at our Aux Box for ATC which features the Ether 1616
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I can’t get over how sexy that solenoid manifold is!
Yeah, it’s very cool. There’s some really nice LEDs on the back of it as well.
Aside from looking cool the compactness of the whole thing is great
Couple questions:
- Are you going to sell the box standalone without the actual rack to allow for incremental update (I’d love to get the I/O)
- Is laser running PWM over ethernet, e.g. driven from this box instead of directly from the acorn?
- Any trade up options for existing laser control boxes, like what was done with Ex?