Review of RATTM motor controller

[Jerry Durand]

Since some people had asked me for a review of this controller, here it is.

I received the controller and noticed a bad solder joint on one of the
connectors (happened to be POWER). I checked over all the joints, all
the chips are soldered fine but it looks like the board wasn't hot
enough to do a good job on the connectors. Many companies hand-solder
heavy connectors for this reason.

I told the vendor I was going to fix the solder and test the board, he
said ok.

I resoldered any connector that looked suspicious and hooked it up to
some small motors I had handy (my mill has much larger motors). Set the
DIP switches and applied power...no smoke.

I didn't install the software from the CD, I used a link the sales
person gave me to download it so I'd have the newest copy. The software
immediately updated itself online and then updated the firmware on the
board. The board seems to identify itself as the Planet-CNC DIY board
(they provide schematics and firmware). Obviously RATTM took that
design and greatly expanded it for this board, Planet-CNC doesn't have
anything like this.

This appears to be the regular Planet-CNC software, but the only place I
see them mentioned is one small link on the ABOUT page.

I installed the license file and the software said it was activated. No
idea if this is a cloned license or a valid one. This software
certainly isn't verbose in saying who owns it, license details, or
anything else.

I loaded one of my milling programs into the software and hit go. A
video of the test is on Google Drive. Sorry about the picture being
sideways.

Link where I ordered the controller:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-products-4-axis-USB-CNC-with-hand-controller-driver-board/665367263.html

Link to video of my test:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3z7JJjmkXckMzRnZ0hGQnNsUFU/edit?usp=sharing

--
Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc. www.interstellar.com
tel: +1 408 356-3886, USA toll free: 1 866 356-3886
Skype: jerrydurand