The Super Gerbil CNC controller circuit board consists of 6 areas with connectors/screw terminals:
The roles of the different areas are:
Area 1A – connects to your CNC’s limit / probe switches and power supply input so that your machine can home and probe properly
Area 1B – connects your Super Gerbil CNC controller to your computer via the USB or UART/BlueTooth connection. This area also features the UART header and comms switch jumper
Area 2 – the Output ports drive your actuator(s) (such as a CNC spindle or laser), cooling (Flood and Mist) and Tool Change (Tn, M6). Also included in Area 2 is the power supply input for these functions.
Area 3 – connects to your CNC’s stepper motors and 24V DC fan, including their power supply input.
Area 4 – connects to controller terminals, like Pause, Abort etc and uses the same power supply input as the limit/probe switches (Area 1A)
Area 5 – PWM output port for external VDF drives with its power supply input and power selection (5 or 10V)
An example wiring of the Super Gerbil is shown below
Reset button
The small Reset button can be used to reset the Super Gerbil, however this should not generally need to be used. The only standard use of this button is for programming the board with updated firmware (referred as flashing the board).