Just my humble two cents worth, since I stumbled over this conversation and thought I could add my personal experiences with this board.
I've now bought two of these blue Chinese TB6560 boards in the past couple of years for separate home build CNC projects. The first 3 axis board I bought separately and then Ebay'ed 3xNema 17 motors from the US. The second was for a heavier duty build with the 4 axis board package with 4xNema 23 all from China. The boards work and have served me well, but are not "ideal". My experience is occasional lost motor steps at higher speeds and the motors are pretty noisy, but nothing that is totally destroying my CNC experience as an enthusiast cutting parts and shapes only for home use. It has been fun and the Chinese boards were a WAY cheaper option to start things out with. The problems really are a non-event for me most of the time.
There was little information on the net about them before, but there is more and more each day so setup (without suitable instructions in English at the time!) would probably be easier for the beginner than in the earlier days of this board design.
Like others, I've spent days on the net in the past reading about all sorts of driver boards and hacks and have seen all the horror stories about Chinese boards. So far, perhaps I have just been lucky, or too accepting of the occasional missed step at higher speeds. I can almost say I have enjoyed learning so much by having these slightly flawed boards and being FORCED to research more about them.
One of my TB6560 chips (of all 7 on two boards) had the stray solder problem on Pin 25 of the TB6560. I was able to scrap it away with a Dremel disc relatively easily. I am not sure if it was causing problems in operation or not. Nothing I noticed at the time.
DIP switches all tested out ok.
I have both boards set up on 25V and have a separate relay for the cutter start/stop on the larger 4 axis machine.
I have run one of the boards pretty hard on (non-essential only) jobs during the last year and during Summer. I use a separate control box fan off the 25V supply to help cool the 4 axis board just in case of risk of overheating ... knowing the stories! The fan turns on separately with the main on/off switch when the entire system is switched on. I am not sure if this addition has saved any frying of chips or not.
After all my reading and research to this point, I agree with others. The Toshiba TB6560 seems to be a good chip by all accounts. The motor controller board is "moderately good" (from my experience) to being a lost cause, considering the low cost and generally ok function that allows a CNC machine to work and for CNC builders to get off the ground to start in general.
I very much doubt the Toshiba TB6560 chips on my boards are fakes at all as some have suggested. Its just the board design around them that seems a little flawed in places.
I am wondering about the relay protection diode. I have to admit, I have heard the occasional strange jolt out of the motor. Its not dead jet though ... lol ;-)
I am now at the point where I am also considering doing board hacks in the close future on one board soon to see if I can make any improvement to motor noise and to refine the lost steps problem for even greater precision. Approximately 0.5 mm on my large machine is no problem at this stage with the controller as is.
I think I have a handle on what is required for the fix, but I am not sure if I will implement all hacks people talk of. Or use necessarily use the same approach. When I go ahead, I will let you know what I did and how things turn out.
So in my overall experience, the board is worthwhile for what if achieves with its low cost. But perhaps only if you are not too serious about total reliability or absolute precision on every project, every time. The hack fixes should be fun. they don't seem too hard once you get your head around what's required.
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