It’s finally time to start building the CupCake CNC. The first thing you should do is read all the instructions. Don’t pass by the ‘mistakes to avoid section‘, it could save you some misery later.

Let’s get started with the CupCake electronics assembly. I ordered the deluxe kit from batch #8, so most of the electronics were already assembled. Yay! Not that soldering isn’t fun, but I’m happy to skip the soldering for this build and get to printing faster!

The stepper boards:

Not much to do here since the board is already soldered together. However, you do have to add the insulation-displacement connector (IDC) to the ribbon cables, and perform a simple test.

All you have to do is insert the ribbon cable into the plastic IDC connector and squeeze it closed. You might want to use some pliers to help snap the top down.

Take notice of the arrow on the connector. The brown wire is the index wire, and it should be directly above that arrow on both ends of the cable.

Rinse and repeat. You need to make three cables, each with an IDC connector on the end.