[Bubba]

Lucky13,
Sounds like you have done your homework and when you start the project for real; everything "should" fall into place. I am not saying there won't be some challenges along the way because there will be some. Over all it should be smooth.

I for one am looking forward to your build.

[LUCKY13]

Thanks Bubba,

I have tried to do my research and be prepared for whatever comes. But I agree with you though, there will probably be something that needs worked out along the way. I am hoping that falls into the area of normal configuring with the controler all the electronics. There is a lot to these systems really and if I dont have any noise problems I kinda do expect it to go faily smooth. LOL, I did go ahead a buy enough equipment to build my fourth axis, if I do something on the stupid side like burn a driver or such I will atleast have extra parts to keep going with. Lets hope thats not the case.


My BOB and encoder cables where in route when I started the thread, they showed up tonight so it looks like some bench testing this weekend might be a go. I do still need to build my motor cables but I have it all here. I will have to put my thinking cap on to get this all wired and configured. I have my enclosure layed out and configured for the placement of everything but no wiring started. I might add some amp & volt meters to the setup but they will most likely go on the outside of the enclosure. I do have a nice digital button panel with 5" LCD touch screen I hope to get working for some of the controls but I expect a project like that will take some time and should be done after the machine is operational.


I will get some pics up at the end of the weekend of the bench test (I hope it goes good enough to worry with pics/vids), also I will put up the enclosure/bench as soon as I get it in a program so I can post it, or maybe put it in Rhino so I can post the files for it (not sure if I can do that with the Demo of Rhino). I would like for others to see my Y axis setup incase I am over looking anything that might cause a problem with the way I am doing it. That would be better than finding out after I built everything.



Thanks Jess

[LUCKY13]

Well its taken me much longer than I expected to get a good bench test going. Although I went ahead and started mounting and wiring before I even tried to add power ( mounting in the enclosure, not on the machine) . Sorry for no pics or vids, they will be coming. Right now I have the complete system wired and mounted as far as power supply,E-Stops, Limits, BOB, SmoothStepper,charge pump and all the little things needed to have a system that works under Mach3 control with safety features. I only have one Gecko & 850 servo running and tuned at the moment though. Tomorrow I will add the next two motors one at a time and tune them . By the middle of next week I should be able to post some pics at least, but I will try to barrow a vid recorder and post the system running G-code on the bench with all three axis and spindle control.



I will have to admit it has taken me a very long time to get this system this far. I really took my time and went over every circuit so that I knew I had it right before I even put power on the system. On the one servo I have running and tuned I am getting 286 ipm rapids with excellent start & stop response. The servo sets there died quite with extreme holding torque. It took me quit some time to get it setting there tuned this good but after I figured out all the settings and how they effected the servo and driver it went pretty smooth.

I am quit impressed with these 850 servos from HomeShopCNC, I can really make it jump when I want to (almost off the table). When I am jogging the servo its very smooth and even at the 286ipm its very quit and smooth. I think these motors are going to work out great with super response and excellent speed .

The Bob Campbell Combo board has been very easy to get setup and working right. Its been flawless and it having its own built in power supplies have made this much easier. It has three built in supplies, one 12v, two 5v with isolation on the one 5v rail for the computer side of the opto's. The limit switch's and charge pump where a breeze to get setup. I hope the coolant & spindle circuits work out as easy as the others did. Bob has been very helpful with E-mails and replied to them faster than I could go back and look for replies most times (and I sent a lot of Emails) . His support has been extremely good and his product has worked exactly as stated and it is very stable. The only problem I have had is a lack of pins which I will explain more about with feedback on the Smoothstepper down farther in the post. For the most part this is one sweet board and it doesn't take very much room to use it either, not to mention the three power supplies, Charge Pump, Spindle circuit with relays, And coolant circuit with relays that it eliminates the need for.


I will get the spindle control ( D/C motor with a encoder for threading and tapping) worked out before I post pics and vids. Even though I don't have the system mounted on a machine yet I wanting to see it go through some G-code with spindle control working.

I feel like I have been very lucky up to this point. When I put power to the system I didn't have to do any thing but tune. Even all the Mach3 and SmoothStepper setting where right from the get go. I spent a lot of time going over what it took for my config and I am pleased it worked out this easy (easy after I spent a lot of time figuring, and I mean a whole lot of time going over everything). If the rest of the build goes this good I will feel great about this build (somethings got to go wrong somewhere though, well see).


The SmoothStepper is sweet, I have the ability to push signals much faster than my system even needs (instead of being limited by Mach3 signal levels). Not much to say here because this thing is just right. I cant believe how smooth everything is running, even very slow or very fast jogs is silky smoooth. The three printer ports it has gives me plenty of pins to work with. In fact it kinda saved me because the Bob Campbell combo board is a bit limited on pins with only one port. If I was going to use a controlled spindle ( encoder for feed back on the spindle motor) the board would only support two axis in that config. Its a very nice board but I would have to say it is more setup for a lathe than a mill if you want spindle control with a encoder for threading or tapping. Loosing two axis because of being short on pins to have feedback on a spindle kinda hurts this board. Its not a deal killer though and I will try to figure a work around even though I have it covered already with the SS. With the SmoothStepper I can work around this problem. It may be possible to work around this anyway if only one set of limit pins was used so it could free up some pins ( all limit switches in a series config on one set of pins). This is not bad though because the Combo board really worded great and when you see my system it will show how much this board help make a very clean and compact setup. Compared to many other setups I have see it almost looks like I am missing something when you look at it. I have only had to use one power supply (the main feed for the servos) and the integrated Charge Pump, Spindle Control with relays and the coolant control with relay is already there with power so I want have to add anything else to get these working (Charge pump is already working).
The Campbell Combo board has two PP ports, but I don't think you can use but one or the other (I may be wrong though). When I bought it I thought I would have two ports but if you read the docs close on the BC Combo board it tells about these limitations when using a encoder on the spindle. Plus there may be a way to work around it anyway, or if using s SmoothStepper its no biggie anyway.

We have already took some pics, before, during and after the electronics setup build and I will wait till I get it completed to get the last pics before posting them (middle of next week, maybe Tuesday).


I will post back the results of the spindle control and coolant system tomarrow night ( I hope).


Jess

[LUCKY13]

Well sorry for no pics yet, but there coming. I have got the complete system working now, all three axis, spindle control and the coolant pump control. I am very surprized at how good the spindle control works even without a feedback encoder. The speed is very ajustable with as good a res as you could ask for. I don't have a encoder for it just yet but when I get one it should keep things dead nuts for thread milling and tapping.
This is just a D/C motor with CSR controler but its going from 200 to 6000rpm with no problem. I will be glad when I get the belt drive built for the spindle to be able to use it . Atleast the circuit is worked out and ready. Spindle control seems to be one of those area I read of lots of troubles but the Bob Campbell Combo board has been a breeze to work with. So far I have been very pleased with it and if it fits your needs as far as pins available I would have to recommend it. I will have to admite if it wasnt for the SmoothStepper I would be out of pins though. Although I havnt tried working around this as I meantioned before, I will in time because it looks to me like its possible with the right settings. It should atleast give 4 axis with spindle feedback control and unless I can work around a few things it can not handle that many pins right now. I will see after I get some of this other stuff out of the way.


It does look like I have one Gecko 320 bad out of the four I ordered. It works, but it works funny. It was the third driver I hooked up and it was kinda odd because I have one oddball motor out of the three I ordered. Nothing wrong with it you can just tell its not from the same batch. That was the first thing I suspected so I swapped the driver over to one of the other motors and it done the same thing . Then I swapped the drive (I bought four so I would have a extra and then a four axis) and it worked like a charm so I guess the drive is faulty. It just acts like it has no control until you turn the gain & damp upto about 3/4 of the way, then its just out of control. Although it holds servo lock its very rough at idle and when moving.


I got my heatsink in today and I need to get it mounted to the backplate. I have the drives mounted to it already with compound but I need to make four standoffs to mount the sink down. As soon as I get that done it will be the last pics we need to take of the electronics setup so we will get the pics up then.


Anyway up to this point its been pretty much smooth as I could ask. I keep expecting that something to jump up and get me but it hasnt happened yet (fingers crossed). I do seem to be having some possible encoder problems though, its not getting noise, it just looses signal after a point in the higher RPM. Each one will lose it at about the same point and I feel like it may be something related to a subject that Mariss has meantioned here lately. Well see, I am not going to count them out until I run them will a load on the motors. Anyway back soon with pics of the system ready to mount on.



Jess