[Fastest1]

I would feel safer with 12v too. Ray had posted the link to the 85v models. I thought they were looking at the same model. MR16 LED's are available cheap enough and they are smaller. I run them on my golf cart though they are marked for "indoor" use, they work well in the pouring rain.

[dick cnc]

Any more progress on the belt drive for the spindle. Keep us informed you must be close to making some chips

[migrusch]

Just setting up my fogbuster copy. ..... works ok but getting coolant dribbling out when the system is off.....
I have an air ram pinching the line but still get drops. Even tried a non return valve at the wand end.
Any ideas or tips?

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[migrusch]

Any more progress on the belt drive for the spindle. Keep us informed you must be close to making some chips

House renovation has held me back but should be able to finish the belt drive this weekend.

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[migrusch]

Just had one of those really annoying problems with that go away by themselves but leave you scratching you head and not trusting the equipment.

The on board relay output from my breakout board (which triggers the fogbuster) would run fine a few times after each start up and then stop.Mach would show the output trigger but then nothing.
Pulled it all apart to trace the issue, found nothing and now there's no issue...
Left me very suspicious....

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[migrusch]

Finally mounted up the pulleys. Had to order a longer belt from the USA. Once that arrives I will finalise the tensioner.

Here's a shot of the spindle end.
I nested the pulleys together with 3 x M4 bolts. Cut a slot to take the corresponding roll pin in the shaft. Then a screw to lock it in place.

The reason for all this is to allow some vertical adjustment. All the other pulleys are simply pinned.



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[migrusch]

Another pic

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[dick cnc]

How's it going did you receive the belt yet. You must be close to test cuts keep us informed

[migrusch]

How's it going did you receive the belt yet. You must be close to test cuts keep us informed

Still waiting for the belt... have set myself up with cad and cam packages in the ready for chip making.
Cant decided what to make first.

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[dick cnc]

How's it going are you making any chips keep us informed

[migrusch]

How's it going are you making any chips keep us informed

The belts finally turned up today. I ordered two lengths as I wasn't exactly sure.

Turns out one length is just perfect and I don't need any tensioner!

Ran the spindle up and took it to full speed (10k) with no issue.

Now I will pull the spindle and z arm off for a coat of paint before final assembly. Then try cutting something. ....



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[migrusch]

...Now I will pull the spindle and z arm off for a coat of paint before final assembly. Then try cutting something. ....

And of course, add a guard for the belt.....

[migrusch]

Here is the guard in carbon fiber ...... not because it needed to be, but because I had some handy.

Attachment 211046

[migrusch]

I thought I would add a picture of the electronics.

Because I already had this finished when I started the thread I didn't put up much about this part the the build.
Unfortunately I also didn't take many (if any) photos.

I do have this one photo of the inside of the main control box.
This includes the 4 stepper drives, which I designed and built as well as a generic break-out board.
The stepper motors are mounted on their sides, so it's hard to see the detail, will try and find a better photo of an individual board.

I spent quite a while on the E-Stop circuit which isolates all of the system power when tripped.
There is an input to this circuit from the VFD as well as limit switches etc.
The fault has to be cleared before the system can be reset (via a dedicated reset switch).
I included a key override of the limit switches to allow movement away from the ends of travel.
Also, there is a timer which plays a short alarm on the stack lights when the E-stop is tripped.

The wiring could have been a bit neater, but I was in a rush to complete it.

[migrusch]

Finally made some chips!!

A few bugs to work through (and have to learn CAM \ G-Code) but a good start....

Attachment 212014

[migrusch]

Seem to be losing steps. But only on helical plunge.... ideas?

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[dick cnc]

Obviously your skills in electronics is far superior to my skill since you designed and built your own stepper driver's. I don't know what breakout board your using or if using micro-steps. One thing to look out for is how many steps per second you can handle when all three drives are taking pulses and the time or dwell for each pulse. Second thing to look for his input power for the drives because all three drives are working at the same time. Obviously I think you know this already

[Fastest1]

I am impressed with the electronics build to say the least. That is if you designed and built it. Do you use a commercial service to build the boards themselves?

[migrusch]

I am impressed with the electronics build to say the least. That is if you designed and built it. Do you use a commercial service to build the boards themselves?

I used to etch my own boards, but it is a pain. Now i just farm out the PCB manufacture. There are plenty of places that do cheap proto runs.
For two layer with mostly through hole I used Futurlec in Thailand. For 4+ layer SMD boards I used a number of others in China.
I used to design PCB's for a living and enjoy doing it for fun now,but honestly you are much better buying an off the shelf item (like Gecko).
I didn't make the break-out board because the cost for one PCB was too high.... starting to regret this now as I'm dealing with cheap Chinese junk.

[migrusch]

So I spent all day yesterday trying to machine a spanner for my spindle.

The GOOD:

Spindle cuts Al nice and smooth without vibration.
Fog buster works great

The BAD:

1. Chewed out the intermediate shaft for my spindle drive.
Soft shaft that turns out to measure 11.8mm not 12.0mm so was spinning inside the race.
Will replace with hardened chrome shaft at 12.0mm with new bearings.

2. Spindle speed control (PMW from Mach3 stopped working) more on this later

3. Spray coolant output intermittent, and big delay when working.

4. Losing steps!
Checked everything mechanical and am fairly happy there.
Seems to be only a problem with G3,G4.
Played around with speeds, acceleration, Kernel speed and CV\Exact Stop to no avail

5. Broke an E-Stop limit switch (because I left a key in the bypass position)
Need to come up with an annoying alarm or similar that reminds me it is in bypass!

I desperately mucked around trying to find an easy fix for everything above. Now I have calmed down and want to work through everything systematically.

My starting point was the break-out board. In particular the coolant output (on board relay) being intermittent. Another strange behaviour I had noticed is that the enable lamp on my stack light would sometimes drop out when I made a move etc (external 5v relay).

The first thing I fixed was the power supply to the board. The USB line from the PC was dropping too low, causing issues with outputs.
This 5v supply is running the board and two extra external relays. Interestingly the board also seemed to source some power from the Parallel port when the USB was unplugged.

I replaced the supply with a 2.0A unit and fixed up some earthing.
This has helped, the coolant output is now rock solid. Didn't get a chance to see if the lost steps were fixed also.

There aren't any capacitors on the break-out board and I really don't feel comfortable any more with using power from the PC.
So rather than persevere with this board, I have ordered a much nicer locally made unit. (still a basic Parallel port job).