CNC 3020 Enclosure/Upgrade

**Pointy** · 13-03-2014

The LCD screen and crimp pins arrived yesterday, but it's going to have to wait until the weekend, as there are just 2 days left of the fishing season!

In the meantime I need to fathom out how to export from sketchup to DXF for Jazz. It gives me several options, polyface mesh, polylines, triangular mesh, lines and stl, but I am not sure of which to use. I need to download a DXF viewer to see what is being exported.

The other thing I need to do is the side panels, which both have cutouts for the 92mm cooling fans, but these are pretty straight forward. I think I could just go for a circle of 90mm rather than the rounded square they show in that PDF.

**Pointy** · 13-03-2014

I actually just tried it with polylines and the resulting dxf is here. Is this what you need Jazz?

Almost forgot...

Anyone suggest a suitable adjustable hole cutter to cut the 90mm holes for the fans in 3mm thick aluminium? My bench drill is a Bosch PBD-40

**Clive S** · 13-03-2014

Originally Posted by Pointy

I actually just tried it with polylines and the resulting dxf is here. Is this what you need Jazz?

Almost forgot...

Anyone suggest a suitable adjustable hole cutter to cut the 90mm holes for the fans in 3mm thick aluminium? My bench drill is a Bosch PBD-40

Hi your link to the dxf file just opens as a text file for me. I think you might have to upload it as an attachment. ..Clive

**Pointy** · 14-03-2014

Originally Posted by Clive S

Hi your link to the dxf file just opens as a text file for me. I think you might have to upload it as an attachment. ..Clive

That happened for me in Chrome but IE is fine. In Chrome once the page has opened as text, just right click and save as, then take the .txt extension off the end.

EDIT>

Didn't notice that we could add attachments, try this...

**Clive S** · 14-03-2014

Originally Posted by Pointy

That happened for me in Chrome but IE is fine. In Chrome once the page has opened as text, just right click and save as, then take the .txt extension off the end.

EDIT>

Didn't notice that we could add attachments, try this...

I was using IE Now you attachments open OK. ..Clive

**Pointy** · 16-03-2014

I did some of the rewiring yesterday, but today I decided to have a play with the LCD screen as I woke up with a pain in my shoulder and didn't fancy playing about in the cold workshop.

It was really satisfying to get it all working, the Mach3 plugin communicates with the custom HID device and this then displays the information on the LCD screen. Here's a sample picture...

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I still might change what information is displayed on the screen, but that should be no problem now the basic hardware and code are working.

**Pointy** · 18-03-2014

Just to finish off, I added the joystick and keyboard control code. The only problem is, there are limited built in keyboard shortcuts in Mach3, so I think I will have to add some of my own to the custom screenset I have designed.

All in all, I am pretty happy with this part of the project. However, I think I might design a PCB which will allow me to plug in the Teensy++ 2.0 module, and then solder all the connecting wires to the PCB, rather than solder direct to the actual module.

**Pointy** · 19-03-2014

It was pretty easy to make a PCB for the HID controller, and this is what I came up with...

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I added extra pins for the unused Teensy pins and a few spare grounds, in case I want to add some features later on. I also tweaked the wiring from the default openGLCD to make the layout easier. I just need to get the motor rewiring finished before I can get on and make this PCB though.

Before I do that, I just want to finalize the front panel layout, so I can get the machining organized.

**Pointy** · 20-03-2014

I added the mounting holes to the front panel and printed the whole thing out. I then cut out the holes with a scalpel to double check sizes and layout. I am please to report that everything fitted nicely. I know there are essentially just 4 rectangles + 33 holes to make, and I could do these myself but I really would like to make a proper job of the front panel, especially after all the time I have spent on this project. I also managed to make a right hash of the back panel when using a jigsaw and file. As Jazz made the generous offer of cutting the front panel FOC, I would be stupid not to take him up on the offer. I have suggested he just drill all holes at 3mm as I have a reasonable set of step drills. This should make it easier and quicker for Jazz (I know his machine time is limited) and it will also mean I have some work to do on the panel, which hopefully means it wont feel like cheating so much.

I have also located a suitable hole cutter which will allow me to cut the holes in the side panels for the cooling fans, and rather fortunately it's just a few miles down the road.

I need to get my finger out and finish the motor and limit switch rewiring so I can get the machine up and running again. It would be really nice if I could do that, get the side panels cut, fit the cooling fans and get the front panel in the post to Jazz, by the end of the week. This would then be a massive step towards finishing this project.

**Pointy** · 21-03-2014

I had a productive day today and got pretty much everything done.

I finished the motor & limit switch rewiring. I cut the holes and mounted the cooling fans. They were incredibly noisy at 24v so I am running them off 12V from the PC. I also fitted the 24v LED strips and wired them up. I moved the charge pump board over a little to give me a nice space for the HID PCB when I make it. Lastly I fitted most of the top aluminium profile and tidied up the PC wiring.

I will try and take some more pictures tomorrow.