CNC 3020 Enclosure/Upgrade

[Pointy]

One thing I didn't mention is that at some point, my X axis started making a weird high pitch whining noise as soon as power was applied. I thought it was the bad wiring, but after the rewire it was still doing it. After swapping things around it seems which ever axis is plugged into the X stepper driver makes the noise. I woke up this morning with an idea of what is causing it and sure enough I was right. (Isn't it weird that you can go to bed with a problem and wake up with a solution?)

Anyway if you look at the schematic for my bob, detailed in this thread, you will see that parallel port 14 is used for X and A enable. I was using this pin for my charge pump output, so it was being pulsed at 12.5khz, which explains the noise. A quick pin swap has sorted that out but....

I assumed the purpose of the enable output was so that the motor didn't move without this signal being high. There was never a mention of setting pin 14 as an output in the original manual, so why does the X axis work without this set up in Mach3?

[Pointy]

I had another really productive day today.

First off here's a couple of pictures of yesterdays progress, one of the cooling fans and the slight rejig inside to make space for the HID PCB.

To start with today, I fixed a bad connection on the lead from the IO board to the BoB, which just happened to be my Estop input for Mach3. Although the switch was deactivating the 24v and spindle, it wasn't letting Mach3 know the switched had been thrown.

I really wasn't happy with my rewiring job on the connector ends, so I redid them today and they turned out much better. Here's a pic... (The top 3 are home switches, limit switches and probe)

After that I connected everything and ran a simulated PCB etch for 30 minutes. Everything worked great, and I had no false triggers on the switches even with 0 debounce in Mach3. (Before I had to have a very large debounce setting) I then etched the HID PCB, and in total the machine ran for a couple of hours without issue. I need to get some 20 way sockets to mount the Teensy module in, before I can fully assemble the PCB, other than that it's pretty much done.

Lastly here's a couple of pictures to show the LED strips in action... (you can see the freshly milled HID PCB as well)

[Pointy]

OK, when I went to put the enclosure back in it's normal place, I found out the extra piece of heatshrink on the connectors is making them stick out too much, which means they are being pushed against the wall. What I need is some right angled variations on the plugs.

I found the 4 pin here but I can't seem to find the 2 pin in the UK. (I did find them here but would prefer to order from UK if possible) Has anyone come across these anywhere in the UK?

I suppose the other option is to replace them all with another type of plug/socket.

[Pointy]

More exciting drivel....


The sockets strips came for the HID PCB so I soldered them on last night, plugged in the module and the display worked straight away.(Not that I didn't expect it to, as it's not a complicated PCB, but it's still nice when stuff works first time)

And look at this little beauty.....

Big, big thanks to JazzCNC, he only got the panel yesterday and sent me this picture last night. I just hope I didn't screw up any of the dimensions, if not I can see a huge light at the end of the tunnel.

[Pointy]

I couldn't do much yesterday, so I just did a couple of small jobs.

The cheapo WiFi card I am using doesn't have a detachable antenna, so I bought a cheap extension lead from Ebay, cut off the socket end and soldered it direct to the card. I then drilled a hole and mounted it on the back panel, fitted an old router aerial I had laying about and the WiFi signal has gone from 2 bars to 4.

The other small job I did was to mount the HID PCB and cut the LCD screen wires to the correct size.

I am not sure if the front panel is on it's way back to me yet, but if it doesn't arrive, tonight I will pre-wire the joysticks and buttons ready for it.

[EddyCurrent]

It's going to be a smart looking unit when complete, good work.

[JAZZCNC]

I am not sure if the front panel is on it's way back to me yet, but if it doesn't arrive, tonight I will pre-wire the joysticks and buttons ready for it.

Yes on it's way sent yesterday morning recorded delivery so should be with you hopefully.!

[Pointy]

Yes on it's way sent yesterday morning recorded delivery so should be with you hopefully.!

It's here and after a small amount of filing and reaming.........

The more astute of you may have noticed the panel is the other way up, that is because there were a few scratches on the other side. I actually prefer it this way up anyway!

I just have to connect everything up inside now!

Thanks again Jazz, great job!

[GEOFFREY]

A very nice "swanky" looking panel. G.

[JAZZCNC]

The more astute of you may have noticed the panel is the other way up, that is because there were a few scratches on the other side. I actually prefer it this way up anyway!

Yes I Did my best to protect it from scratches by flooding it with coolant but because it's soft shity aluminium it comes off the cutter like curly chewing gum.!
I didn't have any tape other wise I'd have taped it up. There was no point using side with plastic on either because that stuff just goes mushy with coolant and gets ripped off then wraps around cutter which with small cutters easily breaks them.!

Looks Good thou..