Kit's Machine

[Kitwn]

Not so much a 'Build Log' as this is now a finished machine, but I've been asked to describe the machine I'm using so this seemed the obvious place to put the description.
First a video of it doing something useful:

https://vimeo.com/444172007

This picture shows the pile of source material I managed to scavenge off the local tip over a period of a few months. The design of the machine was very much dependant on the material available.
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[NB70]

Thanks Kit - great video. This link worked for me: https://vimeo.com/444172007
(https://vimeo.com/444172007)

[Kitwn]

Thanks Kit - great video. This link worked for me: https://vimeo.com/444172007
(https://vimeo.com/444172007)

Thanks, I've editted the original to match.

Kit

[Kitwn]

This machine has not so much been designed as it has evolved. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD!!!!

I started out making a plywood and MDF construction which served no useful purpose other than to prove that I could pull together all the various components, mechanical, electronic and software, to produce a working whole. The current incarnation, about number 5 I think, is made from steel box-section scavenged off the local tip. The design has been heavily influenced by the materials available from that source and partly by the collection of components I had gathered for the previous incarnations and other, since abandoned, projects.

The base frame is made from four 800mm long, 100 x 50mm pieces bolted on to two 40 x 40 x 1300mm stringers. I had no welder at the time so bolted construction was the only option. The plywood baseboard is an essential part of the machine and keeps the frame square.
This frame was never going to be very rigid so the whole design of the machine had to allow for adjustment after the fact rather than built-in perfection. This is achieved by sitting it on 4 adjustable feet. One of the current major weaknesses is that it sits on an old wooden table rather than a solid metal or concrete base to provide the rigid support it needs.

Previous experience with the wooden machines had shown up the difficulty of getting the rails and ballscrews suitably aligned all at the same time so I opted for a design based on two ‘linear actuators’ for the long axis. Each consists of a 1300mm long piece of 65mm square (I’d have preferred 75mm but the supplier didn’t have any at the time!) box section with a 1200mm SBR20 rail mounted on it and an 1100mm 1610 ballscrew plus direct drive stepper motor. The thinking was to get all these components aligned with each other as a single component and then move the whole structure to bring the complete machine into alignment without any readjustment of the rails/ballscrews relative positions. This has worked very well in practice but the overall rigidity of the structure is not as good as for other methods. The picture below shows an actuator with an earlier set of rails fitted.

The two actuators are fixed onto the base frame with a single bolt at each end. This allows lateral adjustment to keep the spacing between the rails identical along their length and shimming to ensure the rails are in the same plane. Fine adjustment is done with the feet on the base.

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[Kitwn]

The original steel gantry was a bolted design and a complete disaster so something new was required. The quote for two lengths of aluminium profile, including delivery to the wilds of Western Australia had me reaching for the smelling salts, so it had to be steel again. I bought a cheap stick welder for about 1/3 the cost of the two pieces of profile and went for it. Fortunately I still had enough material left in stock.

This was my first attempt at welding and uses a technique I have described as ‘Bird Poo’. An angle grinder, plenty of car body filler, some sanding and a coat of paint hides a multitudinous multitude of sins.

To keep things simple I decided to put both rails on the front face and use epoxy to provide a guaranteed, perfect level surface… Ha, ha. Unfortunately this was before I’d heard of the recommended West Systems 105 resin/209 hardener combination so I bought some cheap stuff off eBay. The advert includes two options, Low Viscosity (LV) which they claim is self-levelling and High Viscosity (HV). All I can say is that if the LV is low viscosity, how are you supposed to get the HV stuff out of the tin?
To be fair this product is aimed at filling cracks in concrete so should not be criticised for its poor performance on a CNC machine.

I also chose to drill the holes for the rails before applying the epoxy (can’t remember why now) so there were greased screws in the way to prevent the gloop from flowing. The end result is probably less flat than the bare metal was but is glass-hard so I have shimmed the rails rather than chip off the epoxy.

By a stroke of luck, my choice of 16mm supported rails and a 1610 ballscrew with matching mounting blocks meant that with the ballcrew mounted directly on the same epoxy plane as the rails there's a sub-1mm gap between the ballnut and the Z axis backplate. A can of ice cold Guinness was consumed to provide a suitable shim.

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[Kitwn]

I first built the Z axis assembly as a plywood mock-up as I didn’t want to waste any of the aluminium plate I didn’t have anyway. The minimum width I could fit all the pieces into was 160mm so I went with that to maximise Y axis travel. At the time I didn't know where I was going to source the final aluminium or what sized pieces I would be able to get. By chance 160mm turned out to be the largest common standard width for aluminium bar and was available in 12mm thickness. Finding someone who would supply me with less than a 6m length was impossible until I eventually took a trip to Perth and found a boat builder willing to sell me an off-cut that would fit in my car. It was something of a relief to know that I would not have to do any more hand cutting than hacksawing the standard width bar into the required lengths.

The bar isn’t perfectly flat, it bows slightly across the width but is acceptably flat along its length and not twisted as far as I can see. This has to be good enough, like it or not.
Three lengths of the bar are used to make the assembly. One has the horizontal Y axis bearings on it. The second has the vertical X axis bearings, the third is the moving plate carrying the spindle. I used two pieces at the back because:

1) There are no access-to-mounting-bolt problems for bearings on both sides of a single piece.
2) There’s some wiggle room to adjust the Z axis travel direction to be exactly perpendicular to the Y.
3) Doubling up on the 12mm thickness adds stiffness.
4) It's easy to remove/replace the complete Z axis assembly for alignment or modification purposes.

The plywood prototype Z assembly was adequate for milling the clearance holes for recessing the bolt heads in these plates and using a centre drill to mark the positions of the fixing holes but I elected to do the actual drilling on the manual drill-press. Brackets made from 6mm aluminium offcuts hold the moving proximity sensors for both Y and Z axes, the sensing plates for these are made from 2mm x 20mm alminium angle, one of the few materials used for this machine that I am able to buy locally.

16mm unsupported rails are used for this axis simply because I had all the bits left over from something else. They don’t appear to be a source of significant flexing compared to all the other possibilities for movement on the machine. A (dubious) advantage of these is that the flatness of the plates used does not affect the straightness of the vertical travel of the mechanism. That’s all down to the rails themselves. Once again fitting the 1610 ballscrew on the same plate as the bearings left just a small gap to be shimmed when attaching the ballnut.

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[John McNamara]

Gee Kit

The Aztec Sun Gods will be pleased with your machine build. I like the emphasis on sturdy, using "Found" materials, Its a credit to you.

[Kitwn]

Gee Kit

The Aztec Sun Gods will be pleased with your machine build. I like the emphasis on sturdy, using "Found" materials, Its a credit to you.

Thank you John. High praise indeed from someone of your standing.

Kit

[Kitwn]

When I built my first Heath Robinson machine the choice of controlling software seemed to be between MACH3 which almost everybody was using and LinuxCNC which was free. I went with LinuxCNC running on an old Windows XP era machine built from the best bits from a couple of dust-gatherers I obtained for $20 the lot by advertising on our local ‘Buy-Sell-Swop’ group on facebook. This is still working well.
The original $25 Chinese breakout board is still working though I did have some fun with noise pickup when changing from using mechanical microswitches to proximity switches for limits and homing. That fun and games is documented elsewhere on the forum.
Four 1.9Nm stepper motors and DM452T digital drivers from Stepperonline provide the motive power. These are way superior to the TB6600 based drivers I originally used, the motors being much quieter and cooler in operation.
Power comes from a pair of 36V 10A switch mode supplies, one for the two X axis motors and one for Y and Z. I have had no problem with SM supplies as long as the rated current is well above the total peak current required by the motor drivers. If I were starting again I’d use a higher voltage linear PSU and drivers to suit but I can still rapid at 9m/min with this arrangement.
The electronics is mounted on an MDF baseboard housed in an old PC case. It isn’t exactly pretty but functions just as well as a more expensive, professional looking box costing more than a case (or two) of fine Western Australian Shiraz. 5V for the BoB and 12V for fans is provided by the original PC power supply.
The VFD for the 2.2Kw water cooled spindle is mounted on the wall rather than in the box. Partly because the box isn’t big enough but also because I know from professional experience that poor cooling airflow is death to solid state power electronics so I wanted it where it can breathe freely.
Water cooling for the spindle is provided by a tub full of about 15l of distilled water with a 240V submersible aquarium pump.

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[Kitwn]

This entry isn't the 'Build Log' it's the Un-Build Log! Ironically after spending so long designing and building, re-designing and re-building and at last getting the beast nicely aligned and ready for some serious work I've had to take it all to bits and put it into storage, having just sold our current abode in Western Australia, where it will likely stay for a good year or more until I have retired and we're in a new home in Tasmania. Talk about bad timing! I suppose the fact that we decided to put the house on the market now may have been a contribuitng factor.

Anyway, here's the Un-Build Log video...

https://vimeo.com/457168799

[AndyGuid]

Looks like you could package it and sell it as a Flat-Pack. . . . . .

[routercnc]

At least when you finally put it back together you have an instruction video !

[Kitwn]

Looks like you could package it and sell it as a Flat-Pack. . . . . .

Maybe I could get Ikea to stock them?

[Kitwn]

At least when you finally put it back together you have an instruction video !

Actually that was part of the plan! I was a bit surprised at how little time it took to rip apart. Fingers crossed it will go back together equally quickly.

[Kitwn]

How things can change in four months!
When last I wrote in this thread I expected it to be at least another six months, possibly 2022 before there would be anything new to report. Circumstances including the ever changing border arrangements for travelling within Australia and other issues I shan't bore you with mean I have permanently retired to Tasmania a little sooner than I'd expeceted and now have most of a 6m x 6m double garage as my workshop. The bolted together base frame of my CNC router, which sat on a rather dodgy old office desk didn't make the journey from Exmouth, Western Australia to just outside Devonport, Tasmania (roughly equivalent to the journey from Barnsley to Baghdad in distance but with slightly fewer bandits) but the essential bits all arrived safe and sound. A new more solid base was required.

On Monday a nice man at Nubco Steel in Devonport sold me an 8m length of 100 x 50 x 4mm painted steel RHS and cut it into bite-sized chunks at no extra charge. That plus a couple of extra bits will make the new base. Yesterday and today I've been welding them together using the samel 'Bird-Poo' welding technique I perfected when I made the gantry, the only other time in my life when I have used any kind of welder.

With no welding table and no desire to make a mess of the nicely finished and flat floor in the new workshop I had to improvise a level working surface outside using a couple of pieces of nice straight Jarrah timber shimmed level using a spirit level and suitable spacers...different sized lumps of gravel. getting the two 1300mm side beams and 820mm end beams exactly square and parallel involved lots of nudging with a rubber hammer and repeated measurements but once those pieces were fixed correctly the rest of it had no choice but to fall into place. The legs were aligned prior to welding simply by tightening two clamps. The design was deliberately intended to make it simple to construct with limited tools and facilities. I made the decision to put the machine on wheels based on experience with the very difficult to move design I previously had and being uncertain at this stage exacly how I want it placed in the workshop. The was never any hope of getting four legs to sit level on the floor and so the inevitable error on one leg was measured on the flat floor of the workshop and shims applied under the fixings for the relevant wheel.

The final picture shows the almost finished frame with one of the rail/leadscrew/motor actuators sitting on it's mounting bolts to prove the frame is the right size! All that's needed now is to weld on some 25mm square rails above the wheels to help brace the legs and support the cupboard which will contain the controller, VFD and cooling reservoir/pump under the router base.

In fact the final alignment of the machine does not depend on getting this frame exactly correct but as close as possible helps. The next stage is to get the fixed rails fitted and aligned with shims before the gantry goes on and the electrics and motors are put back in place. Then the whole process of aligniment using taught wires as described elsewhere on this forum will start all over again.

I have come to the conclusion that the main cause of potential DIY router builders failing to weld together a suitable frame is failing to start. No, your welding will not be good enough for building a new Forth bridge. No, your welding will not be good enough to offer your service for paid work. But yes, you will be able to weld well enough to make a CNC router if you stop farting about and just get on with it.

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[Kitwn]

With the frame welded up it's time to fit the fixed (X -axis) rails. As described earlier, the rail, ballscrew and motor for each side are all mounted on a single piece of 65 x 65mm hollow steel, effectively forming a 'linear actautor' for each side. This is done to keep them all in a fixed alignment while the relative alignment of the rails is adjusted.

I wasn't sure how accurate all the welding had been so made 3 of 12mm shims to lift the rails beams above the frame. The fourth corner would then be adjusted to make the rails co-planar. A first approximation was done with a standard spirit level using a stack of washers to lift the fourth corner. Absolute level is not required here, a slight tilt in the whole machine is no problem, but the tilt must be the same at both ends. This showed that a shim of about 6mm was needed at this corner. Bearing in mind the primitive setup used for the welding an error of 6mm was not too bad, though I'd have been a bit more smug at 2mm.

Once a ballpark figure for the shim was found the precision spirit level was brought out and some pieces of copper shim used to make the rails as parallel as possible. The whole point of this design is adjustability rather than highly accurate initial construction.

Now the gantry can be put in place and the rail spacing adjusted. This is done by simply moving the gantry to one end, making sure the ballscrews move easilly and tightening the rail beam fixing bolt. Then run the gantry to the other end, by hand to check for any tightness, and tighten that end fixing bolt.

The fixed rails are now aligned and fixed in place ready to provide a reference plane for aligning the gantry.

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[Kitwn]

It's coming back together nicely. There's a shelf in the base for the controller and cooling to sit on, a nice new tray for the drag chain and I'll have all the motors, proximity sensors and the spindle back in place over the weekend. With a bit of luck it will all have survived the journey from WA to Tasmania and move as expected by Monday.

Once it's all assembled I'l be aligning the gantry from scratch using the same 'tramming with taught wires' method I described briefly in this thread last year...
http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/13627-Tramming-With-Taut-Wires/page2

This method uses the fixed rails themselves rather than the baseplate of the machine as the reference plane for adjusting the gantry and spindle in various axes and also uses the Z-axis drive as a micrometer for measurements, saving the expense of a dial guage etc. I'm not sure I was very clear about the method last time round, is anyone interested in seeing more details when I go through the process again? As with the rest of this machine the gantry was built with hand tools with limited accuracy so alignment and adjustment with lots of measurements and shims is required.

[Kitwn]

It moves! It actually moves!!

Sorry, got a bit carried away... In spite of being taken apart as seen in the video from last year, rattled around in a container for several thousand killometers and otherwise mistreated, there appears to be no damage to the LinuxCNC computer, machine controller or any of the mechanics, motors, proximity sensors or interconnecting wiring. It all started up as normal and homed perfectly. Once I find the USB Nintendo game controller that acts as a pendant (I had it yesterday, must do some tidying up) I can start on the alignment.

[Kitwn]

The alignment with taught wires went well. Having built a more solid base than previous I was a bit more careful and took more time on this ocassion. Measurements for nod, gantry tilt and variations of nod along the Y axis (on the gantry) were made and re-made and shims placed under the gantry mounting bolts and Y axis rail mounting screws to slowly bring it all into line. These measurements are interractive but I got closer to perfect with each iteration and am very pleased with the results.

A slight delay to progress has been introduced by the reapearance of noise-induced spurious trips but a nice man has just turned up at the door with a mains filter from RS which will hopefully fix that. I have been getting by by plugging the VFD into a mains socket at the other end of the shed to everything else but that isn't a long-term soution.

I have fitted the plywood base and adjusted the auto-racking in LinuxCNC to get the X and Y axes exactly perpendicular and added a second layer of ply complete with an array of M8 T-nuts (the lower layer stops the little blighters from falling out!), fitted the sacrificail spoil-board and drilled it for the M8 nuts.

For the final test of the tramming I have skimmed the MDF spoil board and examined it for tell-tale ridges. I'm smugly pleased to say that, in the right light, you can just see some faint lines indicating in which direction the 22mm tool has passed but I honestly cannot feel any ridges or bumps when running a fingernail across it for either the X or Y axes.

All that's required now is to fit the mains filter, get the dust-extractor set up and I can actually start making things!

Kit.

[John McNamara]

Hi Kit

Incorrect earthing can cause problems, Are all the leads shielded? the should be. Do they all lead to common grounding point ? sometimes grounding at both ends of a wire can cause earth loop issues. try just earthing them all at the control box end only.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1ASUT_enAU791AU791&ei=D18rYL-fPNHJpgf04anAAw&q=grounding+diy+cnc+machine+-site%3Apinterest.*&oq=grounding+diy+cnc+machine+-site%3Apinterest.*&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAw6BwgAEEcQsANQ_DlYo05gz2loAnA CeACAAdICiAH-DZIBBzAuOC4xLjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6yAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwj_4qba3O3uAhXRpOkKHfRwCjgQ4dUDCA0

Regards
John

[Kitwn]

Thanks John,,

All cables, including the short fruns from the BOB to the steppers, the cables out to the motors and the returns for the proximity sensors are screened and grounded at a common point. The false trips I get are for a limit switch, the same problem I got when I first switched over from microswitches to proximity sensors. I ended up fixing this by using relays as isolators so that there was a dead short to ground for the BOB inputs at all times except when the limit is triggered. The BOB itself sits inside it's own screened box. I haven't been able to check if it's the BOB circuits that trigger or the noise is going direct into the parallel cable and upsetting the controlling PC.

Investigations with an osilloscope make me sure the problem is leakage from the VFD mains wiring. The scope shows very spikey noise all over the earthed case of the controller, the PSUs inside it, the BOB supply rails and all the terminals on it as well when the VFD is running. Changing the timescale shows each pulse to be a burst of several cycles of about 6MHz. This could be a fast edge triggering ringing somewhere but I can't delve that deep. Using a more remote mains socket for the VFD fixes the fault, though I have not measured the change in noise inside the controller. Further investigation of the cause would be an interesting project but I don't have time for that, I just wan't the machine working! Fingers crossed the mains filter, possibly with some filtering on the earth lead as well, will sort it out.

Have you been following the thread 'Why Star Ground?' at all? There's been quite a lot of discussion on there over recent days.

Kit

[Neale]

When I first built my machine, using proximity switches, I had similar problems and immediately worried about noise issues. Turned out to be a completely different issue - lack of hysteresis in the switches. All the reading I had done suggested that there was significant hysteresis - having approached its trigger, the switch would operate but it would then need to be moved a measurable distance away before releasing. Definitely not the case with these cheap Chinese switches - hair-trigger stuff around the switching point. So, Z axis homes, Mach3 sets it back from homing to limit switch mode, and Y starts moving. The vibration was enough to trigger the Z (now limit) switch and everything stopped. Sometimes homing would work and the machine would trip when I started moving away from home position at the start of a cut. The fix was simple - the Mach3 setting that moves the axis just off the home position once homing is complete.

I'm just glad that I didn't need to go hunting around with a 'scope, which I suspect throws up more worrying measurements than you really want to deal with!

[Kitwn]

I've always moved all the axes away from the limit switches by around 10-15mm. This is fundamental to LinuxCNC so pulling all the axes away from the switches was a bit of a no-brainer before I really knew what I was doing. I'm sure we all have memories of things that had us confused for ages in the early days and are obvious now. This applies to any technical subject you are learning about for the first time. "How could I have ever NOT been able to ride a bicycle!?"

Oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers were my day-to-day screwdrivers and spanners for many years so at the first suspicion of spurious signals appearing where they don't belong they are the tools I'm going to reach for. We each have our different specialist knowledge and experience and it is the variety of skills, experience and knowledge among the members of a forum like this that make it so valuable.

Kit

[Kitwn]

I've fitted the mains filter and installed it in the machine. I can now power the whole beast including the controlling PC running LinuxCNC, controller with BOB, stepper controllers and motor supplies, water pump and VFD from a single mains socket. I haven't yet got the scope out to see how much noise is still visible on the controller wiring but at least it works!

The filter is a standard, two stage filter from RS which I linked to earlier. I've also added a ferrite ring to the earth wire since this is a probable route for high frequency noise to escape.

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[Kitwn]

So after all that the wretched thing tripped again after 5 minutes of behaving itself! Plugging the VFD into a different mains socket fixed it again... I hope.

Maybe I'll try putting the filter on the controller and/or LinuxCNC PC mains input. Or maybe I'll take up sculpting portraits in clay instead where none of the tools need electrickery. Or maybe I'll make do with it as it is for now and, if this hobby ever does look like it may turn into a bit of a money-spinner, build a complete new reliable controller with an AXBB-E and learn UCCNC. I've got it running in demo mode on my laptop already. Looks OK to me.

[Doddy]

5V for the BoB and 12V for fans is provided by the original PC power supply.

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Kit, you're one person on here that I really wouldn't want to teach how to suck an egg. But that picture of your BoB - firstly addresses on solution that crossed my mind - you're trying to smooth the supply to the BoB with that cap hanging off the PSU (I would suggest a low esr cap in parallel with the floating electrolytic - but there'll be enough of that on the board anyway)... so that's all good. But, the one thing that does worry me is I can't see any isolation on the BoB (in the form of opto-isolators). It could be a different package that I'm used to - but the geographic positioning of devices on the board doesn't appear to support that. You say you're using relays on the inputs - I can't see the detail of this in the figure, but assume you're using a NC or NO contact?, hopefully you have it that in the non-triggered state the input is hard-tied to ground? (i.e. not floating?). Have you the connectivity to use a C/O contact between 0V and 5V, so the inputs are hard-tied in both states? Also, I've experienced so much crap with proxy diagnosis of noise on BoB inputs that I wouldn't now entertain any without opto-isolated inputs. Not for the galvanic isolation, but simply it's good to have a device that needs proper current flowing to switch, rather than the usual HCT high-impendance inputs. From the UK I'd be throwing 6 quid at China for a cheap replacement BoB to trial.

Again - I'm confident you know what you're doing, and you sound like you're addressing this top-down with removing noise from source, just worth conisidering going bottom-up and looking at the noise susceptibility on the signalling to the PC.

UCCNC, btw, is the way forward :)

[Neale]

Just for clarity, when you say "it trips," what exactly is happening? Limit switch trigger, e-stop trigger, or what? Always keen to learn from other's experiences!

My own background started off in electronics - building amateur radio stuff as a teenager - but after university and a year as apprentice with Marconi, I switched to IT for the rest of my career. Just glad I've never needed to take an oscilloscope to my machine... Did once take a look at the ripple on the linear PSU output but out of curiosity rather than need!

Good luck!

[Kitwn]

Doddy, Neale,

Thanks for the words of encouragement and I'm open to any advice anyone wants to offer! More decoupling of the BOB power supply is worth looking at but the VFD noise is all over everything so there's something more fundamental at work here.

The problems I've always had with this machine show up as a limit switch trip on the Z axis. It all started when I changed from microswitches to proximity sensors. Oscilloscope measurements showed lots of spikey noise on the limit inputs of the cheapo Chinese BOB but I ruled out the individual proxy sensor early on. There's a whole thread about this from last year. http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/13519-Inductive-Limit-Switch-problem/page2 post #20 explains what I discovered about the input circuits to the BOB.

The solution then was to use electro-mechanical isolators. Sounds much better to young ears than 'relay' but that's what I used. Miniature relays hold the inputs solidly to ground except when the proxy sensors trigger. Excelent noise supression and low-pass filtering in one simple package. The relays and driver transistors are mounted on a board which sits just above the BOB with only a few mm of wiring between them.

There is only any noise present when the VFD starts and the noise is all over everything. The earthed box of the controller and all it's contents including the BOB power supply rails and the earthed cases of the motor PSUs as well as the BOB inputs/outputs show it. I even tried shorting the scope probe to it's own earth screen clip and you can still see the noise when the earthed probe touches anything metal! It's a PC scope and I use it on my laptop running on batteries so the scope is entirely isolated from ther mains.

last year I rebuilt the controller with the BOB in it's own ally box with screened cables for all signals in and out and individual screened cables for each proxy sensor and each stepper motor. I really thought I'd done evrything right and it was working OK until the recent rebuild. The noise is very short pulses of about 1uS each. Closer inspections shows each pulse to be something ringing at about 6MHz for that short period. It's not just the VFD output waveform to the spindle windings and I'd love to find out what it is but I'd much rather be making stuff with the machine than fault-finding it again.

I really thought the mains filter would fix it, especially after plugging the VFD into a different mains socket fixed everything but it seems the filter doesn't work as reliably as a few metres of 3-core wiring. The only other possibility is that particular input of the parallel port into the PC is dodgy but that seems a long shot, though I'm convinced it is not spurious triggering of the solidly earthed limit switch input so something else is triggering that specific port input to the PC. It's always the same one.

Sorry it's ended up such a long rant. Today the LinuxCNC PC decided to throw a fit as well, so that now has a new system battery and a re-seated CPU. I think it may be telling me something. I think it might be yearning for a one way trip to the dustbin. It's working again at the moment but I'm not going to put too much more time into this current controller if it plays up again.

[Clive S]

I have also found these type of bobs as solid as a rock. They do need 5V and 12-24 volt attaching to them

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-Interface-5-Axis-CNC-Breakout-Board-For-Stepper-Driver-Controller-mach3-I1/363284986692?hash=item549578fb44:g:tXoAAOSwufFcg3w 1

From AliExpress they can be got a lot cheaper

[Doddy]

Kit, your last response does concern me - if you remove the "electromechanical galvanic isolation module" from the Z-limit input to the bob, and simply connect this input to the local 0V, is it still noisy? If so you're down to BoB/Cable/PC.

[Kitwn]

Kit, your last response does concern me - if you remove the "electromechanical galvanic isolation module" from the Z-limit input to the bob, and simply connect this input to the local 0V, is it still noisy? If so you're down to BoB/Cable/PC.

I haven't actually removed the EGIM but it does strap the input to ground. I have made some interesting measurements though. Some screen grabs from the oscilloscope are very telling...

trying to accurately the voltage on the earthed case of the machine is a bit difficult since earth is meant to be the refference voltage. this is measured on the case of the LinuxCNC PC with the scope earth floating. 10mS/div. 4V/div.
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Slightly less scary, this is one of the parallel port pins pins referenced to the PC case. 1mS/div. 0.2V/div. None of the motors were running so there's not controll data on the pin.
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Most scary is another floating measurement of the metal frame of the CNC router itself. 1mS/div. 4V/div.
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So my theory that that the intereference is going out on the mains cable of the VFD is probably wrong, it's more likely coming from the spindle itself.
The spindle is connected using screened 3-core cable with the screen connected to the mains earth inside the VFD and to the body of the spindle and hence to the frame of the machine.
So why does the mains filter on the VFD do some good? Dunno. Why does plugging the VFD into another mains socket stop all trips occuring and allow me to use the machine as normal? Dunno.

I have improved the earth bonding of the Z axis and gantry to the base frame but the above measurements are after that was done. For the present I'm just going to get on and use the machine as it is for it's intended purpose and hope for the best but, as I've said before, if this hobby turns commercial I shall want to upgrade the controller to something less flakey.

Kit

[JAZZCNC]

Throw the scope and the bloody BOB in the bin and buy an AXBB-E you tight bugger, all your problems solved.!. . . Simplizzzz

[JAZZCNC]

The spindle is connected using screened 3-core cable with the screen connected to the mains earth inside the VFD and to the body of the spindle and hence to the frame of the machine.

If you have earthed your frame then surely you have created an earth loop by connecting the VFD cable shield at the spindle end.? I don't earth the spindle end and never have noise problems.

[phill05]

We had a problem at one stage that sounds close to what you have, we had the screen connected at both ends, to remedy took off screen at spindle end now left with 3 +Earth, ( 4-core CY cable) connected spindle to VFD, at the VFD end the screen was stripped back and finished at star point in cabinet, VFD was fitted in same cabinet on the same power line in.
Been running for four years no problems.

Phill

[Kitwn]

Throw the scope and the bloody BOB in the bin and buy an AXBB-E you tight bugger, all your problems solved.!. . . Simplizzzz

It's just possible you may be right.

[Kitwn]

If you have earthed your frame then surely you have created an earth loop by connecting the VFD cable shield at the spindle end.? I don't earth the spindle end and never have noise problems.

Connecting the spindle cable braid to the spindle body has a lot to do with safety, there being plenty of volts available to spoil your day, though making sure the machine body is well earthed should solve that. Interesting point made earlier about grounding emissive cable screens at both ends and receptive ones only at one end. The principle of reciprocity may not support this however.

I have already got UCCNC running in demo mode on my laptop and have confirmed that delivery to Australia will not take too long so I can see his happening soon. How does UCCNC compare to LinuxCNC? How easy is it in practice to set up auto-squaring for a two-motor axis?

[Kitwn]

We had a problem at one stage that sounds close to what you have, we had the screen connected at both ends, to remedy took off screen at spindle end now left with 3 +Earth, ( 4-core CY cable) connected spindle to VFD, at the VFD end the screen was stripped back and finished at star point in cabinet, VFD was fitted in same cabinet on the same power line in.
Been running for four years no problems.

Phill

Thanks Phill. I might try this, though at the moment I just want to start making some bits with a working machine, which is what I now seem to have. I expect that I will soon have to bite the bullet and upgrade to an AXXB-E and UCCNC to make things more reliable. It will also be intereststing to see what difference this makes to the maximum speed of the machine and the surface finish as ONE OF THE USEFUL THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM MY OSCILLOSCOPE (subtle hint there you notice :highly_amused: ) is that the pulse timing from LinuxCNC and it's parallel port are far from perfect. Long ago I set up a test and measured the step pulse interval at 125uS with frequent (approx 1 in 8) pulses at either 100 or 150uS (always +- 25uS). That's a pretty dramatic error and cannot be good for best performance.
I have now got the mechanical side of the machine working quite well, as far as my limited experience can tell, so an upgrade to the control side is worthwhile. I will keep yours and Dean's comments in mind when that rebuild gets underway.

Kit

[Kitwn]

It's been working quite well recently. I've had some frustrations with the T-nuts I'm using for clamping but have that issue (mostly) sorted after having to dissasemble the baseboard twice.

The real clincher has been the old LinuxCNC PC which has suddenly shut itself down a couple of times and did this yesterday in the middle of a long trochoidal cut of some clock gears. After some cleaning and reassembly the PC has now stayed on all night but it's not really reliable so I've bitten the bullet and ordered an AXBB-E and a software licence for UCCNC. Balazs has confirmed they have one in stock so it should be here quite soon. Funny thing is that after moving 5000Km from the remote wilds of Western Australia to 5 minutes outside the third largest city in Tasmania DHL still class this as a 'remote' location so they're going to sting me 48EU for delivery.

Any useful words of wisdom regarding the installation of the new card will be welcome, especially any tips from those who have already switched from LinuxCNC to UCCNC.

Kit

[AndyUK]

To be fair mate, "the third largest city in Tassie" makes it sound like a bustling metropolis. Isn't Devonport basically the size of Truro?

Oh and if you get a chance to pop into the House of Anvers, I still have vivid dreams of those Belgian waffles....

[Kitwn]

To be fair mate, "the third largest city in Tassie" makes it sound like a bustling metropolis. Isn't Devonport basically the size of Truro?

Oh and if you get a chance to pop into the House of Anvers, I still have vivid dreams of those Belgian waffles....

I'm not sure it's quite that big. But that isn't the point!!!

Actually Balasz said that DHL treat most of Australia other than Sydney as remote. The way the world is right now I quite like 'remote', though not as remote as our former home in Exmouth, WA. Compared to that Devonport really is a bustling metropolis, close to the heart of all things civilised, including the House of Anvers which is a popular destination, especially with my wife.

Kit

[Kitwn]

The AXBB-E is on it's way, I have a licence code for UCCNC and have been reading the manuals. I'm currently using 12V for the proximity sensors for the simple reason that I'm using a standard PC power supply (5V and 12V with plenty of current available) for the controller.

24V is obviously better to help avoid interference but the AXBB-E manual doesn't give a current rating for that supply, possibly because it depends on the external equipment connected. What rating of 24V supply do other people use on these cards? I'm using the standard eBay proximity sensors and Huan Yang VFD with nothing else unusual included. I've been looking at small 2A units as there isn't a lot of spare room in the box. I'll still need the PC PSU in there for the 5V supply and 12V for the cooling fans and dust extractor relay.

Kit

[Doddy]

The 24 Supply will tolerate 12-24V. All that supply is used for is the bias to the optocouplers on the isolated inputs, and the feed to the high-side of the (low-side) switched (MOSFET) outputs. The actual voltage is largely irrelevant (you'll get less current through the LEDs on the isolated inputs.... but they'll switch reliably). My personal view, and I'm ready to be corrected, with the isolated inputs that there's enough immunity introduced to not warrant a separate 24V supply and given space constraints and pre-existing 12V supply - I'd use the 12V supply. You know how the wobbly-wobblies work, Kitwn, let you come to your own conclusion.

[Kitwn]

The 24 Supply will tolerate 12-24V. All that supply is used for is the bias to the optocouplers on the isolated inputs, and the feed to the high-side of the (low-side) switched (MOSFET) outputs. The actual voltage is largely irrelevant (you'll get less current through the LEDs on the isolated inputs.... but they'll switch reliably). My personal view, and I'm ready to be corrected, with the isolated inputs that there's enough immunity introduced to not warrant a separate 24V supply and given space constraints and pre-existing 12V supply - I'd use the 12V supply. You know how the wobbly-wobblies work, Kitwn, let you come to your own conclusion.

Thanks for the info Doddy.

I was having the wobbly-wobblies about spending all this cash on a new controller and having all the same problems again! As I now live within a five minute drive and an overnight ferry's journey of where all the Australian stock of eBay products is kept I might test it all with the existing 12V supply and only order a 24v unit if there are any problems. I must get out of the mindset that everything takes 2 weeks to arrive by post from within the same country and so pre-emptive purchases are required for getting anything done.

Kit

[Kitwn]

It's arrived!
Funny that it takes DHL 7 days to get the little beastie from one side of the planet to the other and another 7 days to get it from one side of the Bass Strait to the other, but they said delivery would be on April 12th right from day one and it was.

Setup went according to the instructions, my laptop obviously has automatic configuration for the straight/crossover cable issue as I'm using a straight cable for direct communication. It took two attempts at opening CCNC with the licence file installed to get UCCNC to start up not in demo mode and to get the laptop and card talking to each other but all seems fine now.
Tomorrow I will look at configuration of ports, limit switches etc. and how to get auto-squaring on the two-motor X axis working. Once that's all done and looking good I can rip the old parallel card out of the machine controller and fit the shiny new one in it's place. Then I can see what postprocessor to use in CamBam and what improvement in performance the more accurately timed pulse streams from the AXBB-E compared to LinuxCNC will give me. What chance 23m/min rapids instead of the current 9?

Kit

[JAZZCNC]

Tomorrow I will look at configuration of ports, limit switches etc. and how to get auto-squaring on the two-motor X axis working.

It doesn't have auto squaring, each motor moves independently while homing and you just adjust the home switches to square the gantry.

[Kitwn]

It doesn't have auto squaring, each motor moves independently while homing and you just adjust the home switches to square the gantry.

Pooh! I thought somewhere I'd read that auto-squaring was possible. Perhaps it was in a possible-future-devoplments chat on the CNCDrive blog or similar.

Back when I had microswitches placed where they could get smashed if they failed to operate and the old version 1 of LinuxCNC on my machine I made a micro-adjustable end-stop (OK, it was an M6 bolt in a bit of aluminium angle) for gantry squaring. That dissapeared when I upgraded to proximity sensors. I'll need to to come up with something similarly cunning for the new installation. The present arrangement is far too clunky for easy fine adjustment which is currently tuned to a hair's breadth in the LinuxCNC v2.8 config file. Once it's been made, a properly implemented mechanical adjuster will be quicker to set up anyway.

Kit

[Kitwn]

I've spent part of this afternoon reading through the manuals for the software and hardware and configuring the AXBB-E on the desk before I start installing it. There seems to be a lot more to configure than there was with LinuxCNC but I suspect this is due to the greater versatility of the AXBB-E over the simple parallel BoB that LCNC uses.

One thing I am still puzled about is the 'units'. Lots of elements in the setup refer to being in 'Units' without specifying them. I'm asuming the default is mm rather than inches but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to specify what units you want to work in. It can't just be looking for a G20 or G21 in each job's file and working from that can it?

Kit

[Doddy]

From memory, it’s unit-less and ignores G20/21.

Configure for metric or imperial and stick with it. Or have an imperial and metric configuration file

[Kitwn]

From memory, it’s unit-less and ignores G20/21.

Configure for metric or imperial and stick with it. Or have an imperial and metric configuration file

I haven't fully got my head around how you can be 'unitless'. Is the idea that once I've input the number of steps required to move one of my chosen unit (mm, micron, yard, cubit) the software simply treats that many steps as one 'unit'?

Kit

[Doddy]

I haven't fully got my head around how you can be 'unitless'. Is the idea that once I've input the number of steps required to move one of my chosen unit (mm, micron, yard, cubit) the software simply treats that many steps as one 'unit'?

Kit

That's exactly my intended meaning. Whether my meaning is right or wrong... but I think it's right. I normally get a "ignore-me pester box" whenever I import g-code from Fusion that typically complains about the first G20/G21 as an unsupported command.

Aha, if you'll support a remote link... http://cncdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=769

[Kitwn]

That's exactly my intended meaning. Whether my meaning is right or wrong... but I think it's right. I normally get a "ignore-me pester box" whenever I import g-code from Fusion that typically complains about the first G20/G21 as an unsupported command.

Aha, if you'll support a remote link... http://cncdrive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=769

Very helpful, thankyou. I'm sure it makes a great deal of sense really.

I've just had a look at the available postprocessors in CamBam and all of them include G20/21, though I've had a look on the CB forum and nobody has complained about it not working. Fortunately that forum is as good as this one (it has at least one star member in common) so if I decide to write a bespoke PP there will be plenty of help available.

Kit

[JAZZCNC]

I haven't fully got my head around how you can be 'unitless'. Is the idea that once I've input the number of steps required to move one of my chosen unit (mm, micron, yard, cubit) the software simply treats that many steps as one 'unit'?

Kit

It's not unitless, when you installed the software it asked you the CV Profile to use "metric" or "imperial". By default, it's set to metric so maybe you didn't see it.

[Kitwn]

It's not unitless, when you installed the software it asked you the CV Profile to use "metric" or "imperial". By default, it's set to metric so maybe you didn't see it.

Thanks Dean. I did wonder if it might have been an installation option I'd forgotten about. It's quite a while since I loaded the demo version and the old brain isn't quite what it was.

Do you know if anyone has written any modified skins for UCCNC? The default layout is a bit of an odd resolution and the manual says it is completely reconfigurable. That might be something to look at AFTER I have it all up and running. You could have a JAZZCNC special edition screen layout!

Kit

[JAZZCNC]

Do you know if anyone has written any modified skins for UCCNC? The default layout is a bit of an odd resolution and the manual says it is completely reconfigurable. That might be something to look at AFTER I have it all up and running. You could have a JAZZCNC special edition screen layout!

Kit

Working on it Kit, the screen is very easy to edit actually, much easier than mach3 and Linux.

If you check the forum there are several screens available and the development version uses a completely different layout and colour scheme, though I'm not a fan of it.
Don't be afraid to use the development version it's rock-solid stable provided your PC is a decent spec.

[Kitwn]

Working on it Kit, the screen is very easy to edit actually, much easier than mach3 and Linux.

If you check the forum there are several screens available and the development version uses a completely different layout and colour scheme, though I'm not a fan of it.
Don't be afraid to use the development version it's rock-solid stable provided your PC is a decent spec.

Duhhhh! If I had a brain I'd have been all over the forum weeks ago.

I've got most of the machine configuration set up now and have started ripping out the old hardware to replace with the new. Fingers crossed it's just a drop-in replacement that works even better than before.

Kit

[Kitwn]

Last year I spent a day putting neat connectors onto all the cables from the steppers and limit switches to plug into the cheapo Chinese parallel BoB. Today I cut them all off to connect into the screw terminals on the AXBB-E. The result is rather more of a rats nest than I would have wanted, largely because of the need to common up several connections into one terminal. Four common grounds for the steppers and four common enable lines, looping +12V for each proximity sensor, blah, blah.

If I'd thought in advance I'd have built an interface board with a multi-way socket (or even screw terminals!) for each stepper and limit switch and nice, single wires out to the AXBB-E itself. Then my machine would resemble one of Dean's rather than one of Heath Robinson's.

Anyway, it's all wired up today and we'll see if it actually works tomorrow.

Kit

[Kitwn]

I really wasn't impressed with the directly wired result, it might work but... see below.

A quick rummage through the goody box showed that I already have everything I need for a proper break-out board in stock. So I decided a day playing with CamBam was called for. The result is a design for a Veroboard interface to connect the AXBB-E to the outside world. By using multiple layers I now have a pretty picture of a design which suits my requirements and might even be of use to others.

If it works out OK I'll start a new thread with further details of how to use Veroboard for those who had a misspent youth chasing girls/boys (your preference), riding motorbikes, drinking beer and playing football instead of a misspent youth chasing girls (my preference), riding motorbikes, drinking beer and messing about with electronics.

The result will have a header for each stepper with four pins for Step, Dir, Enable (all commoned to pin O17) and 0V. Providing +5V instead involves changing one jumper wire. Similar headers connect the proximity sensors with 0V, +12V (or 24V if I ever upgrade the PSU) and sensor output. Headers are also used for power in (one 3-pin connector for 0V, +5v, +12V) and the 8 isolated outputs, including a header for an interlock switch on O1 to prevent accidental starting of the spindle during tool changes. 5 pin headers (3 of) connect to the analog port allowing a single cable to connect to a board with two potentiometers on it or any combination of IN/OUT you require.

The design has the AXBB-E sitting above the Verobard connected to it by a short jumper wire to each of the 40 terminals. Both boards will be fixed to a plastic base board to effectively make a single, large circuit board which will drop into place and have everything plugged in.



29817

29818

[JAZZCNC]

I really wasn't impressed with the directly wired result, it might work but... see below.

I'm convinced you just like making things harder than they need to be...:hysterical:

What's the difference.? surely your time would be better spent tidying up the wiring and routing.!

[Kitwn]

I'm convinced you just like making things harder than they need to be...:hysterical:

What's the difference.? surely your time would be better spent tidying up the wiring and routing.!

You may be right, but I've had reliability issues in the past with having several wires and jumpers in a single terminal and like to avoid it whenevr possible. And I do like the simplicity of having a cable from each external device coming to a single plug which can be disconnected for testing during installation or later fault finding without having to interfere with the wiring for anything else. Adding some work today to make things easier tomorrow and the day after. Plus it will look very professional!

I haven't yet proved that the AXBB-E will cope better with all that nasty radio frequency noise from the VFD which isn't going away any time soon so I'm not ruling out some further work being required to deal with that. At least it has some built in software filtering if required.

Kit

[Kitwn]

When I first built this machine the controller was on a separate trolley so I had trailing cables with plugs on connected to sockets on the machine itself for the motors and limit switches. Now the controller lives in the new welded steel base so the trailing cable are no longer required. After designing the above mentioned interface board and thinking about how neat the result would be it was obvious that the rest of the machine wiring was now more complex than it needed to be. So I decided to get rid of the trailing cables. The result is a set of sockets in the top of the controller and plugs on the cables that used to go to the row of sockets on the machine. The trailing cables are gone and the wiring inside the box is neater.

Sooooo....

With a set of sockets just above the new AXBB-E allowing acces for testing and fault-finding it seemed a bit superfluous having another set of plugs and sockets on just a few inches of wire. So I decided to follow Dean's advice ( Yes Dean, I DO pay attention to what you say!!!!) and not bother with the interface board.

The soldering is all finished, The AXBB-E is installed, though I'm less impressed than I wanted to be with the bootlace crimps I bought for it, and the motors all go round the right way when jogged from UCCNC. E-stop works but I haven't quite worked out how to get the spindle start relay to work. I'm using Port 1, output 1 to drive an external relay but it doesn't respond to either the 'start forward' button or an M3 command. Can't be too difficult, but all advice greatfully recieved.

Pictures to follow when I've made sure it all works and the cable ties are in place. Main thing to sort out now is the homing and a micro-adjustable limit stop.

Kit

[Clive S]

though I'm less impressed than I wanted to be with the bootlace crimps I bought for it,

The best crimping tool I have found is this style.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353421516680?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item5249905f88:g:0SwAAOSwmQdf3Et8&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACgBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%252 Fn%252BzU5L90Z278x5ickkWpEuxXwAiCNKyBQsQ5%252Fe6%2 52BbkxtVjmsJ82ojyTXuto3eUEOK87%252BIeIl%252FF4K766 01id5jN0tEDiZifPOz9j1KH2An6rkWPb0fYnwYIOKzQG7Rg0FH %252Fl59tU0c1A0I08YW2xykHrmMvhZ0SRg8f5XJnXXvYefLgF ymjOTADcGbxyybEQLbVe%252BkIlm2C0cxbl5RTOyIJbBFVmce 03AtRlzFl9cqAdRb4WjTJRiFtAy0bhf%252BdVvcn8%252Fn0c XZ28AtVmBM%252FDH9nfK9Bcq73ss1ax%252FWjasBJFPOXWsc dZveEBb%252Bh7YuUv5D4d4of0NJ0%252B3F3kp7u9uUN5bRTf hnlgdt%252BJIhRxFwrZAfiGi6ljfDOZevZaycarl%252BU4wd bhOcjBy5UGeFHShBVTOF%252Blz%252BXAzJ1ctCQf8vgQXm%2 52BJH4WBkIDczAdMzDsIc4TNgpDgvJ%252BxSiCa7LAc0jZaIO 8xrIFpSPlrU%252Bv1ymAGSZqdKiNfdPKJUku51Tm8YAlfLcoi MEZmtETj6mhdrjWlDHNOMf1GjunzXQvoBuijwXllGHvWWpJHLB wuzWRTrG8am4NGBBuvzG8CsJjj3JPKlPthyRjMEJ8a1RNzpg7o 8qsNRpLkdvdXv5LeGGNktcXRfN9IgLQeoI3uc58jlzRQ8BKsuf ZQqsEdzbbF%252F92zPI%252FbcCJvafFFqvgme1a7nptixP3K J%252BjnCu9gkX6b6K6FQnU93DzYpig6cmTapulagx1LATCsNc Gv0rFvT%252BkbI5%252BfsUpRcfRlq%252FiUKC7zOOeirGKp NBu4jrS2E%252BPGe2VSlWgKGiqEmjQnZ%252BupUk%253D%7C cksum%3A353421516680d5d49dbd8f874b44966a90002e1557 5b%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2334524

On the very small size i usually crimp it then rotate it a few degrees then crimp it again.

Also then is an adjustment on the tool to make a tighter crimp

[Kitwn]

Clive,
That looks exactly like the one I bought. I had to wind up the ratchet to max to get the small ones to grip but the biggest problem was them shearing off. One would break as I was putting in the one next to it. I persevered out of bloody-mindedness but I don't think the result is any more reliable than just putting the twisted wire into the terminal.

I note your technique of crimping twice and it might prevent the breakages by not crimping tight up to the plastic surround, leaving a short length of unmollested metal tube.

Anyway the connections all seem to be working for now and the next time we get some rain (I'm too busy gardenning while the sun shines) I hope to get the homing and spindle control all sorted out. Acceleration, max speeds etc. have all been copied over from my LinuxCNC setup so I'm hoping for a smooth transition.


Kit

[Kitwn]

If all else fails, read the instructions.

I'd forgotten Port 1 pinO1 on the AXBB-E is for the charge pump. Fingers crossed that turns out to be the only problem and a switch to pinO2 will bring the spindle to life. I'm hoping for a bit more rain than the five minutes of drizzle we've just had in between the sunshine, otherwise the lady of the manor will have me working on our estates all weekend :dejection:

Kit

[JAZZCNC]

If all else fails, read the instructions.

I'd forgotten Port 1 pinO1 on the AXBB-E is for the charge pump. Fingers crossed that turns out to be the only problem and a switch to pinO2 will bring the spindle to life.

One more thing which can be different from what the manual says is the analog voltage might be set to 10V rather than 5v.? The manual says the default is 5v but the last 20 controllers we have just fit have been set to 10V by default.

[Kitwn]

One more thing which can be different from what the manual says is the analog voltage might be set to 10V rather than 5v.? The manual says the default is 5v but the last 20 controllers we have just fit have been set to 10V by default.

Thanks Dean,
At present I just want to start the spindle by energising a relay as before, hence the use of an isolated output as described in section 9.1.1 of the AXBB-E manual, but I do plan to implement analogue speed control in the future. Presumably I'll need a properly organised tool library to make the most of that.

Kit

[Kitwn]

I've been quite busy lately doing Other Very Important Things, but managed to get back to my router today. The upgraded controller is complete with a nice new set of 4 and 8 pin connectors on top for the limit switches and motors plus auxiliaries respectively. The overall wiring is greatly simplified compared to the old version thanks to the controller being mounted directly below the machine on it's new welded base rather than on a separate trolley. Each motor and limit switch cable ends in a pug which connects directly to a socket on the controller case. The whole thing is still built into the same old PC case as before, electricity is not house-proud and will work just as well in here as in a swanky, expensive, lockable wall box from RS. Whilst the overall wiring is much shorter it is still possible to set up the controller on a table for testing and fault-finding as shown below. You won't find a dyed-in-the-wool wireless engineer throwing his oscilloscope or spectrum analyser in the bin just yet!

The basic machine arrangement now has the controller plus spindle cooling water pump and reservoir sitting on a shelf under the bed of the router with the spindle VFD attached under there as well. A relay controlled by the AXBB-E starts the spindle and switches the 240V mains on to the dust extractor. A mains distribution board on the frame allows separate switching of mains to the controller, water pump, VFD and dust extractor so that the whole machine is self contained requiring only a single mains power input plus relay switched mains output to the dust extractor and Ethernet connection from the UCCNC laptop to operate.
A safety switch is in series with the spindle/DE start relay to reduce the chances of a manual tool change affecting my ability to do Jimmy Page impersonations in the hours immediately afterwards.

UCCNC and the new AXBB-E are working as expected, setup being very simple as long as you read the instructions and remember what they say! I have yet to install a finely adjustable limit switch for accurate gantry squaring. A shiny new license for Vectric Vcarve Desktop is sitting on my shiny new Dell laptop ( the much--revered ten+-year-old HP laptop it has replaced is going to be used primarily for UCCNC).

My next quest is finding out what I can easily make with Vectric that I couldn't with CamBam and if I can use the $8 USB Nintendo game controller that Worked in LinuxCNC to control UCCNC or if I have to buy a new Xbox360 game console. The preferred UCR201 wireless pendant will have to go on the Christmas list for this year, next year, sometime, never or after I've found out how to make saleable items with the help of Vectric!

It's just possible I may actually be able to make something interesting over the next few days if it keeps raining and I can skive off the gardening and taxi duties for a few hours :excitement:

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29964



Kit

[Kitwn]

So I haven't managed to make anything over the last few days but now have my workshop almost completely emptied of other people's furniture and tidy to the point of being genuinely usable. I'm so excited I took some photographs! It'll never be this tidy again.

Some issues with Vectric and UCCNC but probably nothing too difficult. I'll ask for help if I can't get everything working tickety-boo in a few days.

29993

29994

[Doddy]

Oooph. That's tidy. And big. And jealous.

[Kitwn]

Oooph. That's tidy. And big. And jealous.

It's a bit of a change from the rather cramped space I had before. We had to move 5000Km to be able to afford this though. Well worth it!. S**tloads of hobby space was a prime requirement for the new home when we retired last year and Tasmania ticked all the boxes for our needs/wants.

Kit