New build with recycled parts on a ridiculous budget 120cm*60cm work area

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Originally Posted by Clive S

I would keep the Y switches on the there own inputs . Can you sketch a circuit of what you intend to do?

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I've run the X axis (Gantry) to the X input and the 2 Y Axis limits to Y & Z, when I add a Z I'll add it to the the same input as the Y but will get better electronics than this BOB soon but have other things I'd rather do first.

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

I've run the X axis (Gantry) to the X input and the 2 Y Axis limits to Y & Z, when I add a Z I'll add it to the the same input as the Y but will get better electronics than this BOB soon but have other things I'd rather do first.

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I thought you was connecting up the home switches before. The limits can all be connected in series together.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

I thought you was connecting up the home switches before. The limits can all be connected in series together.

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Yes limits/home dual use.

How are you planning to use the dual home switches (Y axis in your case?). Generally you do this for gantry squaring, but only if your motion controller supports this (and not all do!). I don't think that Mach3 can do this either. I have the same problem on my own machine, by the way, and not trying to pick holes in your design. It's just one of those things that isn't obvious until you come to try to do it...

Personally, I home my dual-axis using just one home switch and manually tweak the other side for squaring purposes as my motion controller is no help at all in this area.

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I don't think that Mach3 can do this either.

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Neale I think Mach3 can do dual homing. UNCHECK "Home Slave with Master" in General Config. You may also need to modify your Ref All script to use RefCombination() to get the two sides to move together.

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Originally Posted by Neale

How are you planning to use the dual home switches (Y axis in your case?). Generally you do this for gantry squaring, but only if your motion controller supports this (and not all do!). I don't think that Mach3 can do this either. I have the same problem on my own machine, by the way, and not trying to pick holes in your design. It's just one of those things that isn't obvious until you come to try to do it...

Personally, I home my dual-axis using just one home switch and manually tweak the other side for squaring purposes as my motion controller is no help at all in this area.

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I'm going to try linuxcnc which does support gantry squaring (Whether it works with my BOB we'll see) at least in 2.8, a quick google and it appears mach 3 does as well.

I'll try mach 3 as well, I planned a 2 pc setup for the cnc machine just in case with windows 7 & Fusion on one and the other with linuxcnc that way I can try both easily and have convenience of cam next to the machine.

What are they? I first thought they were radiators I have 2 of them, when I stripped them off they were full of water. Came from a large controller box for automated machinery, also recovered a 75amp 3phase RF filter box.

Attachment 23126
Attachment 23129

Got more done, finally ready to solder the cy cable to the steppers.
Attachment 23127
Attachment 23128

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Neale I think Mach3 can do dual homing. UNCHECK "Home Slave with Master" in General Config. You may also need to modify your Ref All script to use RefCombination() to get the two sides to move together.

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I stand corrected! I'm using a CSMIO-IP/M which handles dual-axis and homing, but doesn't handle squaring (i.e. homing each end of the gantry simultaneously-but-separately, if you see what I mean). Because the CSMIO does some stuff internally and Mach3 does the rest, it's not always easy to see what is a Mach3 feature/restriction and what comes from the CSMIO. It's unfortunate that one of the things that drove me towards Mach3 was that LCNC, at the time, didn't support dual-axis properly. Sorry if I've mislead anyone.

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Sorry if I've mislead anyone.

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No you have not. That is the beauty of a forum its generally self correcting I certainly need it.:thumsup: and I value your input.

Just tought of something..
I'd you have the limitswitch like that and get some overshoot you will crush the switch ;)
I.e if the machine is on a rampage and go full speed into the side.. If you have the switch in a way so the machine will only touch the trigger but pass the housing of the switch it should stop in a few mm :D

Make any sense?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

What are they? I first thought they were radiators I have 2 of them, when I stripped them off they were full of water. Came from a large controller box for automated machinery, also recovered a 75amp 3phase RF filter box.

Attachment 23126
Attachment 23129

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Just a pure guess but they could be part of the supply for an inductive heating setup.

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Originally Posted by Nr1madman

Just tought of something..
I'd you have the limitswitch like that and get some overshoot you will crush the switch ;)
I.e if the machine is on a rampage and go full speed into the side.. If you have the switch in a way so the machine will only touch the trigger but pass the housing of the switch it should stop in a few mm :D

Make any sense?

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Yes that's a good point but the microswitches are cheap and hopefully will reduce the damage when 4mm later the gantry mount crashes into the BK12 fitting lol, I'll see what happens when I start running it I guess.

Should order a selection of button and lever microswitches so I have spares to play with only got 1 left at moment unless I rob the tat off the printer but they're just shit.

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

Yes that's a good point but the microswitches are cheap and hopefully will reduce the damage when 4mm later the gantry mount crashes into the BK12 fitting lol, I'll see what happens when I start running it I guess.

Should order a selection of button and lever microswitches so I have spares to play with only got 1 left at moment unless I rob the tat off the printer but they're just shit.

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I'm wrestling with the pros and cons of different mountings of limits myself. Don't want to loose to much precious travel and don't want to cheap out so a crash will destroy something :)

Because a crash or eleven will happen :D

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Almost, almost there switches are wired to the BOB now, I've took power from the PSU case to a connector block then split it 4 ways to the AM882's.

Quick question my AM882's the power in is marked AC for both inputs which one is the + and which one the -?

Attachment 23130

I'm using DC obviously.

I have my water cooling feeds in/out installed, just got to connect the motors and the spindle and plug her in ;)

e2a Just realised the alarm is wired wrong on mine, manual makes it confusing, will swap them over

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

Quick question my AM882's the power in is marked AC for both inputs which one is the + and which one the -?

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Doesn't matter in this case - because the power inputs can handle AC or DC, you can connect the DC either way round.

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Quick question my AM882's the power in is marked AC for both inputs which one is the + and which one the -?

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As Neale has said. But not all AM882 are the same I think you have bought them from different sources so check all of them. I think it is the AM882H that can handle AC or DC and the AM882 is only DC. As usual could be wrong.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

As Neale has said. But not all AM882 are the same I think you have bought them from different sources so check all of them. I think it is the AM882H that can handle AC or DC and the AM882 is only DC. As usual could be wrong.

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You right the AM882 are DC only they discontinued them now in favour of EM806 which I should have bought. Oh well think it'll be ok anyways ;)

Next time going for a stepper motor, encoder, driver combo all round. Expensive but really the only logical choice.

Morning, quick question.

My PSU is in an old PC case when I run power from mains to the PSU can I drill a hole in the pc case add a bolt and nut then use a round terminal to connect the earth from the mains to the pc case to create a ground?

Is this safe? I'm then going to bolt the PC case with the AM882's to the PSU's case so that's grounded and then I can connect the metal RF shielding from the CY cable to the am882's pc case and it's shielded.

does this all sound good?

Also how I understand it I do not ground the CY cable at both ends (In my case at the stepper driver end) is this correct?

Thanks

She's going to move today fingers crossed ;)

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Originally Posted by Clive S

No you have not. That is the beauty of a forum its generally self correcting I certainly need it.:thumsup: and I value your input.

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That's true it's a great forum but if you're a know it all kind of guy you better be right lol otherwise you're going to find out about it very soon, the one thing about this hobby is it's always a learning curve no matter where you are on the curve.

At least the PSU works ;)
Attachment 23132

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

At least the PSU works ;)

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Nice!
Must feel great :D


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Originally Posted by Nr1madman

Nice!
Must feel great :D


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Relieved ;) I tested it without the capacitors but since I put it together properly I hadn't tested it will try to remember to test the output voltage tomorrow.

I have no resistor on the output of the PSU so the capacitors remain charged at moment what's the best way to discharge them or should I just shield them so you can't touch the easily instead?

I'm going to wire a 32amp socket to the wall and then from that to the junction box, from there to the PSU, VFD and to a double wall socket.

The PSU and spindle will be fed through a 13amp switch first so I can turn them on/off with a single flip.

For now though it's wired to a 13 amp plug, I don't think it's wise though to run the machine, PC and vacuum cleaner on a 13 amp socket.

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

I have no resistor on the output of the PSU so the capacitors remain charged at moment what's the best way to discharge them or should I just shield them so you can't touch the easily instead?

I'm going to wire a 32amp socket to the wall and then from that to the junction box, from there to the PSU, VFD and to a double wall socket.

The PSU and spindle will be fed through a 13amp switch first so I can turn them on/off with a single flip.

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The best way to drain the caps is to short them with a screwdriver :D just kidding :D

I have no clue how British electrical distribution works. All this talk of 13 amp rings is just mumbo-jumbo to me.
I have 3 phases with 16 amps each for my shed. Will do control cabinet and maybe vfd on one. Dustextraction on one and air compressor on one so nothing bad happens when it all maxes out :)

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This is at my work (Dad owns it), I have 3 phase but my dad wants me to fit a single phase socket otherwise I'd fit a 32amp 3 phase and tap 1 of the phases.

I have compressed air on tap 24/7 which is nice and one less thing for me to worry about.

I have wired from the AM882 to the BOB incorrectly

is this diagram correct?

Attachment 23133

I have from dir- and dir+ wired to BOB at moment, I haven't powered the BOB on yet.

For anyone else wondering how to easily get 12v to their BOB

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-5-to-5...jN32RjLOZ7GUXQ

I haven't got time to wait for an order so will go with tapping molex's from the PC to for 12v and to power the fans to cool toroidal transformers and stepper drivers.

Having issues getting PC to talk to machine, first I tried linuxcnc but doesn't see my pci parallel port card, then I tried mach 3 doesn't work on 64 bits windows, the I dug out a spar pc didn't work so went to swap motherboard and discovered new one doesn't have parallel port.

Had enough for now came home to see if I can find my windows Vista cd sure that's 32 bit never thought I'd use that again lol.

Otherwise anyone got a pc with parallel port going to a good home near Leicester ;)

I tested the spindle for the first time today got to work out where to mount the VFD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osMfKfQvhGk

A lot of frustrating hours later still no movement but we have discovered that my parallel port pci card only works in serial mode!

After much research I've bought a 2nd hand 2 port PCI parallel port card with a compatible chipset for both mach 3 and linuxcnc, 2 male to male cables and a 2nd BOB. (It's a Netmos)

After Xmas I'm going to get a usb BOB, are these any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EU-Stock-...c=1&rmvSB=true

Or should I plump for a better controller.

I'm going to strip everything out and rebuild it better in another case lol and add in CY cable 2 core for the microswitches.

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

A lot of frustrating hours later still no movement but we have discovered that my parallel port pci card only works in serial mode!

We shall see what I can sort today.

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I feel for you!!

This is why I didn't want to even try the PP-way.
I wanted to find a semi old pc with 32bit OS and PP and make it work on the cheap.
Rejected that idea and bought a motion controller from the start. Hope it was a smart move :D

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This is why I didn't want to even try the PP-way.

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There are thousands of machines using the pp its just as hard to set up a motion controller the principles are the same

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Originally Posted by Clive S

There are thousands of machines using the pp its just as hard to set up a motion controller the principles are the same

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Yes, I know.
But with modern pc and add on hardware it's becoming harder and harder.
Just buying a card won't always work.
I only look at this from the Microsoft perspective and that's a bit narrow but that's the only way I feel inclined to go.
And when thinking that way you realise that soon there will even be problems getting your hands on 32bit OS supporting PP...

Of course if you have an older pc/system that works and works standalone without Internet and such it's awsome and don't justify an upgrade. But what happens when something breaks?

I do belive that an motion controller is as/maybe more difficult to set up but much easier to get a electrical connection between pc and cnc hardware.

Since I haven't actually tried both options I could be extremely wrong :D

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Problems my PSU stopped working (Possibly unrelated but one of my AM882 had a solid red light the other 3 flashing green, I wonder if this had something to do with it or if I have a bad AM882).

99% certain it can be traced to a short I caused at weekend when electrician set my ameter up wrong and I shorted across my PSU output never realised it'd done this damage.
Attachment 23164 They were plugged into the left connectors I just cut the wiring put new terminals and tried it in the terminals next door to see if I had gotten lucky but I hadn;t.

There was a pop/bang and spark from roughly where the capacitors are.

I've ordered 3 new capacitors and a new rectifier (Sure this is fine but £1 so just did it) and replacement barrier terminals.

What's the best way to test the transformers to make sure it's ok? I was thinking unplug the capacitors and then test the voltage going into the rectifier in AC mode to see what I'm getting and then test the output of the rectifier in DC mode to see if that's working does this sound like a plan?

Do you think I might have damaged my AM882's (I really hope not can't afford to replace this side of xmas)? And if I have a bad AM882 will be fun trying to sort with the Chinese (Bought 2nd hand) and will have to put a temp cheap driver to get going whilst I source a replacement.

I can afford to replace one Am882 but not 4.

How do I discharge the capacitors before I unsolder them to replace them and also how do I test which one(s) blown?

I just realised I have a picture of my AM882 that was always red and it was green last week!

Since I have AM882h could I not ditch the rectifier and capacitors altogether and just connect the output of the transformer (50v) to the drivers?

Ah man bad luck! Not sure about a Solid Red LED...... This is from the manual:

12. Protection Functions

To improve reliability, the drive incorporates some built-in protection functions. The AM882 uses
one RED LED to indicate what protection has been activated. The periodic time of RED is 5 s
(seconds), and how many times the RED turns on indicates what protection has been activated.
Because only one protection can be displayed by RED LED, so the drive will decide what error to
display according to their priorities. See the following Protection Indications table for displaying
priorities.

Over-current Protection

Over-current protection will be activated when continuous current exceeds the limit or in case of
short circuit between motor coils or between motor coil and ground, and RED LED will turn on once
within each periodic time (5 s).

Over-voltage Protection

When power supply voltage exceeds 90±1 VDC, protection will be activated and RED LED will
turn on twice within each periodic time (5 s).

Phase Error Protection

Motor power lines wrong & not connected will activate this protection. RED LED will turn on four
times within each periodic time (5 s).

Sensorless Stall Protection

The AM882 can detect the motor stall status using if motor shaft speed is above 300RPM. When the
detection is active, RED LED will blink five times within each periodic time (5s).
Attention: When above protections are active, the motor shaft will be free or the LED will blink.

Hope you dont have to replace it

One easy way to discharge a capacitor is to cross the two cap legs with a screwdriver that has an insulated handle, prior to do that you must remove the plug from the wall. Another way is to connect a consumption at the capacitor leads, like a resistance or even a light bulb, prefer the light bulbs with the wire inside no the neon light or led.
If you want to measure a capacitor and you do not have a capacitance meter, but you have a voltmeter,first disconnect at least one of the cap legs,then put the multi meter at resistance measurement place the leads of the meter on the leads of the capacitor and see the resistance measurement at the meter screen rise until it shows infinity , this gives you an idea that the cap is ok if ohms start to rise and then stop at a low indication the capacitor is grounded. Other way is to place a 9volt battery at the cap leads and then measure the voltage with your voltmeter, if the voltage drops rapidly this shows a bad cap.For

The pic shows a block with the red wires connected but to my eyes the black wires are not connected as one of them appears to be in the wrong connector.

shorting the output of the PS with an amp meter would probably wreck the meter.

I doubt you have blown the caps or the rectifier. If you want to discharge them put a small value resister across the caps temporally like 220 ohms or a mains light bulb across them.

put your meter on the AC range and check the voltage on the input and output of the transformer.

Have you checked the fuse on the input?

Lets see a good pic of the PS

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Originally Posted by AlexDoran

Ah man bad luck! Not sure about a Solid Red LED...... This is from the manual:

12. Protection Functions

To improve reliability, the drive incorporates some built-in protection functions. The AM882 uses
one RED LED to indicate what protection has been activated. The periodic time of RED is 5 s
(seconds), and how many times the RED turns on indicates what protection has been activated.
Because only one protection can be displayed by RED LED, so the drive will decide what error to
display according to their priorities. See the following Protection Indications table for displaying
priorities.

Over-current Protection

Over-current protection will be activated when continuous current exceeds the limit or in case of
short circuit between motor coils or between motor coil and ground, and RED LED will turn on once
within each periodic time (5 s).

Over-voltage Protection

When power supply voltage exceeds 90±1 VDC, protection will be activated and RED LED will
turn on twice within each periodic time (5 s).

Phase Error Protection

Motor power lines wrong & not connected will activate this protection. RED LED will turn on four
times within each periodic time (5 s).

Sensorless Stall Protection

The AM882 can detect the motor stall status using if motor shaft speed is above 300RPM. When the
detection is active, RED LED will blink five times within each periodic time (5s).
Attention: When above protections are active, the motor shaft will be free or the LED will blink.

Hope you dont have to replace it

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Yeah my flashing red lights were the nema phases wired wrong which was nice it told me, going to go back to test the drivers in a minute one by one, forgot I've got a 24v PSU which will power the AM882's up.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

The pic shows a block with the red wires connected but to my eyes the black wires are not connected as one of them appears to be in the wrong connector.

shorting the output of the PS with an amp meter would probably wreck the meter.

I doubt you have blown the caps or the rectifier. If you want to discharge them put a small value resister across the caps temporally like 220 ohms or a mains light bulb across them.

put your meter on the AC range and check the voltage on the input and output of the transformer.

Have you checked the fuse on the input?

Lets see a good pic of the PS

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I thought that too but i think its just an illusion lol

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

Yeah my flashing red lights were the nema phases wired wrong which was nice it told me, going to go back to test the drivers in a minute one by one, forgot I've got a 24v PSU which will power the AM882's up.

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Why don't you just fault find your main PS after all you will need it.

Right going back to check it out in a minute, will get some pics.

The probe on my meter was black and the spark was large it was only a £5 meter as well and still seems to work fine. I have the PSU wire to a junction box I tested the power at the junction box a steady 247 volts.

Not good, I pulled the PSU out tested the capacitors they read 45v I discharged them with a light bulb setup. Then tested unplugged the capacitors from the recitifer and turned it back on and tested the output of the transformer diddly squat. There's 240v going in but nothing coming out.

I tripled checked the soldering whilst not neat there's no shorts and it's all on very tightly no possibility of loose connection.

Tomorrow I will test each coil individually but I have no hope.

My AM882's turned on with the 24v but one of them is still permanently red led so I think that will need replacing.

It's just a disaster!

I was looking forward to it moving tomorrow now at best I can get the PC to talk to the machine and move the gantry and the Z axis on 24v only, one at a time.

Attachment 23165

Not sure why it went bang which puts me off buying another one and if it had anything to do with malfunctioning AM882.

The only way I'm going to get this cutting before January is if I buy a cheap stepper driver to replace the AM882 for now no way I can afford both the AM882 and transformer before Xmas.

Can't see there being much warranty on the transformer and looking at the listing for the AM882 I might as well forget it.

I did have the wires going to the output on terminals but cut them off just make sure was good connection hence the bare wires going in now.

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Not good, I pulled the PSU out tested the capacitors they read 45v I discharged them with a light bulb setup. Then tested unplugged the capacitors from the recitifer and turned it back on and tested the output of the transformer diddly squat. There's 240v going in but nothing coming out.

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Well that shows the caps are OK.
Now check to see if you have continuity between each winding pair on the transformer after you have disconnected it fro the rectifier
I doubt the AM882 has blown the transformer. Did you have it working at one time or is this the first time you powered it up

Hi, right I have continuity on only 3 of the 4 coils one of the primaries has no continuity I assume this means thhe thermal fuse blew and I'm pretty screwed. Going to get another multimeter to test it with to be sure but not looking good.