New start

[Nr1madman]

Help, advice, opinions wanted! :)

As Ive said before I'm planning on following euricains schematic for the controlcab.

The physical planning is not as well thought out :D

See quick sketch of lay out


Having the pc to the side like that.. good idea?
Can I mount just the base plate of the pc motherboard or is it a better idea to use entire pc chassis?
If it's okey with only baseplate will I need to get some kind of shielded mesh around the pc? Connected to star earth?

Same question about vfd? Okey to just have it there or does it need shielding?

All cables leaving the cab is cy..

The mains input will have two braces.
One with emi filter to vfd and one to all the psu:s
Thinking about dropping the 5v psu and use 5v from pc psu (raised this thought before)

The reason that I want to have everything clustered together is neatness and space saving. Also if I can avoid shielding and pc chassis I can have more centralised cooling and don't have to do separate cooling for pc..

Everything will be mounted on a steel backplate with metal sides (star earth connected)but maybe acrylic lid/front/door.. okey to do this?

[Desertboy]

Help, advice, opinions wanted! :)

As Ive said before I'm planning on following euricains schematic for the controlcab.

The physical planning is not as well thought out :D

See quick sketch of lay out


Having the pc to the side like that.. good idea?
Can I mount just the base plate of the pc motherboard or is it a better idea to use entire pc chassis?
If it's okey with only baseplate will I need to get some kind of shielded mesh around the pc? Connected to star earth?

Same question about vfd? Okey to just have it there or does it need shielding?

All cables leaving the cab is cy..

The mains input will have two braces.
One with emi filter to vfd and one to all the psu:s
Thinking about dropping the 5v psu and use 5v from pc psu (raised this thought before)

The reason that I want to have everything clustered together is neatness and space saving. Also if I can avoid shielding and pc chassis I can have more centralised cooling and don't have to do separate cooling for pc..

Everything will be mounted on a steel backplate with metal sides (star earth connected)but maybe acrylic lid/front/door.. okey to do this?

I considered mounting motherboard in the controller box but decided against if I ever need to replace the PC it's going to be a lot of hassle so went with a seperate exterior solution.

[Nr1madman]

Well.. I'm thinking that if I have pc baseplate and psu I can always change motherboard if I find that the pc is not up for it :)

[JAZZCNC]

I've seen a number of cases here where inductive/proximity switches are mounted to detect when an axis moves tangentially to the sensing face. In all the manufactures data that I've seen the advice is to mount the sensor such that the detected face is presented axially to the sensor. I'm guessing one issue with mounting the sensor tangentially is that it's clearly immune to damage due to crashing the axis into the sensor, but are there any negatives? (repeatability would be the one that springs to mind)

Never been problem for me and I've fitted 100's. Repeatabilty is very good even with cheap prox switches. However I would say must use Steel for target and keep distance short for best results.

[JAZZCNC]

Help, advice, opinions wanted! :)

As Ive said before I'm planning on following euricains schematic for the controlcab.

The physical planning is not as well thought out :D


Having the pc to the side like that.. good idea?
Can I mount just the base plate of the pc motherboard or is it a better idea to use entire pc chassis?
If it's okey with only baseplate will I need to get some kind of shielded mesh around the pc? Connected to star earth?

Same question about vfd? Okey to just have it there or does it need shielding?

All cables leaving the cab is cy..

The mains input will have two braces.
One with emi filter to vfd and one to all the psu:s
Thinking about dropping the 5v psu and use 5v from pc psu (raised this thought before)

The reason that I want to have everything clustered together is neatness and space saving. Also if I can avoid shielding and pc chassis I can have more centralised cooling and don't have to do separate cooling for pc..

Everything will be mounted on a steel backplate with metal sides (star earth connected)but maybe acrylic lid/front/door.. okey to do this?

Wouldn't have the VFD so close to the drives. I'd move all the Power in to same location as VFD and separate the BOB/Controller/Drives far away as possible.
Not fan of PC in the case because it's creating heat which kills drives etc but if you must then you really need think seriously about heat extraction.

To be honest unless you have exact dimensions then sketch like this never gives true picture so your better getting all the components together and lay them out on table and you'll quickly see best layout. Often it's little details like wire routing etc that lead you to best layout, you also soon see that you don't much space as you think you've got.!!

[Clive S]

Well.. I'm thinking that if I have pc baseplate and psu I can always change motherboard if I find that the pc is not up for it :)

I would get all your bits together first and then lay them out, you will be surprised at the amount of space you need.
Pic of one of my control boxes. This one power the lathe and mill with mpg's etc

[Nr1madman]

Wouldn't have the VFD so close to the drives. I'd move all the Power in to same location as VFD and separate the BOB/Controller/Drives far away as possible.
Not fan of PC in the case because it's creating heat which kills drives etc but if you must then you really need think seriously about heat extraction.

To be honest unless you have exact dimensions then sketch like this never gives true picture so your better getting all the components together and lay them out on table and you'll quickly see best layout. Often it's little details like wire routing etc that lead you to best layout, you also soon see that you don't much space as you think you've got.!!

Cheers Jazz!
I have exact dimensions and have laid all the parts out. Can't take a pic right now because of sick kids. Wife will kill me if I make a venture to the shed :D
The box is 100x50x20cm.. It seemed roomy even with trunking and din rail and everything :)

[Nr1madman]

I would get all your bits together first and then lay them out, you will be surprised at the amount of space you need.
Pic of one of my control boxes. This one power the lathe and mill with mpg's etc

Haha !
Clive it looks like you might have one cable to many in there!! Just kidding :)
How big are those? 60x60?

[Clive S]

Haha !
Clive it looks like you might have one cable to many in there!! Just kidding :)
How big are those? 60x60?

No 50x50x20. I got carried away it was just for the mill at first then I added another two drives for the lathe etc etc. the pc is on the door with the monitor on the other side.

[Nr1madman]

Just for the thought..

If I were to mount the vfd outside of the cab..
Separate mains connection with emi filter and still cy for the spindle..
How and what should I route between vfd and Bob? Cy? What I'm planning on using is software controlled start/stop and speed. So I'm guessing 4 core should do it?