Tiddy CNC.

[TonyD]

OK, I've just about finished the control system version 2.0. As Andy and others said what I had may have worked in so far as it drove motors but it was not safe, had no estop chain and had other material weaknesses. Thanks to AudioAndy, Jazz, Adil and others who helped me on the Electrical. For the sake of anyone who reads the above with the same issues, I'm going to answer my own questions based on what I've learnt so far, then to the next phase, the mechanicals... :)

1. No the neon should be in parallel with the live and neutral of the mains inbound, the way it was configured to start with the neon would only light upon a general closed circuit in the rest of the control box. The purpose of the neon is to show a live mains so in parallel to the socket pins works best for this.

2. Didn’t need to be this big, 15A will suffice. Also I discovered these in various sizes and current ratings and they helped move power and signal around the control enclosure. CamdenBoss Terminal Strip (Male+Female) 8mm 12 Way 6A3. Ditched fuses in the end and went for DIN Rail based circuit breakers on the advice of forum members, less fiddly, more robust. The wire was OK but having terminated using the spades I ended up stripping the ends and creating a neat soldered end due to several instances where wires worked loose.

4. Didn’t need to, I just used normal 22AWG wire but as the runs were so short, (4 inches) there was no need for the shroud. Also there are only actually 3 signal wires needed for each stepper driver.

5. Did that but few components needed it.

6. Did that, made sure I earthed the shielding from the motor power wires to it.

6a. Used epoxy to create small junction boxes on each motor to tidy the wiring and create a robust connector to make assembly and maintenance easier.

7. Earth configured as described. However used the pilz and safety contactor to also switch power to the VFD via the control box, added a separate mains in on the control box to facilitate this.

8. Seems to be the case but have not go there yet.

9. Jazz and AudioAndy stepped in a helped with a pilz relay and very detailed instructions on creating the safety circuitry as well as phone conversations to assist - thanks guys.

Other lessons learnt so far....

A) I wasn’t happy with the 752 and AM882mix so I swapped the 752 for another AM882 so that all four motors are matched with the same drivers and for the same reason swapped the PS408 out for another PS806 so that there are now two of those. Thanks to Gary at Zapp. PS806-5 Linear power supply.

B) Enclosure. I found them expensive and bought my first one based upon the design of the controls before the significant change to DIN rail, circuit breakers and the safety circuitry. As a result the enclosure was way too small to contain the components neatly, rather than waste the money spent on the original box I just used the lid to support the stepper drivers, BOB and smooth stepper, it actually made the wiring runs for these components small and relatively neat.

C) Heat. Slightly concerned the enclosure may get hot so I've added some small fans, they are only 5v DC though and in use not surprisingly producing a small airflow. If I do detect heat build-up as I progress, I'll swap them out for mains powered fans.

D) Smooth stepper. From reading various comments about the use of a smooth stepper I realise that it’s not a generally popular choice. For me though it brought one large advantage in that it allows Mach3 to run on my Windows 7 64bit OS. I didn’t want to install a separate 32 but partition or run something like Mach from within a virtual machine so it solved a constraint for me. In time I may see what other benefits the board (Purelogic PLCM E3) can bring.

I'll attach some pictures of the electrical journey so far later.

[JAZZCNC]

D) Smooth stepper. From reading various comments about the use of a smooth stepper I realise that it’s not a generally popular choice. For me though it brought one large advantage in that it allows Mach3 to run on my Windows 7 64bit OS. I didn’t want to install a separate 32 but partition or run something like Mach from within a virtual machine so it solved a constraint for me. In time I may see what other benefits the board (Purelogic PLCM E3) can bring.

Tony SS is mostly not popular because folks are tight arse's.!! Those that have them generally love them and see better or more stable performance.

If yours is the USB version then power from separate 5v supply and you won't have any troubles. If you use USB power it can and will lockup at times.!

Regards the PLCM E3 then I have one and other than ethernet then there is very little difference, it allows ever so slightly higher tuning but nothing i'd swap the USB SS for. Ence why SS still runs my main machine.!