Got everything Up and running tonight!! works fantastically! will take some pictures in the morning when its actually cleaned up. Will give numbers on max velocity I can achieve without whipping for those who had asked.

 

You're build sure looks to be coming together nicely!! Great job, looking forward to seeing yours finished.

 

Nice enclosure design. Did you design this yourself or is this a standard solution?

 

It's fine to ground all of these (AC/DC) at the same ground block. Sometimes you will see a DC "floating" ground but most of the time this is even grounded to the chassis defeating its purpose As I've seen on industrial machinery. Just be sure that all your plugs/cables are grounded on the chassis side!! Just be sure that AC and DC wires to not run parallel to each other as it will cause interference.

 

I would say a resounding NO to this. Never connect AC and DC ground together! This will just couple all the noise in your AC circuit into the Arduino and stepper drivers, as well as the other way around.

I was an Instrumentation designer for 30+ years and I always strived to keep DC circuitry grounds separate from AC. In some cases it works better, but in the vast majority they should be kept separate. Modern computers connect digital ground to chassis, but only at one point and only for EMI compliance. If you really must connect them, run a .1-1uF cap between DC and AC ground, so you have an AC path for noise but not DC.

https://openbuilds.com/members/sharmstr.107720/, your list looks good, but all shields should be connected to AC ground, and wires must have a shield connection on only one end, never connect a shield wire at both ends. Current must not be allowed to flow through the shield.

MG

 

Never had a single issue with AC/DC common noise in 680/24VDC grounds or 480/220/120VAC being grounded to the same chassis. Environments with dozens of 75+HP drives, encoders, devicenet, Datahighway, ethernet, and none have noise issues with proper shielding and cable routes. I then connected the enclosure to Earth ground for safety purposes. Coming from an industrial setting as a Installations Engineer with a corrugator manufacturer. Just my 2 cents, This topic has always been controversial with many perspectives and my CNC has 0 issues with nuisance trips.

 

Too easy to get ground loops by connecting DC ground and chassis ground. Chassis ground is, as you mentioned, only for safety and should never have any current flowing through it unless there is a fault.

Most stepper drivers are optically isolated from the power supply, and keep the motion controller and USB isolated from the noisy steppers and protective earth. Connecting the power supply - terminal to chassis ground can bypass this optical isolation and can destroy equipment, cause noise problems, and unexplained faults. In addition, in the unlikely event of an AC power fault or short to ground, you can have full AC line voltage present on the protective ground, which, as you can imagine, would not be good for your stepper system, computer, etc. Notice how your Laptop has no protective ground lead?

Just because it hasn't happened yet does not mean it won't. Better to just not do it.

MG

 

Hi Shawn, very nice build, but what I'm really, really envious about is that workshop!
Alex.

 

I could try to fill that space (too many hobbies)
Alex

 

Great job Shawn, and good to hear that you have automated the spindle on/off, doesn't sound not much of a benefit, but as you say it does make a big difference in practice - it's a no brainer for what it costs Geoff

 

Hello Jacob. Hey. So I clicked on the link for the linear rail setup you got. Well nobody had it. Not is it listed anymore on eBay. Could you tell me what model is this set up is. Etc. thank yuh.

 

You have the link to the one on amazin

 

Does not show any specs. Like how wide the trolley is. Yea shows how long it is. 60cm. But that not enough. Plus it does not show the actually model # for the setup.

 

I've always watched every single one of Matthias' blower videos! They're so good (and I'm amazed at the balancing he gets with wood).

Linear rail is all standard sizes per the Hiwin/THK/Thomson specs, you can just type in the model number (MGN12, HGR15, etc) and six thousand versions of the same table will come up in Google Images, mostly from Aliexpress. Only difference in the carriages is standard block vs wide flange. The rails can be different in terms of vertical vs horizontal mounting, but I believe all of the cheap Chinese stuff is omnidirectional.

Edit: Loving the machine and its updates, Shawn- this is the first time I'm actually reading through it properly! Big fan of that folding/telescopic control console too, I need to come up with something similar. Unlike certain people with giant warehouses, I have absolutely nowhere to put the control for M4, so I'm pondering it a lot.

 

Probably sensible. Hard to justify the costs of an oversized place, even when you own it outright, I'd imagine. I'd like to have somewhere in the 10,000sqft region at some point, though.

I'm seriously considering building a legit console, possibly even getting a box and pan brake for it, and putting it on a swivel arm, the whole deal. Fabbing something isn't much of an issue, it's a question of whether it can mount well enough to actually function and also stay out of the tiny pathway between the M4 bench and the hydraulic press to my back corner bench and shelving unit.

Speaking of jog, is the ShuttleXPress still working for it? How is that? I've never had one, they seem to have a free-spinning dial and possibly a sprung two-way analog wheel? I see code for it pop up in HAL when I use the PncConf wizard for Mesa hardware, and I'm wondering if it would translate to a gamepad analog stick proportional jog for @Batcrave, but I have no clue what they even really are.