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Blackbox for quenbe upgrade

Discussion in 'Controller Boards' started by JCCD, Dec 21, 2020.

  1. JCCD

    JCCD New
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    Thanks in advance to all here for even reading this, and hopefully pitching in.

    Bottom line:
    Main question: What would it take to make the OpenBuilds BlackBox work with the higher gantry and screw drives after upgrading a belt drive WorkBee 1510 to a quenbe with lead screw drive?

    Nuance: Is the quenbe Pro actually the most effective and economical way to:
    • convert a belt drive to screw
    • convert to linear bearings
    • Raise the Z
    Long story:
    I just took delivery of my first CNC this week (WorkBee 1510). I shopped for a month, and in my ignorance was more focused on the 40x60 size, and a fast delivery time than on the drive mechanism. But now that I just finished assembly, it's absolutely clear that neither the Z height, nor the belt drive, are going to be adequate for what my business needs to do with this machine.

    As fate would have it, the cable for the Y limit switch go pulled tight to the track while finishing up the cable runs and zip tying, and I didn't catch it in time. So when I started the controller up and tested the travel, moving forward on the Y axis ran over the cable, pulled the wires out, and shorted the system.

    After re-terminating ALL the wires, and trying to re-connect the controller, troubleshooting eventually ended with not being able to flash, and it looks like the board was damaged beyond use.

    So If I have to replace the controller, and I know the machine is going to be converted to lead screw with a higher gantry, is simply replacing the BlackBox the right thing to do, or would that be throwing good money after bad if I will wind up needing a different controller anyway?

    Thanks again for any input here, and best wishes for your holidays.
     

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  2. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Updating some grbl settings:
    steps per mm: gnea/grbl
    max travel: gnea/grbl
    acceleration: gnea/grbl

    BlackBox is fine for your plans :) just add some strain relief to your wiring (; to prevent future mishaps
     
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  3. JCCD

    JCCD New
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    Thanks, Peter. Confirmation much appreciated :) I ordered a new bb.
    and yeah... I've adjusted and will likely be securing the terminals.

    It does prompt the question though, is there a way to make the box less delicate to shorts? Either through hardware or firmware?

    I found a couple threads that indicate I'm definitely not the first person to lose my controller on day one, and it seems like it was awfully easy to break doing something that may happen again through normal use.
     
  4. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    1) never do wiring with power on
    And 2) as we discover users making mistakes we didnt think of, improvements gets worked into future versions.

    That particular failure mode of shorting v+ to GND is quite hard to do, usually involves some unplanned major accident :)

    BlackBox is a lot more bulletproof than most of its competitors already, but sadly one can never 100% bulletproof something like this
     
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  5. ljvb

    ljvb Well-Known
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    Chalk it up to Sh** happens.. to all of us at some point.. I fried the y limit switch pin on the Xpro V4 last week or so. And my replacement board, I went with a custom board to try for the fun of it, and for 1 dead stepper driver out of 4, Amazon is sending new ones... The last two weeks for me have essentially been a Greek tragedy's worth of failures.

    Even the best designed electronics will be prone to failure for whatever reason, in my case I suspect static discharge over the limit switch wires..
     
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