I have an original Kickstarter Handibot that never got much use. Keeping a Windows laptop just to run it was a bit annoying, and they never did release Linux code. So, years later now, I decided to resurrect it. The chassis on these are quite rigid, and the internal parts quality is all good, especially for a small machine, Nema 23 high-torque steppers, Dewalt 611 spindle, relay for the spindle power, etc. Took the front and side panels off to get it clean, and the rear cover, to remove the original controller. The original power supply is 24V, and in good shape. Other than the fact that the BlackBox will not fit inside the chassis, this all looks like it's going to be pretty straightforward.
So, finally got around to doing the conversion. Overall, It was pretty easy. The Steppers are a bit of oddballs. X & Y: Haydon K57M4Y-05-019, Z: Haydon K57M4Y-05-021. It took some trial and error to get the steps/mm, and I may still be off by a very small fraction of a mm for every 100mm. Hardware Issues: BlackBox does not fit inside the original electronics bay, it's about 2mm too wide. Not really that big a deal, just had to run the wiring externally. I used the holes where the original big on and off buttons were to run the wires. And I tapped the cover to accept the 5mm screws that came with the BlackBox. The Z and Y stepper motor wires had been extended, changing the color codes. Had to cut open some shrink tubing at the join to see what they did. Brown = Red, White = Red/White stripe, Green = Green, Yellow = Green/White stripe. The X-axis stepper wires had not been extended, and would not reach, so I had to add an extension. The Spindle is hooked up to a 24v relay. So I used the "coolant" connections to control the relay. Then added M8/M9 to the start/stop in the gcode generator. Yeah, I could have replaced the relay with a 5v one, but, why bother? OpenBuilds Control Configs: X,Y & Z: 126 steps/mm. Max Travel: X: 164mm, Y: 205mm, Z: 80mm Step Direction Inverted for X & Y The rest is pretty much defaults. I ran a fast-down-and-dirty cut of a 50mmx100m rectangle, and everything worked. Mostly, I intend to use the Handibot for various small jobs that are not suited for my diode laser engraver.
What I meant is that I would have had to replace the relay with a 5v one if I wished to use the regular tool control connection.
Ahh ok, but also not directly (just making sure to avoid future damage). The toolhead output is just 5v 10mA logic signal, cannot drive a relay coil directly (and will damage the pin). If you do someday approach that - you'd need to switch a mosfet from the Toolhead output, and let the mosfet switch the relay coil. Just mentioning it, you probably know, but to prevent damage to the Blackbox
Yeah, I kinda suspected it was not straightforward. Triggering the existing relay from the 24v coolant connection is working just fine once I added M8/M9 to the tool start/stop scripts.
