Thanks. Look what just finished growing up!



Now. On to the joining ceremony.

 

Today I did a quick stress test of the machine for run time. And accuracy. For carving a board game. Making Settlers of Catan. I’ve been running for 6+ hours now. And all is working great. Spindle is running around 94 degrees and holding steady there. The spindle has been running at 24k RPM’s the whole time.



All’s working great! And. As for noise. 82.4 DB while running with the vacuum. So relatively quiet considering what’s running. (Daughter is an audiologist, so that’s an important thing to her!)

I’m cutting with an 1/8” ball nose bit, so lots of cutting to get the carving done.

 

Just moved the vacuum out of the work area. To the garage stairs, and the sound level dropped to about 76db. Can still hear the vacuum but much quieter. Sitting in the next room, can barely hear the machine. I’m going to really like this as I learn. And the learning is just starting.

 

Ok.. So I am at a loss today.. I shut the system down completely yesterday after finishing up some minor cuts. Today, I turned everything back on, and the Blackbox is not booting correctly. I normally see the USB light on the controller flashing away, but not today. I have double checked all the wiring, and dont see anything out of place.

This is what I am getting on the system when I try to connect.. One thing that did happen was the Openbuilds Controller updated to the latest version today.. So I wonder if that is the cause..



I read a thread that had this exact same error, and they thought it was a EPROM corruption in the data for GRBL, and to use the $RST=* to reset the settings to default, but HOW can I do this, if the system will not boot and allow me to connect? Seems that I will be doing some digging tonight, as I wanted to do some cutting tonight..

 

While waiting on a replacment BB Brains board, I decided to build an Arduino setup. I will build this as a backup to the BB system, and use external TB6600 Steppers Drivers. I will build this as a direct Plug and Play replacment of the BB, so I will be adding the 3.81mm Connectors to directly plug the wires from everything into the new control box. I will also be trying to increase the DC from 24V to 36V and see if the steppers become more reliable for higher speed moves. Might as well play, while I cant do anything else..

If any of you are from the West coast, your will understand this next comment..

A trip to Frys is in my near future! (Luckily, there is one here in Illinois about 15 mins from my house. Unluckily, its only 15 mins from my house.)

 

I will look at those. I was say the the tb6600’s because. I have them here already.

Any recommendations on what other parts I should do? As you can see, I’ll buy the better parts to get better results. But being a newbie. Im still learning.

At the end of the day, I want to be able to use this for limited production parts for my company, thin aluminum parts for computer cabinet assembly.
Thanks!

 

Umm.. I dont know what your talking about.. This project started as a straight LEAD 1510, converted to a 1515, changed to include Linear Rails, upgraded the spindle, .....

Sorry.. I don't know what you mean by your comments.. I have been looking at closed loop motors, but that comes later.

I just want to make sure that if there is a problem, like I have now with the Blackbox, it doesn't keep me from working on the machine.. Have a redundant system of some type, for now.

 

New brain board installed. Now I’m not getting the steppers to lock in place when not in motion. Time to dig some more but seems the enable is not being set.

on the old board, when I powered on, you could hear the steppers lock in place. I’ll look in the morning.

 

Problem solved. Looks like a GRBL setting got changed when I did the reconfiguration of the new board. Peter Van Der Walt to the rescue!

I will post some pictures and videos when I run the next job. Probably tomorrow. Need to make a game board for a Christmas present. I think it will take like 7.5-8 hrs of machine time to make it with all the 3D carving.

 

Just got home. Setup machine. Home it, mounted the board to it and sent the drill code to it to create the screw down holes, and now my y/a axis is missing steps... time to investigate this a bit more. Something had to change in the GRBL setting between the old to the new and I’ll figure it out in the morning.

—Edit—

Started playing with GRBL settings, and I think I see a difference. Seems the default acceleration was increased to 350mm/sec from something slower. I think it was 250 in the old OB Controller settings, but I didn’t backup my setting before it died so my bad. Slowed the acceleration down to 200mm/sec and all seems to be better for now, but I’m going to have to play a bit before I trust starting a 8 hr job and going to bed. So tomorrow it is.

 

So, Sanity check. I ordered today:

1 Meanwell RSP-500-48 Power Supply (Y/A Axis Power Supply.)
1 Meanwell LRS-350-48 Power Supply (X/Z Axis Power Supply)
1 9V DC Power Supply fot the Arduino
1 Eaton 30A 220V Contactor W 110V coil (Ill use one leg of the 220 to power the coil and the LED of the switch)
1 Eaton 30A 220V Breaker
1 Power Switch with LED Back Light.
5 DM542T Stepping Drivers (4 for use, 1 for spare)
Misc Fork Spade connectors and Ferrule connectors for wires
Various 16/18AWG Wires for connections
Terminal Blocks for Wire Connections
PWM to 0-10V Converter. (For Spindle Speed Control)
GX16-4 Wire Connectors
GX16-3 Wire Connectors
GX16-2 Wire Connectors
DIN Rail to mount everything

I have both a Arduino Uno and Mega with Screw Terminal breakout modules and enclosures.. If I can get the Mega working with 4/5/6 axis, I want to add a rotating axis for Lathe spindle. I think this is everything I need for a complete controller setup. I think this takes care of everything... Am I missing anything?

 

I have a 2.2kw water cooled spindle. This will be good enough for now. And when I get to more involved projects for work, maybe I’ll get a different one. But for now this will work just fine.

as for a Mesa card. I’m trying to make it completely self enclosed, and will have a micro PC in the control box as well. I have a very special micro that doesn’t have a home, and will work great for this.

 

They have expansion slots. They are PCIe. But there is no way to get a real card in it other then the manufacturers cards. This will take a card about half as long and about 30% as high as a normal card. It has usb-c on it, so I could get an external PCIe enclosure and do it that way. But then it defeats the micro PC.

I have the arduino’s already, so I’ll start with that and if later want to move to something else, I already have the rest, so not a big deal.

but. Looking. They have an Ethernet version. That would work. So now. Do I do this or just wait. I’ll wait.

 

I am using a kit 2.2kw spindle. It is a Chinese spindle, but it works. And yes, it is controlled through GRBL. It’s water cooled with air assist. And it’s all controlled through GRBL using IoT outlets for the water pump, compressor, and the dust collector. I’m using the coolant relay to turn multiple IoT outlets on and off being fed from different circuits. So, start of all g-code turns on the coolant, then the spindle to the speed needed, waits 8 seconds, and proceeds.

One thing I will be adding shortly is a flow monitor on the cool and and hook it to the door sensor to pause everything and turn off the spindle in case of coolant flow problems.

Thats the next thing to add, after I build the new controller this week. Everything should be here by Thursday for that.