Messages

91

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need longer cords on mouse & keyboard.

« on: July 03, 2011, 12:39:59 AM »

Thanks guys,

I'll check into the extension cords for the USB  & see if I can just replace the keyboard one  with an extension cord.

JAckal

92

General Mach Discussion / Need longer cords on mouse & keyboard.

« on: July 02, 2011, 01:35:53 PM »

I'm sure others have had this problem.

There are extension cords available, but what are you guys using?

My mouse is  6.5 feet  (around 2 meters). The keyboard is a little shorter.

One that is 10 feet  (about 3 meters ) would be ideal. The extension cords give you another connection that can become loose, corroded,etc.

Has anyone bought one of those extension cords and used it to replace the factory cord on a mouse or keyboard?

Is there any reason why  this couldn't be done?

Don't want wireless either.

Thanks,

JAckal

93

General Mach Discussion / Re: Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 18, 2011, 06:37:38 PM »

Thanks guys, for all of the good info.
It seems that when it  gets to the interesting/fun part of wiring, I am covered up in work.  

But, that is good. Without work, I wouldn't need this machine or have a way to pay for it.

JAckal

94

General Mach Discussion / Re: Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 16, 2011, 06:30:35 PM »

For power I was talking about the 80 vdc from the Geckos to the servos.

Here is a diagram to explain it better. Sometimes I have a hard time describing something when I don't know the correct terminology.




My Hurco had it all crammed into a plastic flex loom. The only metal conduit was where chips could get to the limit switches.


JAckal

95

General Mach Discussion / Re: Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 16, 2011, 05:34:58 PM »

Something else. I have a lot of this metal flex conduit.

Would it be  better to put the encoder, power, and limit switch wires  in separate conduit?

X= limit, power, + encoder (3) flexible conduits

Y= limit, power, + encoder (3) flexible conduits

Z= limit, power, + encoder (3) flexible conduits

The conduit is  3/8"  ( 10 mm) dia., so it wouldn't be a big messy hassle.

If it is a waste of effort, tell me that, too.

Thanks,
JAckal

96

General Mach Discussion / Re: Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 14, 2011, 09:07:30 AM »

Guys,

 I appreciate  all the   views & opinions. By you sharing your opposing  situations & remedies, it teaches me to think, instead of you just solving my problems.

Thanks  for all the different aspects  & theories.

Keep the info coming.

JAckal

97

General Mach Discussion / Re: Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 13, 2011, 04:24:55 PM »

Thanks guys for the good info. I saved copies of the PDF files on wiring. That will be some very good reading.

According to the PMDX manual about not connecting different grounds & commons to the PC or B_O_B, it was confusing about where to ground the shielding.
I didn't want to create a ground loop or ruin my opto-isolation of the B_O_B.

More info is always welcome.


Thanks,
JAckal

98

General Mach Discussion / Questions about wiring this up

« on: June 13, 2011, 01:38:39 PM »

The  critical wiring has started.

Encoders, servos,limit switches.

1) Is it ok to run shielded wire from the Gecko drives to the servo motors for the power? If so, should the shielding be grounded at the Gecko end?




2) Will regular wiring be ok from the bridge rectifier  to the Geckos?  I have them twisted in pairs to maybe cut down on noise or (EMF?). They are close to each other.


 


3)When putting the  power wires and encoder wires in separate conduit. Is it ok to use metal flex conduit that isn't fluid sealed?


4) My encoders are  the AMT-102 type  from Digi-ikey.  http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?vendor=0&keywords=AMT102-V

What setting should I use for starting out? Here are the switch settings and different resolutions. http://products.cui.com/CUI_AMT102-V_Dip_Switch_Settings.pdf?fileID=3816

Everyone says to use differential encoders for less noise. This particular encoder doesn't have A, A-, B, B-, etc. But, this is the encoder that Mariss Fremanis  recommended for the Geckos.


5) On grounding the shielding for all of these shielded wires: They have  a pigtail soldered to the shielding at the end connected to the motherboard or breakout board. Should all of these be daisy chained together and then  grounded   to  the cabinet?

Sorry for all of the questions in one post. These are some things that i have been unsure about. After searching and reading  didn't clear this up, I asked here.

With these answers I'll fell more confident and a lot of other things will make more sense.

Thanks a lot,
JAckal

99

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cooling control panel & monitor venting.

« on: June 12, 2011, 02:02:41 PM »

Br549,

That is what the factory cooling is. There is a 110 volt fan blowing in from the cabinet door ( it blows directly on my gecko drives). There is a box on the outside with a pleated filter in it to clean the incoming air.

At the top is a screen with a louver on it to direct the air down and keep other stuff out of it.

I have a small squirrel cage fan ( bathroom exhaust), that I am wanting to mount on the door for a powered exhaust at the top.

There are about (3) PC fans inside to help move the air across certain things.

I will post some pics of it to make it easier to understand.

Around here heat kills a lot of electronics.

JAckal

100

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cooling control panel & monitor venting.

« on: June 12, 2011, 10:03:48 AM »

My concern was  running it during the day, and after shutting it off,  the moisture setting in ( condensation).

In my area we have electrical outages about 2 or 3 times a day. It is only for 10 seconds to sometimes 10 minutes. So I wouldn't trust leaving just the cooling unit on.

Probably I will run a large filtered fan on the cabinet, and a couple of filtered ones on the monitor panel.


Amazon.com has those Peltier chips fairly cheap. I could take a couple of them and use heat sinks with them in a squirrel cage fan, and have a small portable air conditioner for me.

JAckal