Messages

221

General Mach Discussion / Re: CharlyRobot

« on: October 16, 2006, 11:58:46 AM »

Bojan,

I replied to your email that you sent me the pdf.  ,  The first step is to list the ic part numbers, I cannot read them on the schematic, they are unreadable.  I will look at them and see if you can directly drive the circuits, or if you will have to do a complete retrofit.

222

General Mach Discussion / Re: There is a God!!!!!Keygrabber Axis Gain question

« on: October 13, 2006, 11:54:01 AM »

I am interested in your setup, I have used a gamepad with some success but not as well are you seem to be doing. 

Can you post your *.grab file, it is were keygrabber saves your settings.

Thanks Arnie

223

General Mach Discussion / Re: CharlyRobot

« on: October 12, 2006, 01:19:40 PM »

send me the pdf to aminear@bepc.com

224

General Mach Discussion / Re: CharlyRobot

« on: October 12, 2006, 12:41:14 PM »

That is not good news, the com port is a serial port.  Mach3 is designed to control the parallel port.

I have converted a couple of other machines that were formerly com port driven.  One was a D&M cnc lathe, all it required was a little rewiring and some filter caps on the driver boards to get rid of noise, and a lot of research,  the driver boards were an obsolete ic that had no data sheets to be found on the web, it was all ttl logic though.  The other was a cnc router, forgot the mfg, it required a couple of Gecko servo drives for the x & y, a stepper drive for the new stepper on the z, and interface boards.  The old controls were a ISA control board in an old AT machine that was long lost, and a DOS based programming software.

First glance yours could be converted,  you are probably talking around $500 or less in parts, for driver boards and interface.

If you machine has a mfg web site post a link here and your full model number and I will take a look for you.

Arnie

225

General Mach Discussion / Re: CharlyRobot

« on: October 12, 2006, 12:17:27 PM »

I presume it is hooked up to your computer?

Take some photos of the computer and the plug it uses on the computer.

If it is the parallel port, you may be in luck.  If not you may have your work cutout for you, it may be more extensive and expensive.

Arnie

226

VB and the development of wizards / some new extra turn wizards

« on: October 12, 2006, 11:22:39 AM »

I was wanting to make some novelty items (chess pawns & an ornament stand) on my lathe and needed to turn a taper up to a flat face,  I studied the work done by Brian and Kiran and came up with these.  Use with extreme caution, I haven't tested these very well.  Practice on wood, plastic or air first!

They are also useful if you just want to do a taper and don't know the angle, just the start and stop on x & z.

227

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Arn's minimill cnc compact version

« on: September 28, 2006, 05:34:11 PM »

Fig,

Yours looks a lot like mine, I must of gotten an idea or two from you.  Mine is a two piece construction also, the bearing holder is machined down to allow plenty of clearance for the y travel,  it is a little larger diameter so I have room to attach my motor mounting plate which also holds the bearings in place.  I haven't tried the split nut idea yet,  I am giving it some thought though. 

228

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Arn's minimill cnc compact version

« on: September 28, 2006, 04:56:22 PM »

Fignoggle,

Thanks for the reply,  yes I did make a y-axis bearing block,  I went kinda cheap with it though.  I just used 2 ball bearings and preloaded them to each other by shimming between the outer race.  This didn't leave much room on the stock leadscrew, just enough to get the pulley mounted.  Next time I take it apart to adjust or tune things I will take some pictures incase someone wants to do something like it.

Arn

229

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Arn's minimill cnc compact version

« on: August 28, 2006, 10:54:15 AM »

Glen,

Thanks for the feedback,  I am using 270 oz motors, the belt drive hidden under the cover is a one to one ( no reduction on the x & y)  the Z which is a 5 turn/inch ball screw is belt driven with about a 2 to 1 reduction on the belt pulleys. 

Arn

230

General Mach Discussion / spindle calibration help

« on: November 08, 2005, 01:13:55 PM »

Anyone have any experience with spindle calibration.  I am using the PWM mode to fire a mosfet that charges a capacitor and feeds a voltage to my Sieg 7X12 mini lathe.  I know that my voltage to PWM signal is probably non-linear and thought the spindle calibration would change the gain for the output of the PWM signal.  When I run the auto calibration it goes through it completely and finishes but the graph and operation of it looks erratic, the graph of control output and speed moves even though the speed is not changing and the control output is not changing either until the last few minutes, at that time the graph is pegged out and the control signal changes so fast the motor accelleration never catches up with it.  Is there a way to manually enter the curve if I manually plot the PWM output vs speed.  My circuit works fine and I can change the speed just fine, just would like to fine tune this.

Thanks Zar