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Messages - Jeff_Birt

1061
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Discovery 308 retrofit
« on: July 26, 2007, 03:43:25 PM »
I got a bit more work done today.  The side panel was removed from the machine and fitted with the new mobo, ICM 2900 (breakout board for Galil board) and places for two 50-pin ribbon cable breakout boards (made by Phoenix Contact).  I made a angled bracket from some 1/16" x 1" aluminum angle that mounts to the rear of the motherboard tray (and cut couple tabs out of the scrap) to mount the motherboard to the side panel.  It worked out pretty good allowing the motherboard to be removed with four thumb screws (the former case screws).  I had to remove the wire duct shown on the right of the side panel as it was way to tight in the corner.  The 64 point I/O extension from Galil uses two 50-pin ribbon cable connectors, so I'm running a ribbon cable from the Galil I/O board to the  Phoenix Contact breakout board.  I can then run separate cables up to the two 16-point Opto-22 racks. I still have a spare 32 I/O points ans the place to mount another breakout board, just no place to mount anything else  :).


1062
General Mach Discussion / Re: onboard graphics
« on: July 26, 2007, 09:27:13 AM »
There is a Mach III optimization document in the downloads section.  I would suggest downloading it and going through it step by step.  I first set Mach III up on a laptop and even after I got the problems associated with a laptop taken care of (the processor like to slow down), I still had problems with Mach.  Turns out that Apple installs a little program that runs as a service when you install Quicktime.  I forget the name of it, but all it is good for is sucking up a bunch of processor power and making Mach hiccup.  Some folks have had problems with on-board graphics, but I have had good luck so far.  If your using the PC for other things besides Mach, you might consider making it a dual boot machine; install a basic XP install on another hard drive (or partition) that is optimized for Mach III, boot to it when machining.

1063
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Discovery 308 retrofit
« on: July 23, 2007, 04:49:10 PM »
Finally got the parts in the end of last week (had to wait until new fiscal year here at the University to buy stuff  :( ).  Got the Old unneeded stuff stripped from the control cabinet, the PC built and started to mount the new bits.  I bought a Ultra MicorFly case/mobo combo from TigerDirect.  After building the PC and loading Mach III, and a quick driver test (hey, even the built in graphics work good!), I took the case back apart.  The removable mother board tray was pulled (you can see the Galil card in the pic).  The tray will be mounted on the bottom-left side of the cabinet in the same area as the original PC-AT mobo.  The mobo will wind up mounted so that the 'back' will be pointed down (but it will be 8" or so off the cabinet floor).  This will let the 100 wire Galil cable travel neatly up the back corner to the IC-2900 (a terminal board for the Galil) which feeds from the back.  Where the big green board (SAF board) was removed from the center of the cabinet two 16 position Opto-22 racks will be mounted (the hold 16 opto-isolated Solid state relays, either inputs or outputs).  I had the Opto-22 racks, and they fit perfectly.


1064
Sorry to take so long to respond.  On my 2400 (smaller machine than yours), I removed the stock controller pendant and made a replacement for the distribution board inside the machine.  Everything that plugged into the old distribution board plugs right into my new board.  The LPT cable and a USB cable from the controlling PC also plug into the new board.  NOTE: the USB is just for a 5V source from PC. Warning: some breakout boards have a power supply built in that appears to be a multi-secondary transformer, feeding power to both sides of the opto-isolator circuit, avoid these like the plague, as the transformer makes a nice inductive coupling between the two sides, making the optos nearly useless.

Your breakout board will replace the distribution board.  The 2800 looks like it has a few daughter boards mounted to the distribution board, I'm still awaiting photos of the stock set up (from another source) before I can tell more.

1065
yeah, your current drivers should be fine.  I'm running the stock drivers on my 2400, which work fine.  If your stock drives are fine, I would stick with them unless you really want to upgrade to a closed loop system (as you mentioned) or want to maybe coax a bit more out of the stock steppers.

1066
Hmmmm....your mill has stepper motors, right?  My notes on this are at work, but I seem to remember the following three Dyan-Mechtronics mills:

2200:  Small benchtop, stepper motors
2400: upgraded 2200, built in oiler, stepper motors
2800: larger 'mid-size' unit, has an LED RPM display for spindle spindle motor has encoder, spindle has no reverse and can only be turned on/off by control cannot set speed via program, axis have stepper motors

Is that what your 2800 is like?

1067
I just upgraded a DynaMyte 2400 to Mach II, by building a custom replacement for the distribution board.  But basically, you can replace the function of the controller and distribution board with Mach III and a good opto-isolated breakout board.  Someone just sent me the wiring diagram for the 2800 (and 3000 lathe, which I have) and he's is also sending some pictures of the distribution board and the two daughter boards that appear to me mounted to it on the prints. I'm trying to build a more universal replacment for the distribution board, easily adapted for each machine.  anyhow, if your in a hurry it's best to go the opto-isolated breakout board method.

1068
General Mach Discussion / Re: about Z depth
« on: June 26, 2007, 04:48:40 PM »
Are you cutting the rectanglular groove around the leg's top? And, you are saying that the your have several similar but unique parts.  How many diffrent styles 10, 100, 1000?  If it is a limited number that you will be doing several pieces of, I would still build jigs for each one.  I suggested referencing the bottom, flat section of each leg top as it should be a repeatable known reference to the top surface you are trying to follow.  With such a known reference, the contour you are cutting on the top will be the same for each style of leg.  If EVERY part is unique it is a more difficult problem as you would have to mount each leg, digitize the surface, convert the point cloud data to surfaces, somehow dynamically generate G-code to match the surfaces.  Or, write some sort of Mach wizard that will let you touch of a certain number of points and from there it will generate the g-code for the part.

1069
General Mach Discussion / Re: about Z depth
« on: June 26, 2007, 12:26:51 PM »
I have to agree with one of Graham's suggestions.  Make a jig to hold each piece so that the bottom of each rectangular cut out is parallel with your table.  It's both a simple and repeatable system.

1070
General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Discovery 308 retrofit
« on: June 07, 2007, 11:37:03 PM »
I spent some time looking today and can't belive that no-one seems to make a simple MB mounting tray.  Check out the slide out MB tray in this small case: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1800611&body=MAIN

That would be perfect, to mount a tray like that inside the enclosure.  It might be worth buying the case for the tray and power supply.