Messages

291

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: February 01, 2023, 12:52:25 AM »

Hi,
my machine is funded out of my own pocket and so there is a very distinct limit to what I can do.

My machine has travels of 350mm x 350mm x 350mm. It has a linear resolution of 1 um and I'm trying to
end up with a machine repeatable to 10um or better. The overwhelming majority use it gets is making circuit boards
by isolation routing. It's a bit like using a sledgehammer to open a walnut I know, but its what I do for a living.
For that purpose I have an 800W 24000 rpm asynchronous spindle and I've had and used it for nine years.
I would love to be able to replace it with an ATC spindle, but trying to find one that matches the quality of my existing
Mechatron Gmbh 800W manual spindle is not easy, or rather it's easy, just not affordable!

The best replacement I can find is by the same company is an ATC 2.5kW, 42,000 rpm with an HSK25 tool interface for
5700 Euro. I just can't afford it.

As I posted earlier, I have paid a discounted $2000NZD for a one-year subscription to Fusions Machining Extensions.
I need to make use of that time, it may well be that I cannot afford to renew the subscription when it comes due in July, so I want
to use as much as I can before then. Ergo the push to use my fourth axis and the push to get a trunnion table and fifth axis working.

It must be said that I've had the fourth axis gearbox hanging around for years. I bought it thinking to put it on my mini-mill but it was
just too big and rugged for that machine. It's a perfect fit for my new (approx 18 months) mill. Even then I still had to buy a servo $1000NZD,
a chuck $150NZD and have my employee turn up the shaft through the gearbox........so even having the gearbox does not stop the drain
on my budget.

As you have seen I've bought a suitable gearbox for the fifth axis, but it cost all up, including tax and freight $614NZD. the next thing I'm eyeing is yet another
servo to drive it, another $1000NZD, and that does not count getting the steel laser cut for the trunnion table itself. I should be able to machine it all
myself unless I decide it needs to go on the surface grinder, that will cost me. All of this comes out of my pocket, and I'm just a working man so it takes
a while.

Craig

292

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: February 01, 2023, 12:03:57 AM »

Hi,
I assure you a trunnion table and fifth axis is by no means simple when you have to maintain rigidity enough to cut steel and where
microns matter.

Craig

293

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Just starting out

« on: January 31, 2023, 06:15:47 PM »

Hi,
the new worm drive gearbox is at the shipping depot in Portland and I've just paid the tax and international freight......not cheap.

The gearbox cost $180USD. The shipping was $36USD within the US and another $139USD for the international shipping to New Zealand.
Thus the total shipping costs are $175....compared to the cost of the gearbox $180USD. The GST (NZ tax) is another $30USD. Anyway it is what is,
its paid for and will be here in a week or so.

Craig

294

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 05:08:29 PM »

Hi,
I would not go for second hand, or rather its not second hand but where you have to mix and match drives. If you don't know
anything about servos you are letting yourself in for a world of hurt......dont do it.

Even the 200W ToAuto ones in the Fast-to-Buy listing at $248USD are brand new and complete, with cables etc would be better. You don't have to concern yourself
adapting one to the other, they are matched.

I would recommend the 400W Delta B2's at $398USD each,  for the quality of the documentation but mainly for the set-up software,
I gaurantee you'll come to appreciate it. Many of the other brands you have to buy the software. You might get it free if you buy new from the distributor
but if you buy second hand you'll have to pay. I bought a second hand 1.8kW Allen Bradley servo and drive. Cost $900NZD delivered which was pretty good.
Then I had to make and/or buy the cables, another $350NZD and then buy the setup software....and you had to, you cannot program the drives without it for another $200NZD.
I did get the servo to work and have been using it on and off for four years as a spindle motor....and good at it it is. As it turns out I could have bought a new 2kW Delta B2
for less.....so you live and learn.

Now that I have some familiarity with servos I would be prepared to take a few extra risks but its hard to beat a servo and its manufacturer supplied drive.

Craig

295

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 04:31:01 PM »

Hi,

setting up of the drives and the tuning
I think thast what stopped me fitting the minas a4 set i had to my last machine, it was all a bit too specialist

Yes, setting up servos if you've not done it before is not easy. As it turns out all AC servos are broadly similar. If you know how to set up a Yaskawa then you'll
be able to adapt that to Mitsubishi say. The trick is therefore to find a brand that you can gain that familiarity, and in my case its Delta.

I had quite a battle wiring up the first ones....now it takes under an hour. In particular I have a little comm gadget ($68USD) that you plug into the drive and your PC
to set up all the parameters. There'll be over 400 of them in most modern AC servos, so having setup software is a godsend, otherwise you have to program them
by pushing buttons like a microwave, very tedious and error prone.

You still have to make some decisions on a motion controller and breakout board. That's going to soak up a lot more money than your steppers, even if
not quite as much as a set of three servos.

Craig

296

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 03:52:20 PM »

Hi,

does anyone bother with for example 200w little servos and drives on a tiddly machine

there is no information on 200w panasonic minas motors and drives used in hobby cnc
or mitsuboshi
or yaskawa

The problem is cost....all of those will cost well over $500 each. I use Delta servos which are a Taiwanese brand made in China,
good quality, performance, support and free set-up and tuning software at fair prices. The 200W servo is believe it or not costs
more than a 400W servo, they are both 60mm square, but the 400W being that much more popular is cheaper:

https://www.fasttobuy.com/220v-127nm-ac-servo-motor-drive-kits-400w-delta-servo-motor-3000rpm-60mm-cnc-machinery-motion-control_p28069.html

The same company (fast-to-buy) sell Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Delta and their own in house brand ToAuto. Check out the prices.
ToAuto is easily the cheapest and I have no reason to doubt the quality or performance but they have no set-up and tuning software, and if you've never
set up servos you'll really want that, no matter the extra cost.

Craig

297

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 03:10:19 PM »

Hi.
That is an RS232 breakout board, it may plug into the drives and allow you to hook up some wires but you still need to know the pinout
of the plug....and that is Berger Lahr specific.

If you've already bought two phase steppers and driver then just forget the 5 phase stuff.

You will need a motion controller like an ESS and a breakout board. Make some decisions around those components.

Craig

298

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 02:37:14 PM »

Hi,

its all really high quality stuff, but I fear its from 1997

Whatd'ya mean, I'm from the sixties and still f*******ing excellent!

Craig

299

General Mach Discussion / Re: just bought a little baby cnc 280mm square davinci style thing

« on: January 31, 2023, 02:18:08 PM »

Hi,
those steppers are made by Berger Larh, a top quality German brand. If you can reuse them do so.

The controllers appear to match....which is good news. Getting information about them so you can use them may be a challenge. The 'cross' someone has
put on one of them may mean its faulty?

If you want to run Mach3 and Mach3's parallel port then you'd need a 32 bit version of Windows 7 or XP. No 64 bit OS will work, neither will Windows 8,10 or 11.

If you want to use a 64 bit PC then you need an external motion controller like an Ethernet SmoothStepper. The parallel port is history....forget it.

Try to find the information about the drivers and then test them to see if they work. If they do all's well, if not then you'll need replacements. You need to make the tests to determine that choice.

Craig.

300

General Mach Discussion / Re: Freezing Issue

« on: January 30, 2023, 10:49:47 PM »

Hi,
If I recall correctly the screen drawing takes quite a bit of processing power with large files, say 2Mb or more. If this is happening
with large files try turning off the screen drawing to relieve the processor of that task.

Overall I'd have to agree an external motion controller makes good sense. I'd always thought that the parallel port was OK until I bought an
ESS. The motion was so much smoother that I was able to run my steppers 1/3 faster without missing steps, and they seemed to run cooler.
I've used the ESS nearly every day since, best value piece of hardware I've ever bought.

Craig