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Total Newbie question
« on: July 17, 2006, 09:53:55 PM »
I was loaned a broken Sherline 5000 cnc machine in hopes of fixing it. I have successfully repaired the machine but bear with me on this for I am a complete newb.  It has 3 motors that have what looks like serial ports connected to them. My question is, How do I connect them to my PC?

I am not understanding. Is there another component that goes between the mill and the computer?  Am I misunderstanding the Mach description where it  says " Converts a standard PC to a fully featured cnc controller."

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to get the machine setup for engraving.

Thanks in advance.

Offline Glenn

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Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2006, 11:02:40 PM »
Hi Stitchlips,
    Yes you will need a driver, a component that goes between the computers printer port and the motors. It takes the pulses of info from the computer and tells the motors which way, and how fast to move. I'm new too, January, 2006 and it's a cool invention and mach is a great way to pull this off, I still have my share of problems but the more mach tutorials you watch and topics you read on this web , the more comfortable you will be with this subject... The support group w/ mach is awesome, lightyears ahead of my understanding of cnc machines, and although I jumped in here, ( blind leading the blind type of deal) If this doesn't help you, just re-post this and I bet someone else will help.
                   Good Luck with your sherline, Glenn
Don't assume anything.....it'll make a Manager out of U and Me!
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2006, 11:28:02 PM »
Where Do I start looking for drive info? I think I was just looking at some homemade ones in the links section. Any info would be helpfull.
Thanks
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2006, 12:24:10 AM »
Dont know the characteristics of your motors, but you could start by looking at http://www.xylotex.com/ and my personal favourite geckos! http://www.geckodrive.com if you go with these you would need one for each motor, the 201 or 202 models would work with your steppers. If you go with the xylotex, they have three axis boards that would work with 3 motors. you will need a power supply too in both cases.
Never tried the xylotex products the geckos work great.
Regards
Fernando
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2006, 04:12:15 AM »
I got my drivers from www.lowcostretrofits.com.au they have a great website with prices etc and I found them great to deal with. I am a total dope as well but I found reading all the posts a great help with understanding this whole CNC thing
Barry (Aussie)
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2006, 10:57:37 AM »
I have used the xylotec drives and they are fine for small machines with low torque requirements.  The are very sensitive to noise but work fine.  I am still running one drive on my z axis as one of my commercial drives blew.
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2006, 06:01:34 PM »
Well I managed to find an older camtronics boad that seems to work. I plug it into my laptop parralel port and then to the camtronics board. I have my settings under pins as follows.
I managed with these settings .
x axis step pin # 2 dir pin # 6
y axis step pin # 3 dir pin # 7
z axis step pin # 4 dir pin # 8
Where do you change pin 10,12,13 etc.

I think these settings work. I can now jog all of my motors.
Now any tutorials anyone can reccomend.
It wants to spin the motors real fast and they don't respond unless I cut the feed rate down to 50%.
Thanks.
Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2006, 08:19:43 AM »
Barry,
The URL you gave doesn't work. Are those guys still in business? I'm in Oz too Canberra) where did you get your steppers and other stuff?

Cheers,
Dave.  :-\

I got my drivers from www.lowcostretrofits.com.au they have a great website with prices etc and I found them great to deal with. I am a total dope as well but I found reading all the posts a great help with understanding this whole CNC thing
Barry (Aussie)

Hood

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Re: Total Newbie question
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2006, 04:37:39 PM »
Barry,
The URL you gave doesn't work. Are those guys still in business? I'm in Oz too Canberra) where did you get your steppers and other stuff?

Cheers,
Dave.  :-\

Possibly it is this site http://www.lowcostcncretrofits.com/

Hood