Hi there,

I am new to this forum, want to share with others my cnc project, a small cnc winding machine that a would like to run on mach3.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/plduchesne/WindingMachineCnc?feat=directlink

Bought a stepper package on ebay and now having hard time to set it up on my laptop.

Stepper got 200 step per turn, can microstep to 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16.
The spindle turn 1/2 turn for 1 turn of stepper and sliding axis move 1mm for 1 turn of stepper

At the motor tuning step on mach 3, i am putting 200 steps for 1mm, (no microstepping) and putting 1000 mm/min. When I hit the arrow key, the motor rotate very very slowly. I cannot get the motor turning fast?? Anyone could help me  with this small issue? kernel speed is set at 35khz.

Would like too some help building g code programm that allow me to make coil. X axis is spindle, y axis is sliding axis at 1mm per turn.
Coil parameters are numbers of turns, distance  y axis need to travel for each turn (coil wire diameter) and number of layers. Y axis movement is  function of rotation speed (x axis).

Any help, suggestion will be more than appreciated.
Thanks in advance

petecul

Hi Petecul,

Nice machine and neat looking conversion you have done.

I think that Hood has built a winding machine or two and I am sure he will know exactly how to set your machine for optimum use.

Tweakie.

I made a coil winder up for a customer I do various work for.
It had to be able to wind coils up to 500mm long on 25mm  dia Iron tube core with 0.7mm dia copper and as small as 20mm long 0.5mm dia Mu core and 0.1mm wire. For those reasons I made it on similar lines to a lathe.
I made a screenset with the buttons and DROs I needed  and VB was done in the buttons, I later found some VB that Brian Barker had done so mine is a mix of both. It works well and has produced quite a few coils. Dont have the screenset/VB on this computer but may have it on a portable drive, I will look in a bit, if not I can get it tomorrow when I am back at the workshop.
Heres a pic of the small coil and also the winder, had to add the slaved spindle for the small coil as I had to hold the core in tension, for normal sized cores I just remove the slaved spindle and if needed add a tailstock.
Hood

Oh for  your motor not running fast, try pressing the Shift Key when Jogging. If that doesnt help attach your xml and maybe the problem can be found.
Hood

Hello HOOD,

Wow, nice machine, I should asked you some tips before going into building my own winding machine! The problem is when I started this over a year ago, I didn't even know that I will need mach 3 to operate the cnc!

In my case, the application is for tiny air coils (small speaker drive for headphone), It's an old dream and I would really like to build myself a nice pair of headphone from a to z! I planning winding wire gauge up to between 36 to 44GA (0.124 to 0.048mm).

For tensionning the wire, i will use this tension device : http://azonicproducts.com/30-350.htm
Coil will be mounted on a expandable core,  air coil don't have core inside so i need to wire it on a core and be able to remove it afterwords. Crazy project for my own use, hope i can use it also to sell some custom air coils for ohter guys like me!
 
yesterday, on this forum, i found a very handy program made by schouten_tjeerd:

 programhttp://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,50.70.html


Thanks
petecul

I think your machine will be ideal for the type of coils you are going to be winding. I had never even seen a coil winding machine before let alone the tensioning mechanism and all searching I did when I built mine just showed up pictures of machines but no close ups.
 I have found I dont really need any tensioning other than the weight of the spool of wire unwinding, however on the heavier copper I found it needed to be straightened a bit so I made up a series of three rollers which the wire loops round and thus it gets straightened, you can see this in the pic above. The link you sent to the tensioner however does look interesting and I will have a good look at it shortly

 When I was experimenting with the small coil shown above I wound onto a 0.5mm drill bit and then slipped off onto the Mu core, was too fiddly so thats when I decided to mount the slaved stepper so I could hold the Mu in tension.

That programme does indeed look like it will be handy, will certainly save you making up a screen with the VB in the button as you can just make and load the code.

Hood

Even by pressing shift key while jogging, i can barely get 0.5 rpm from the stepper! They turn really slowly. I did try to upload gcode from the mach menu, roadrunner and still, can't get any speed from the stepper.

Spindle: Y axis, 200 step per stepper turn, ratio 2 for 1 to spindle so 400 steps per rotation, 1/8 microstepping so spindle is set to 3200 steps per turn.

winding axis X: same setup but direct drive with 1mm pitch. 1600steps per mm.

kernel is set to 35khz in port & pin. Am I  wrong with my motors configuration? It's like time between step sent to the motor is really long!

driver test show that my system is stable.

I am new to mach 3, I might have  missed something somewhere but what and where??......any help is much welcome at this point!

thanks
petecul

You have Mach in step mode, press the Tab key on your keyboard and on the flyout screen change the mode to Cont, that should get you going
Hood

Thanks Hood,

finally got some rpm on motors......i had to configure my laptop as a pc (thanks to this forum, will never have figured it out myself).

Looks better now, even done my first gcode programm to wind coil.

Now the setup will work for winding coil..... BUT......i would like more rpm from the spindle . now motor  run about 200 rpm at max speed. Could I have them turning 1500rpm or so? at least for the spindle.!


thanks
petecul

To get a stepper running that fast you will likely need to gear it.
Having said that if you are maxing out at 200 then that may be due to a bad/weak pulse, laptops are not the best for Mach I am afraid.

Hood