I'm about 10miles east of Edinburgh.

Bloody hell that must be in the sea

Would be 800 steps per mm for the X  if they were metric or 787.4015748 if they were imperial, thats assuming there is no gearing and I think you have Geckos with 1.8 deg stepper.

Hood

Bloody hell that must be in the sea

Not quite!
Far enough away to have a hill between me and the sea 


Just checked the settings, and X is 800.8, and the Z 500.
I must of had one of those stretchy rules the day I measured the X 

Quote from: Hood on August 20, 2011, 09:01:26 PM

Bloody hell that must be in the sea

Not quite!
Far enough away to have a hill between me and the sea 

Not like me then, this is from the office above my workshop

Just checked the settings, and X is 800.8, and the Z 500.
I must of had one of those stretchy rules the day I measured the X 

Or maybe as they say, should have gone to specsavers

Hood

Got a few bits done, have worked out how I am going to do the X axis and just waiting to get a motor for it.
Have the Z Axis bearing and oldham coupling housing made and fitted and axis tested.
Have fitted an old cabinet I had lying around to the end which will house the servo drives, SmoothStepper etc.
Going to use a NCR PC I have, got a few from a friend a while back and use one on the coil winder and this ones been sitting waiting for a project. Its a 15 inch touch screen with the computer inside the case. Its a Point Of Sale unit so has 12v and 24v USB as well as the standard 5v, I am thinking I will have enough current from the 24v ones to supply the I/O for my servo drives.
Few pics of progress and heres the axis getting tested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjtg5FATmAU

Hood

Nice, and looking good.

Interesting little PC ya got there. That's quite convenient for sure-

Dave

Yes, they are not the fastest, think 2 Gig Celeron with 512Meg ram but the one I have on the coil winders works fine with the SmoothStepper so this should as well.
Not sure where to put the computer though, in the pic its on top of the sliding door and it seems fine there, door actually slides better with the extra weight, the other option is make a wee arm to suspend it from over the headstock end. Might go for the latter as that will allow it to be a bit higher and have a keyboard below with a MPG.

Lots of I/O on the computer as well but sadly wont use much of it on this build.

Hood

I was hoping to make some progress on the lathe last weekend but unfortunately my 2 week old Tig welder packed up so that had to be put on hold as I am making the control console from 3mm Alu and the mig is just not the best for that. I have at least got the drive cabinet wired and fitted so thats at least some progress.
Boris from PoKeys has kindly sent me his new key panel and a USB and Ethernet PoKeys to test out and I will be using them on this retrofit. Here is a link to the key panel. http://poscope.com/product.php?pid=29 It looks much nicer in the flesh as well, I was very pleased when I saw it.
Below is also a pic of the control cabinet and also a render of the console I plan to make showing where the various parts will go. I still have to get a 60mm MPG as the spare one I have is 80mm and too big, that will have to wait though as the £2000 I have had to splash out on a decent tig has dented the funds a bit
Hood

Looks good.
Although I'm now more interested in how well the PoKeys keyboard works!

I was looking at them at the start of the week, as now I've actually used my Conect for a few jobs, I'm already fed up moving between computer and lathe to tweak things.
I know I could add a few normal push buttons and wire them into the BOB, but I think I've only got room left for another 3 or 4, and I'd quite like to add an MPG aswell.

Not used it yet I am afraid, once I test it out I will let you know
Hood

Not had a chance to do much to either the Bridgeport or the Conect but I do have some progress. I managed to get the servo drive cabinet  fitted, made the housing for the integrated computer/touch screen and have a hinging plate in the back for the SS/BOB/Pokeys etc. Also have the PoKeys Keyboard fitted and the trackball. Have to wire all the top electronics up and also fit the hard drive to the back of that hinging plate. Will be adding some switches to the front just above the keyboard.
I got a small servo that was going to be perfect for the X but unfortunately the encoder was cracked so I will have to see if I can manage to fit an encoder, not looked but I think shaft sizes will be different but it should fit inside the current housing on the end of the motor.
Heres a few pics of what I have done to date.
Hood