The empty unpainted enclosure looks better than my finished "enclosure" lol. Nicely done.

Sam, I am not having that, yours is what I would call "back to nature" all the rage nowadays I understand  but I reckon you should get credit as a pioneer of the trend
Hood

 

Small update, got the plate made up and computer etc installed. Also got the computers power supply fitted, its just below the board with the electronics on. I bored a 120mm dia hole in the back of the cabinet so that the PSUs fan will suck air in, might have to add a filter over it and maybe also fit another fan at the top to blow air out.
Hood

Got the panel painted with primer and got the  majority of the wiring  done in it. Still have a network cable, a serial cable, a CanBus cable and two E-Stop lines to run. The CSMIO module in the pic is an extra I/O module for the buttons and I will fit a MPG module alongside it for the MPG, Pots etc, they will then connect to the main module which will be in the main control cabinet, via the CanBus cable.

I hope to get the serial cable in sometime this week, that will allow me to connect the PLC to the computer and I will then be able to test out the toolchanger and hope I have the ladder right

Hood

Hi Hood,

Panel looks very nice! Is it black anodized aluminium you use for engraving the panels?

Was the only reason for using the extra CSMIO  I/O module your preference to not run the wires from the buttons all the way to the back cabinet? What's the module on the right? Is it the 24V PSU?

Dan

Dan, its actually painted Alu, I was looking for black anodised but saw this stuff and thought I would try it and see, it seems fine but think I would still prefer anodised if I could find it at a reasonable price. On the Computurn lathe I made up the panel fronts with the cutouts etc then  got them anodised locally but sadly the quality was poor and the price high, I have had a few other jobs done and every time it was the same so wont be trying them again.

Regarding the reason for the module, its kind of two reasons, first is I dont want to run the cable but mainly because I had it sitting waiting for some place to use it If I didnt already have it then I would have just run the switches back to the main controller in the electrical panel. The MPG module however I would still have in the control panel as it means only one Canbus cable going back instead of a load of wires. The 24v ones would have been fine but the 0-10v I really would have had to have shielded, so it saved me the bother. The MPG is differential so I wouldnt have needed shielding on them.

Yes it is a 24v PSU, again the only reason I put it in is because I had it (have a few I have picked up over time) I have the main 24v PSU in the electrical cabinet, a big 3phase input one, think 10 or 20 Amps. I was originally just going to run the wires forward from it but as said had the other PSU and also plenty space so thought I might as well use it

Hood

Anyhow, I think the way you have it now with the IO module at the front with only one canble running from it to the back is better. You got me thinking now though... it's not a cheap solution to not running the buttons wires to the back... but I am leaned towards it now that I see how nice it came out.

Dan

It does make for a neat setup but I suppose it wouldnt be too much different running the cables back to the I/O in the electrical panel. As I am using a PLC for the toolchanger then I have loads of I/O unused, I am going to have to think of things to use them for
 I had thought about putting the main control unit in the front cabinet but it would have meant that I needed to run encoder cables and the analogue control cables up to the front so decided against it.

Hood

Hood

Wow, that looks darn good, Hood. Every button ya need, right there in the same box. Shame about the local anodizing place. The lack of professionalism in the world is simply astonishing. Anodized and laser etched would really be the ticket.