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CNC-2116 - Up and running, sort of (2015-03-21)
Yvan256:
I've bolted all the PVC panels together and installed three right angle brackets in the cover, all I'm missing is the hinges.
After that I need to finish cutting the sonopan panels which I couldn't do because the sides weren't at 90 degres, I plan on cutting them manually from this point, test-fitting them one by one in the PVC box to be sure everything is alright before cutting the next one, etc.
The noise reduction from the PVC box alone is already quite good with the MDX-3, so I don't anticipate any problems once the sonopan is in place with the masonite to cover it all in the inside. I guess all those air bubbles in the expanded PVC do help a bit after all.
At this point I'm getting used to designing and assembling projects made from smaller panels, I've been thinking about a first revision of MVS-99-6 made from 150x90mm panels. ;)
Yvan256:
Well, it had to happen. The MDX-3 is no longer fully functional. The spindle still works but one of the Z-axis assembly part is made of plastic and it's too loose to make precise cuts anymore. I'll have to design a completely new Z-axis assembly to make the MDX-3 work again. :cry:
On a positive note, the parts required to finish CNC64 were already cut and I finished (temporarily) assembling the whole thing so that it could make its first cut, which was simply a 13x13mm square, about 5mm deep. It was supposed to be a 10x10mm square but I messed up my calculations. :P
So, how did it go? I can summarize the result with two words: huge success! ;D
The horizontal cuts on the right were the actual first tests with only the Y-axis and Z-axis wired up, but they doesn't really count since this CNC has three axis and the square is the first cut to use all three. ;)
Yvan256:
Since I haven't been able to move forward on my mini-joystick project (stupid small bolts), I had to find another way to control CNC64 manually.
The wires used by Nintendo were some kind of twisted foil around a thin rope and it's almost impossible to solder these things and finding a female socket is near impossible unless you take apart an old NES, so I rewired the gamepad with an old DB9 cable.
The NES gamepad is very easy to read, it's just a 4021 shift register and only require 3 pins on the ATmega328P!
Pressing left/right moves the RTX left/right, pressing up/down makes the bed move to the back/front and pressing B/A moves the RTX up/down.
Just to make things interesting I'll program it so that every press I do makes it move 2.54mm. That will allow me to manually drill a blank PCB with a fine drill bit and see if it matches up with a protoboard.
After a few manual tests, I will program the ATmega328P to make it cut the 3rd stepper driver board because the components are currently installed on the larger protoboard you see in the photo.
The keyboard is not part of the project.
Typefighter01:
Cool idea :applaud:
Can you use the "select" and "start" buttons for other often used functions (pause, e/stop, zero all axis)?
Yvan256:
After wasting a few hours with the pinout and wiring of the NES gamepad, trying to check which pins of the 4021 were connected to which colour of wires and mixing up the clock and data lines and not completely understanding how to "shift left" variables in GCC-AVR, I used another NES gamepad I had lying around.
It took what seems forever but I now have manual control of all 3-axis of CNC64. Well, I will have control, once everything is wired up. The wires of those surplus KP4M2 motors are rather short and I'm still missing my 3rd stepper driver board, but all the parts work. I have a tiny hope of completing the machine before 2014, except maybe painting the remaining panels which are already installed. I'm afraid that if I disassemble the panels to paint them, the machine won't work properly again once re-assembled. I'll wait until I can either finish the second CNC64 or repair the MDX-3.
--- Quote from: Typefighter01 on December 17, 2013, 03:31:05 pm ---Cool idea :applaud:
Can you use the "select" and "start" buttons for other often used functions (pause, e/stop, zero all axis)?
--- End quote ---
They could be used for that later, however I still need to add limit switches to all axis. But I'm thinking to go "home" so that I can install material / remove cut parts the same way "Home" works on my MDX-3, and [Start] could be wired to a relay to start/stop the RTX. ;D
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