CNC x2 Mill

[Rndmann9]

And one more upside down pic where you can bairly see the ball nut.

 

[Rndmann9]

Also trying out a new GUI, I think I like this one better than the other one so far.

 

[Rndmann9]

These pics? I have even flipped them in the editor and they still post upside down. Apple is a product I love to hate.

 

[Foozer]

Like that big screen - Lot better than the 20X4 LCD display I'm using - - Found a new toy - a SNES controller, four extra buttons, now I can button in X Axis distance along with Y Axis and Jog feature.


void getButtonData()
{
digitalWrite(nesLatch, HIGH);
digitalWrite(nesLatch, LOW);
for (int x = 0; x <= 11; x++)
{
bitWrite(nesButtonData, x, digitalRead(nesData));
digitalWrite(nesClock, HIGH);
digitalWrite(nesClock, LOW);
}
}

My OCD is colliding with my ADD . . .

I've snapped two of those spring type couplers - they argue and win when I turn the hand wheel while the stepper enable is on Sticking with the little Lovejoys . . .

Hmm Etch-A-Sketch - two small steppers sitting on the shelf? I see more useless but obsessive compulsive time coming up . .

 

[Rndmann9]

I'll use it till i breaks. Yea screen is my wife's old laptop. When I got a new one she had to have a new one too. Only fair. She broke the switch on it so I took it apart and wired a tiny momentary contact switch that I salvaged out of something and "fixed" it. Now it's my garage computer. I use it for the arduinos and stuff when I'm out there. I can't throw stuff away. I salvage and give it new life. Lol thinking of figuring out the limit switch noise this weekend. Sorta put it on the back burner and got destracted fixing the y axis...doesn't take much to distract me. Also been playing around trying to learn Python. Don't know why but thought it might come in handy one day. I'm weird like that. Nickname back when I was in college was random man because I either had one or knew how to for everything. What happens when you don't waste your childhood playing video games. Speaking of which I was thinking of digging out my old nes controller. I have one somewhere that I used to control a little car I made twenty years ago. Yours made me think of it and had me wondering. Don't have a control dongle might need to change that. Also thought about using the wii controller but don't really need the accelerometers in it so prob want do that. Got to get my limit switches in place before I do any more milling but I'm itching to get it going again. Prob will take me five minutes to fix and weeks to research to pick best option. You know how that goes.

 

[Rndmann9]

Just curious are you writing functions or just one long code? Functions make it more modular/ configurable. Easier to debug too.

 

[Rndmann9]

The gui is called grbl panel. Free download From get hub. The other one I was using was universal code sender. Both I think we're meant to use the Gshield I'm using to control my steppers which plugs into my sacrificial arduino uno. I keep another uno with me most of the time for whatever. Told my wife it's the electronic version of a Swiss Army knife. Use it for all kinds of stuff if not just for entertainment. Here is how I entertained the 6 yr old earlier this week clicking relays and blinking lights...I admit I was entertained too.

 

[Rndmann9]

Duh. Void getbuttondata(). Obviously a function never mind....

 

[Foozer]

I have a limit switch that is acting up - Routed with shielded cable so shouldn't be picking up noise - Think I'll put a small delay in the sw read and/or change out the switch . .

Functions - That way when I break something it's just inside the function I have to look - - That's bad, I actually sorta know what i just wrote . .

case btn_Right: // 191 ---> Button
RunRight();
break;


Controller is apparently just a shift register - each button or combination of buttons spits out a unique number - looking at one of those little membrane keypads - Tie it to the guts of a standard NES controller and go from 8 pins to three on arduino.

But if it ain't broken, I'm not trying hard enough.
I just had to reroute the car wiring, really just had to - - Wasn't broken, everything worked fine . . . You know where this is going . .

Ok off to try and cut a Bezel cover for the 20X4 display - One that actually sorta fits . . . Been put'n with it to compensate for the backlash

{ // Three

for (int jog = 0; jog < (stepsY * 1440); jog++) // 32 steps = 0.001"
Stepper.CCW(stepY, dirY, 600);
delay(150);
}
. . .
{ // Five

for (int jog = 0; jog <= (stepsY * 1453); jog++) // 32 steps = 0.001"
Stepper.CW(stepY, dirY, 600);
delay(150);
}

OOPS - the bride says her A/C quit - Like I know when the vacuum pump and gauges are - - - Guess my day just got rescheduled . .

 

[Rndmann9]

These are about 4bucks on Amazon. Really flat and the back has a peal away adhesive. Yea I have a water pump to change in the near future. Ordered it yesterday for the Mrs. I'm thinking about trying a choke before I bust out the resisters and caps to make a filter. Mine goes into alarm the second the table starts moving. I don't have an o scope anymore ( need to change that soon) to find out where the noise is coming from. Doesn't need much dampening so maybe a ferrite choke will do? Might have to play with the number of wraps though. Just seems less invasive and doesn't involve anymore soldering but as always I have a back up plan. My ac stopped working years ago in my company car - I'm do for a new one- but as long as the Windows work I'm good. I've been doing a little research on backlash comp too. The z has 1.4mm both directions. Y should be almost 0 now and x...well I'll have to remeasure because I don't remember. It's easy to add it in the Gcode in post processing but I like to do things the hard way I want to automate the adjustment. Direction change + compensation = total movement.

 

[Rndmann9]

74hc595 is an ic shift reg that might let you lessen you pin footprint too.

 

[Rndmann9]

Scratch that this is prob a better option. It would knock it to two pins rx tx plus power and ground using i2c protocol.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/593

The other IC might be better for your lcd. Not sure how you wired it parallel or serial.

 

[Foozer]

I just set it up to mill an inside box in some plastic and adj the steps traveled until the meeting point leaves no lip. Shars table 13 tho backlash
Have some 1/2 x 10 acme and some derlin - could . . . . . .

Adafruit - Just got a couple of their LCD backpacks -PRODUCT ID: 292 They have jumpers so the address can be changed - Now can use two 20X4 LCD units [or more chained together] one at say 0x20 other at 0x21

Got her A/C all cold again - Has a peckerwood leak 'bout 12 oz loss over a year time - I can live with that . .

Need to actually make something - thinking of a tool grinding rest

 

[Rndmann9]

I have another thread on here where I made one of those for my harbor freight grinder. Ones that came on it were horrible. Check it out if you need ideas. I unsoldered the direct wires on the shield and soldered an 8 pin header. Should make experiments with filters a little easier.

 

[Foozer]

Ya - Played with one of those keypads using resistors as voltage drops - Too many moving parts for me. For Jog just using
void stepXPlus1() // Start + Up
{
stepsX = (stepsX + 16); // 16 = 0.001
if (stepsX <= 16)stepsX = 16; // Default
cursorOn(); // print to LCD
delay(jogdelay);
}
void stepXPlus10() // Start + Right
{
stepsX = (stepsX + 160); // 160 = 0.010
if (stepsX <= 16)stepsX = 16; // Default
cursorOn(); // Print to LCD
delay(jogdelay);
}
Start-Left, Start-Down increment to the minus . .

With the SNES can add a times 100 choice - But then as long as I hold the button(s) down it'll increment up quick enough . .

 

[Rndmann9]

Ok I think I have finally worked out the limit switch issue. Guess I'll be soldering up a more permanent solution this weekend. I'm pretty sure I had a loose joint on one of my grounds. I clipped an alligator clip to jump it and eureka. Loose grounds are tough to track down sometimes. I also was probably holding my mouth wrong. Now that that's sorted out I'll solder up the low pass filters, don't really think I need them but can't hurt either. It's just an rc filter anyways. Resister in series and and a 45uf cap to ground. About as simple as they get. I almost got ugly with it and busted out some transistors to make a more discriminate filter but it didn't come to that. need to mount the switches solidly too. Right now they are just hot glued in place. Works great for a semi strong hold that you can just rip off and redo at will. I love my hot glue gun for mock up stuff. It's been good to me for the last 18 years. Pretty sure I got my $8 out of it.

 

[Foozer]

Last Good to First Bad and therein lays the error . . . It's always after tossing out the wild and crazy, the simplest of things that cause the most grief . . .

Still have one limit switch that triggers on it's own, changed the switch - Nada - Other one hasn't faltered at all so can eliminate the code - Sitting here telling myself, I know what it is -I ran the wires into the Arduino header pins, I didn't solder them in just in case I might of had to change the pin layout - Nickie to donuts that switch wire probably got clipped too short and is just barely making contact . . .

Like the car - changed the cam - long as the bay had room to crawl around in, rerouted the wiring - Have an oil pressure switch to relay to fuel pump - oil pressure falls fuel pump shuts off -Tapped the switch to the +side of the coil - Not working - Worked before - - Last Good First Bad, first bad? Me . .

Have a MSD ignition [cap discharge] is no +Vcc at the coil - Duh - rerouted the ignition Vcc forgetting that the relay switch power has to come from it, not from the coil . . . Now to sneak in about 6 feet of 18 gauge from the MSD ignition power, which is now tucked away up front under the fender to the oil pressure sw laying over a motor all back together . . .

Ok - Real Question . end mill brands that won't chip out after a few passes - Ones that won't break the bank . .

 

[Rndmann9]

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_category.php?category=-1180321415&First=E&Last=E
if your close to California. I'm on the east coast US so everything I order takes a week to get here.

Or harbor freight. I think I got a set from HF a few years ago that I have been using for years.

 

[Foozer]

Got the limit switch thing fixed - - Soldered the wires to the board, let it cycle 20 times and no hiccups . . .

Have tried HF and Little Machine Shop products - All HSS, will try a harder material one and see how that works - If a 10 buck one will out last three 4 buck ones . . . Got one that I wish I knew who made it - rounded edges, it just won't give up the ghost - gives a nice [to me] finish . . .

 

[Rndmann9]

Got mine whipped today too. Got to get the switches mounted permanently now. Maybe tonight once it cools off a little. Check grizzly. Mine from HF are titanium coated - gold colored - so far I haven't aced one and have had them a few years. Check Amazon too. Kind of all over the place price wise. Had one goof when fixing the switches. Easy fix though. My arduino is a r3 which is great if I plug the Gshield in directly, which is how I have been using it. For the fix for the limit switches I decided to use an old Proto board I had...apparently it's old enough to be an r2 which is 2 pins shorter on the power bus. So when I sandwiched all the shields together no power to the motors. G shield has provisions to accommodate both but I had to cut a trace and solder in a jumper. No big deal but something that wasn't part of the original plan.