DIY arduino circuit boards optimized for electronic indexing head

[TorontoBuilder]

Hi do you have the original PCB drawing for your board
did you read the post I put here about the EMC 2 the guy is using in post 38

Hi Luc,

Sorry I had uploaded the pcb to the downloads section but just recently deleted it since I came up with a board to supercede the original... since I no longer intended to test and build the original.

I saw post 38 and the comments related to that, but wasnt sure how people meant to attach the rotary encoder to the mill. I think I have a good grasp on it now. I was too fixated on attaching a perforated disk encoder by trapping it between the spindle and the drawbar retainer nut

 

[rodw]

I know we went off topic with the encoders But I'm glad to see it made people think. The simplest method of attaching an encoder to a drawbar would be to chuck the drawbar in your lathe, drill a hole into the end of the drawbar, insert the encoder shaft and add a grub screw to secure it. Maybe you could modify a socket spanner if your drawbar has a hex head for a disconnect. I have turned a socket down before so they are machinable. Just machine an adapter that fits over the socket to attach the socket to the encoder.

John, could you attach an encoder to the motor shaft At the top of the mill? You can account for the belt ratio in software.

Luc, the encoders also include grey code and can sense direction and RPM (With the right software). We don't need to calculate RPM, just ensure that the RT rotates proportionally to the spindle by counting pulses, doing some maths and sending a scaled output pulse on another port to the RT. Its very simple code.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I'm not sure about attaching to the motor shaft since I havent had the cover off the motor since I got the mill in November. I suppose I could, I'll check. I have gear driven model so I should look up the gear ratio somewhere.

I do want to figure this out fairly soon since I'll be working a hobbing program into my controller....

 

[rodw]

I'll be following Your project. I did a fair bit of work on a software library for the menus and data entry for an Arduino RT controller. But I kept getting interrupted and running out of time and could never pick it up again. I have all the hardware and was going to include an SD card Which I have on a shield. I was going to use a freetronics lcd and keyboard.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I'll be following Your project. I did a fair bit of work on a software library for the menus and data entry for an Arduino RT controller. But I kept getting interrupted and running out of time and could never pick it up again. I have all the hardware and was going to include an SD card Which I have on a shield. I was going to use a freetronics lcd and keyboard.

Nice I think the Freetronics LCD/keypad shield is the best one out there. Its one of the few that has a button height sufficient to allow them to be accessible when in an enclosure. Looks to be excellent build quality.

I used the resistor values of the freetronic for my own keypad buttons so the sketches will be compatible without any modification.

Yesterday I ordered 3 arduino Nanos, 3 LCD displays and IC2 serial backpacks, 3 current sensors and etc. nothing left but the waiting again.

 

[rodw]

Nice I think the Freetronics LCD/keypad shield is the best one out there. Its one of the few that has a button height sufficient to allow them to be accessible when in an enclosure. Looks to be excellent build quality.

I used the resistor values of the freetronic for my own keypad buttons so the sketches will be compatible without any modification.

Yesterday I ordered 3 arduino Nanos, 3 LCD displays and IC2 serial backpacks, 3 current sensors and etc. nothing left but the waiting again.

The only problem with the freetronics is that you do get a bit of keyboard bounce. I'll have to go digging for some of the code and libraries I have which fixed it and might save you some time. One of them had a screen saver feature which is handy as I have burnt out a screen in 24 hours when left running constantly.

 

[Scott_M]

Hi Guys
This may be a silly question, but I am new to these things.
I was looking at the Freetronics mentioned above, with these shields that don't have pins on the top, how are you supposed to add your driver shield ?
Or access any of the other unused pins ?

Scott

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Hi Guys
This may be a silly question, but I am new to these things.
I was looking at the Freetronics mentioned above, with these shields that don't have pins on the top, how are you supposed to add your driver shield ?
Or access any of the other unused pins ?

Scott

Hi Scott, there are no silly questions.

The LCD shield is meant to be a terminal shield... i.e. the last in the chain since its the user interface you need to keep accessible. The only pins typically on LCD shields point down for this reason.

Locate your motor shield underneath your lcd shield.

I've always thought that protoshields are not so good because they become less accessible when you stack other shields on top of them, thats why I designed my own motherboard. Its all a trade off...

 

[Scott_M]

Thanks TB

I made the mistake of telling one of my machinist buddies about this, and now it seem I may have an electronic dividing head in my future to do list.
This however would need to be a higher power setup. He wants to motorize his 8" rotary table. So I am thinking of using a gecko with an external power supply and a nema 34 motor. Looking at that freetronics LCD with the nice buttons , it doesn't seem to have the extra holes to solder pins to. How would one get at the pins needed for step and direction signals ?

Scott

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Thanks TB

I made the mistake of telling one of my machinist buddies about this, and now it seem I may have an electronic dividing head in my future to do list.
This however would need to be a higher power setup. He wants to motorize his 8" rotary table. So I am thinking of using a gecko with an external power supply and a nema 34 motor. Looking at that freetronics LCD with the nice buttons , it doesn't seem to have the extra holes to solder pins to. How would one get at the pins needed for step and direction signals ?

Scott

you have several options...

First you could solder the leads to the pin stubs on the topside of the lcd shield. Not the best option.

Or you could solder the step dir leads to the pins on the underside of the LCD shield close to the header so that it doesnt interfer when you plug in the lcd shield the your UNO.

Or install a protoshield between your uno and the lcd shield.

Or wait till I make a new motherboard for working with heavy duty steppers

 

[Scott_M]

Ahhhh Protosheild

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HBVVKPA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with screw terminals !

I will keep an eye on your development, and see if you are ready by the time I have to start that project.

Thanks again, I do appreciate the help !

Scott

 

[rodw]

Ahhhh Protosheild

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HBVVKPA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with screw terminals !

I will keep an eye on your development, and see if you are ready by the time I have to start that project.

Thanks again, I do appreciate the help !

Scott

Beat me to it, Freetronics also have one Like this.
http://www.freetronics.com.au/colle...ucts/terminal-shield-for-arduino#.VNSpVeh47MI

The other 2 tricks I've used is

1. to solder on some ribbon cable to a protoboard and add an IDC connector to the ribbon and solder an IDC socket onto some perforated board.

2. For the Aussies, solder these guys onto the prototype board.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HM3130&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=991#1
Jaycar also have a 3 terminal one the same and these have dovetails at each end so they clip together like Leggo to make longer terminal strips. Just get the ones with the same pin pitch as what arduino use. They fit to every second hole.

 

[rodw]

Here, found some pics

IDC connector and ribbon cable soldered to prototype board.

Freetronics attached to Prototype board with arduino uno on the bottom.

We best not go off topic about what this is meant to be.... Solar PV output controller for hot water system.

 

[rodw]

I finally fired up my old PC and found all my Arduino code. I've actually done a lot of development of bits and pieces of the user interface code for a rotary table controller based on the Freetronics board which should be able to be slotted straight into this project of Johns if he keeps the pin assignments the same. Stuff I did was complete menu system and form data entry module as well as playing around with stepper drivers. I'll try and go through it and post some of it up on another thread dedicated to software for this project. I started on this because I could see the limitations of Chucks controller and wanted to get a robust system in place. I just ran out of time. So if there is some interest, maybe one of you guys could take my work and build on it to make the software as kickass as Torontobuilders hardware.

As always, the User Interface code is 90% of the project. Getting data into the system with only 4 keys is quite challenging. The actual controller code is pretty trivial. Too late now.

Maybe over the weekend.

 

[chucketn]

Rod, I'm working on adding a serial LCD and 4x4 Keypad to Chuck F's build. I have the prototype of Chucks working but not installed on the RT yet. I have 2 more Arduino Uno's, a stepper shield, LCD, Serial adapter, and 2 screw type proto boards on order. Looks like another week to 10 days before I get all the parts.

Chuck(chucketn)

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I finally fired up my old PC and found all my Arduino code. I've actually done a lot of development of bits and pieces of the user interface code for a rotary table controller based on the Freetronics board which should be able to be slotted straight into this project of Johns if he keeps the pin assignments the same. Stuff I did was complete menu system and form data entry module as well as playing around with stepper drivers. I'll try and go through it and post some of it up on another thread dedicated to software for this project. I started on this because I could see the limitations of Chucks controller and wanted to get a robust system in place. I just ran out of time. So if there is some interest, maybe one of you guys could take my work and build on it to make the software as kickass as Torontobuilders hardware.

As always, the User Interface code is 90% of the project. Getting data into the system with only 4 keys is quite challenging. The actual controller code is pretty trivial. Too late now.

Maybe over the weekend.

hey rod, I'm happy to help on the software too... I need to learn more. I'd like to see HMM guys develop the best controller out there if we can.

I'll look for the new thread under software

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I got my delivery from Sainsmart today but then my laptop display died... talk about bad timing.

I had to dig out one of my old desktops and am now trying to restore all my programs. Tomorrow though I'll begin working on my arduino sketches.

 

[rodw]

I've been having some trouble getting a compiled and working stuff off my old PC. I gt very confused where the Arduino IDE puts libraries and stuff so I need to do a bit ore work on this but the bits I had are:
1. a complete menu system that I had cleaned up and got working specifically for a Rotary table and the Freetronics display
2. a comprehensive field data entry library I'd added a field type to add angles in degrees minutes and seconds. The data entry was based on pressing up and down arrows to increase a number under the cursor by a specified amount. I wanted to add another integer field data entry routine that let you do the same thing to an integer (eg Number of Divisions) as the current data entry routine was based on incrementing or decrementing by specific amount which could become tedious.
3. Some trivial code to drive a stepper driver using the timer interrupt. It is not desirable to use delay()
4. I had also experimented with using an SD card and was able to read and write files

 

[rodw]

Well, I made some progress on software and created a thread here http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?p=261280#post261280

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Ah I love ebay... at least the one vendor since my package arrived in about 1/3 the time it took my sainsmart shipment to arrive.

I now have everything but my circuit boards and stepper motor.

3 Nanos
3 20x4 lcd displays w/ serial adaptors
3 current sensors
5 stepper drivers... and more

so soon the build photos will start coming. everything is much smaller than I thought... I hope I can keep hands steady enough to solder well.