This link should take you to the video of my most recent machine which is nearing completion.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RIAMCNC

I posted this in another thread in the GECKO drive sub-forum but thought others might like to see the video.

Chris

Just had to say.. am really impressed!
I am only just starting out on my first machine.. probably another month away before I can run it but your vid is an inspiration!

Keep up the good work!

Rich

Thanks Rich!

I work on it when my job doesn't get in the way of fun ;-)

Chris

Chris, safe to assume you are using ballscrews. Are you using the 45K kernel speed in Mach3?

Any chance you might post the Gcode in the video.

Jay

Chris,

Any chance you can move the motors faster? They seem so slow.:-)

Mariss

This link should take you to the video of my most recent machine which is nearing completion.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RIAMCNC

I posted this in another thread in the GECKO drive sub-forum but thought others might like to see the video.

Chris

Real nice Chris!!!

What size steppers, PS Volts and screw type/specs are you running?

Thanks

Hager

Hi Jay,

Only Z axis has a ballscrew, X and Y are belt driven. Belt drive provides the most efficient means of converting rotary motion into linear motion for this application.

I am running this on a laptop of very marginal quality. I have tried a few of the different Kernal speeds but not sure what it is currently set at (one of the slowest settings).

If I get some time, I will copy and paste the G-Code here - sure isn't anything special, just basic moves.

Chris




Chris, safe to assume you are using ballscrews. Are you using the 45K kernel speed in Mach3?

Any chance you might post the Gcode in the video.

Jay

Mariss,

Two things prevent my motors from spinning faster....

1) Laptop/software, I can only get the steps out of that laptop so fast then it gets ugly. The brand name of the laptop is "Great Quality", that should be a clue as to its capabilities ;-)

2) The space available for my power supply was dictated by the size of your drives. I needed to downsize the power supply from 50V to 35V so that I could squeeze it in the same cabinet along with the G251s. Those drives are just too darn big :----------)

In reality though, the performance at the moment is limitted to the computer and the software. By spring time I hope to have something in place that will increase the performance by about 30%. A bit more voltage is also planned, which will help too.

My goal is 1000 IPM at the current step resolution.

Chris


Chris,

Any chance you can move the motors faster? They seem so slow.:-)

Mariss

400 oz in motors (I think, I ordered them a long while back and cant remember off the top of my head) - Keling.net

35 volts - 50 would be better though

Belt drives, screws are not needed in this application. The Z axis has a ball screw though.

Chris




Real nice Chris!!!

What size steppers, PS Volts and screw type/specs are you running?

Thanks

Hager

It is beautiful when high quality electronics meets a well done design. I wonder what kind of backlash due to the use of belts there is. Nicely done and Ican't wait to see it in action cutting something.

Mike.
P.S. It makes me want to go build another machine

It is beautiful when high quality electronics meets a well done design. I wonder what kind of backlash due to the use of belts there is. Nicely done and Ican't wait to see it in action cutting something.

Mike.
P.S. It makes me want to go build another machine

Thanks Mike!

Backlash isn't too much of a problem when using timing belts and proper tensioning. I have not measured it yet and probably won't measure it till I get the tuning done on the axes. I don't suspect I will be doing any PCB drilling until spring time with it. At that time the other electronics I am designing for it should be done. At that time I will be posting more videos and other neat stuff about it - I hope! :-)

Chris

Any updates??

Mac

Hi Mac,

Wow, it has been a year since I posted that, didn't realize it. Well, not too much has changed mechanically since then. On the electronic and software side of things much has changed.

I am currently working on designing/developing a CNC control for it. Rather than use a PC, I decided to go completely stand alone. While I am making progress on the control, it is slow going with the time I have available to work on it.

Early tests show that it will have output frequency in the range of 200,000+ SPS and that is running fully closed loop using feedback from linear scales.

As there is no "Windows" software to handle the user interface stuff, I had to work out how I would handle the display, keyboard input and mouse input stuff. I ended up with a text based display using a VGA monitor, PC style keyboard and mouse. The user interface is in fair shape at this point, still some bugs here and there, but it is functional.

Machine parameters and similar are stored in EEPROM and CNC programs are stored on SD memory cards. As this is all a microcontroller based control, I don't have the luxury of gigabytes of memory so solutions have to be worked out for programs that exceed internal memory.

During development of the control, I designed everything in modules. This made it easy to focus on testing just that module or its mate. Once I got basic functionality working on each module, I began the integration process whis started about 6 weeks ago. Within a few weeks I hope to have it at the point where it can process and cause motions from the CNC programs as opposed to hard coded test motions. Once that is achieved I can begin work on transitioning the control from basic I/O and basic motion to a more functional CNC control.

Thus far, I have had a lot of fun designing the control and working on the various software modules. But work and life has a way of slowing the pace on projects like this ;-)

Thanks for asking for an update. I have been in the "cave" so much I didn't realize it has been a year since I posted about it.

Chris

wow...It feels reallly good when high quality electronics and a well done design come together.. Thanks..

Chris, that is a very nice machine. Is this something that you have designed yourself or are you going from plans? This video alone makes me want to build one versus buying one.

Chris, that is a very nice machine. Is this something that you have designed yourself or are you going from plans? This video alone makes me want to build one versus buying one.

The machine was designed over a weekend while I was learning to use solidworks. Overall it is pretty good. While its final purpose will be PCB milling/drilling, the interim function is that of a test platform for a CNC control I am designing. While I like MACH 3 a lot, I just find it cumbersome for a small machine, when the computer is as big as the machine, something just doesn't seem right ;-)

Over the past few months I have got the controller moving axes and such and am working out the details of having a tighter integration between the axes. I have not done any "real world' peformance tests so far, but it does appear that it will be capable of 100+ khz stepping frequency while also running closed loop with linear scales. I hope to post a video of the machine being run by the controller in the next few weeks (months) when time allows me to do so.

Thanks for checking it out!

Chris