i i just saw 2 soldstate relays on ebay the were @ $9.99 with no bid & 2 days 5 hrs to go, item # 300110632774. hope this helps you. greg
you can buy relays that will turn the motor on or off through mach. you just have to get one that ir rated at the amp &volts you need or higher &wire it to one of the out put pins that will put out 5 volts when activated. i have bought them on ebay for as low as $11.50 for 4. just type in solid state relays. i have one on my taig now. works great! greg
i i just saw 2 soldstate relays on ebay the were @ $9.99 with no bid & 2 days 5 hrs to go, item # 300110632774. hope this helps you. greg
If only it were that easy.
The X2 electronics that control the motor have safeguards built in that won't
allow the motor to be turned on at higher speeds.
Just like the treadmill controller I replaced my bad board with, "A motor controlled by this board must start at or near zero speed and then the potentiometer can be turned up for higher motor speed, the board will not allow the motor to be switched on at high speed."
If power is cut, i.e. with a relay, the pot has to be turned off then back on to
get the motor back up and running.
I'm not gonna worry about it, it's easy enough to turn the knob without
having the program do it for me.
If i was doing some very long runs and wanted the program to turn the motor off when it was finished so I could walk away, a simple relay would do the job.
Hoss
Time for an upgrade.
Ordered a 4-Axis Bipolar Stepper Driver Board from Xylotex today.
Along with a new BIPOLAR STEPPER MOTOR 495 oz-in, 3/8” Diameter shaft with a flat KL23H2100-30-4B (Dual Shaft) from Keling Inc.
Out comes the Stepperworld 3-axis unipolar driver.
The bipolar driver will give me 278 oz/in from my old motors instead of 195 oz/in with
the unipolar driver.
That should give enough torque for the X and Y Axis' and for my 4th Axis.
Replacing the Z Axis with the 495. Should drill through steel easier than before.
Will jump up to 24 Volts too but not right away, want to see what I get for speed using 12 Volts first.
If I'm happy, I'll save my $50.00.
May have to change the Z Axis pulleys to 1:1 to increase the travel speed,
the 495 is real torguey I guess but not fast.
Ordered from Keling at 12 pm and got an email at 3pm saying it shipped already.Cool.
later Hoss
Hi Hoss
To give you an indication I have the Xylotex board with one of their 24 volt supplies and run 495 oz motors on all three axes of my X2. I have the Homeshop nook ballscrews and get 47 IMP (1200mm/min metric conversion) on X and Y and these are direct coupled to the ballscrew. Z has a 2:1 reduction and I get half the speed.
My observation is the 495oz motors are good for about 300RPM and then they drop off failry quick. I'm not sure if it is a drop in torque or they suffer from mid band resonance. Mind you in their working range they have heaps of grunt and easily drive the X2 head.
Your conversion will give me a good comparison to my machine.
Thanks for posting all your additions and modifiactions as I enjoy reading your adventures and it has opened my mind to what can be done with a CNC'd mill.
cheers,
Rod
Perth, Western Australia
Thanks Rod,
Sounds like I made the right choices.
The old unipolar 195 was just not getting the job done.
I will save the old board for a lathe conversion or maybe a cnc router.
I need to finish up the counter balance this weekend.
Bought some Bondo to pretty it up. Will post some pics when I get it done.
Later Hoss
Whatever else you do, 24v is really the way to go, you won't believe the difference. Well worth the money. You can also get 24v supplies for a lot less than $50 too if you look to Ebay.
Thanks steppermonkey,
I bit the bullet and ordered a 24V 4.5 Amp power supply on Ebay for $28 w/shipping.
As long as I have it all torn apart I might as well get it the way I want it now.
Did find some nice power supplies at Circuit Specialists for $28-40 if anyone is looking for new ones.
They have a 36V 4.2A for $40.75.
Later Hoss
The counter balance is ready to go.
Made it pretty with some Bondo and paint.
Can raise and lower the head with one finger now so the
new 495 oz/in Z motor should have no trouble.
Get a few more inches of travel now too.
I did waste a little bit of good stock on it, got tired of cutting up rebar.
Finally got around to wiring up the bandsaw blade welder from Harbor Freight.
Now I can fix a bunch of broken blades, sometime.
Never do today what can be put off till a week from thursday.
Later Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.com
Last edited by hoss2006; 05-21-2007 at 04:24 PM.
Have my new controller wired up and the bench test went perfect.
Now that's more like it!
Power Baby!
The Xylotex 4 Axis Board was pretty simple to hook up especially since I now
only have 4 wires from the motors (Bipolar) to deal with.
24 Volts really gets them moving too.
I played around with the motor tuning in Mach 3 to see how fast they could go.
The old Stepperworld Unipolar driver wouldn't work at speeds above 20 ipm.
The Xylotex worked at 70 ipm. Had almost no torque at that speed but it did
get them a whippin.
Probably set it at 50 ipm for rapids when it's on the mill but we'll see what it can take tomorrow.
Later Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.com
Last edited by hoss2006; 06-03-2007 at 02:56 PM.
How much does that counter balance weigh? Looks like quite a bit of rebar in there.
hey dropride,
about 38 lbs. if my scale is any good.
went by what little machine shop says the head assembly weighs.
added a couple of nuts on the back to bolt more weight on if necessary to
compensate for some of my attachments.
Guess i should have checked out your site first, just saw the weight on there. Answered my next question on how it was attached to the angle iron as well, lots of great info.
Got the X Axis travel up to 11 inches.
That's with exposing the gibs a little on the one end but there is plenty left for support.
Glad I left the ballscrew a little long on this axis.
I'd only expose it if I really had to.
The new Xylotex drive gives my old motors new life with plenty O'power.
I have the gibs snugged up real tight to eliminate chatter and the motors power right on thru now.
The old stepperworld driver only gave me 8 1/4 X travel before they stalled.
And that was with gibs a lot looser and less accurate.
My goal is to get the work area up to letter paper size. 8 1/2 x 11.
I have half of it now.
Time to take some measurements and make some Y Axis and head extensions. Need another 4 inches.
Need a dovetail bit too.
I'll post a new video to Youtube showing the new speed and travel shortly.
Later Hoss
Tried a few things today and 14 inches of X travel is possible with the stock table. I need a new longer ballscrew when they get back in stock at
Homeshopcnc.
Found something interesting that could give about 20 inches of X travel for about $60. Let you know if it works.
they are cheaper here http://www.roton.com/Mating_Componen...family=7059321
Interested to see how far you can go with this machine.
Thanks skmetal7, I bookmarked that site, that'll save a few bucks for me.
Dropride, I'm gonna push it till it pushes back.
Extending a couple inches past the end of the saddle on each side squeezes
as much out of the travel as it can. The table still felt sturdy with the gibs extra tight, but I would only venture that far if I had to or for engraving.
I'm noodling on something that will give a solid 16 inches and 20 if I push it.
On the subject of speed control and power on/off; I don’t know if you guys have seen or heard of this http://www.cnc4pc.com/C18-Pot_Driven...trol_Board.htm . I don’t know if it will work for your application but if it did you could turn the speed down to zero before turning the power on via software.
John
Can't wait to see that.I may have to set up my mill for cnc if i don't get that other table soon, and could use all the travel i can get.