Newbie looking to hire or get some help

[Tazzer]

I was in contact with a member on this board that was helping me design a controller for a machine that I am building. I get the mechanical side but the electrical side I am lost. Anyway i have lost contact with him and I have a bunch of stuff that is simply just laying around I am looking at it like a bafoon. I also know that there are some small things I need to pick up.

So my question is this, is there anyone that I can hire that would draw up some schematics/blueprint on how everything connects. I am willing to pay for services.

These are the items that I have on hand

Power Supply
Antek PS-10N56R5R12 with FU-3
Breakout Board
PMDX-126
Drivers
Gecko 203v
Other Items
SmoothStepper
SuperPID
Keylock On/Off Switches x2(one for turning on Router/One for Turning on Controller)
Allen Bradley 100-C37H10 Contactor x2 (one for pid other for controller

I still need to still get my estop switches, I think some fuses and terminal blocks.

Any directions where to go will greatly be appreciated.

[teccboxx]

Hey tazzer, I am building my controller currently as well and we have pretty much the same stuff although I am adding a pmdx-108 for some more inputs and building a complete control panel with touchscreen, keyboard, control buttons and some other goodies.

It is a daunting task and being a machinist I thought I could just buy the stuff and slap it together but boy was I wrong. However I would suggest not limiting yourself to cnczone for help. There are a bunch a smart individuals but I doubt you will find anyone here that will just slap you up a set of electrical blueprints. You will probably just need to go around and read posts to figure out what goes where.

I am about a month or two away from starting on my controller. Unless someone steps in and helps out I'll keep you in mind and we can figure it out together. If you can't wait I would suggest looking over at the mechmate forums and possibly pay for Joe's blueprints so you can get access for there forum. This is where I am getting all my help from and the guys at Joe's are a class in there own right.

Good Luck

[TarHeelTom]

Originally Posted by teccboxx It is a daunting task and being a machinist I thought I could just buy the stuff and slap it together but boy was I wrong. However I would suggest not limiting yourself to cnczone for help. There are a bunch a smart individuals but I doubt you will find anyone here that will just slap you up a set of electrical blueprints. You will probably just need to go around and read posts to figure out what goes where. Good Luck

It does look like a daunting task, but it's really not.

You just need to break it down and take it one little subsystem at a time. There are a lot of little circuit functions running around, but the vast majority of them are really little more than a pair of wires going to either a switch or a sensor. One end connects to the switch(s), the other to the bob.

In some (many ?) cases one pair of wires goes to several switches or sensors. The limit switches are a good example. The computer needs to know that a limit switch has been reached, but it doesn't really care which one. So, you wire all the limit switches in series. Opening any one switch tells the bob that a limit switch has opened, and generally the bob just passes this information straight to the computer. These switches wired in series are NC, or normally closed, switches.

Older machines used Normally Open (NO) switches wired in parallel. The problem there is that if you have a broken wire, or a broken switch, or a wire come loose, the system won't tell you about it. With the switched wired in series (NC) any of the above conditions results in a stopped machine. "I don't know what's wrong, but I ain't moving til you fix me".

One thing I recommend (and do myself) is to go to a local electrical supply house and get a couple of packages of letters and number. These are little books of rows of numbers printed on vinyl, which wrap around wires. It's a great help to have the wires labeled so you, or someone else, can trace wires without having to take apart your entire wiring bundle. For instance, the two wires coming from the 56 volt side of your power supply I'd label them 56V and 56V-. The wires from the Gecko 203Vs to the stepper I label the four wires XA , XA-, XB, XB-. If you look at each Gecko, you'll find a pair of terminals marked A+ and A-, and another pair marked B+ and B-.

Marking wires is a tiny bit of a pain, but it really pays off in the long run. Don't know how many times I've been working in an area, then finishes up and there is one lone wire hanging loose. If you've numbered the wires and have made a drawing as you went along, it's easy to find out where the wire came from.

Make sure you make wiring drawings as you go along. You don't necessarily need a huge master drawing, but can easily make a drawing (schematic) for each little system, such as the limit switches, as you go along. You can also make a drawing showing just one Gecko, as the other two or three drawings will be identical.

Be aware that Steve at PMDX is the authority on his boards, and usually answers his emails almost every day. Marcis (sp ?) at Gecko also hangs out on the Gecko forum here and answers very quickly. Both of those gentlemen are at the top of their class, and are very willing to help. But don't bother them until none of us mortals here on the forum can help.

Tom