Computerized Coil Winder Build in Progress

[vacpress]

Hey guys. Ive been working on a computerized coil winder for a few days and decided to post the working 3D model and current build progress. Maybe get some comments or ideas... However, the 3D model dosent have all the parts of the moving wire guide axis yet. I will put up new photos in a few days.. The CNC computer's HDD has decided to make clicking sounds and not boot. The monster.


In the 3D model you can see the arm.. The wire spool itself is mounted on a old pancake style motor from a hard drive(irony? maybe...). This motor has a very nice slight resistance and mandrel mount which i extended with a part made on the lathe. The bobbins ride on a set of interchangeable platforms ive designed, starting with one for my strat coils. I also want to try making tattoo gun coils, spring reverb transducer parts, and other coils.




These are the first aluminum parts ive cut on the CNC machine ive constructed. This is both a learning process for the 2.5D toolpath programming(surprisingly much more complex than the surfaces stuff i am used to for model making) and a start towards providing custom pickup re-wiring services among other special music instrument related work.

The main rotary axis is a nice 50 oz/in stepper with 512cpr encoder directly linked via a lathed shaft and 2 bearings to the bobbin platform. The wire guide axis is another NEMA 23 with a small pinion and toothed belt. A spring loaded CAM is going to be added, and i am going to lathe up some belt pulleys if the skate bearings dont work well as belt guides.

the software will be something or other. I want to stop using visual basic .net. I am alarmed by the massive and un addressed bugs in the form designer - aka 'the woe'. Oh How I Loathe It. So anyway, i am thinking about cross platform java or some other language i dont know. I want it to be cross platform. I am angry with MS, finally!

Not seen in the design or as-built is the machine base (1/2" acrylic box), the 'live center' which is going to be the same as the motor side, except no motor, the pulleys and guides for the wire. I will probably make this into another DIY article for my website.. There are quite a few projects I wouldnt mind sharing - just gotta find the time.

My hope is that my machine can wrap complex patterns and uniform layers, etc. I have some crackpot ideas about hooking a multimeter to the coil and being able to measure resistance as the machine winds, and possibly add further 'live' analysis of the coil being made.. i am imagining a brush riding on a rotor to provide the contacts.. any ideas on this? a dream machine would involve a/d conversion of live-analysis data, 200-500RPM, accurate pattern wrapping, Broken wire detection, Graphic coil winding previews.

Anyone interested in helping with the software aspect? I am not willing to start any more projects in .net after having them all go to sh*t randomly on me, so this will likely be a much simpler program. Interfacing to hardware.. I want it to be serial, with motion controlled by the MCU.. The MCU programing I can handle.

Cheers,

Robert

[vacpress]

More Pictures - you can see the places i messed up the programs... still. i dont do that anymore, so when i go to upgrade my cnc to something more useful, the parts will come off the mill more or less ready to polish.. love it!





Not all of these parts are for the machine.. The acrylic bracket in the front is for a tattoo gun design, the 4-hole square is an 80-20 end plate, and the little round part came out of the center of the NEMA23 motor mount at left. the mount is part of the machine. In the back is the bobbin plaform with a mounting plate bolted on..

If I dont like the machine, i may add a cross-slide and make it into a tiny little 'rotary +2' axis carver and teach it to make chess sets, or something.

[Al_The_Man]

To me that would be an ideal project to use a Galil Legacy (for cheapness) controller like the DMC-1000 series, with all the coordinated axis controls it would give, as well as analogue input if required.
You obviously do not need CNC type G/M code input, but if a lookup table could be used that took pertinent operator input data and generated the neccessary winding parameters for the motion.
With all the powerfull built in Galil functions, you may look at options otherwise not considered.
For my money, once you have used these cards, you are spoiled.
Al.

[vacpress]

al,

thanks for the idea.. i was initially thinking simple acceleration and deceleration speed + acceleration / time increment or something... for calculating the windings, i was thinking a panel like the plugins for Mach.. But not a plugin for mach.. Though there is that Mach3 coil wnder plugin which i will look at soon.. anyway i was thinking take in wire gauge, bobbin diameter and configuration, and have it display a progress bar, number of winds to go and done so far, etc. Seems 'easy' compared with some other stuff ive done recently.

so.. define cheap.. my PIC in-circuit debugger and emulator and compiler set me back a bit.. im sort of into 'free' samples and picBasic these days.. this machine was made with bits from the scrap bins, basically. the RSR9 THK rails were $5 each on ebay, the motors were part of something that was free. the aluminum was about $4 because i found 18lbs of 1lb 9x4 sheets for $18 shipped (!), the 8020 was cutoffs from my cnc machine, etc.. i wanted to build something small and cute, and as i cannot afford appropriate bearings to make the little lathe i will make eventually, i made this. Plus ive been 'needing'; such a machine for years to continue on the spring reverb research i as doing before discovering starting college.

[vacpress]

yes.. i was considering having the PC side generate a lookup pattern.. basically an array with the ratios needed, and acceleration rules, and number of winds, then have the MCU do everything, updating the PC software ever X number of winds based on RPM and what the serial link can handle. In my experience, it should be able to do realtime with this simple requirement, and i know a midrange PIC can do it and the rest of the control... say a 2-byte word with the feedback data, 600rpm(to make it easy)/ 60 = 100/RPsecond. 100x16 = 1600.. so well within even 2400...

another idea is the USB-HID stuff which is fun and fairly easy, except it moves away from cross platform use.. i have checked for awhile to see if the stinking MS HID driver has an equivelant on mac\linux yet..

[307startup]

*click* now I can follow this post

[Drakkn]

have you got the dxf files available for the pickup winding machine - It would make a great addition to my guitar making workshop