[diarmaid]

Not sure yet tercero. I suppose it just goes over the PCB anywhere, just as near as possible. I imagine it should be in a vertical position so that it can transfer the heat away from the pcb more efficiently. But I could be wrong. The fan then will have to move air across the heat sink to remove the heat. Im buying my rectifier and smoothing cap next week.

[tercero]

Not sure yet tercero. I suppose it just goes over the PCB anywhere, just as near as possible. I imagine it should be in a vertical position so that it can transfer the heat away from the pcb more efficiently. But I could be wrong. The fan then will have to move air across the heat sink to remove the heat. Im buying my rectifier and smoothing cap next week.

I'm going to ask on the hobbycnc site. This needs to be clear.

Tercero

[diarmaid]

Good idea please keep us informed.

[Woodie1]

Anyone have any ideals for making a Control Box? I have the
3 Axis HCNCPRO Driver Board Kit from Hobby CNC.
Thanks,

[diarmaid]

Im going to make mine out of wood. I'll be posting pic's when I get that far.

[tercero]

I'm going to ask on the hobbycnc site. This needs to be clear.

Tercero

I figured this out. You litteraly drill the aluminum plate (using the template provided) at those holes. Tap them (make threads), then attach it (providing your own heat sink compound...I'm using Arctic Silver II) with the screws provided to U1-U4. Kind of inefficient. I'd rather see a more aggressive aluminum finned heat sink, peltier, or GPU cooler like the ones used on the Xylotex.

I'm disappointed though I asked and no one on the hobbycnc site answered. I'm kind of regretting I didn't buy the Xylotex kit.
http://www.xylotex.com/3AxSysKit.htm

[blfinche]

Anyone have any ideals for making a Control Box? I have the
3 Axis HCNCPRO Driver Board Kit from Hobby CNC.
Thanks,

I ordered the box recommended on their site, but man is it going to be tight for my components. I wish I had ordered the complete system from HobbyCNC, since I think it includes plans for drilling and layout of components for the power supply.

Bobby

[diarmaid]

Its strange that they didn't answer tercero. I had very quick responses to any of my questions. I don't really care if it has fins or not once it works. Fit for purpose will do me. I looked at the Xylotex initially but it can't be shipped into the EU, and anyway, Im enjoying putting this together now.

[bigz1]

Diarmaid was their a reason you didn't buy the full driver kit?

Also heres some shots of my box converted from a file case from Partners the Stationers for £10. Going to put sockets on it to conect limit switches and steppers eventually. Have also replaced DPST switch with a nice illuminated one as I melted the original one with a short.OOOPS

[HobbyCNC]

I figured this out. You litteraly drill the aluminum plate (using the template provided) at those holes. Tap them (make threads), then attach it (providing your own heat sink compound...I'm using Arctic Silver II) with the screws provided to U1-U4. Kind of inefficient. I'd rather see a more aggressive aluminum finned heat sink, peltier, or GPU cooler like the ones used on the Xylotex.

I'm disappointed though I asked and no one on the hobbycnc site answered. I'm kind of regretting I didn't buy the Xylotex kit.
http://www.xylotex.com/3AxSysKit.htm

I'm going to guess you missed MY post on our support group about our internet connection being ripped from our house along with the 220VAC service? Just now getting back to normal.....

The heatsink drawing is NOT a template. It CLEARLY states to locate the holes from the chips. It also gives 2 dimensions to start the first hole. Look at the pictures on our website for another clue.
It is MORE than adequate for the job.

[tercero]

I'm going to guess you missed MY post on our support group about our internet connection being ripped from our house along with the 220VAC service? Just now getting back to normal.....

The heatsink drawing is NOT a template. It CLEARLY states to locate the holes from the chips. It also gives 2 dimensions to start the first hole. Look at the pictures on our website for another clue.
It is MORE than adequate for the job.

Sorry to read about your service. No. I didn't catch the fact you were off line.

I'm sorry though, but this is the one area which is not clearly described David. It's left to the builder to figure this out, and to me that's inadequate. I'm the buyer. I want everything to be completely transparent without any sort of guess work. My background is NOT electronics, so I'm doing a lot of guess work, and I'm not comfortable a lot of the time building this. I've spent a lot of money on this kit. I want it to work 100% the first time. I don't want to burn out anything.

[wallyh]

I, too have had the same problem with the heat sink positioning. Thank you for asking the question again. It's not clear to me either and I don't think Dave's answer was very enlightining.
Wally

[diarmaid]

Diarmaid was their a reason you didn't buy the full driver kit?
Also heres some shots of my box converted from a file case from

I thought I did buy the full driver kit. I bought the 3Axis Pro kit, and the driver kit comes with it. Im not sure what you mean?

Thats a sweet box. I might consider doing something like that instead of wood. Thanks for the idea.

[bigz1]

Sorry I meant the CNC package. Which includes everything except the case and transformer.
http://www.hobbycnc.com/hcncpropkg.php

[diarmaid]

Yup, thats what I bought. Its a real pity that they dont offer a transformer for 110V or 220V with it. That would have been so much easier for me.

[diarmaid]

Hi folks,
Ok so now I think I have everything that I need!
Below is shown my entire power setup. You can see my transformer, my plug, 13Amp mains cable (White) to go to the transformer, and 10 Square (Grey) cable to go from the transformer.

I was told that I need the big heavy grey cable to be able to take my 24Amps coming out of the transformer. The guy in the shop said that 6Square cable may not be enough. I dont know anything about these cables or what 'square' means, but if anyone wants to offer any info please feel free.

You can also see my 35V 27000uF Capacitor, cost about €28, its the black cylindrical shape (aka Smoothing Cap, aka Filter Cap).

The little black square is my 35Amp 50V Bridge Rectifier, cost €4.60c

Now....a small problem has arisen! Im not an electrician and have a lot of questions about this stuff before I end up killing myself! So I have started a thread in the General Electronics forum to get my answers then I will update you all.
My electrical thread is here:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...926#post212926

Edit: Please look on down to Post number 82. It transpires that the capacitor and rectifier are included in the HCNC Package, I just didn't know what they were or when to use them . Also included in Pic1 below should be an AC switch, and two fuses (All included in package), and possibly a 2K 1W something or other that I dont know anything about at this point but it will become clear as you read on!! Sorry for the vagueness about the 2K 1w thing.

[diarmaid]

Ok folks, I have my transformer working and connected up. Two pics are shown below. Im getting 225V input and my output is now 24.5V after tightening the connections (It was showing as 23.7V). Also I posted a pic of my PCB with the replacement resistor in the bottom right corner.

Now for question 3! I posted this in the thread thats mentioned above but no replies yet, and I think some people following this thread may have the same question at some point so here goes:

My two components, the Capacitor (35V 27,000uf -- Black Cylinder) and Bridge Rectifier (50V 35Amp -- Black cube) both have four (4) terminals which are unmarked.

Which terminals do I connect my live and neutral input and output wires to for each of the two components?

Thanks folks.

EDIT 1:

On the rectifier if you look closely there are two diagonally opposite corners marked + and -, and the other two opposite corners are marked with a " ~ " symbol. The AC inputs from your transformer go to the " ~ " corners. It doesn't matter which of these two corners the live goes to. Likewise for the neutral. The other two corners marked + and - are your DC outputs TO your capacitor.

On the capacitor it should have two terminals marked + and -. Mine has 4 terminals and after a long time we realised that you simply ignore the two unmarked terminals. Connect your rectifier DC + Output to your capacitor + and your rectifier DC - output to your capacitor -. Then connect capacitor + to PCB +, and capacitor minus on to PCB -.

Edit 2:

The inclusion of fuses and the AC on/off switch in this circuit is covered later in the thread. I decided against using the included switch.

[diarmaid]

If anyone buys the same transformer as me off e-bay (The details of the supplier are earlier in the thread) here is how I connected it for 220V input and 24V output.

1) Connect a piece of wire from terminal 2 to terminal 3. (I used a two inch length of brown core from my 13Amp mains cable)

2) Connect mains live to terminal 1 and mains neutral to terminal 4. (Obviously your doing all of this with the mains cable UNPLUGGED...otherwise... (flame2))

3) Connect a piece of wire from terminal 6 to terminal 7. (I used a two inch length of brown core from my 10^2 cable Edit: but now know that the 13Amp would be fine)

4) Connect output live from terminal 5 and output neutral from terminal 8.

This gives me my required output. The connections obviously would be different for a different input or output. I am NOT an electrician and do not have much knowledge of electrical connections. I also managed to trip a switch in my house with my multimeter being set wrong when I tested this the first time !
My point is:
DISCLAIMER: You follow the above at your own risk. I have no electrical knowledge or skill and hold no liability for any accidents injuries or otherwise which occur from you attempting to use the above description as a guide. What is written in this post is simply how I did it, BUT MAY BE COMPLETELY WRONG AND VERY DANGEROUS.

[diarmaid]

Hi all. I connected up my transformer to my rectifier and capacitor and:

I had 24.6V Going INTO my rectifier.

58.9V Coming OUT of my rectifier INTO my capacitor (Its only a 35V capacitor.....hope thats output voltage!)

29.8V Coming OUT of my capacitor.

Then I tried to connect the wires for the driver board from the capacitor and I shorted between two of the terminals creating a spark, not sure which two terminals. But suffice to say now Im only getting .38V from my capacitor output. Hope its not broken. Im waiting for advice in the other thread.

Edit: Ok, now Im getting all sorts of crazy voltages out of everything. Im having major problems getting my rectifier and capacitor connected to get the right readings. You can see information related to this in the other thread linked in Post 76 above. Im hopeful it'll get sorted out soon and then I'll post the correct way to do it all.

Edit2:

1) I had connected my rectifier and capacitor wrongly and this is why I was getting strange readings. See the following post.

2) Above I mentioned that I shorted the terminals on the capacitor (Happens when a conductive material such as metal touches both terminals or output wires at the same time) creating a spark. I now know that this is dangerous. By a strange coincidence, when I was buying my cable in the electrical shop I remembered that I needed a new pliers (This is going somewhere! ), and after shorting the terminals on the capacitor twice and feeling nothing, I noticed that both times I created my short using said new pliers. This pliers I then noticed is insulated to 1000V. Thats why I felt nothing. Be careful when working around the capacitor terminals or output wires.

[diarmaid]

Ok folks. I have connected my rectifier and capacitor correctly to my transformer and PCB (shown below). Im getting 33.6V into the PCB which is great. I dont know why I was only getting .38V yesterday. but re. the output being 58.9v, as mentioned in the edit of the previous post, I had it all connected wrong. I was lucky....seemingly if you connect an electrolytic capacitor backwards it can explode! We need to be aware of this.....

However:

After conducting my first test as per Hobby CNC instructions Im getting 0V at the test pad on the PCB instead of the required 5.0V to 5.2V. I have asked on the HCNC forum about this and will update when I know more.

Edit:
See next post for possible reasons for my 0V at test pad problem which is fixed now.