On my NM200 I tried running coolant with a shower curtain enclosure, but wasn't happy with the Novakon-supplied pump and tank. Since I make small one-off hobby parts I just use ar blast and vacuum up with swarf when it gets too messy even for me.
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On my NM200 I tried running coolant with a shower curtain enclosure, but wasn't happy with the Novakon-supplied pump and tank. Since I make small one-off hobby parts I just use ar blast and vacuum up with swarf when it gets too messy even for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CL_MotoTech
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jmhx2
I decided to put the coolant system issues aside and make a full court press on the UCCNC install. Didn't want to lose my "momentum" and be like CL MotoTech, lol.
I have the UC300ETH board and 5 Volt DC power supply mechanically installed and wired up. I ran into a bit of a snag with the power supply that I'll go into detail on the next post.
I have not done any software installation yet. Any hints, or is it pretty straightforward? I seem to recall someone recommending to avoid using the UCCNC install wizard?
Quote:
Originally Posted by upnorth
Good to hear that the shower curtain enclosure should work. It ended up being quite a bit of work for something that is "temporary". And I really like your idea about additional lighting. Cant have too much lighting at my age.
It was a great idea to start up the new thread on Novakon Upgrades. Hopefully I will be able to someday contribute something useful there.
I will have to look closer at your sheet metal enclosure on the other thread. I will have questions.
Wow, buying a stripped mill and doing all of the electronics sounds like a big job and is very impressive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jmhx2
I would be very interested in seeing details of your electronics installation and also details of your 80/20 enclosure. Maybe the best place is in the Novakon Upgrades thread started recently?
What kind of problems did you run into with the pump and tank? I have been dealing with a leaky coolant tank, but have not actually filled it with coolant yet and tested the pump.Quote:
Originally Posted by kvom
So the first order of business to install the UCCNC UC300ETH motion controller and its dedicated 5V power supply was to figure out where to physically put it. I thought the best place would be somewhere between the computer motherboard and the breakout board. On my Torus there is a nice space just below the motherboard.
Attachment 445316
Printed circuit boards need insulated spacers. I don't have any insulated spacers...
But I have a lathe and some old plastic toilet seat bolts. My wife said that was gross.
The center hole was drilled to provide a close fit for M3 bolts.
Attachment 445306
Here are the items I need to install:
- UCCNC UC300ETH external motion controller
- Meanwell RS-15-5 power supply. 5VDC at 3 Amps
- CNC4PC C84 IDC26 to DB25 adapter board
- New circuit board spacers
Attachment 445308
I don't have a lot of flat material to work with. Then I remembered I had bought some poly cutting board a long time ago to use a raw stock for machining. This stuff cuts beautifully with a jigsaw to get the rough shape, and then machines just as nicely on the manual mill to get to the final size.
Attachment 445310
Here are the spacers doing their job of keeping the circuit board away from the cutting board base. I drilled and tapped the base for M3-0.5 threads, and then attached the circuit board to the base with M3 SHCS.
Attachment 445314
The UCCNC UC300ETH in its final resting spot. The cutting board base was clearance drilled for M6 so it could be attached to the existing mounting rail.
Attachment 445312
The next step is to mount the little Meanwell 5V power supply. I decided to go with a metal base plate for the power supply and here where some of the choices I considered. I ended up with one of the aluminum welding test pieces.
Attachment 445322
Since the power supply was going to fed with 240 V, I wanted to try and keep it with the other 240 V devices and wiring. I decided that a good place would be to mount the new base plate to the plastic base supporting the computer power supply. The new base has been machined and has clearance holes for M5. The plastic base has been drilled and tapped for M5-0.8.
Attachment 445324
The new power supply has been mounted to the base plate. The power supply has two M3-0.5 holes on its bottom side, so I drilled two clearance holes in the base plate and attached it with two SHCS. I shortened the M3 bolts in the lathe so that they would not be too long and cause a short circuit in the power supply.
Attachment 445326
Since the existing 240 V wiring to the computer power supply used a 18 AWG power cord, I decided to do the same. Here I have sacrificed a spare 18 AWG power cord that I had laying around and cut off one end and applied some adhesive-lined heat shrink tubing. The other end of the power cord will be cut off later.
Attachment 445328
The existing wiring to the computer power supply was fed from the bottom side of the 240 V terminal blocks (white, black and green wires). I just connected the wiring for the new power supply right next to the existing connections. This particular section of 240 V terminal blocks is just downstream of the external main power switch. So the the new power supply feeding the UC300ETH will become energized at the same time as the computer power supply. I then routed this new power cord left along the bottom and then up the left side, which is the same exact route as the existing power cord for the computer power supply.
Attachment 445330
Here is a better view of the backside of the power supply showing the shortened SHCS that are threaded into the bottom of the power supply. The original plug end of the power cord has been cut off, heat shrink applied and crimp terminals installed. Notice that I zip-tied the new power cord to the existing power cord for the computer power supply.
Attachment 445332
Here you can see the 16 AWG primary used to connect from the power supply 5 VDC output, routed behind the cutting board base, and then to the input power terminals on the top right of the UC300ETH.
Attachment 445334
Notice that the two wires from the power supply are not connected to the UC300ETH? That is because while I measured a reasonable 5.1 VDC on the power supply output terminals, I measured a scary 10.3 VAC with my multimeter. I verified the 10.3 VAC reading with a second multimeter that I had. Thank goodness I checked for AC voltage before I connected the power supply wires to the board and energized it. The power supply is only supposed to have 80mV of ripple ?!?
What the heck is 10.3 V of alternating voltage doing on a 5 V direct current device? I have a second Meanwell 5V 3A power supply due to arrive later today (Monday), but am concerned that it too will show weird AC voltages.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? Am I doing something wrong in my measurements? I just really don't want to vaporize my EC300ETH.
Get the data sheet for your Meanwell power supply and read it. Some of the meanwell supplies have weird specs. I recently bought one and found out it requires a certain amount of current to operate. The minimum current was more than the total normal load I was going to hook it to. Try putting a load on the power supply then read the output voltage.
Upnorth,
Thanks for the help. Here is the Meanwell data sheet for the RS-15-5.
https://www.meanwell.com/Upload/PDF/...RS-15-SPEC.PDF
I don’t see anything that indicates a minimum current? The current spec says 0-3 Amps.
Although there was one answer on Amazon by the seller Jameco Electronics that said it needed 10% minimum load.
Question: Would this work powering a USB port for a phone charger?
Answer: As this is a switch mode type supply, it requires 10% of the rated wattage as a minimum load or 1.5 watts. One may have to power cycle the unit once a suitable load is applied for it to remain "on".
By Jameco Electronics SELLER on August 12, 2019
https://www.amazon.com/MEAN-WELL-RS-.../dp/B005T6UJBU
It may be your meter, you mention moving the selector to AC scale. If not auto sensing it may not play well measuring DC on AC setting.
I looked at the data sheet you do not have the same problem I did. I would still put a load on and then remeasure. If you have any power resistors around that have a suitable range try one of those as a load. Do you have access to an oscilloscope? If so check the output with that to see if there is AC or if you have a meter problem.
So my second Meanwell 5V 3Amp power supply arrived earlier today. After swapping out the old one for the new one I get the exact same 10.3 VAC on both of my Harbor Freight multimeters.
Now before you go hating on my HF meters, I already know they are super cheap and nasty. But here’s the thing, they have ALWAYS worked for me and never given me bogus readings before - that I know of. They are cheap enough where I don’t mind if I drop them or loan them out to pesky relatives. One of my HF meters is the free red one and the other is a ten year old Centech clamp on meter.
I am thinking the odds are pretty slim that I received TWO bad power supplies, so I dig up a third non-HF cheapo multimeter that I have. That third meter shows no weird AC voltages.
I am 80% convinced now that both power supplies are actually good and that I am seeing some sort of false readings from the two HF meters. I have a nice Fluke multimeter, but it is now 30-35 years old and needs to be gone through because I can’t trust any of its readings. My BIL has a much newer Fluke, but I won’t be able to get it until tomorrow.
That is an interesting observation. The two HF meters have a 750V and a 200V AC settings that you have to move the selector switch to. The other meter that didn’t pick up the weird AC voltage has a single position for AC Voltage so it must be auto sensing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jmhx2
I will try the resistors if for some reason I don’t get the Fluke meter tomorrow. I’m not willing to risk the UC300ETH quite yet even though I think the odds are 80% or greater that the power supplies are good.Quote:
Originally Posted by upnorth
Unfortunately I do not have an oscilloscope. I’ve been looking at some inexpensive scopes for awhile but haven’t pulled the trigger so far. I haven’t used one since college, but it sure would be handy right now.
I was able to borrow the better multimeter tonight. It ended up being a Klein instead of a Fluke like I thought.
Both power supplies tested out at 0 Volts on the AC scale. Yippee !
The power supper is now feeding the UC300ETH and there is no smoke. Heck, there is even a flashing green light on the UC300ETH board. I’m taking that as a good sign...
Now onto installing the UCCNC software and establishing communication with the UC300ETH. Wish me luck.
As soon as you mentioned a harbour freight meter I was suspicious of your readings but since you had already decided to try a better meter I said nothing. Glad it worked out for you. Switching power supplies put out a lot of electrical noise so it was probably interfering with your meter. A better quality meter can operate even with the noise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titaniumboy
Lesson learned the hard way about Harbor Freight meters. Lost at least 3 days progress because of spurious readings.
I made a lot of progress tonight.
1. Powered up UC300ETH board
2. Established ethernet communication between PC and board
3. Loaded UCCNC software onto mill computer motherboard
UCCNC software is still in demo mode; the next easy step is to drop the UCCNC license text file into the UCCNC directory.
Question for those who have made the switch from Mach3 to UCCNC: Did you use the “Automatic Installer for Mach3” or did you set it up manually?
I've been down that road with the HF meter, it's not fun troubleshooting your meter when you should be fixing stuff.
I started my UCCNC setup by importing the Mach xml. I'm not sure it's the best way to go to be honest. It doesn't import everything as UCCNC and Mach have different settings, so you have to pick through all the settings anyways. I took screen shots of all my ports and pins and then plugged those into UCCNC, then I calibrated my steppers both for steps per unit and accelerations. Your accelerations and velocities probably will be different in UCCNC than in Mach. When you are plugging numbers into UCCNC make sure to hit enter/return after each entry or the numbers won't stick, but you can turn that feature off in the settings-appearance window under "Validate textfields with Enter key only". Once you do all that you should be up and running. If you do use both Mach and UCCNC the firmware will update on your UC300eth at startup, this is normal.
Thanks for the tips and recommendations.
I had never messed with the steps per unit or velocity or acceleration in Mach3 before. All of those items had been setup by Novakon in the demo Mach3.
I’ve been lazy so far today and haven’t touched the mill.
Wow, that was frustrating. I tried importing the Mach3 xml but, as pointed out, it does not seem to work very well.
I had created a new profile labeled “Mach3”, and then did the xml import. The axis drives step and dir are all screwed up. When I try to change the step and dir to the correct pins, the change is not sticking. I had turned off the feature where the inputs had to be Entered per the excelllent suggestion from CL_Mototech.
I am not sure whether the inability to make changes is because UCCNC is giving me the flashing Reset that I am unable to clear.
I tried doing this on the touchscreen I had set up, but I can see that I need to go back to the regular monitor and keyboard and mouse for this futzing around period.
At least I have an authenticated version of UCCNC up and running. This is the first time that the mill has had other than a demo version control software.
Baby steps...
Remember to hit enter after each input.
Open Mach then write down your Steps/unit from the calibration screen. You can plug those into UCCNC and it will get you close. You'll still have to calibrate it later. I use my 8" calipers for XY, and my height gage for Z. Step and direction shouldn't change port/pin, but you may need to adjust your step pin to active high or low. This will depend on your drivers, but having a look in mach will tell what that should be, it will be in the Mach motor tuning menu.
After entering new settings on a page, make sure you hit apply and save. I'm not totally sure why there are two different buttons, but I just hit them both.
To clear that reset button, go into Diagnostics and figure out which signal is lit that shouldn't be, likely a limit switch or your e-stop. It could be connected to the right pins, but you may have the high/low reversed in your setup. If you play with those settings just make sure you can switch the light on and off in the Diagnostic page when switching whatever respective switch you are testing.
CL_M,
Thanks for the pointers.
I was able to clear the Flashing Reset, but I had to set Emer Stop, X Lim -, X Lim +, Y Lim -, Y Lim +, Z Lim +, X Hime, Y Home and Z Home to Active Low. I note that none of these were set as Active Low in Mach.
Even with the Flashing Reset cleared and being in Offline Mode, I am having big problems with all the axis Step, Dir and Port. Entering the correct settings does not stick with one exception. I have changed back to the normal monitor and keyboard and am pressing Return after all entries.
The one exception is that I can enter 1 for Step and 1 for Port. I can also enter 1 for Dir and 1 for Port. Any other combination of numbers reverts back to zeroes when I press Apply Settings and/or Save Settings.
This same behavior occurs whether I am trying to modify the Mach3Import profile or the default profile.
I know I am probably missing something simple.
Hmm, that's a tricky one. You might want to post on cncdrive's forum if somebody more knowledgeable than me doesn't pop up here.