[kemper45]

Bill and Randy, thanks for the replies. If Randy could post a few more pics that would be great. No big rush, certainly should be lower than the clock on your to do list.

Dave

[bjesson]

Dave,

Bill pretty much nailed it regarding the wiring. I'll take a few close-ups and post em, probably tomorrow.

The ground bus is definitely optional. You will end up with several wires all coming back to one pin on the Gecko (11, I think). The ground bus just helps keep things neat and easy. I had one laying around and it was easy to do.

Regards,

Randy

Ground bus is opional but damn near close to required. You will not regret the whole $1 you spent on getting one and the time installing it. when you get to the limits and home this bus will make everything neat and easy to troubleshoot in the long run. I didnt use one but had planned to and excitement took over since wiring was the last phase before running my CNC. Well now that I had soldered 6 ground wires to one wire on the input ribbon cable, and it is a very time wire, the solder joint isnt all that good, the ribbon cable didnt seem to like the solder as much as the copper So I get intermittent limits reached in the middle of programs sometimes from the vibration of the router and steppers. I highly suggest using the bus!

billj

[groswald]

Dave,

I had a few minutes this morning. Here are the pictures and descriptions for the CNCRouterParts/Gecko wiring.

Photo 1 shows the power supply. Sorry it's so blurry. I had to hand-hold the camera. (I take most of the pictures on a tripod to let me maximize depth of field). You can see where the line cord is wired at the top. In the US Black is always hot (L) White is Neutral, and Green is ground. On the bottom a Red wire is hooked to V+ which is DC positive, and a Black wire is hooked to V- or DC negative. I used some left-over 12 ga. high-amp wire left over from an electric large scale RC airplane project for the DC power feeds.

Photo 2 shows the wires and colors. I couldn't get a camera angle that would show both at the same time.

Photo 3 shows the Gecko side of things. DC+ goes to pin 11, DC- goes to the ground bus and then to pin 12. You can see the back side of the ground bus where I shorted 5 of the terminal-pairs together. I can add more if I need them. I think I will wire the limit switches as both Limit and Home, so the grounding real estate will help.

The Emergency Stop button is wired in the normally open position with one side wired to pin 10 on the Gecko and the other to ground on the bus.

The last picture shows the Gecko pins used so far. The Limit/Home switches will use several more.

The power supply is mounted using the stand-offs that came with it. It is screwed to the sidewall with #8 x 3/8" round head wood screws. I could do this because I had to use 1/2" ply for the sidewalls. The Gecko is mounted on 1" nylon stand-offs threaded 8-32. Four 8-32 x 1" screws come through the sidewall and secure the stand-offs. The Gecko is mounted to them with the short wood screws.

I like this layout, but there is one potential drawback. I may have to modify the compartment door to provide clearance for the cables. I was going to make two doors anyway. I'll add a recessed pocket (recess points outward) to the rear door to ensure the servo and parallel cables don't get kinked too bad.

Regards,

Randy

[bjesson]

I mounted all my electronics to the side wall as well using nylon standoffs. Worked out pretty good but the power supply chews up almost one whole compartment in my system. The driver board also was quite a bit bigger then the Gecko or Xyloteks. I am ordering a controller box and removeing the electronics from the machine and using an umbilical into the system to just feed the wires. This will protect circuitry from any interference when the router is running at 20,000+ RPM as well as put the Estop right next to the PC which is where I am sitting when running programs to cut parts. It will also add the benefit of being able to use the controller on multiple machines if I ever go that far.

billj

[kemper45]

Randy,

Thanks a bundle for taking the time to photograph and document your connection set up thus far. Posts like yours are what allows greenhorns like me to take the plunge and get into these types of projects. Eventhough I am an engineer (structural) by training I have never been able to wrap my head around the electric/electronics side of things.

I have a test setup wire arrangement in place with one motor and an E-stop button just to see if I could get it to spin (and I did) following other examples posted elsewhere. I will expand on my test set up using your photos and description as a guide. The next step will be the home and limit switches. If I understand things correctly I can wire the limit switches in series to one input on the G540 and then fasten the other terminal of each switch to the bus.

Tomorrow I will be dropping by the "electronics" store looking for a terminal block or two, some wire, the "lugs" (not sure what the correct term is for them) you use to connect to the block and some nylon standoffs. I also like the way you use the "lugs" for the PSU to keep the connections nice and tidy.

One last question - you used left over 12 ga wire, but what is a minimum gauge appropriate for these connections?

Thanks again, Dave

[bjesson]

Randy,

Thanks a bundle for taking the time to photograph and document your connection set up thus far. Posts like yours are what allows greenhorns like me to take the plunge and get into these types of projects. Eventhough I am an engineer (structural) by training I have never been able to wrap my head around the electric/electronics side of things.

I have a test setup wire arrangement in place with one motor and an E-stop button just to see if I could get it to spin (and I did) following other examples posted elsewhere. I will expand on my test set up using your photos and description as a guide. The next step will be the home and limit switches. If I understand things correctly I can wire the limit switches in series to one input on the G540 and then fasten the other terminal of each switch to the bus.

Tomorrow I will be dropping by the "electronics" store looking for a terminal block or two, some wire, the "lugs" (not sure what the correct term is for them) you use to connect to the block and some nylon standoffs. I also like the way you use the "lugs" for the PSU to keep the connections nice and tidy.

One last question - you used left over 12 ga wire, but what is a minimum gauge appropriate for these connections?

Thanks again, Dave

Dave,

Here's some suggestions on what guage to use and where....

12 guage stranded from wall socket to AC side of power supply.
16 - 18 Guage stranded from DC side of power supply to driver.
18 - 22 guage sheilded security or stepper motor wire between steppers and driver interface ( i think you have these cables already so this is for those reading)

HURRAY MY ANODIZING STATION JUST SHOWED UP!!!

sorry, was interupted by UPS

24 guage stranded or smaller for limits/home switches (i used telephone cord but cat5 network cable will work as well as anything else)

That should cover it all. That should be a good general starting point.

billj

[kemper45]

Thanks for the input Bill. I have the outlet to AC side, motor to driver and switches wires covered. Will add the 16-18 gauge to my shopping list.

Dave

[kemper45]

Randy,

I have followed your wiring exactly as I see it but can't get my G540 out of fault mode. I am attaching a photo with apologies for all the red wires (it was what I had).

Basically I have

- top leftmost from V- on PS
- remainder of top row shorting between terminals
- bottom leftmost goes to pin 12 on G540
- second from left on bottom is from estop button

In addition to those I have V+ to pin 11 on G540 and estop to pin 10 on G540.

If I disconnect the estop wire on the bus and reconnect it to V- on the PS I can get out of fault mode.

What am I missing?

Thanks, Dave

PS sorry for the blurries I was in a hurry

[bjesson]

Randy,

I have followed your wiring exactly as I see it but can't get my G540 out of fault mode. I am attaching a photo with apologies for all the red wires (it was what I had).

Basically I have

- top leftmost from V- on PS
- remainder of top row shorting between terminals
- bottom leftmost goes to pin 12 on G540
- second from left on bottom is from estop button

In addition to those I have V+ to pin 11 on G540 and estop to pin 10 on G540.

If I disconnect the estop wire on the bus and reconnect it to V- on the PS I can get out of fault mode.

What am I missing?

Thanks, Dave

PS sorry for the blurries I was in a hurry

Sounds like you have the Estop wired as normally closed, try wiring it as normally open or press the switch when it is faulted to see if fault goes away. If it does then you have it wired on the wrong pins of the switch. I will see if I can pull the pinouts for the g540 and see what exactly all those pin numbers go to. Unless Randy replies sooner

billj

[kemper45]

Bill,

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried wiring the estop on the opposite pair of pins and no difference. Also if I disconnect the estop from the bus and wire it directly to V- on the PS I can get the G540 to come out of fault mode.

These factors make me think I am doing something wrong in the wiring of the bus.

Dave

[groswald]

Dave,

You need to connect pin 1 on your ground bus to pin 2 so that you have ground (V-) on all pins. It's hard to see in my pictures, but it is there if you look carefully.

Randy

[bjesson]

Bill,

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried wiring the estop on the opposite pair of pins and no difference. Also if I disconnect the estop from the bus and wire it directly to V- on the PS I can get the G540 to come out of fault mode.

These factors make me think I am doing something wrong in the wiring of the bus.

Dave

Dave, the bus looks fine from what I can tell in the picture. Let's get some more info here, are you hooked up to Mach3 or any CAM software yet? Or is this just a bench test without computer involved?

billj

[bjesson]

Dave,

You need to connect pin 1 on your ground bus to pin 2 so that you have ground (V-) on all pins. It's hard to see in my pictures, but it is there if you look carefully.

Randy

Damn, I read it too fast originally, thought he had V+ on upper left pin Nice catch Randy! That will do it.

Billj

[kemper45]

When I first tried to diagnose things I thought about the connection between terminal 1 and terminal 2 on the bus. It seemed logical to me that it was required but my confidence to do it wasn't very high and I was afraid I would fry something. I looked at Randy's photos over and over but it did not appear to me that the terminals were connected. To be honest I still don't see it. Edit: Now I see it tucked in underneath the others.

I will get back to this tonight to add that connection and I am sure everything will work out.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

[bjesson]

So, today I discovered why I jammed my machine when cutting thick aluminum. i thought it was bad Gcode. I was doing a test program and midway through the program I saw the Y axis pause for a split second during a Y movement which in turn put it on the wrong spot of the part causing the position to be offset by about 1/8". I thought I had ruined a stepper but went through to see if the belts had lost a tooth. As I was moving Y by hand I saw the pinion was missing the set screw. Word of advice to all, BLUE threadlock on the gear setscrews as they will vibrate free over time!! I ran out to the local hardware store and grabbed a few 8/32 setscrews, threadlocked them in, let it cure a bit and have been running a program for 3 straight hours without a hickup.

I should have done this ahead of time but was excited once up and running that I forgot about it.

Billj

[kemper45]

All's good with the wiring now, thanks guys. Now back to the case building.

Cheers, Dave

[fastpcuser]

So, today I discovered why I jammed my machine when cutting thick aluminum. i thought it was bad Gcode. I was doing a test program and midway through the program I saw the Y axis pause for a split second during a Y movement which in turn put it on the wrong spot of the part causing the position to be offset by about 1/8". I thought I had ruined a stepper but went through to see if the belts had lost a tooth. As I was moving Y by hand I saw the pinion was missing the set screw. Word of advice to all, BLUE threadlock on the gear setscrews as they will vibrate free over time!! I ran out to the local hardware store and grabbed a few 8/32 setscrews, threadlocked them in, let it cure a bit and have been running a program for 3 straight hours without a hickup.

I should have done this ahead of time but was excited once up and running that I forgot about it.

Billj

I was thinking about this too the first time I used the machine. After like hour playing with it ( cutting stuff) I had two of the set screw fall out. it did not do anything because my other bolts were tight but is definitely something to think about and do after your succesfull alignment.

~Mike

[bjesson]

I was thinking about this too the first time I used the machine. After like hour playing with it ( cutting stuff) I had two of the set screw fall out. it did not do anything because my other bolts were tight but is definitely something to think about and do after your succesfull alignment.

~Mike

Not the bearing set scews, I had some come out as well but once aligned and bearing bolts tightened these setscrews falling out pose no issue. The important ones are on the X and Y axis steppers that hold the gear to the stepper shaft. If they come out it causes a big issue obviously.

Billj

[groswald]

Lots of progress over the weekend! As I mentioned in another thread, I have computer-driven motion. :banana: X and Y work well, and the Z-axis screw spins. I have to make the slide and screw mount for the Z, and it's ready for alignment. I ordered a set of Colt clamps from BillJ, and they should be here this week. I also ordered a 1/8 precision collet from Galaxy products, but it hasn't arrived yet. It's a bit overdue, so I need to follow up.

Lots of pictures and notes. In no particular order here they are.

Pic 1: As discussed earlier in the thread I decided to make grade-8 studs for the four that hold the Y/Z carriage together. I was hoping to find 1/4-20 x 3" full thread bolts. I couldn't find any locally or at Bolt Depot, so I had to make 'em. It turned out to be easier than I thought.

I started with normal 3" grade-8's and continued the threads all the way down with a 1/4-20 die. I then cut the heads off. What you see is the result. The new threads a bit gnarly, but they will do given that they only need to thread into parts 22 and 23 once.

Pic 2: I also mentioned a thought I had about threading the four spacers (part 24) and using them a jam-nuts. This didn't work. Unless I got the thread starts just right I ended up with part 22 jammed ok, but at 45 degrees to the desired angle and the corners sticking out.

These little gems were my next brainstorm. If threading the spacers won't work, how about making the spacers out of coupling nuts? I faced one end of each, and then turned them to length. They looked nice and functioned as desired, but I was able to put enough torque on the studs that these sank 5 thou or more into the rails. Not good. It would be a good idea if the outside diameter was closer to 3/4", but I haven't seen any. You'll see my final solution in a bit.

Pic's 3 - 9: My next brainstorm was a sure-fire way to put the Y/Z carriage together exactly perpendicular. It didn't work.:violin:

Pic's 10 - 12: Failure leads to success. :cheers: The problem with putting together a parallelogram is all of the independent moving parts. I used some longer studs to lock each pair of Y/Z rails together, parallel, and in the same plane. I used a caliper to ensure that they were spaced 3/32" wider than the rails. It was then pretty simple to lock it all together nice and square. Picture 11 shows the final spacer solution. I drilled all four parts 24 to 3/8" and slid them over the coupler nuts.

I now have grade 8 studs threaded full-depth into parts 23 and 24 and locked in with liberal amounts of red Loctite. The coupler nuts are snugged down tight and also Loctited. There will be no unintended turning here! I replaced the standard lock nuts and washers with grade 8's as well.

The grade 8 hardware let me put a lot of torque on the fasteners. Using the coupler nuts also eliminated four possible racking points. I am sure I could still cause the carriage to rack, but I think it would likely destroy it at the same time!

Pic 13: My solution for making custom bolt-heads. Spin the bolt with a drill-driver against a course disc in a disc sander. Nifty light show and cool picture!

Pic's 14 - 19: My Z axis thrust washer solution. Not high-tech; no angular bearings here, but it should do to take the load off the stepper bearings. The collars are Dumpster units and the three-piece thrust washers came from MSC. All had been ordered for the design I scrapped in favor of the Momus. Construction is pretty self explanatory. The only mods were to eliminate the nice angles from the Z motor mounts and add the lower bearing plate. The screw is a 3/8" - 10 two start so it will be nice and fast should I ever get into 3-d relief carving.

Pic 20: You may recall a short discussion in the original Momus thread on using a panel-raising router bit to make the relief cuts for the the lower X axis bearings. It worked out just fine! They are pretty pricey, but if you have one on hand like I did it is a workable solution.

Pic's 21 - 24: Wire management. All steppers are installed and wired as is the X axis home switch. I still have to install the Y and Z home's and all three limits. The bundle of wire in pic 21 is a mess of cat-5 twisted pairs that will be used for that purpose.

Pic 24. Momus in its more-or-less permanant home. I need to move the wall cabinet, but it hangs on the wall cleats so that is trivial. The computer will go in the base cabinet after I clean it out and make room. The monitor will mount to the counter top on a swing arm as soon as I find it. I replaced the single arm in my home office with a double, and I know the single is around here somewhere!

That's all for now. Sorry for the length of this note. I hope to make my first cuts within the week.

Regards,

Randy

[louieatienza]

Wow great progress! Looks good, it shouldn't be too long now....