[upnorth]

Its now fully wired in and everything is tested and working. I used to have some issues with the acorn not connecting if it was turned on before the computer. That is no longer the case. (Not sure why) I wired in the probe fully this morning. It now has probe protection and it works. Instead of the switch idea like it shows in the manual I used a 1/4" phono jack that closes an input when the jack is inserted. This eliminates any worries about forgetting to activate a probe protection circuit switch. I don't know if this is normal for a phono jack it came from my junk box. It could probably be wired up the same way using a stereo jack that one terminal is jumpered internally. Its probably out of some piece of commercial equipment. I am very happy with the drewtronics probe. It sure beats edge finders and gauge blocks.

I also took out the battery for the power draw bar. Using a switching type power supply now. It seems to work well I have not tested to see how much torque it applies yet though. I had to do some weird wiring here and there to fit things in. When I get the 4th axis upgrade I will have to rethink a few things because I put the acorn power supply where the 4th axis driver goes. I also could not find a good spot for the new drawbar power supply so its in there and functional. Not pretty though. Looking forward to doing some cutting this week.

[thomasdahl]

Hallo UpNorth

Do you have any photos and/or schematics of your final panel? Best would be a BOM, but that is asking a lot..

I am looking to use an Acorn in a machine build and am hoping to learn from you to avoid making too many beginner meistakes.

Cheers!

[upnorth]

I missed this question when you posted it. I used the schematics that were on the centroid website. The only thing I had to figure out was the power drawbar. Its all set up and working now. I'm on the road now I work away from home in the winter but I can post photos when I get home in the spring. I would not hesitate to use the acorn again. It works well and has never done anything weird. I would not go back to Mach 3 and will be ordering 2 more acorns to convert 2 other machines I have.

This post was in response to thomasdahl post 101. I forgot to quote it.

[slodat]

It now has probe protection and it works. Instead of the switch idea like it shows in the manual I used a 1/4" phono jack that closes an input when the jack is inserted. This eliminates any worries about forgetting to activate a probe protection circuit switch. I don't know if this is normal for a phono jack it came from my junk box. It could probably be wired up the same way using a stereo jack that one terminal is jumpered internally. Its probably out of some piece of commercial equipment. I am very happy with the drewtronics probe. It sure beats edge finders and gauge blocks.

I have an output switching common to an input assigned as ProbeDetect. In my M6 (tool change) macro I have the following line:

IF [#4120 == 99] THEN M67 ELSE M87 ;If tool is tool 99, then activate output 7, otherwise deactivate output 7.

This assumes that OUT7 is defined as "output7" using the Acorn Wizard for the M67 and M87 macros to work.

I just added this line just before the end of my m6 macro. My wireless probe is tool 99. In my probe installation I added this little junction box on my spindle. It gives me a way to enable probe detect manually. It now has the added benefit of a visual indicator when the ProbeDetect input is on, such as when #4120 == 99. Very cool to have this working. This is an automatic probe detect of sorts for a situation like mine with a wireless probe.

[upnorth]

I like the visual confirmation of the probe being plugged in. Are you using an automatic tool changer? I change mine manually.

[slodat]

I like the visual confirmation of the probe being plugged in. Are you using an automatic tool changer? I change mine manually.

I like it, too. I do not have an ATC at this time. Plan is the S30 spindle when budget and time allow. I do use an M6 T99 when using the probe to activate the ProbeDetect as described above.

[upnorth]

I like it, too. I do not have an ATC at this time. Plan is the S30 spindle when budget and time allow. I do use an M6 T99 when using the probe to activate the ProbeDetect as described above.

I had to google the S30 spindle to see what it was. Are you seriously going to do that? If so please make a thread about it. Looks like quite an upgrade. Should be great for aluminum I wonder how it will be at lower RPM's for cutting steel. The extra HP should be nice too.

[slodat]

I had to google the S30 spindle to see what it was. Are you seriously going to do that? If so please make a thread about it. Looks like quite an upgrade. Should be great for aluminum I wonder how it will be at lower RPM's for cutting steel. The extra HP should be nice too.

This would be for my 5' x 8' CNC router, not a Novakon. No steel in my case.

[Jmhx2]

This would be for my 5' x 8' CNC router, not a Novakon. No steel in my case.

Agreed, it will have very little torque below 6-8k.