Hi All,
I am in the process of designing/building a *NEW* Electrical panel for my DIY router. I'm using a Mid-tower computer case with a DIY aluminum front (actually side panel) for all my switches, fuses, digital gauges, Hobbs meters, etc.
First off, and most importantly, the diagrams were drawn with the intent of me understanding them and not representing true schematics. Hence the label on the attached files. (With pictures.....)
I do realize I'm in overkill mode for readouts and fusing. Probably a few other things too. Every fuse, whether AC or DC has LED's (Red / Green - bipolar) to tell me the circuit is OK or the fuse is blown.
The driver fuses, from the Stepper power supply, have diodes in case of power loss, or blown fuse, to prevent damaging the drives. I hope.
I am using Gecko 251's (thanks for the diagram Thinkoutsidethebox) and have ENABLE switches hooked to each along with the E-Stop switch. In this way, I can disable any axis and still use the remaining ones. If E-Stop is hit, all axis' are disabled along with Mach3.
Hopefully, this will work OK and I won't have to power down the Power supply during an E-stop. This should also stop the Router/Spindle because of the SSR, which is Mach3 controlled.
Just to be safe, all G251's are heat sink mounted and there are two temperature controlled fans (one pulling air into the box and one blowing it out) mounted in the electrical box. The G251's heat sink is in line between the 2 fans.
Note: I am only going to use 3 axis, but decided to be ready in case I choose to use a 4th axis at a later time.
The SSR's are also heat sink mounted. This probably won't be necessary, if my current draw calculations are correct. However, I thought I should heat sink mount them anyway. I had the heat sink available. Why take a chance.?!
The Electrical box isn't finished yet and pictures will have to follow at a later date. Only the front view drawing of the Electrical box is included. All connectors to the outside world will be mounted on the left side of the box. The screw-on connectors will be for Steppers and limit/home switches. The plug-in connectors will be for AC (in and out). - The silver paint ran and i have to redo the panel face - What a PITA.
I hope my diagrams are readable. For some reason, when I converted my dft drawings to PDF format, some of the lines are thicker than they should be. They are all the same line width in the drawings. Anyway, the lines around the LEDs are supposed to be dotted enclosure lines and not part of the wiring. Also, some of my diodes are goofy looking.
All fuse/diode circuity, 120 VAC and 5, 12 & 28 VDC was bread-boarded to verify correct component choices (resistor values, diode type and LED type). I'd hate to build on faith and find out I screwed up.
As the Electrical box is being filled with components, temporary wiring is being used to verify that everything is working correctly up to that point. This is being done as systematically as possible, keeping each test procedure isolated from the other, tested and untested, components.
Also, as the tests are being made, records are being kept pertaining to readings of volts and amps. I'm also using my scope to verify there isn't any interference from other sources. This is also recorded as good, bad, acceptable and peak readings.
Then, I intend to begin combining components and doing the testing all over again. In order to verify that everything is still OK.
I'm posting this information in hopes that someone(s) will give it a thorough checkout and point out any flaws which may be present. Any and all comments will be accepted and hugely appreciated.
Any contributing ideas will also be hugely accepted. If there is a better way of doing what has been diagrammed, I'm all eyes and ears.
Sorry about the long-winded post, but I wanted to give as much information as I could think of, without all the fine details which are in the diagrams.
I finally ran out of things to say, for now.
Thanks to the Zone and all the members who have been of assistance to me from time to time. Hopefully, you guys/gals can donate some more of your time and comments/opinions towards this adventure of mine.
Al
PS - I just saw that the Limit/Homing switches wiring is incomplete. That was drawn before I read that Limit switches should be NC. Jumper wires will be added at the terminal blocks.