[allengambrell]

How do I need to wire/solder the usb ends on the cable. It is the same wire to the same solder point on each end or do they need to cross in some way.

[Falcon69]

Attachment 180970

no crossing. Just make sure they are on same pins.

So, if you are looking at the back of it (opposite the picture), where you solder, the right is pin 1, then up to pin 2, then down pin 3 (middle), then up to pin 4, then finally pin 5 all the way to the left. So, say you have 5 different colored wire. The red wire, would go to pin 3 of both. then the black to pin 2 of them both, etc. Color doesn't matter, as long as pins match up. NO CROSSING. You will burn up the switch.

And the reason why you need to solder them, is because you can't buy them. The Mini USB assembled cables you can buy only have 4 wires in them connected to 4 pins. Sure, they look like they are 5pin, but only 4 wires. I struggled with this for 2 days trying to figure out why I was burning up chips and couldn't get them to work properly.

[Falcon69]

Hey Allen, what wire did you finally go with?

[Falcon69]

I still have plenty of the limit switch kits available.

I am however, offering them at a reduced rate. $50.00 for the dual LED kit, $5.00 for the single. Plus the shipping costs.

Because of the difficulty in making a mold and casting the switches in resin, I am no longer making these anymore. I will be making a new style which will come with a wire pre soldered to the limit switches circuit boards, and then a USB plug on the other end so it can be connected to the panel mount.

The new kits will be available in the next couple months. They will be $85.00 plus the cost of the wire per foot + cost of shipping. Two options for the wire will be offered. The tray cable rated shielded wire (which global industries has for about 1.20 per foot), and a cheaper, no tray cable rated at like 20 cents per foot. The non rated is still stranded cable and shielded, and I would think would be good enough for a do it yourself CNC machine.

The new kits will no longer have individual LED's wired to mount to the panel. Now they all come premounted to a circuit board with a mounted push button switch for the LED Test Lamp, and also have a black acrylic bazel with a sticker on it indicating which LED's are for which axis. It's nice looking, I have some of them made up already. It will have four mounting screws and will mount to your control box. It will come with a sticker that can be used to cut the mounting holes and the cut out to fit the board. SHould make installation really easy. Also, the new mainboard will have a reverse polarity and an over-voltage protection circuit on it. It will still be rated at 5 volt supply, but, in case you're drunk one night and hook everything up wrong, it will be okay, up to 20v, as long as it's quickly disconnected and reconnected the right way with 5 volts (easy to steal power from a USB). The whole circuit only draws roughly 275mA, so the power requirement is very little. The new board also has no need for zener diodes anymore, and will work with the Gecko G540 and any other breakout board there is now. The new boards are also HALF the size of the previous ones. Measuring only 29mm x 49mm. Very small.

The new Limit Switches without the mainboard, rear panel mount, and front panel mount LED indication (just the switch alone) will now have a red and a green LED indication on it. Thanks to John100 for his design and my testing to make sure the circuit works as it should (yay for breadboards!), those are now available. But, like the new limit switches in the kit, they will no longer be available with a 3.5mm jack for quick disconnect. The resin is just too hard to keep it from getting inside the jack, destroying it. You'll need to select the wiring. The new switches will run $10 each because the added labor for casting, soldering, and the extra led and transistor for the dual led indication. There will not be an end soldered on the other end. If you want one soldered on, that may be an option. If I decide it to be an option, a Male 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (i need a 3 conductor) or a standard 2.0 USB end can be soldered on. That would be an additional 50 cents per switch.

Oh yea! the new limit switches will now be cased into clear resin, and the circuit boards are now design with screw holes that can be used to mount the limit switches.

All in all, this should now be a COMPLETE kit. ALL wired up. No more labor for yourself to get it finished and together. I will be doing all the labor for you.

On a side note, because the wiring is included, depending on how large your machine is, the shipping costs will now be varied. Don't let the costs scare you. If you price out the limit switches yourself from a different supplier (they will not have dual LED indication) and add on the cost for your wiring, plus your labor to solder, you're looking at much more then $85 + cost of wiring.

The kit still comes with 7 switches. 2-Yaxis, 2-Xaxis, 2-Zaxis, and 1-Home switch.

I am working on a website right now, as well as waiting for some prototype boards to come in for the final testing. If you'd like to pre-order your kits now, just let me know. I will try and get some pictures up soon of the new boards. I'm working on drawing them up in Solidworks now.

But, again, the old kits and single led switches are still available at a reduced rate, plus shipping. Let me know if interested. I have them ready to go.

- - - Updated - - -

I still have plenty of the limit switch kits available.

I am however, offering them at a reduced rate. $50.00 for the dual LED kit, $5.00 for the single. Plus the shipping costs.

Because of the difficulty in making a mold and casting the switches in resin, I am no longer making these anymore. I will be making a new style which will come with a wire pre soldered to the limit switches circuit boards, and then a USB plug on the other end so it can be connected to the panel mount.

The new kits will be available in the next couple months. They will be $85.00 plus the cost of the wire per foot + cost of shipping. Two options for the wire will be offered. The tray cable rated shielded wire (which global industries has for about 1.20 per foot), and a cheaper, no tray cable rated at like 20 cents per foot. The non rated is still stranded cable and shielded, and I would think would be good enough for a do it yourself CNC machine.

The new kits will no longer have individual LED's wired to mount to the panel. Now they all come premounted to a circuit board with a mounted push button switch for the LED Test Lamp, and also have a black acrylic bazel with a sticker on it indicating which LED's are for which axis. It's nice looking, I have some of them made up already. It will have four mounting screws and will mount to your control box. It will come with a sticker that can be used to cut the mounting holes and the cut out to fit the board. SHould make installation really easy. Also, the new mainboard will have a reverse polarity and an over-voltage protection circuit on it. It will still be rated at 5 volt supply, but, in case you're drunk one night and hook everything up wrong, it will be okay, up to 20v, as long as it's quickly disconnected and reconnected the right way with 5 volts (easy to steal power from a USB). The whole circuit only draws roughly 275mA, so the power requirement is very little. The new board also has no need for zener diodes anymore, and will work with the Gecko G540 and any other breakout board there is now. The new boards are also HALF the size of the previous ones. Measuring only 29mm x 49mm. Very small.

The new Limit Switches without the mainboard, rear panel mount, and front panel mount LED indication (just the switch alone) will now have a red and a green LED indication on it. Thanks to John100 for his design and my testing to make sure the circuit works as it should (yay for breadboards!), those are now available. But, like the new limit switches in the kit, they will no longer be available with a 3.5mm jack for quick disconnect. The resin is just too hard to keep it from getting inside the jack, destroying it. You'll need to select the wiring. The new switches will run $10 each because the added labor for casting, soldering, and the extra led and transistor for the dual led indication. There will not be an end soldered on the other end. If you want one soldered on, that may be an option. If I decide it to be an option, a Male 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (i need a 3 conductor) or a standard 2.0 USB end can be soldered on. That would be an additional 50 cents per switch.

Oh yea! the new limit switches will now be cased into clear resin, and the circuit boards are now design with screw holes that can be used to mount the limit switches.

All in all, this should now be a COMPLETE kit. ALL wired up. No more labor for yourself to get it finished and together. I will be doing all the labor for you.

On a side note, because the wiring is included, depending on how large your machine is, the shipping costs will now be varied. Don't let the costs scare you. If you price out the limit switches yourself from a different supplier (they will not have dual LED indication) and add on the cost for your wiring, plus your labor to solder, you're looking at much more then $85 + cost of wiring.

The kit still comes with 7 switches. 2-Yaxis, 2-Xaxis, 2-Zaxis, and 1-Home switch.

I am working on a website right now, as well as waiting for some prototype boards to come in for the final testing. If you'd like to pre-order your kits now, just let me know. I will try and get some pictures up soon of the new boards. I'm working on drawing them up in Solidworks now.

But, again, the old kits and single led switches are still available at a reduced rate, plus shipping. Let me know if interested. I have them ready to go.

[Gar33nett]

I would think would be good enough for a do it yourself CNC machine.

[epineh]

Made a simple version for my new machine today, I had some 15mm perspex lying around so I drilled a couple of mounting holes and a hole to shove everything in, pretty happy with the result.

I didn't put the resistor with the hall switch/LED as I am not sure what voltage I will be using, instead I will decide that later and have the resistor on the opto input board.

I don't have any magnets yet so I cannot make the magnet holder, but you get the idea.

Cheers.

Russell.

[Falcon69]

Woohoo! The new boards are operating as intended. Reverse polarity and circuit protection up to 25volts. They are about the 3rd of the size of the old ones. I will post pictures soon, working on that now.

Because I only ordered a couple to solder and test, I did not order any solder paste stencils, and let me tell you, even using a syringe to dispense the solder paste onto the pads of the board, those little 0402 resistors are just way to small to place by hand. So, I am in the process of redesigning the boards to accommodate 0603 resistors and 1206 size networks. The size of the boards wont change, but it is now packed with components.

[Falcon69]

Here are the new boards, against the old board. Much Much smaller. Nearly 1/3rd the size now.
Attachment 186686

Here it is assembled with components, with a quarter for size comparison.
Attachment 186688

Here is the new Panel mount LED array with a built in tactile switch for the LED test, with a quarter for size comparison.
Attachment 186690

Here is the new Black Acrylic Face for the front panel. It will have a sticker mounted to it indicating which LED's are for which axis. It will also cover up the 4 holes that are used to screw the circuit boards together.
Attachment 186692

Here are the new Rear Panel mount USB jacks. They will have a grene LED for visual indication that the circuit is on. Again, a quarter is placed there for size comparison.
Attachment 186694

And here it is assembled. The 26-pin cable will come in lengths that are 6 inch intervals. I have the tools too cut to size.
Attachment 186696

And these are what the new switches will look like. They will now have screw mounting holes. They will also be encased in resin now (working on the molds now to do that) and will have 6 inches of wire lead on them, instead of the USB jack. I had a problem with the resin flowing inside the USB, damaging the jack.
Attachment 186698

To make install on the front panel easy, I cut out sticker will also be included so you can position and drill the mounting holes and the cut-out exactly where you need it. Searching right now for a company to make the stickers for me.

I may need to raise the price of these to $100 for the kit, but I have not decided yet. I will see how much labor is required to encase the switches.


I assembled the circuit late last night, and it's working now. When the supply wires are hooked up backwards (reverse Polarity), the board doesn't even turn on, it does nothing. When 12 volts is supplied, the red LED switches on, indicating over-voltage and the board does not turn on. When 5 volts is supplied and hooked up with correct polarity, the board turns on and operates as it should. The tactile switch on the Panel Mount LED, turns on all the LED's, both on the panel, and on the switches. Very Cool!. The magnets are triggering the switches correctly and the LED's cycle through the colors as they should! The outputs are working as well. Been a big project, and lots of test and failure trials to get it working properly, but, I think the result looks great!.

The stickers for the panel mount will look like this.
Attachment 186700
and the sticker for the cut-out will look like this.
Attachment 186702

I will have these available for sale soon. No date yet, but if you'd like to pre-order them, just let me know.

I still have lots of the old style available and selling those at $50 (plus shipping) for the kit.

[turmite]

Jason, I wanted to thank you publicly for your up and beyond help! Thank you once more.

I have a couple of questions to ask you.

It seems I have misplaced one of the sheets of docs and I don't know if this was addressed or not.

1. does magnet polarity make a difference?
2. what is the best way to orient the magnet.....face, back, edge and if edge, vertical or horizontal?

Mike

[Falcon69]

Great! so you got the pre-wired USB jacks then. good deal.

No, it was never addressed, but I will put it in the document from now on. I totally forgot about it.

The magnets face should go toward the sensor. As if you can sit the magnet onto the sensor flat, not on edge. Polarity DOES matter. The magnet will stick to metal, no matter which way you place it, however, if you put another magnet to it, one side will repel, while the other will attract the other magnet. The side that repels, need to go toward the Sensor. The magnet should be less than 1/4 inch away from the sensor. Here are three pictures of me holding the magnet to show which way it goes, you can see it triggering the sensor.

Attachment 186712Attachment 186714Attachment 186716

[Devastator]

Polarity DOES matter. The magnet will stick to metal, no matter which way you place it, however, if you put another magnet to it, one side will repel, while the other will attract the other magnet. The side that repels, need to go toward the Sensor.

Like poles will always repel, so the magnet can repel on either the N pole or the S pole depending on the orientation of the opposing magnet. What is the best way to determine if you have chosen the right pole?

[Falcon69]

hmm, you're right. I just noticed that while playing with the magnets. Well, I'm going to have to start taking out a sharpie and put a dot on the magnet to indicate which way to face the sensor.

Sorry Mike, I am not sure how to tell which way the magnet needs to go, without turning on the circuit and trying it.

[Al_The_Man]

The SS441 are Uni-Polar the SS411 are bi-Polar.
Al.

[Falcon69]

ya, I'm using the Allegro A3144. Same as the SS441, unipolar. The only difference is the temperature compensation.

[hollisin]

Did this ever happen??
Thanks

[Falcon69]

Did what ever happen?

[turmite]

Well, if by "it" you mean it, then yes, it did happen! At least for me it did!

Jason just to let you know I will be machining my switch housing tomorrow and should have everything wired and installed by late afternoon.

I do however have a question for you ....... well, another question that is.

I see on your main board that you have one connection point to go to the break out board for each axis. My break out requires both signal and ground for the limits. Will it be ok for me to just pick up ground from the system, or will this introduce noise, or will it matter using the smooth stepper board? Using these switches do I follow the protocol of attaching the shielding on one end only, or both end?

Mike

[Falcon69]

I don't think the short distance from the mainboard to your break out board from inside your control box matters for noise much. It's when there's a long length and the wire goes near operating motors is when noise enters the system. But, to be safe, yes, the wires should probably be shielded as much as possible. I am not sure on the breakout board, maybe someone else can chime in, but I think you can just ground out at the same point the mainboard is.

Just an FYI,

When I was installing car stereos, I often got ALOT of noise from the engine/alternator coming through the Amps/speakers. One way that always worked for getting rid of the noise was to run a wire that connected where the amp ground, and where the car battery grounded. That eliminated the noise loop. However, with switches, I am not sure if this method will work or not, never tried.

The switches do however have a capacitor on them, which aids in eliminating noise/false triggers.

Turmite, when I test the switches to make sure they operate correctly, I do it this way.....
Attachment 187646

So I'm not sure how your BoB works, but from my understanding, most BoB have a ground output, and all the switch does is complete the circuit sending the BoB output to ground, causing a fault (or trigger for the software).

[Falcon69]

Just thought I'd post these. I had some time over the weekend and managed to get one of the molds finished. I haven't tested it yet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. That mold stuff is expensive. this took 1 lb of RTV mold stuff, and I need to make 3 of these things. at $30 per pound, it's very expensive. Not to mention all the labor it took to make the mock-up parts to create the mold.




Once all the switches have been placed into the mold, I will then clamp it off with another piece of 1/2" plexi glass and then inject the water-clear resin into the mold. That's what the other two little holes are for. One for the needle, one for a breather hole. The wire fits tight in the mold, so I don't anticipate any resin leaking from there. I may get alittle leaking through the boards on the side, but I plan on using a fine file to get it off. If I have time this weekend, I'll test the mold and post up the result.

[turmite]

Ok, I now have a problem that I have thought about early on but now has come to bite me. The limits are working fine, well for the most part, but now I have to have this question answered. I am using a Campbell Designs break out board made my Sound Logic. I am running a Ethernet SmoothStepper and have Jasons 7 switch kit.

Previously I had mechanical switches with 5 vdc and all the switches were run in series n/c. Since the switches were not powered, I am assuming they were getting the 5v from my bob. The connections available on the bob for the switches are: grnd.....signal.....12vdc. The 12 vdc was for npn prox switches which I never used. I also never connected the switches to the 12vdc.

Here is my problem. If I understand this correctly, for a switch to work as it should, the circuit has to be broken in a normally closed set up! That requires two wires to complete the circuit. One coming from the break out board, to the switch the other from the switch back to the break out board. Switch is activated, and bang, the circuit is broken, emergency stop called for an all motion is stopped!

How do I complete the circuit when only one wire goes from the switch main board to the break out board? Are these switches used as n/o or n/c?

Mike