[dsdmax]

Hi -

I have been following a number of threads in the website for quite awhile and now i am finally at the point where i can make a small addition and hopefully get some feedback and pointers along the way.

I am hoping to approach my project in four phases.

1) build of control box: power supply, controls, BoB, etc.
2) link control box to mach3 - test control box build, start mach3 config, hopefully see motors turn
3) modification of mill: ball screws, motor mounts, limit switches, etc
4) put everything together

So far i have acquired the following components:
g0704 mill
electronics from kelinginc: C11G Bob, KL-7212 PowerSupply, G201x controllers, steppers: 2 N23-495oz, 1 N34-640oz

I have very little machine experience (took a couple class at local community college). I also dont have much experience with electronics - home wiring is about the only thing i have been hands on with before this project...

Hopefully i can avoid the magic smoke i have seen referenced in a few threads...

[dsdmax]

I got a used control box from a local electronics supply store and a power cord with ground that i am hoping to use to bring my 120v house current to my power supply. I cut the female end of the cord and used a multimeter to determine Hot, Neutral and Ground ... i think - see attached photos.

Light Blue - Hot
Brown - Neutral
Green/Yellow - Ground

[dsdmax]

KL-7212:
I soldered the red leads together and the black leads together.

Assuming i am reading the meter correctly ...
Leads on Blue and Brown - 120V
Leads on Blue and G/Y - 106V
Leads on Brown and G/Y - 20V

Red leads will be soldered to the blue line from the power cord. Black leads to the brown line in the power cord . G/Y line will provide ground to the control box (i still have to get a star ground).

I have a e-stop and i believe i should interrupt the blue line with the e-stop. Question - would it also be advisable to protect the power supply with a fuse?

[dsdmax]

I took this PowerSupply out of an old PC i salvaged ... i understand i should be able to get the 12v i need for the C11G and should also be able to power at least one of these fans ...

[cornbinder23]

That is a switch mode power supply you probably will need a 10watt 10 ohm power resistor to actually get an voltage output

you might want to wiki how-to convert a switch mode power supply to a benchtop power source

its not difficult to do but finding the pin-out diagram might be lol

[mattbesquare]

By "switch mode" you dont mean switching? I used a new 15.00 USD atx ps to power my board, fans, some relays, LED status lights, etc.

I didnt have to use any resistors, just hot wired a power cord which drops 3.3v (or 5v) into a relay... I can get the diagram up if you like.

Online, 400+ watt switching supplies are dirt cheap, with the cost of the rest of your machine it may be a worthwhile little splurge (other splurges will cost a lot more.......)

Edit:

Green wire closed (connected) to a black wire powers on a switching atx power supply-use a switch, relay, or solder together and plug into a shared power strip. I spliced a +12V from my controlling computer to a relay which closed these two, when I turn on controlling computer my whole stack of fans, switches, lights and controllers starts.

Red wires are 5v+
Yellows are 12v+
Orange is 3.3v+
all blacks are ground.

[dsdmax]

its been awhile - but i finally got the nerve to put this control box together (1 drive wired up) and test it .... no smoke!!!

However i have noticed that my motor only turns in one direction when i push up or down arrows in the motor control screen (mach3)... possibly i have the motor windings wrong (thought maybe i had step and direction backwards as well but when i switched them i couldnt move the motor at all). Any thoughts?

I know i have to and an e-stop, a power switch and fuses - i will likely do all of that before i connect the motors to the mill.

I think i read that stepper get hot ... how hot - when do i know their too hot?

[hoss2006]

double check your port setup in Mach 3 to make sure that the pin # on the BOB is correct for each.
i.e pin#2 = step, pin#3 = dir for example.
Also make sure that the wires are making good contact in the BOB and driver and for the motor wires too.
I mistakenly clamped down on the wire insulation on one of my motor wires connected to the driver so it wasn't actually getting juice.
The motor would only spin one direction for either arrow on the keyboard.
It's usually something simple like that.
Hoss

[LeeWay]

I had the same thing once. It was a motor wire not making contact. Only three of 4 wires were connected. It would run in one direction no matter which button was pushed.

[dsdmax]

That's for the tips guys ... i had a couple problems... pins for step/direction reversed. Fixed that and the x-axis started working properly. next moved to the y and z. the z works find.

the y-axis... different story. Motor turns same direction but much slower when i try and reverse direction.

Double checked the wiring - and ports and pins ... everything thing seems ok. fact that x and z work makes me think i could have a component problem. what though? BOB, motor, gecko? tough when i dont have spare parts to swap...

Anything in the Mach3 config that could be contributing to this?

[LeeWay]

You can try using different pins on the BOB for the Y.
That has helped me in the past.

[dsdmax]

maybe i have a bad drive - switched the x and y motors. x-axis still works as expected.

changed the pins for the y (8 direction, 7 step)... motor barely moves - like its not getting power - reaction to input is also very slow. x and z change direction very fast. right now all motors are configured the same (steps, acc, speed). none are connected to anything.

last test - going to put what i think is a bad drive on pins 2 and 1 and see what happens.

[Fastest1]

That sounds like the right approach. Are your motors hard wired or running thru some sort of connectors/Db9's? A simple swapping of the steppers would let you know exactly where the problems are. These are the problems we all have had or are going to have. Persistence will get you thru. Good Luck

maybe i have a bad drive - switched the x and y motors. x-axis still works as expected.

changed the pins for the y (8 direction, 7 step)... motor barely moves - like its not getting power - reaction to input is also very slow. x and z change direction very fast. right now all motors are configured the same (steps, acc, speed). none are connected to anything.

last test - going to put what i think is a bad drive on pins 2 and 1 and see what happens.

[Fastest1]

Btw, any particular reason you chose a G201 over say a G540? Though I am not sure if a G540 could handle those steppers. Just curious.

[LeeWay]

Have you checked the motors for resistance or continuity?
That may help locate a short or bad motor coil.

[dsdmax]

didnt go with the g540 because read posts where many had said the mill would benefit from more powerful motors. the g540 is limited to 3 amps.

hindsight - if i was able to start over i might have gone with a super x2 and the g540. would have cost less to get started and as i eventually want to get a tormach i would have been ok with the smaller size.

but -if i can get this worked out i might not need a tormach. ultimately i want to build scale steam trains ... i am a long way from making parts though!!!

[dsdmax]

double checked continuity when i first wired up the motors to confirm what i was reading (what winding go where). i think the motors are ok because i can swap them and each performs as expected on the other drive.

[dsdmax]

i think i have narrowed it down to a bad drive. neither motor works well when connected to my second drive. (third has the tenth pin off because it is driving a N34). Drive is consistantly bad regardless of the pins i use. tried 1 and 2 as well as my first tests with the other drive were successful there.

i will email Kelinginc on monday and see what options i have. unfortunately i bought all of this stuff months ago and am just now starting to work with them. i am sure any warranty i had has expired... saw somewhere that gecko replaced someone's drive for free... maybe i will be as lucky.

[LeeWay]

The 201X's have some jumpers inside.
I was rebuilding my lathe controller to install into a new commercial box for my new shop and ran into this last week.
I didn't try swapping the jumpers on the one drive, but swapped out the older working one instead. Much quicker to do.
I didn't check the jumpers on the one that initially worked. Don't know how they were set.
Worth a look under the hood if you haven't already.

[Fastest1]

The vendors here you speak of have had great reputations for standing behind their products. I would hope you receive the same treatment. Btw dont have any remorse about where you started. We all want a huge, super accurate, easy to use machine that needs no maintenance and doesnt take up any garage space. I originally thought I wanted to build something. I now think I want to work on the machines! The reason behind the G540 question was that I too have played with a machine or 2 now. I have 2 G540's and run1 on a mill and 1 will be on a lathe. I question the performance of the 540 on the lathe due to the amount of steps per unit needed on that particular lathe. I think threading might be an issue at any real speed. But I havent really tested it in that situation and was just concerned due to an email from a very knowledgable person with the same machine. He didnt say it wouldnt work, just that the 540 wasnt the best for my particular lathe application. Didnt mean to sidetrack the thread.