[phomann]

With the DB25 jumper installed.

[phomann]

And from the front.

Attachment 346876

Cheers,

Peter

[Neptunes]

And from the front.

Attachment 346876

Cheers,

Peter

Nice work Peter, does the one fan cool the g540 as well


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[TOTALLYRC]

Very nice work Peter!!!


Mike

[phomann]

Nice work Peter, does the one fan cool the g540 as well


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Cheers,

Peter
Thanks. The only purpose for the Fan is to cool the G540.

[phomann]

Very nice work Peter!!!


Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for that. I'm still in two minds as to whether to add a couple of buttons for "start" and "pause" and a jog encoder on the right hand side of the front panel.

Cheers,

Peter

[phomann]

Hi All,

It's been quite a while since I last provided an update. I'm still in the process of converting it but it may be worn out by the time I'm done.

I've been working a few of the PCBs for the G540 controller, trying to ensure that they are as versatile as possible. The GC-10 board that is for the front panel display can also be used to duplicate the I/O out of the DB9 connector on the rear of the controller. The board shows the status of the 4 inputs, the 2 outputs, along with the G540 enable line. Additonally it has a switch for the enable and a 3.5mm stereo connector connected to input 4 that can be used for probes, or tool touch off plates. The reverse side has screw terminals for all these signal.



I mounted a GC-10 inside a die-cast box that connects to the controller via a DB9 serial cable. The plan was to mount the enclosure to the mill and use it as a distribution box for home switches,etc. In the end I couldn't find a convenient location. I had used this setup previously, but usually on flatbed routers, where the mounting locations are easier to find.

[Neptunes]

Nice work Peter great little board is this one just for personal use ?


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[phomann]

After a week or two thinking how to mount the GC-10, the solution became obvious.
The mill head cover panel need replacing, as the vernier had been replaced. Also since I've converted the motor to a decent BLDC motor I've removed the motor controller box as I now have a VFD.



So the plan became to mount the GC-10 onto a new front panel. The head has a convenient cutout that the board should fit into. I then thought about what to do with the tacho lead that can be seen in the image above.I then decided that it would be useful to also mount the tacho display in the panel as well. Unfortunately the display is too wide to fit into the opening, necessitating the need to make a spacer so that the plate can be mounted proud of the mill head front surface. the spacer is fabricated from 25mm thick HDPE. In addition to the GC-10 and the Tacho display, I decided to add a Start and Pause switch to the panel.These will utilise inputs 1 and 2

[phomann]

Once the spacer was done, I made a rest panel out of 1.5mm perspex. Being transparent, t makes it easy to see the fit of the components. As can be see in the 2nd image, I've used M3 threaded insets that will be used to secure the front panel.

[phomann]

Nice work Peter great little board is this one just for personal use ?


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Hi,

No, it will be available. I'm doing a new revision that has two 3.5mm jacks. Both feeding into the same G540 input, but one will be a normally open input (tool setter plates), the other normally closed (touch probes). That way, the Mach3 configuration won't need to be changed when changing from the tool setter to the probe.

[Neptunes]

Hi,

No, it will be available. I'm doing a new revision that has two 3.5mm jacks. Both feeding into the same G540 input, but one will be a normally open input (tool setter plates), the other normally closed (touch probes). That way, the Mach3 configuration won't need to be changed when changing from the tool setter to the probe.

Mate that is great I have been using a work around to do both can't wait to see these in production in combination with the 2010 screen set
Cheers
Peter


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[phomann]

Once I confirmed the fit of the test panel, time to make the real one. A couple of years ago I made a control box for a solar system controller for a friend country shack.I used a two tone plastic that I glued to some 1.5mm aluminium sheet.


As I had a small bit left over, it would be ideal for the front panel of the mill head.

[phomann]

Time to mount the components into the panel. It was a fairy straight forward installation.





And finally mounted into the spacer.

[phomann]

Final set of images with the panel mounted to the machine, up and running. The only downside is that somewhere along the line since I've had the machine I've managed to lose the infa-red filter for the RPM display. I didn't know how hard it was to find some 1/16" red translucent material to cut a replacement from. I'm sure it's out there, but all I can find is 3mm thick stock.





So that's about it for now. Looking at the photos, it might be time to clean the sachine.

Cheers,

Peter

[Neptunes]

Very neat job Peter as far as the red translucent 1/16 I remember seeing a variety of colours at a school supplier art shop I think they used it for light panel in fill slides.



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[phomann]

If you know of a supplier, that would be great.

Peter

[Neptunes]

If you know of a supplier, that would be great.

Peter

No problem will ask my wife the name tonight as she was looking for my sons school project playing guitar on stage. Just needs to be see through red Perspex or similar we might even have some how big do you need it ?


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[phomann]

.The other project over the weekend was to solve the problem of numbering the tool holders for the mill. I've been using metallic stickers but the text wears off, or the sticker does not stay in place because of the coolants, oils etc.

I figured that engraving the number into the holder could be the answer although the case hardening of the holders may be problematic. In the end I decided to engrave the ER Nuts on the holders. The Nuts are a dark colour so the engraving should contrast well.

In the end, I'm pleased with how they turned out.

I used the rotary table to hold the tool holders to position the nut and rotate it easily for the six flats.




Initially I'd planned to engrave the six flats in a single program run but found that when the nut was rotated, so I reset the Z height after each rotation and reran the program.

[phomann]

I used the text function in Sheetcam to produce the G-Code. The text height is 6mm.



After I engraved the the first 3 flats (every 2nd flat) I realised that the 6 and the 9 could be confusing, so after I engraved the second three with the dot, I added the other tree dots in manually.