[bozidar22]

After getting blasted by coolant to many times aiming nozzles.

This is what i have come up with so far.



The original plan was to use 555 timer with an RC servo. Then I remembered that an arduino could control RC servos.

This is my first time using micro controllers and doing any kind of programing(except for some in high school on Tandy PCs).

I also am making a custom shield to power the servos and hook up air solenoid valves.

So far it has been working good.

[zamazz]

This is a pretty cool idea, but how do you plan to control it. Will you adjust the potentiometers by hand or will you attempt interface it with g code in some fashion. If you were really ambitious you could have it automatically adjust based on the tool offset values (or tool lengths) and even adjust the angle of swing depending on how deep a tool as in the part. What machine and control system will you be putting this on?

[bozidar22]

I have no idea how to get the tool lengths from Mach 3 to the Arduino. It took me three weeks just to do the programming.

The tool changes are done by hand so its not a big deal to reach over and turn the knob .

Hopefully with the three day weekend I can get it working on the mill.

[TroyO]

Haha, that is awesome.... what a great project. I can't wait to see it mounted up.

[bozidar22]

Got the shield done last night and tested it for 4 hours today. I did have a problem with some solder bridges. Should have put more space between the traces and the ground plane.

So far nothing went POOF!

[TiagoSantos]

That is cool I'm not sure how you'd get the tool heights from Mach's tool table, but if I were to look it up, I'd go searching for ModBus and mach brains..

[BAMCNC.COM]

Very cool, I will be following this. I hope you get something going soon, I'm ready to buy a kit now.

[bozidar22]

Nozzles,Arduino , control knobs are installed and working. Still tweeking the angle and limit settings.

Some times the air valve will just kick in randomly . (may be picking up some noise)



The air system is not installed. I have to get some fittings and hose. Plus I'm not sure were to put the coolant/air manifold.

Here's a few pictures.

[BAMCNC.COM]

Very cool, can't wait to see it in action.

[bozidar22]

video up loaded last night

[bozidar22]

So after an archery festival, being sick and the cabin fever expo. I got got some time to clean up the code and add comments. The library metro.h must be downloaded from the arduino website to use the timed air blast feature.

The shield to power the servos and the solenoid were done in Eagle. (This program is free to down load) The solenoid circut is powered separately from the arduino with a common ground so 24 volt valves can be used.

For longevity it is best to use an all metal gear servo. I'm using cheap $10.00 servos. If these strip out I will try using the electronics with an H-bridge and a 12v to 24v gear motor.

[bozidar22]

I was planing on making something like this from scratch, but I found this high torque servo on ebay

[bozidar22]

Some progress on the heavy duty servo housing this weekend.

The next parts to be made will be the nozzles with hydraulic seals.

The idea of using a quick connector on the nozzle has been scraped. It was to bulky and looked ugly.

[coolantdelivery]

Have you tried coherent jet flat nozzles for your nozzles as you refine your work. I'd be willing to send you a couple.
Just let me know the size or the pump size and velocity you are trying for.

[bozidar22]

Have been researching how to use mod bus with an arduino and got things working. I am now working on making a screen set that can be used to set up a system on any mill using mach3. There will be automatic aiming of the nozzles that adjusts for tool offset,diameter and depth of cut. The math is done through some trig formulas in a brain. It seems to be working good and the numbers are correct. just need to make a testing setup with some servos and card board.

Attachment 241922

I am having some trouble figuring out the vb script in a button to turn the nozzles from manual to automatic.

this works but seems a round about way of doing it.

If IsOutPutActive(Output6) Then 'Check the state of the output...
DeActivateSignal(Output6) '...if it's "on", turn it off...
SetUserLED(2014,0) '...and turn off LED
Else
ActivateSignal(Output6) 'Otherwise turn the output "on"...
SetUserLED(2014,1) '...and turn on the LED
End If

Does any body have an example that can work from vb script to mod bus?


video of my first modbus break through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tZ0...ymd_15wWIhGyHg


Meany thanks to ger21 for helping with the radians to degrees problems and Zafar Salam's modbus tutorial

[bozidar22]

Figured out the vb script last night. I guess writing about it helps with the thought process.

Just toggled the state of the LED and used the LED in a brain.

If GetUserLED (2014) =1 Then 'Check the state of the LED...

SetUserLED(2014,0) '...and turn off LED
Else
'Otherwise turn the LED "on"...
SetUserLED(2014,1) '...and turn on the LED
End If

[bozidar22]

Making some progress on the screen set and testing it on a card board mock up of my mill. I have each servo at different locations to make sure the math is working correctly. Trying to make it as user friendly and easy to set up.

Will put together a standard 1024 screen set after the testing is done and post it here so anyone can add it to their mill. It will have the auto aiming and manual aiming features. The hardware is simple and can be built on a prototype board.

Demo video

[bozidar22]

I am adding a new page in the screenset for special combos of functions. See my blog for more details.


Bozidar's Build N Stuff: Servo coolant nozzles

[bozidar22]

Finally got this project done this weekend. So far its been working really good.

I put a Mach3 1024 screen set together for mach3 community to try out. I tried my best to add documentation to make the installing as easy as possible. If there's any problems or questions installing please let me know

Here's some videos of it working on my mill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irc5...ymd_15wWIhGyHg



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixcc...ymd_15wWIhGyHg



This is the screen set.

[stjohn4]

thats pretty cool!

cheers, john