[CarveOne]

Khalid,

Pminmo's site has some useful information about home and limit switch wiring connections.

CarveOne

[Khalid]

Thanks Carveone for nice guidelines.. I have read almost all the material at Gecko pertaining to G203V... As you know, in the past i made my own drives and BOB so i will use my own designed BOB with G203V..
Pminmo site has a valuable information on Limit switches and ES button..I downloaded the wiring diagram and will implement on the Machine..

I have Eight wires 1200Oz-in Stepper Motors..These are the beast, but my-self-made drives are Unipolar one..so i can not get the torque out of those beefy motors.. Currently i can run these motors on my Metallic cross slides with maximum of 50 IPM without loosing step..

If you have G203V installed , you can tell me how they working with Gecko as compared to your previous drives?
Regards

[CarveOne]

Thanks Carveone for nice guidelines.. I have read almost all the material at Gecko pertaining to G203V... As you know, in the past i made my own drives and BOB so i will use my own designed BOB with G203V..
Pminmo site has a valuable information on Limit switches and ES button..I downloaded the wiring diagram and will implement on the Machine..

I have Eight wires 1200Oz-in Stepper Motors..These are the beast, but my-self-made drives are Unipolar one..so i can not get the torque out of those beefy motors.. Currently i can run these motors on my Metallic cross slides with maximum of 50 IPM without loosing step..

If you have G203V installed , you can tell me how they working with Gecko as compared to your previous drives?
Regards

The C11G breakout board has optoisolated inputs and outputs for the parallel port pins. If your board does not have this you may want to consider adding it to your board design to protect the computer.

I have been having no problems with the G203V at all. They are lightly loaded with these motors and stay cool at all times due to extra heat sinking and two fans in the control box. They can stay on but not running for many hours and will only get warm, not hot. G203V has automatic current reduction when they have been idle for a predetermined time. They have a midband resonance reduction circuit so that motor stalling is not a problem. They can run the motors faster, and are fully protected from open or shorted motor wires. The only other drive I have to compare them to is my Xylotex controller which has none of the features that the G203V has. The G203V is a much better design that is intended more for light industrial uses than for hobby uses.

I would recommend them to anyone. I plan to get a G540 later this year for a smaller CNC project next year.

I would also recommend using bipolar parallel wiring for your motors if the current isn't too high for the G203V. The G203V can drive up to 7amp motors. I'm using a Keling 72vdc 20 amp unregulated power supply with my Geckos. That's a lot more current capacity than I really need but it can handle more powerful motors when I feel the need to upgrade the motors in the future.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I didn't do anything on the CNC machine yesterday because of being invited to lunch with a friend and family, and had dinner at a local restaurant with my own family.

At 5am this morning I was busy making end stops for the X axis rails. My friend brought over some zero turn mower work that was left for us to do on one of his recent repair projects. We finished that, and it won't come back anytime soon. I'll drill holes and install two of the end stops after posting this. The other two still need some fitting before installing them.

When those are installed I'll remove the e-chain and support and put plastic electrical sleeving over the motor wires so that the wiring can drag along the side of the machine until I can get some additional e-chain.

For some reason I didn't figure out yet, Mach3 is not slaving the motors correctly. Slaving is enabled, and it may be that one of the motors needs to be reversed. It was working fine with EMC2 and also the last time I ran Mach3 with the work table CNC machine.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

It's hard for me to believe that I spent 10 hours today making and installing these four end stops, but I did. The neoprene bumpers should keep it from sounding like a boxing ring bell when the gantry slams into the stops at 1,400+ IPM when I make bad gcode. I'll also use the rear end stops to mechanically align the gantry before turning on the controller.

They won't get painted until I have more time to get around to it. They are easy to remove and replace.

I removed the e-chain and its support today, put corrugated plastic electrical sleeve over the wires, and zip tied the sleeves to the tension spring bolt on the pinion drive so the wiring doesn't snag on anything while the gantry is moving.

Tomorrow I'll check the Z axis alignment and make sure the Y axis rail is perpendicular to the spoil board layer. Then work on getting Mach3 working properly again.


CarveOne

[3v0]

Just wanted to let you know that I find your thread very interesting. Thanks for posting and keep it up.

[CarveOne]

Just wanted to let you know that I find your thread very interesting. Thanks for posting and keep it up.

Thanks 3v0! There is more to come. I've been pushing myself hard on this latest up-sizing upgrade even though it has been, and continues to be, very hot here.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Do you manualy set your home position and use soft limits rather then using limit switches?

[CarveOne]

Do you manualy set your home position and use soft limits rather then using limit switches?

Yes, I do. Nothing fancy yet. I installed the end stops yesterday partly for that reason. The end stops behind the gantry have been adjusted so that the gantry is 90 degrees to the X axis center line. The neoprene stopper "bumpers" have a small amount of adjustment range built into them as well. I just manually pull the gantry against the bumpers, turn on the motors, check that the gantry is still against the bumpers, then jog the gantry to a reference line I drew on the table and run the Z assembly along the line to check that there is a match with the reference line. Any time I think the Y axis may have drifted out of square I can jog it to the reference line and recheck it, or just do it once in a while when it's convenient just as a sanity check. (Ha! What would an insane CNC builder like me know about sanity checks? )

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Yes, I do. Nothing fancy yet. I installed the end stops yesterday partly for that reason. The end stops behind the gantry have been adjusted so that the gantry is 90 degrees to the X axis center line. The neoprene stopper "bumpers" have a small amount of adjustment range built into them as well. I just manually pull the gantry against the bumpers, turn on the motors, check that the gantry is still against the bumpers, then jog the gantry to a reference line I drew on the table and run the Z assembly along the line to check that there is a match with the reference line. Any time I think the Y axis may have drifted out of square I can jog it to the reference line and recheck it, or just do it once in a while when it's convenient just as a sanity check. (Ha! What would an insane CNC builder like me know about sanity checks? )

CarveOne

I was think about doing same thing since most of stuff Iam going to run is small parts for Models and Inlaid Jewelry boxes!
Makes for less wiring to worry about LOL!

[R L Harris]

How big box should i be looking for to put Breakoutboard, drivers and power supply in?

[CarveOne]

Early this morning I finally shimmed the end supports of the gantry to skew it into being more naturally square with the X axis. I also drilled two 5/16" holes in the support tubes and the steel plate that they attach to and added two additional bolts at each end of the gantry, which reduced the racking tendency by about half. At some point in the future I intend to improve on this situation some more, but not right now.

I squared the Z axis with the table also. Once the spoil board is surface planed it may have a small effect on the Z axis alignment.

I started working on the dust shoe again and it's about half finished so far. Nothing fancy. I bought a 24" push broom at Lowe's today for the purpose of stealing the 3" yellow bristles from it. They can be pulled out by hand and inserted into a routed channel in the dust shoe. The bristles are folded in half and wire stapled into holes in the plastic broom head. I clipped the ends of the staples and squeezed the staple into a ring that keeps the bundle of bristles together while inserting the bundles side by side in the dust shoe channel. I'll' put some 30 minute epoxy in the dust shoe channel before pushing the bundles into the channel. A 3/16" wide by 3/8" deep channel should be about right.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I was think about doing same thing since most of stuff Iam going to run is small parts for Models and Inlaid Jewelry boxes!
Makes for less wiring to worry about LOL!

Limit switch wiring can pick up electrical noise and give problems with false triggers. It can be cured though, and I guess most people eventually install them. If you can run the motors into the end stops with no damage to anything other than minor misalignment, why bother installing the switches?

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Early this morning I finally shimmed the end supports of the gantry to skew it into being more naturally square with the X axis. I also drilled two 5/16" holes in the support tubes and the steel plate that they attach to and added two additional bolts at each end of the gantry, which reduced the racking tendency by about half. At some point in the future I intend to improve on this situation some more, but not right now.

I squared the Z axis with the table also. Once the spoil board is surface planed it may have a small effect on the Z axis alignment.

I started working on the dust shoe again and it's about half finished so far. Nothing fancy. I bought a 24" push broom at Lowe's today for the purpose of stealing the 3" yellow bristles from it. They can be pulled out by hand and inserted into a routed channel in the dust shoe. The bristles are folded in half and wire stapled into holes in the plastic broom head. I clipped the ends of the staples and squeezed the staple into a ring that keeps the bundle of bristles together while inserting the bundles side by side in the dust shoe channel. I'll' put some 30 minute epoxy in the dust shoe channel before pushing the bundles into the channel. A 3/16" wide by 3/8" deep channel should be about right.

CarveOne

Make good picks of the -Dust Shoe-may save me time making mine!

[CarveOne]

How big box should i be looking for to put Breakoutboard, drivers and power supply in?

My home made steel and oak box is roughly 10" wide by 22" long by 6" high inside dimensions and there is plenty of room for the power supply, four G203V drives (two each on a heat sink) a C11G BOB, and two 117vac 3" fans.

A NEMA metal enclosure is what many people use.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

Make good picks of the -Dust Shoe-may save me time making mine!

Photos tomorrow. It's just a scrap piece of 3/4" x 6" x 10" poplar board with a hole sized for a snug fit on the router and a hole sized for a PVC pipe coupler that happens to have a 4" OD. I used JB Kwik to glue the pipe coupler into the board after sanding the coupler where the epoxy was to be applied so that there would be a better bond.

I'll route a channel around the bottom side tomorrow and install the bundles of bristles. The shoe will go up and down with the router. Tool changes should be fairly easy with an 8"+ Z travel.

CarveOne

[osiervt]

Ok, I'll admit after reading this thread a couple hours a night for the last couple nights i was only skimming the pages toward the end... That being said this is a truely amazing build log you have going here. I've just started to collect parts to do mine and guys like you have given me the confidence to give this a go. I will keep watching this thread as you have a great machine and have given some great solutions to issues you have found.

[CarveOne]

Ok, I'll admit after reading this thread a couple hours a night for the last couple nights i was only skimming the pages toward the end... That being said this is a truely amazing build log you have going here. I've just started to collect parts to do mine and guys like you have given me the confidence to give this a go. I will keep watching this thread as you have a great machine and have given some great solutions to issues you have found.

Thanks much osiervt! There surely are a lot of pages trailing behind me in this build log. It still isn't perfect in a couple of respects but it keeps getting better with each revision. In the early pages you'll see that this machine started out as a rather unusual build and has morphed into what you see now through at least four major upgrades as I went along. It will be making parts by the coming weekend and I already have a temporary job lined up for it courtesy of a CNC Zone member (who will remain unnamed for a short time). It will test the machine's capabilities and show me where the weaknesses are that need to be corrected next.

When I started this venture I had no idea it would go this far, or that I would ever have a 12 foot long machine. I have been reading all of the build logs and have learned a lot from others and try to offer some low(er) cost original ways to do things.

Jump in the fray and show us what you can do. It's a lot of fun, and you will enjoy it a lot, as I have.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

The dust shoe was a lot of work due to using the push broom bristles. This is a very labor intensive way to get bristles. I'll know when I fire up the dust collector whether they are too soft and get sucked toward the hose too much. I trimmed them a little to even up the bristles.

The channel is 1/4" diameter and 3/8" deep. Actual size of the poplar block is 3/4" x 5-1/2" x 10".

I used 5 minute epoxy and installed about 2-1/2 linear inches of bristles at a time, held them in place and waited for the epoxy to cure enough that the bristles stayed in place. Tomorrow I'll mask off the bristles on the outside and spray the outside of the dust shoe with hammered silver paint.

Now I need to rig the dust collector hose so that it can travel around a full sheet of MDF. It's probably going to look ugly.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I said it would be ugly, and I kept my promise. There are some places where it gets jumbled up but the hose just moves on past it as it runs a program file. Working with a dust shoe on it is going to be a challenge that I haven't dealt with yet. The suction isn't all that great with all of the corrugated hose but at least it will help keep the fine dust under some semblance of control.

It's fully capable of cutting something now. While running it with EMC2/Linux I don't notice anything odd going on (yet). I'll go pick up a couple sheets of MDF today and work on some gcode files to use for cutting it.

CarveOne