[p27182]

forgive me for the cell phone pics... its usually all i got on me

I figured it might be a good idea to post up my machine and plans for it- it seems a lot of you guys did this kinda project years ago and might be willing to advise a n00b maybe who or where to go for some vital info or help.

I'm hoping I can turn this into somewhat of a project log, though we will see how well I can keep up with posting...

it all starts with this mill I bought and got forklift'ed into me f250...



after giggling to myself all the way home with a helpful friend, it occurred to me I was forkliftless at home and had to conjur up a way to get it out of my truck...

the answer was a friend of a friend... who owns his own cionstruction company and... (I'll let the picture tell the story haha)


(that's my pops standing there trying to figure out wtf I had just brought home)

next, seeing as it wouldn't fit into the garage, i had to remove the head with my awesomely helpful friends (NONE of this would have happened without them, seeing as I dunno **** about **** regarding rigging, and i cant lift much more than 200lbs at my best)



so after removing the head and sliding her into position, the next task was to cut out some sheetrock and get that head back onto the table to get it back on...



and shortly thereafter...



the controller worked from the get-go, but the servo drive cards wouldnt start up and I couldnt get any movement outta the machine. Thanks to Jerry I got the info necessary to determine that the head was previously removed by someone else and had the z-axis limit switch hooked up to the wrong terminals, which wouldnt allow the servo cards to receive power (though this didnt keep me from replacing a transistor on one of the boards that was suspect).



anywho, I got myself an NI USB-6009 data acquisition unit to figure out what's going on where in the machine- it seems that the servo cards are +/- 10v however the current controller only seems to go to 7v peak. The motors use tach feedback, so I'm thinking I'm gonna try and use the linear encoders for the servo feedback however talking to a few of you guys and peter from mesa, this can create instability in systems with backlash (which totally makes sense...)

I still have much reading to do.
I do not understand the configuration and functionality of the HostMot2 driver, and need to better understand the interactions between emc2 and hostmot2 and the mesa pci card (5i20).
I've already got some good links looking into this thanks to those who responded to my other posts.

I also need to figure out if the precision of the linear encoders is going to drastically limit my velocity capabilities...

please feel free to leave comments or any constructive criticism at all. :cheers:

thanks
-pat

[p27182]

so here's my GENERAL plan so far...





what am I missing?

-pat

[p27182]

Got me mesa products in!





I was kinda dissapointed the two didnt come with the connecting cable, but then again I suppos4e I shoulda thought about that and asked them. These pcbs appear to be very well designed and manufactured... can't wait to load the fpga up and get goin!

-pat

[p27182]

got her up and running :



whoops.... X axis is BACKWARDS...


fixed.

now working on getting a 4th axis going...



borrowed a lathe chuck from my buddy (thanks dave)



grabbed this copley drive off ebay for cheap... got a moog on the way too...
Keling servo's on its way too! STOKED.

-pat

[samco]

Great work! (your original pictures are not working)

I love those little atom boards. Decent latency and everything.

The masa hardware is also awesome. Are you going to setup rigid tapping?

How are the linear scales working out?

sam

[p27182]

Great work! (your original pictures are not working)

I love those little atom boards. Decent latency and everything.

The masa hardware is also awesome. Are you going to setup rigid tapping?

How are the linear scales working out?

sam

yea dont know what happened to the pics in the first post...

I'd love to set up rigid tapping, but that's a little down the line, I'd plan on getting an Auto tool changer goin before that.

linear scales kick ass, ~0.0004" resolution. I'm currently rewiring my estop circuitry to be fully controlled by emc. (before I had it ghetto rigged so I could trip it with a hand switch any time)

The keling motor I ordered is apparently in the mail, hopefully she'll have enough umph to really turn a good sixed piece o' billet with no problems...

thanks for checkin it out... hopefully the 4th axis will be operation in the next few weeks... we'll see....

-pat