[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the kudos, but I am certain you would have figured it out.

Listen, one other thing you need to look at......you said that you have the motors set at 2000. That would be right if you were running with full steps. My guess is that if you are running the HobbyCNC board, you probably are running with 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 steps. That would mean you have to multiply 2000 times either 2, 4, or 8 depending on the steps. So, in a nutshell it's:

200 (number of steps to go 360 degrees) *10 (TPI of your ACME rod)*the reciprocal of the microstep setting on your board.

Can't wait to see things happening!!

The "other" Joe

[Sbthomas13]

Well, tonight we mounted the Z Axis Motors. We were able to get it moving up and down....but towards the top it would stall from increased tension. It's just going to require a little repositioning of the top bearing block/motor mount...but then it should be fine.

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[Sbthomas13]

I just ordered my router off of amazon!

$123.12 + $4.00 One Day Shipping = Router at my house by Monday!

[Sbthomas13]

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[Greolt]

I think maybe you meant to post this.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sw87slG9I4"]YouTube - Z Axis Turning[/ame]

[Glidergider]

Great job with the videos. The links you posted didn't work, but I did a search on youtube.com and found them. Plus I see that Greg has successfully embedded your video above. So all this technology is great. Here is my recent CNC movie. Maybe you've seen it already, and if so, sorry for the repeat.
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=o79qIO-Elms"]YouTube - FunderBird, A CNC Cut, Fan Fold, Foam Park Flier[/ame]

[Sbthomas13]

I don't know how you guys embedded that, we tried everything.

Now for the latest update of the build. There is some good news and some horrible news.

The Good News: We were able to get the leadscrews and motor mounts attached the machine for the X/Y. They turn very easily by hand.
The Horrible News: We managed to fry two additional axes on our Hobby CNC Board, leaving us with only one remaining axis.

It's a shame that this had to happen when we were within days, maybe hours, of completing the machine. The build is going to have to be put on hold for at least a few months until Tyler and I can budget enough money for the project.

But we won't give up, this is our 4th attempt at building a machine. It sucks hobbyCNC doesn't make a six axis board (nuts).

[bgriggs]

I don't know how you guys embedded that, we tried everything.

Now for the latest update of the build. There is some good news and some horrible news.

The Good News: We were able to get the leadscrews and motor mounts attached the machine for the X/Y. They turn very easily by hand.
The Horrible News: We managed to fry two additional axes on our Hobby CNC Board, leaving us with only one remaining axis.

It's a shame that this had to happen when we were within days, maybe hours, of completing the machine. The build is going to have to be put on hold for at least a few months until Tyler and I can budget enough money for the project.

But we won't give up, this is our 4th attempt at building a machine. It sucks hobbyCNC doesn't make a six axis board (nuts).

Sorry to hear you fried the board. It sounds like maybe you removed the motors wires while there was still a charge in the capacitor? Replacement parts are available and your board is possibly salvagable. Contact Hobbycnc for advise.

Bill

[Sbthomas13]

Nope, the motors were never disconnected, and the wiring was all correct. I think we over-torqued them?

[jdell42]

You can't over torque the motors.. they will just stop spinning. Putting too many amps to the drivers will kill them. Did you check and adjust the vref for each axis?

[bgriggs]

Nope, the motors were never disconnected, and the wiring was all correct. I think we over-torqued them?

How many volts does your power supply have and how many amps did you have it set for?

Bill

[BobF]

Replacement driver chips are available from hobbyCNC for $15. If all you did was burn out the chip, you can replace them. Call hobbyCNC and he can help you diagnose the problem

[Sbthomas13]

Well, I guess its the power supply then. I didn't buy the power supply, Tyler did...and I just assumed it would work. I guess its probably makes more sense to get two replacement chips over a whole new board....

But Tyler and I had originally planned to make two machines...the first being his, the second mine. So I was eventually going to have to buy a board/steppers. So I think I'm just going to buy the HobbyCNC 4 axis package...and build the power supply that comes with that.

But I'll working on getting full information for the settings of the board/ps that we currently have, to help diagnose the problem.

[Sbthomas13]

Alright power supply =

Brand: Nemic Lambda
Model: EQS150-24
Volts/Amps: 100-120V ~ 3.7A

Tyler was handling the electronics. So I don't know the rating on the board or anything. Thats just what it says on the power supply.

[bboettjer]

Hey,
I suspect that there are enough folks watching this thread, just to see your remarkable progress, that figuring out the board problem can be done pretty quickly.

First off... I'm assuming that since you are saying that only two of the axes are broken, that the third axis still works?

If this is true, then it is not the power supply.

A little more info on exactly what happened when it stopped working might be helpful...

Worst case, the driver chip from HobbyCNC are $15 each and will get you over the hump of getting a machine operational...

Please don't feel tooo bad - I think most of us reading this have blown up chips at one time or another... during the course of learning about our (expensive) hobby.

Another thing you might try is swapping out the stepper motors with different axes... This might tell you if motors or drivers are bad...

Anyways - I've enjoyed reading about your progress. We're all behind you!

Regards,

Bruce

[bboettjer]

BTW - from your post #207 - It looks like you have a board without power reduction (Jumper 4 is missing)... It would help us to help you if you took a multimeter between Ground and Testpoints 'X', 'Y' and 'Z' and posted the results... I will assume that the Z axis is the one that is still working.

B

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey all,
I'm really stumped about Spencer and Tyler's issue with their electronics. I live near those guys and had a chance to see how they are doing but my concern was to try to help them figure out what's going on with the controller.

We followed the instruction on the HobbyCNC directions for setting the proper VDC on the board to accommodate their stepper motors. Unfortunately, I helped them fry the last of their driver chips. Here are some details to help backfill the info that you already have.

We checked the voltage coming to the board and it was 23.97v which makes sense. The reading at the touchpad (TP) marked +5VDC actually read 5.2v which also makes sense. Now, when we tested the TP for Vref at X, Y and Z, they seemed to be WAY low at 145mV. However, it DID work at that voltage setting. Since all the other axes had blown the controller chips, I thought it might be due to this very low voltage. After following the instruction, we adjusted the potentiometers to what was suggested, which was .18 * motor amperage. That's when their last chip fried. God, I hate that smell!!!

Their specs on the steppers wasn't exactly clear from the information provided. Perhaps, the Vref was incorrectly set which finally did the last on in.

Hopefully, someone out there on the Zone might have a sense for what might be going on with their system. If additional info is needed, maybe Spencer and Tyler can provide that data. I feel bad that I couldn't help them out, in fact I guess I'm responsible for killing their last controller chip.

Any ideas?????

Joe

[bgriggs]

I did a step by step thread on Rcgroups about the Hobbycnc board. Maybe soething in it will be helpful.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=702944

Bill

[bboettjer]

OK
For starters, I went to the HobbyCNC Yahoo group and downloaded (and attached) all the revalent docs regarding your board - which is the 4 Axis 4AUPC Rev 2 (from the pictures).

While we know the board used to work, before it stopped working, we can pretty well assume that everything is installed and adjusted properly.

The piece that WAS missing (and I got burnt on this one [no pun]) from your pictures is any sort of heatsink, and barring that, any sort of airflow over the stepper drivers.....

With a little math... 145mVolts per axis equates to roughly (145/.18=) 805mA.
So, a little more than 3/4 of an Amp, all the time (with no power reduction), through each of these drivers = some really, really hot chips
Which kinda means that you should be happy they ran as long as they did.

I would speculate that you are the victim of nothing more than a lack of heatsink & airflow. Just as an example, in my case, I got enthusiastic about running the board, and 'only' ran a fan on the drivers - it wasn't enough and I still blew a chip.

All of the folks on this board with successful, reliable setups, appear to have some sort of enclosure, with a heatsink and a fan, for their HobbyCNC board. I also attached the drawing I used for the heatsink I used off the Yahoo group.

When removing the driver chips that are already soldered in place, there is this stuff called 'solder wick' that really sucks off the solder that is already there, leaving a really clean hole.... As an alternative, you could also use a heat gun on the driver chips until the solder melts... you won't harm anything if you 'mask-off' the other components with cardboard and masking tape... Just use tweezers or long nose pliers to pull the whole chip once it's hot enough.

Hope this helps! & Good Luck

Regards,

Bruce

[BobF]

There is also a device called a "solderpult" that looks like a large hypodermic. It is spring loaded and you load against the spring, melt the solder, and release the spring and it sucks the solder out. They used to be around $10. I have used these to unsolder multipin chips from boards and they work very well. You suck the solder out from back side of the board. Just put the intake over the pin.