This might be a stupid question but how did you know how tight to make the bolts which are the axis of the wheels and bolts holding the bottom and top of the y travel carriages?
I great if I over tighten, they well not till correctly and result in lost steps. Thanks for the tension to btw as well.
Its been too long singe I've been on here. Started a new job last October and had to move and get the CNC set back up in the new place. I went from a 1.5 car garage to now working in an 8'x10' shed. I recently upgraded to Bart Dring's six pack CNC Controller which is a GRBLESP32 controller, DM556T drivers, I have added a misting system, created a new fixture plate all in the hopes to start cutting aluminum. Tonight was the my first foray into milling aluminum and I had some very good success. The next big upgrade will be linear rails for the Z axis.
Here are some photos of a few projects that I've worked on since I was last on. I have STL and STEP Files , if any one is interested in any of them let me know and I'll get them uploaded to thingiverse
Here's the first cuts in the aluminum, I went aggressive to test the overall stiffness and power of the machine. Had some chatter on the ramp down but the finishing passes came out very nicely.
Hi peter, why moving from the previous ESP-grbl board to 6-Pack?
I love the air blower.....i have same thing in mind as i have my compressor near CNC. Nice milling session and results...
For aluminium what cutterand parametres are you using???
Edit : I just take a look and 6 pack has more I/O as driving spindle speed i assume...Say us i little more
I changed to the 6 pack for a few reasons,
1. I was having trouble with the TMC5160 drivers when I tried to increase the amperage. There is a problem between the stepper library and the firmware. A few other people had this problem as well. I spent months trying to solve the issues with Bart and TMC. I tried using a TMC 5160 eval kit directly to the steppers and had no problems at all. I then decided to try external drivers to see how much more I could get out of my NEMA 17 steppers. I can now run the full amperage of my motors without the fear of missed steps. The amount of power my motors have exceeds the stiffness of the machine.
2. The 6 pack has plug in modules which makes adding accessories very easy. I have the 4 I/O Module for my limit switches/ the 5v module which controls my superpid enabled and sends the PWM signal which controls the router speed, and the 4x Moffett module which I am using to power a 24v pneumatic solenoid which turn the cooling mist on and off.
Aluminum Recipe
Amana tools 3mm O Flute mirror edge single flute endmill. 18000 rpms 650mm/m 2deg ramp in 1.5mm depth of cut. I had to use 2d contour and 2d pocket tool paths, I wanted to use a 2d adaptive but with the but with the 3mm endmill and the amount of movements I was looking at 6hrs of cutting vs the 1hr and 20 mins of cutting. If you watch the video there is definitely chatter on the ramping down movements, but the finishing passes cleaned it up pretty well.
I hope i willnot encounter issue with leadshine DM542 (external driver i bougth) and GRBL-Board firmware. I bought this original driver for my 2.5A Nema 17 (leadshine 42cm08) and for Nema 23 Upgrade. To use External driver with GRBLboard i have to purchase specific adaptator for this board
I was going to get the adapters but If I'm not mistaken with the 4 Axis SPI board Bart informed me that the steppers would be enabled all the time due to the way the SPI is configured. That's another reason I changed boards.
Hi peter, Is the topCNC yet native in bart firmware? If no how did you manage to made it usable? Could post a picture of your "6 pack" configuration or put a list of witch optional module you are using?
It's not native, the frimware is fully cusomizable which I can assist you with. I'll send you a parts list when I get home later along with configuration. If you have an idea of what you will be using on your machine such as type of limit switches, and how many, spindle type and what kind of signal it uses, are you using cooling? Probe? etc. I can help you pick out modules and build the machine profile.
There is also a discord channel
Controller
https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/6-pack-universal-cnc-controller/
External driver adapters
https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/external-stepper-motor-driver-adapter/
4x I/O module Optos for limit switches 1 X 2Y 1Z
https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/4x-input-cnc-io-module/
Spindle enable and pwm signal for SuperPID speed control using 2 of the 4 available outputs. You may want the 10v if you are using a spindle.
https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/5v-output-module/
For the mist control I am running a 24v solenoid on the air line controlled by the quad Moffett module only using 1 of the 4 outputs.
https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/quad-mosfet-cnc-io-module/
Probe is assigned to one of the unused GPIO pins.
