Phew, I’m glad that is done. This started out as one of those, “little upgrades” that quickly turned into an interminable task. Let’s see, I changed the power supply, the motor drives, made a new cabinet to house the electronics, made a new Z axis, and put a new spindle on the machine too. Oh yeah, and I modified my pen holder to fit the new spindle clamp.
I think that is all I did? I also moved the machine too. Come to think about it I made that remote switch box as well. But I am much happier with the new setup than how I used to have it. I think it will be a lot easier to live with going forward.
So here’s a picture of my first run, ironing out some backwards axis issues.
Did you add a large, red E-Stop button yet?
@Marcus_Wolschon
I guess I did? There’s a red stop button. It kills all power to the machine. But it isn’t a twist lock out mushroom button. Like E stop buttons usually are. You can just barely see it in this picture, that splash of red right below the bottom left hand corner of the monitor. Hit that button and it trips a relay in the control box that cuts the PSU off from the rest of the circuitry. Things grind to a halt quickly after that. Instantly from a human perspective. I don’t think residual filter charge can drive the machine one more step after that button is hit? Though there is one filter cap on the other side of that relay. Well, one good sized one. A 5,800uF.
Care to share metrics? Backlash? Flex? Runout? Maybe after you just enjoy having it done for a while, eh? Have to take time to be happy…
@James_Newton
It is too early for me to call it now. I changed my settings when I upgraded the motor drives and I don’t have them quite right yet. I think I have my acceleration too high? I had it do a plot yesterday that I also did before the upgrade and there are definite differences. The one on the left is the new plot, and the blue one is the old plot my machine did http://i.imgur.com/vVdcSLx.jpg So I’m definitely going to have to work out what is going on there.
That german guy did a good video on measuring all the metrics of a machine… might help you find the issues.
HomoFaciens on youTube. Love his stuff.
@James_Newton
I’m pretty sure I just have my acceleration set too high right now. I already compared my old ini file with my new one and my acceleration is 4 times higher than it used to be. So that is likely where my trouble is. I am going to cut that in half, and see if things improve any.
