MONSTER - A learning experience... pyVCP machine

Askjerry wrote: Every bit of extra safety is a good thing right?

Within limits. Safety that gets in the way gets bypassed.
Have you ever seen anyone drilling with the drilling guard lowered?

(ie, this sort of thing: drillpressview.com/wp-content/uploads/20...ill_press_shield.jpg )

True... so if they don't put the switch into the "maintenance mode" to change the bit... instead of just one signal... it still requires two...

In the past, I have started AXIS while the rotary 3-phase converter was on... and the spindle came on for a second or two.

This should at least mitigate that to some extent.

Since I am doing a complete rewire of the mill... and a totally new design on the panel... I thought I may as well do it properly.

I am taking the ERR signals from the Geckodrives and routing them to the parallel port #2 inputs. And, since there is a spare relay on the second StainSmart board... I am going to use it to RESET the Geckodrives as needed if/when there is an error. I created a board built on a Radio Shack 276-170 board where I can connect my signals and intercept the ERR signals. This should make for a cleaner install.

And... since I'm documenting this for anyone else following in my footsteps... I thought I would do it right. Eventually, I'll get all this into a PDF or something... but for now... I wanted to show it off. I am really going overboard on the documentation... a far cry from scribbles on a sheet of paper as I have done in the past.




later I'll draw up the other side, or make a schematic... not sure... but I'll document it properly.

A code snippet for you. I use a set of routines on PyVCP buttons to quickly find centres etc...

and the position-storing sub too.

I finally reached VERSION-2 where I can my panel fully implemented and documented.

I have created a YouTube video to show off everything that I have done so far... I tried to keep it as short as I could... but it still went to about 12 minutes... there was a lot to cover.



Here is a link to ALL of my routines, graphics, source SVG files, configurations, everything. This way you can use it as a viable start on your own projects. If I make changes to the machine I will update this file... so this link will always contain the most recent version. (In theory anyway.)

Complete MONSTER Package: askjerry.info/CNC/MONSTER.zip

Give me your feedback... is there anything else that I should add... other features you think might be interesting? Different videos you want to see?

Let me know!
Jerry

Busy boy Jerry! Many hours of fun spent I can see.
I have used ngcGUI for my tabs - I think your tabs in PyVCP are much tidier!
This is the format I have used files attached below.

Looked at your halfile & had to alter the parport address for the second port... then I had to find the E-stop hardpin because F1 didn't play nice at all!! Quite a functional setup indeed. Well done & look forward to seeing your continuing progress.

By the way, what program did you use to create your graphic icons?