My project

Hello All,

My name is Will and I wanted to share my project with you. I live in Everett WA. and build industrial control panels for a living. Some of the equipment I work with on a daily basis are PLC's, VFD's, sensors, relay logic. I have always had a loved CNC , grew up around it and worked in a couple local shops running parts. I received from a friend a harbor freight enco mini-lathe a few years ago, and last christmas I got a HobbyCNCpro stepper driver kit I have built and tested the kit , and it works great. Since then I have added brackets for mounting my stepper motors, and now have the motors in place. My motors were a bit underpowered with a ATX pc power supply , but my testing was successful, I was able to control my x,z travel My test was using the Ubuntu 8.04 livecd. I now have the latest version downloaded and will be installing to a dedicated pc this weekend. With some parts I have from my job over the years I have built a controller cabinet that houses my HobbyCNCpro controller, an IDEC Mocrosmart Pentra PLC, 24vdc power supply (for IDEC PLC control power and inputs logic, dedicated PC, 6 120v control relays, Large filter capicitor, large 120v to 24v transformer, full wave bridge rectifier, terminal strips for all external connections (steppers, sensors, incoming power, spindle power, etc...) and an estop switch. The components are all installed in the controller cabing, except the PC and are ready to be wired. Its a pretty simple circuit compared to what I work with normally so should not take to long. Hope to finish it this weekend. My control setup will put the stepper motors, estop and home swiches will be through the parallel port via the HobbyCNCpro board , I will connect limit switches to the IDEC PLC as well as the (coolant pump relay, work light relay, vacuum relay, spindle relay). The IDEC PLC will communicate through serial MODBUS connection to classicladder via the PC's serial port. Using EMC2 with hal and classicladder I hope to integrate these parts into a working cnc lathe, and know I have a lot of reading to do to get these setup. From my understanding of the hal, it is virtual "wiring" connecting real and virtual components together to interface all the real and virtual components together. And classicladder if a very functional virtual PLC for incorporating all sorts of wonderful control logic into the the integrated control platform once I get the hal all setup. I am looking forward to making some good progress on this project over the next couple months.

Regards,

Will

Hello Will,

Welcome aboard, sounds like a great project!

Rick G

While I can see adding another parallel port and more I/O being easier, I am going to go with the equipment at hand. I program PLC's for my panel shop and want to learn Modbus with the Idec PLC so that I can do projects with communications for my work, so this project is kind of dual purpose for me

I dug out all my pieces for my lathe project this week and as promised pictures

first is the lathe with both stepper motor in place

www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5103626207/


and closups of each axis

www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5104219224/
www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5103626195/

and my control cabinet in progress, missing the controller as I have not mounted it just yet, and needs wiring as I have not ran it yet...

www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5104219300/

I drew complete wiring schematic

www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5104219270/

and built a computer to run my emc2 software

www.flickr.com/photos/39552455@N05/5103626159/

Sorry , had to use cell phone for these pics as my camera batteries were dead... will get better ones this weekend

been reading lots about configuring my system and going through the hal tutorial figuring it out

Regards,

Will R.

Thanks guys for the Subroutines, I used many of them , and enjoyed the ease of creating new g-code with them. I was able to use my lathe to make parts for itself before I had to pack it up and move last June, and now that things are settled in mostly, and I have some time and a little $$ to put into my project I am setting my lathe back up this weekend to figure out where I left off. I would like to install the latest version of Linuxcnc, which I downloaded the other day. I will save my config files and, hopefully have it running shortly after the install Physically I was dealing with mechanical slop in the carriage , and software wise I was just about to incorporate spindle feedback, as my last functional improvement was spindle on/off with speed control. Looking forward to updating on my progress this weekend.

Regards,

Will R.

i was just going to copy all my config files, wipe and reinstall fresh with the latest ver, then put my config files back in place. i know i may have to change links for emc to linuxcnc change...btw who handles the docs for the change, i found an instance of emc2 still in the print lastnight....


Will