Tip on how to plan a machine

Hello,

i was quite fed up with undocumented components on my 2nd hand machine.
That is why I ripped it apart and decided to re-do the complete electric syste.

Now I was thinking it is a good idea to make some sort of wiring diagram, before starting the actual work.
This is to help adding more functions in the future, helps with repair. ( I want to avoid to have to reverse engineer my own installation )
From another thread I learned that this kind of plan might become also helpful to create a structured .hal and .ini file

Just to give an idea what I am up to.

A simple x-y-z mill, optional rotary axis a or c, (maybe rigid tapping, given the low torque spindle probably useless), MPG

Components that I have so far:

• PC
• Mesa Card
• 3 open loop stepper drivers
• 3 stepper motors from old system
• 1 closed loop stepper with integrated driver (for rotary axis)
• Power supply 80V DC
• MPG (wires single switches, "no brain")
• BLDC spindle with driver (from old system) 0-10V speed control (can be pluged to MESA card)
• x-y-z proximity switches
• Temp switch for spindle overheat
• (optional) coolant pump
• (optional) spindle encoder

I am not so much looking for a wiring instruction, more for some advise how to document a system like this. (pen and paper, some free software?)

Greetings Timo


 

So that is basically a table first, no big graphical overview?

Control panels often look very daunting.
Rule No. 1 seems to be: Panel must be twice as big as you would initially think!

I also use a table. I always update the table before connecting a new wire.
 
 

I do wiring diagrams. For my lathe I used Qelectrotech. It is pretty clunky, but works.

I am not sure how exactly. I think I will proceed with a Table 1st.
Then give the Qelectrotech a try.