Build: XZero Predator... With more teeth!

Well I already own all these parts, so its dictated a lot by that. No point buying new hardware for no reason. Also, the key panels are $50 if you have to re buy them and a few bucks in 3d printing filament to make the housing. so much cheaper than most used industrial keypads, and it will have a sensible key layout for linuxcnc and a size suitable for my machine.

The mould for the key caps is another topic. It's more an investment as I can sell those caps to many other people who buy the adafruit trellis key panels. So I don't count that as part of the my panel cost.

Servo out for delivery... YAY!

I need the drive - PC connector now. its a serial cable with a custom connector. Mouser has the connectors, but they are super delicate to solder. I wish the cable was standard. I had a cable at one point, but I've lost it somewhere.

Cable parts will be here on tuesday.

Well, what else can i do while i wait for stuff now?

I guess i should prep the PC.

George from XZero made nice machines. I thought about buying just the base and ballscrews. Then put chineese servo's on them.

Never got around to it. It's three motors? One on the gantry with ballscrew driving the middle?

ihavenofish wrote: Cable parts will be here on tuesday.

Well, what else can i do while i wait for stuff now?

I guess i should prep the PC.

Make the mold !
Find something with the inside recess that fits the size of the buttons, the other part is easy to make with a file.
I can not think of anything that would have that recess for now.

Nah, it needs to be the exact shape with the right draft made from steel.

bevins wrote: George from XZero made nice machines. I thought about buying just the base and ballscrews. Then put chineese servo's on them.

Never got around to it. It's three motors? One on the gantry with ballscrew driving the middle?

It is now. It used to have dual X motors, but they are a pain. The predator was designed to be switchable between single and dual. Ill post more pics when its assembled next week. I might have used chinese servos may on it as well, but i happen to have the sanyo stuff already. Thing is, Delta servo kits are often $50-$100 more than the generic chinese stuff, and are much better supported.

My mini raptor is the same as the predator, just smaller. That one has JMC integrated servos, NSK ground screws. I'm building them at the same time. Everything I make this this thread with the control etc, goes onto the mini as well.

Me ans the guy that machined the xzero machines are trying to figure out if we can sell some new kits based on my mods. Trick is getting 25 or so kits done at once. I ain't got no money for that, and i dont like the pre-order/kickstarter potential for failure if things get delayed. One of George's problems when he was active was getting people their machine in a reasonable time after they paid.

I still don't have a spindle I like for the little one though. It will be for cutting aluminium, and needs an ATC, but the smallest affordable spindle is 80mm diam and 10kg. Kinda too large for the mini - mostly because of overhang. ELTE makes and ISO10 model but it costs 2-3 times the price of the 80mm ISO20 because its 50krpm. I've designed my own ISO10 spindle, but it is nowhere near ready.

1st world problems

Gathered up my electronics.

TOYS!!



The heart of the panel is adafruit feather cortex m4, sitting on a terminal block base board. will get powered by the USB port. I have to see if I can power all the LEDs from that source, or if I need a secondary source.

The 4 trellis keypads are run on i2c. So we don't need many pins. All the external LEDS (strips, ring) are one wire, chained together (neopixels).

The screen is just a screen. Theres a little driver board on the back of it that takes in displayport and 12v power. it has some buttons to control the brightness and a few other things.

Also in there are my AMS as5311 linear encoder readers. I have bogen magnet scales for them with 10 micron precision.

Fun Fun

So I can go to about 1/20 full white brightness on the LEDs all at once on USB power alone.. Realistically all will never be on white. Maybe all could be on in one colour as an alarm. So 1/10 might be a more practical threshold.

Given 16 of these LEDs on the ring are literally blinding on full white and all 149 would light the room... 1/10 power is probably still way too bright

ihavenofish wrote:

bevins wrote: George from XZero made nice machines. I thought about buying just the base and ballscrews. Then put chineese servo's on them.

Never got around to it. It's three motors? One on the gantry with ballscrew driving the middle?

It is now. It used to have dual X motors, but they are a pain. The predator was designed to be switchable between single and dual. Ill post more pics when its assembled next week. I might have used chinese servos may on it as well, but i happen to have the sanyo stuff already. Thing is, Delta servo kits are often $50-$100 more than the generic chinese stuff, and are much better supported.

My mini raptor is the same as the predator, just smaller. That one has JMC integrated servos, NSK ground screws. I'm building them at the same time. Everything I make this this thread with the control etc, goes onto the mini as well.

Me ans the guy that machined the xzero machines are trying to figure out if we can sell some new kits based on my mods. Trick is getting 25 or so kits done at once. I ain't got no money for that, and i dont like the pre-order/kickstarter potential for failure if things get delayed. One of George's problems when he was active was getting people their machine in a reasonable time after they paid.

I still don't have a spindle I like for the little one though. It will be for cutting aluminium, and needs an ATC, but the smallest affordable spindle is 80mm diam and 10kg. Kinda too large for the mini - mostly because of overhang. ELTE makes and ISO10 model but it costs 2-3 times the price of the 80mm ISO20 because its 50krpm. I've designed my own ISO10 spindle, but it is nowhere near ready.

1st world problems

Do you have access to his suppliers? A big problem with doping this is getting decent pricing for material. When building one machine it costs you twice as much per machine than if you were building 10.

I would be interested in going in half with this adventure. I can supply Canada. You in the states?