electronic lead screw

The Eagle has landed!
And I'm very grateful for the guidance and support from you folks.

I had already broken down the bench test setup to await a new booster from James. Then kb58's question about indicator lights on the boards made me look again at the photo I posted of the main board under power. Sure enough, LED1 is not on in that photo, and it is on in James' videos. I set it all up again for some more pictures. In doing so, I saw the problem - when I was setting S9, I didn't move it all the way, it was kinda in the middle.

I checked a thread pitch and a feed rate, in both inches and mm, and it seems to be spot on.
And there was much rejoicing...

Thank you again!
 

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Glad you got it sorted. Far too often, it's the little things that trip us up.
 
Always the things you thought you had nailed down! Glad you have it running, always nice to see a problem get fixed.
 
Ok folks that have working Clough ELS, I have my servo/stepper, driver, numeric display and Clough boost board. I think I am ready to start building, just need some cables (not sure what types of cables?) and a encoder. I think he has some simple instructions on github..I have cloned the whole think on my laptop. Any initial suggestions on the earliest part of the assembly? I am straight up DUMB when it comes to building these sort of things. The VFD was more so just wiring/electrical...this is FAR different. :bipolar:o_O
Does anyone have have the ability to router the breakout box lid for me? I don't know if/when Clough will make those available, getting him to answer any questions is like pulling teeth!
 
GunsOfNavarone said:
Ok folks that have working Clough ELS, I have my servo/stepper, driver, numeric display and Clough boost board. I think I am ready to start building, just need some cables (not sure what types of cables?) and a encoder. I think he has some simple instructions on github..I have cloned the whole think on my laptop. Any initial suggestions on the earliest part of the assembly? I am straight up DUMB when it comes to building these sort of things. The VFD was more so just wiring/electrical...this is FAR different. :bipolar:o_O
Does anyone have have the ability to router the breakout box lid for me? I don't know if/when Clough will make those available, getting him to answer any questions is like pulling teeth!
Click to expand...
I bought the suggested encoder on eBay and the Launchpad from DigiKey. For cables, I scrounged my mine from salvaged wiring over the years. Nothing special other than the required number of conductors. The encoder comes with an appropriate cable. As to the connectors, you will need one for the encoder cable and a pair for the display cable; 5 position by .1" centers. My 5 volt power connector came from a wall wart. All the connectors are available from DigiKey, Mouser, or Jameco as well as on eBay. I didn't bother with panel mount connectors as all the connections on my setup are easily broken internally.

As to the cover plate for the box, if you look at post #233 on this thread, you will see my solution to the cover plate. This version can easily be done by hand with the exception of the labels. I used a spare box at hand so the dimensions don't match the box the Clough used.
 
Thanks RJ. I am unsure of what cables you're cable you are referring to, I'll just have to wait until I have everything and see if I can figure it out. I will try to search for a "5 position by 1" center" cable.but I'm guessing that will mean more when Istart putting this all together. The Texas Instruments Launch Pad board will be here today. I'll look at post #233, but I'll tell yeah, I really dig how his turned out, If I cant do that, I'd really like to figure out how to do a LCD screen, but as of right now, that seems like magic as to how that even would work.
 
@RJSakowski Yeah I saw post #233, that's perfect, but again, I have no CNC router, I guess I could buy one of those small/cheap Chinese routers, but I suspect it would take sometime to figure out how to use it and God knows if it will really engrave Aluminum.....
 
The encoder comes with a cable. You will need a cable from Clough's board to the display board, from the Launchpad to the driver, and from the driver to the main power supply, The dimensions refer to the connectors for those wires. Here is an example: https://www.jameco.com/z/22-01-2057...ptacle-5-Position-2-54mm-Straight_234739.html

As to the control board, I stuck with Clough's design. I'm not at a point where I want to start exploring alternative I/O devices as it would necessarily mean rewriting Clough's code.

As to DIY engraving, there are other potential solutions. The photoetching process used for printed circuit boards could be adapted easily for aluminum or you could simply mimic Clough's solution, buying photosensitive pc board and making a photomask and exposing to uv light (sunlight). The mask artwork could easily be laid up in one of many CAD applications and printed out on a transparency to expose the board. A while back, I did an etching process on my 1-2-3 blocks using a swab dipped in a table salt solution and a battery.
 
For the wires, I used cat5 network cable. I have a bunch of it around. I also used the round aviation style connectors he used. For the connection to the display/control board, if you go that way, connect all of the stripe wires together to ground and use the solid ones for signals. It helps with noise. I got it wrong the first time and had issues.
 
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