Taking the CNC Plunge

[compsurge]

LinuxCNC and Mach 4 would be my go-to solution. I wouldn't worry too much about Mach 4 being new. It's been a long time coming and folks like Hoss (hossmachine/hoss2006 on other forums) has been posting his updates on YouTube.

My personal setup is going to most likely be based on LinuxCNC. I have it operating on a PC now and I'll be wiring up the controller over the next few weeks.

 

[TomS]

LinuxCNC and Mach 4 would be my go-to solution. I wouldn't worry too much about Mach 4 being new. It's been a long time coming and folks like Hoss (hossmachine/hoss2006 on other forums) has been posting his updates on YouTube.

My personal setup is going to most likely be based on LinuxCNC. I have it operating on a PC now and I'll be wiring up the controller over the next few weeks.

I originally discounted LinuxCNC because I read somewhere that it's more complicated than Mach 3 to get it set up. There is also Ubuntu (I think this is the operating system) that I will need to learn. Not sure I want to go down that road as the electrical and electronics are challenging enough. Am I off base with that analogy? Does Linux have a demo site?

Thanks for your response.

Tom S

 

[Karl_T]

I originally discounted LinuxCNC because I read somewhere that it's more complicated than Mach 3 to get it set up. There is also Ubuntu (I think this is the operating system) that I will need to learn. Not sure I want to go down that road as the electrical and electronics are challenging enough. Am I off base with that analogy? Does Linux have a demo site?

Thanks for your response.

Tom S

I think your statement is true. If you are really challenged by this sort of work mach would be better for you. To me the important part of the decision is whether you are using steppers or servos. Mach is a GREAT stepper control. LinuxCNC has position feedback so its the better choice if you have servos.

Just my 2 c

Karl

 

[MarkStephen]

I originally discounted LinuxCNC because I read somewhere that it's more complicated than Mach 3 to get it set up. There is also Ubuntu (I think this is the operating system) that I will need to learn. Not sure I want to go down that road as the electrical and electronics are challenging enough. Am I off base with that analogy? Does Linux have a demo site?

Thanks for your response.

Tom S

Modern Linux is not at all that different from any other OS as far as user interface. In fact, a recent test study where some collage students took a bunch of laptops int a retirement home, half windows and half Ubuntu Linux, they found that the Linux machines were reported easier to use with people that have never used a computer before. On a side note, I've been using Linux for my day to day computing sense ~1998.

LinuxCNC, maybe a bit more to learn but you don't need to learn it ALL at once. Get the basics up and running and expand your knowledge base from there as needed. If you want to try out Linux, just download and burn a distro that has a live CD/DVD and check it out. LinuxCNC offers a Live CD so you don't have to install anything, just run it from the CD, though booting is a bit slow due to the data transfer rate of the CD ROM drive. If you like it, then you can chose to install it. You can install dual boot on the same drive if there is room, or dual boot from another hard drive or install as stand alone. You can go here - http://www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/download - and get the Linux CNC image to burn on a DVD so you can test it out and install if you want to.

Mark

 

[TomS]

I think your statement is true. If you are really challenged by this sort of work mach would be better for you. To me the important part of the decision is whether you are using steppers or servos. Mach is a GREAT stepper control. LinuxCNC has position feedback so its the better choice if you have servos.

Just my 2 c

Karl

I'm using steppers. Thanks for your response.

Tom S

 

[TomS]

Modern Linux is not at all that different from any other OS as far as user interface. In fact, a recent test study where some collage students took a bunch of laptops int a retirement home, half windows and half Ubuntu Linux, they found that the Linux machines were reported easier to use with people that have never used a computer before. On a side note, I've been using Linux for my day to day computing sense ~1998.

LinuxCNC, maybe a bit more to learn but you don't need to learn it ALL at once. Get the basics up and running and expand your knowledge base from there as needed. If you want to try out Linux, just download and burn a distro that has a live CD/DVD and check it out. LinuxCNC offers a Live CD so you don't have to install anything, just run it from the CD, though booting is a bit slow due to the data transfer rate of the CD ROM drive. If you like it, then you can chose to install it. You can install dual boot on the same drive if there is room, or dual boot from another hard drive or install as stand alone. You can go here - http://www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/download - and get the Linux CNC image to burn on a DVD so you can test it out and install if you want to.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I'll take a look.


Tom S

 

[TomS]

Been a while since I posted on my progress. I had another thread going on the CNC forum to work through some AC circuit questions. Probably should have posted it here. Anyway I resolved the issues I had thanks to the support of our forum members.

Now I'm starting to wire the electronics, specifically the motors to the power supplies as I don't yet have a breakout board. Thought I had it figured out because the Z axis DQ2722M driver/power supply was clearly marked A+/A- and B+/B-. Not so with the X and Y axis drivers. Here is a picture of my power supplies.

I see the V+ and V- and the six screws but which terminals are A+/A- and B+/B-?

I bought three limit switches from Automation Direct but they didn't come with any documentation or schematics and their website doesn't have any info either. My question is how do you wire them? They each have six wires; two black wires, one blue, one brown, one yellow with green stripe, and one green smaller gauge wire.

After thinking about it maybe this thread should be on the CNC build thread instead of here. I'll leave it up to the moderators to decide.

Thanks for listening,

Tom S

 

[JimDawson]

That is only the power supply. You do not connect the motor to it, there are three terminals for V+ and three terminals for V-. The output from there goes to your drive. The motor then connects to the A, /A, B, /B terminals on the drives.

The DQ2722M drive has it's own internal power supply

On the limit SW, the 2 Blacks are the Normally Closed contacts, and the blue, brown pair are the Normally Open. The Green/Yellow is a case ground. The small Green ''wire'' is not a wire, it's just a plastic filler for the cable.

 

[TomS]

That is only the power supply. You do not connect the motor to it, there are three terminals for V+ and three terminals for V-. The output from there goes to your drive. The motor then connects to the A, /A, B, /B terminals on the drives.

The DQ2722M drive has it's own internal power supply

On the limit SW, the 2 Blacks are the Normally Closed contacts, and the blue, brown pair are the Normally Open. The Green/Yellow is a case ground. The small Green ''wire'' is not a wire, it's just a plastic filler for the cable.

Thanks for setting me straight on wiring the motors to the drives. Am I correct in that the power supply V+ terminals are wired to the drive Enbl+, Dir+, and Pul+ terminals? Likewise for the V- terminals and the corresponding driver terminals? Is the wiring terminal specific? Sorry for all the questions but I'm new to this and want to learn and also don't want to fry the electronics when I power it up.

I've got it on the limit switches. Wire the circuit with the two black wires and the others are not used.

Thanks for your help. I'm certain I'll have more questions as move through the conversion.

Tom S

 

[JimDawson]

No, sorry. Those are 5V inputs from the breakout board. PUL is the pulse input, and DIR is the direction input. Normally you can connect the DIR- and PUL - to the GND terminal on the breakout board. Do not connect to the power supply.

The V+ V- connect to the +V and GND terminals on the drive, the ones right next to the motor connections.