Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on July 3, 2012 at 4:18pm

What's the actual web site where you got the gerber files from RD?  I'll just send him the link.  My guy at SOC is pretty good with Eagle, add what you got to the top of the discussion, and I'll send them to him to see what he thinks.

Permalink Reply by Dustin on July 26, 2012 at 10:18pm

Having done some more research on current CNC systems, I'm really looking forward to this system.  Anything I can do to help.  I have a little CAD experience (solidworks / autodesk), solid C programming skills, and some electrical engineering experience.

Permalink Reply by Dustin on July 27, 2012 at 9:18am

Incidentally, how do I get my name on the "Yes" list at the front of this thread?  I'm super interested, so I don't want to get left out.  Thanks.

 

Permalink Reply by Kevin Bouchard on July 30, 2012 at 8:04pm

Dustin, check out the drawings thread and tell me if you think you can help with the CAD. Or if you have any design suggestions...

It'd probably be good if I at least had someone to check the assemblies in solidworks and tell me if I missed something or made an error. Currently on Solidworks 2010.

Permalink Reply by cjeastman on July 28, 2012 at 6:44pm

Count me in. I have a Hermes Vanguard 7000 that I am currently working on.

Cornelius Eastman

Anchorage, Alaska

Permalink Reply by Mike Boland on August 6, 2012 at 2:30pm

An interesting project and you can count me as another IN.

Have been looking at something like this for a while as a workshop need but the cheap ones on line are just that.

If this thing will be capable of doing light alloys, then it has real uses.

DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on August 7, 2012 at 10:08am

Ok, Back from vacation! :)  Happy to see that we are making progress in the CNC area.  Slow but still the project is still alive.   Monroe, did you start to build the prototype following Kevin drawings?  Would love to see the wood version of it!  

When do we need to make a decision on the control boards and other parts?  Let's pick something and move on, I see too many projects always waiting for the perfect planet alignment and never getting done.  I appreciate all the inputs and hard work that was put in this so far but I want us to be able to have something before end of the year.  Would be nice to be able to craft stuff for holiday season! hehe

Permalink Reply by R. D. Starwalt on August 7, 2012 at 11:45am

"new" board? The ELM Chan/UHU derivatives have been around about 8 to 10 years. The high power variation of the UHU was the last developed. There has been so little movement on the CNC Zone discussion group that someone posted in the last week or so wondering if the group was dead/inactive.

IMHO a price driven project will require group sweat equity... not just PC interaction. Unless we can find a contract board house that will build for $75/axis, less controller chip, we will have to spread the work load around with bare boards, parts, and testing. We can get $8/bare board from EAS with 50 boards (I bought 3 @ $10/bare board for evaluation - good quality BTW).

These 'simple' boards utilize a PC parallel port approach with software like TurboCNC and others.

If a PC does not have a parallel port, a USB to parallel adapter would have to be used. We really need some concensus on the software. That completely drives (pardon the pun) the kind of electronics we will go with.

Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on August 7, 2012 at 1:30pm

I think we should come up with two alternatives, one is the servo board and the other just a plain stepper solution, with the stepper solution being the cheaper alternative.  I'm personally feeling that servos are overkill for my applications.

Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on August 7, 2012 at 2:00pm

That sounds like a plan.  We can choose one of the stepper bundles, in the Specs Brainstorming thread.  I can chip in some money for buying it too.  Like Dany said we can paypal you some money, and then you can buy one of the ebay sets.

Permalink Reply by R. D. Starwalt on August 7, 2012 at 2:20pm

The two-choice solution is best, I agree.

I researched cheap stepper choices years ago and settled with LiniStepper kits sold by James Newton. You can do all three axis for $90 (motor control boards only).

I use them in my small machine but there are many, many users on larger systems. Look over their site and links.

The actual machine really dictates the minimum motor/controller needed to move things around. Once moving, the next questions to ask are what kind of material/cuts/tools are going to used. Those answers drive how much more torque you need to do the job

The $1000 to $1300 target might be achieved with steppers. Servos? The jury is still out..

I am still commited to seeing a prototype running by any means I can assist with.

DistributorPermalink Reply by Dany Thivierge on August 7, 2012 at 1:23pm

Ready to send paypal to you sir! :)  

just indicate where and I will chip in!  tell us how much you really need, this is where we will really see who's in and who's just looking around.  When it's time to start paying the user count usually goes down! 

but i'm still all in! 

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