Refurbishing an old ISEL X-/Y-/Z-Axis Machine

I bought from the company i'm working for an old 3-Axis Table made by ISEL.
The sold the tool because the Controller was incompatible to the new PC equipment.

I replaced the old linear motors by NEMA 23 stepper motors.

 

To drive the stepper motors i decided to order a cheap (china) TB6560 controller from ebay.

Here is a photo of the controller:

It has a kepad to move all axis manually and a coordinate display which can be calibrated to the steps/mm of the axis. This can be done for each axis seperately, which was good because my Z-axis has twice the steps/mm as the X- and Y-axis.

The controller is cheap but has some drawbacks, USB isn't working the onboard voltage regulators tend to overheat.

Modifications/Improvements of the CNC controller:

Voltage regulator overheatig

The controller has an aluminium housing why don't they use it as heatsink?
I drilled a 6.5mm hole in the housing whre the voltage regulators are placed. The regulators are placed on a very small metal block which has no thermal connection to the housing. I further drilled a hole into this block and cut a thread into it. Now it is possible to screw the haetsink of the two regulators to the aluminium housing.

 

USB is not working

so i have to use my LPT port... BUT my PC has no LPT port anymore. What to do now? I decided to do my own USB controller. It is based on a Atmel ATmega328 and it is running the famous GRBL firmware. This has several benefits. The first is, that i will have USB on the machine, the second is that GRBL is caring for the timings and the PC. So the timing between PC and milling machine becomes uncritical.

Empty PCB

The PCB fits into the widely available TEKO 10014 housing.

TEKO 10014 (Source: Teko Website)

Populated PCB

Next tasks add spindle and spindle.

If you are interested in more details or the PCB shown contact me.

RepRap GLCD is making progress

More photos from the factory....

New News about the RepRap GLCD Controller

The factory is moving forward with the PCBs here are some actual photos they sent to me to check if the component location is correct.

Black for the PCB colour seems to be a good chioce ;-)

RUMBA pin assignments for the RepRap graphics LCD Controller

RUMBA Pin assignments for the RepRap graphics LCD Controller

Marlin pins.h for the RUMBA electronics

/* On some broken versions of the Sanguino libraries the pin definitions are wrong, which then needs SDSS as pin 24. But you better upgrade your Sanguino libraries! See #368. */
//#define SDSS               24
#ifdef ULTRA_LCD
   #ifdef NEWPANEL
     //we have a buzzer installed
     #define BEEPER 37
     //LCD Pins
            #ifdef DOGLCD
                  // Pins for DOGM SPI LCD Support
                  #define DOGLCD_A0      23    // RAMPS AUX-4 Pin 16
                  #define DOGLCD_CS      17    // RAMPS AUX-4 Pin 17
                  // GLCD features
                  #define LCD_CONTRAST 1
                  // Uncomment screen orientation
                 // #define LCD_SCREEN_ROT_0
                 // #define LCD_SCREEN_ROT_90
                  #define LCD_SCREEN_ROT_180
                 // #define LCD_SCREEN_ROT_270
                  #else // standard Hitachi LCD controller
                  #define LCD_PINS_RS        4
                  #define LCD_PINS_ENABLE    17
                  #define LCD_PINS_D4        30
                  #define LCD_PINS_D5        29
                  #define LCD_PINS_D6        28
                  #define LCD_PINS_D7        27
         #endif
     //The encoder and click button
     #define BTN_EN1 31  // RAMPS Aux-4 Pin 12 must be a hardware interrupt pin
     #define BTN_EN2 33  // RAMPS Aux-4 Pin 11 must be hardware interrupt pin
     #define BTN_ENC 35  // RAMPS Aux-4 Pin 10 the switch
     //not connected to a pin
     #define SDCARDDETECT 49 // RAMPS Aux-3 Pin 2
     
     //from the same bit in the RAMPS Newpanel define
     //encoder rotation values
     #define encrot0 0
     #define encrot1 2
     #define encrot2 3
     #define encrot3 1
     
     #define BLEN_C 2
     #define BLEN_B 1
     #define BLEN_A 0
     
   #endif //Newpanel
#endif //Ultipanel

#endif


// An RAMPS Aux-3 Pin 18 hängt der Switch für den Lüfter, den musst Du direkt in der RAMPS Section der pins.h ändern.

#define FAN_PIN   16

I'm happy! My GLCD Controller Campaign at indiegogo is funded!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reprap-graphic-lcd-controller-with-fan-output/x/2890262?c=home

You can still support the campaign!

PCB production panel

... the best... it is mentioned in the Reprapmagazine page 40 and following!

http://reprapmagazine.com/

Removing the danger from the power supply of my RepRap

For a long time my printers power supply was in prototype mode ;-) which means that the mains supply cables are mounted dirctly to the PSU terminals, no fuse no protection from being touched. Risk of electronic shock was high.

The power supply i'm using is the Meanwell SP-320 24V.

I decided to use a power inlet module with 2-pole swich and integrated fuse holder for maximum safety. The module i am using is the Bulgin BZH01/Z0000/11 fused Power Inlet Module with illuminated 2-pole switch. (Farnell: 9997237).

The images showing the result. For 230V supply voltage a slow 2.5A 5x20mm fuse is recommended.

The protective cover is available at Thingiverse.

Housing for the GLCD Controller

Just finished the housing for my GLCD Controller

It is available at Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:93039