De-Mach'ing my ORAC.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I made a little progress recently & here's a few pics. I ran the 5v opto sensor signals through the appropriate pins on the Acorn's DB25. I took apart an old PP plug, added a bit of project board & soldered the wires to some screw connectors. Works fine on 5vdc.

Way back when the original conversion to Mach was done I had made a slide out tray from some scrap 15mm alum plate. It makes a great heat sink. The old Mach controls were ripped off to make room for the new. Everything's up & running except me learning the "Centroidian Way."

(Sheesh, I just looked at the pics...should'a at least cleaned out the dang chip tray & wiped 'er down! )

[cnckeith]

nice clean looking install.. i like your db25 to header breakout board.

[martyscncgarage]

Very nice Milton!
Did you get your homing squared away? Hit a switch and back off to hit a marker on the motor?
If so, I would like to hear how you got it working....

By the way, I bet you never go back to Mach after you start using the Centroid Sofware....
Marty

[DICKEYBIRD]

Thanks guys, coming from ya'll it really makes me feel proud!

I'm not finished with the entire homing thing yet Marty but Scott's latest post in the other thread should get me going. I'll be the first to admit that my way of looking at homing/tool offsets/probing etc is probably a long way from the industry standard method but for the moment I'm just trying to get the lathe back to how it was functioning with Mach so I'll be comfortable. I hope to make some further improvements in that area later on. When "Home to switch" is selected in the Wizard, my micro-switch/opto system still works great on the X-axis (the important one ) but I want to home either axis at will.

As far as switching from Mach's Wizards to the Intercon system, it scares me right now but not at all the same kind of fear. Those Wizards were a source of huge frustration due to lack of documentation & consistency. Intercon right now for me is kinda like drinking from a firehose. But the docs are fantastic.

[martyscncgarage]

Thanks guys, coming from ya'll it really makes me feel proud!

I'm not finished with the entire homing thing yet Marty but Scott's latest post in the other thread should get me going. I'll be the first to admit that my way of looking at homing/tool offsets/probing etc is probably a long way from the industry standard method but for the moment I'm just trying to get the lathe back to how it was functioning with Mach so I'll be comfortable. I hope to make some further improvements in that area later on. When "Home to switch" is selected in the Wizard, my micro-switch/opto system still works great on the X-axis (the important one ) but I want to home either axis at will.

As far as switching from Mach's Wizards to the Intercon system, it scares me right now but not at all the same kind of fear. Those Wizards were a source of huge frustration due to lack of documentation & consistency. Intercon right now for me is kinda like drinking from a firehose. But the docs are fantastic.

I really enjoy with commercial grade software and hardware.
You did good, and a clean job. Please continue to share your experiences here and with others.
I'm a novice with the software. You will find Keith did a good job writing how to setup the tool offsets in the lathe. You have to cut the obligatory Pawn.

There is much merit in the way we want to home the machine. If the motor drive provides an index pulse, it should be used to home the machine much like the commercial controls do. Move to a mechanical switch, trip it back off, hunt for the index pulse (or in our case wait for the Home input signal) and call that home. Very precise. I'm sure its doable, just how much effort remains to be seen.

Marty

[DICKEYBIRD]

Move to a mechanical switch, trip it back off, hunt for the index pulse (or in our case wait for the Home input signal) and call that home. Very precise. I'm sure its doable, just how much effort remains to be seen.

Not much effort at all Marty. Just a standard micro-switch, couple extra wires, mount an opto sensor & a disc on the back of the stepper and adjusting the switch & disc's position to let the switch close 1st & then the opto a smidge later. The opto units are dirt cheap now thanks to the 3D printer thing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3Pcs-Opto-Opti ... 2749.l2649 Mine are a little different than these but work the same.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Move to a mechanical switch, trip it back off, hunt for the index pulse (or in our case wait for the Home input signal) and call that home. Very precise. I'm sure its doable, just how much effort remains to be seen.

Not much effort at all Marty. Just a standard micro-switch, couple extra wires, mount an opto sensor & a disc on the back of the stepper and adjusting the switch & disc's position to let the switch close 1st & then the opto a smidge later. The opto units are dirt cheap now thanks to the 3D printer thing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3Pcs-Opto-Opti ... 2749.l2649 Mine are a little different than these but work the same. I bought a bag of the things just to have them around.

[martyscncgarage]

Well what I meant is programming CNC12 to behave the way we want it to.
Thanks Milton!
Marty