Mini progress report... control box 80% wired ready to go into its container on the machine. Machine has all wiring run and mini control boxes built, one mini control box wired today, 2 to go, that's this weeks job. I am hoping to have it moving under its own power by the end of the week. Spindle still not wired though and cooling solution not finalised.

Lit a fire under your arse ? :D

My wife did ;)

That's considerate of her :rolleyes:

LOL....
Getting close.
I've said before, my wife was my biggest critic when I started building, she thought it was a big impractical toy.
Now she is my biggest fan. Especially when she sees something online and realizes I can build it for her.

Same for my wife. It wasn't till she saw that it was finally cutting that the wheels started turning. Before that it was just another project of mine.

We have a very funny satirical show on Dutch Television right now. It's called "More For Men" (roughly translated) where a guy does all kinds of cool menly stuff, like riding tanks, drinking beers, burping, you know... menly stuff.... to form an opposition to what he calls a feminist society. It's a brilliant parody/comedy wehre you never know if he's serious or joking.

Every episode he also visits complete strangers, just rings a doorbell, and then he talks about the interior of the room with both men and wive. He asks the men why they let all this crap in the house ( like little flowers and wooden elephants in front of the window etc) and the answer is always the same: no I don't like it ... but my wife decides what goes where in the house, so what can I do ?

He then proceeds to confront the woman with this and says this poor man is really unhappy with the interior, but your leave him no choice. You probably confronted him with two options, right ? Either this interior or no access to "alladins cave" ( for a lack of better words ;-) ) How can you do this to this poor fellow, what can he oppose to that ?

Etc etc. Brilliant... too bad it's only in dutch, but maybe you Afrikaner vcan understand a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEv6-XmJBpE

Now reason I was posting this ..... with the MM guys, you finally have some bargaining material :D

I am on track to have some movement on the beast by the end of the week but I have a couple of questions first...

Lubricating the rack & pinions, what do you guys use? My rack is spotlessly clean and dry at the moment.

Motor mounts.... I do not have the teflon washers for the motor mounts, what are they actually there for? Do the mounts get tightened after the application of the springs or do they "float" and the spring accounts for any imperfections in the rack? Can't quite work out the purpose of the teflon washers and have never seen their use explained....

I give the R & P a spray with some light oil (when I remember)

For the washers, I used some plastic from a tray.
Tighten the locknut enough so the motor can pivot but so it is not tight or sloppy.
Yes the springs allow for movement.
If you have a colission the motor can swing and no harm is done.

I used a lithium based grease thinned with WD-40 to create a smooth thin film. This will help prevent where. A grease catch is handy for the Y Car so it catches the slung grease. Even when it is lightly coated, small minute specks will be thrown on rapid traverse.

The teflon washers can be made from delrin. Rack and Pinion has to have movement unless you have a perfect machined mounting surface. The spring holds the tension on the rack.

Thanks guys, exactly what I was after. Will go to the hardware and grab some lubricant, preferably a dry based one so dust and stuff don't stick.

I bought some plastic sheet, can't remember what is is made of but it is real slippery :) I'll cut some washers out of that to get me going than I'll use the machine itself to make perfect ones later :)

i used table saw slick top spray and it was brilliant for the RP drive. Shed the dust off too from accumulating.

Dry lubricant works great, basically its paraffin based.

I use dry lubricant spray can

Today was a good day, the control box is now fully wired and responds to Mach via the ESS. With the drivers disconnected I ran some gcode and tested the safety features and all checks out. Tomorrow I will be connecting the machine to the control box and will then find out if I have wired everything correctly. Maybe Sunday will see the big red beast move on its own!

Exciting times...congrats Bruce....you are getting close!!
Mark

good luck !

Ran across a problem today with my tool change/touch off setup. I explained in another thread how I got my black button working on the Y car. That was under my PMDX-122. For some reason this is no longer working now I am using a PMDX-126.

The difference between the 2 seems to be that I am now using an ESS and my inputs are now on the 2nd port pins. Mach is telling my that no probe is active which says to me it can't see the 2nd ports pins. I checked Port 2 in ports and pins but have no idea of that is correct. The ESS diagnostic screen tells me that pin 11 & 12 on port 2 are triggered when I press my button but, as mentioned, Mach isn't play ball.

Anyone know what Probe Not Active means? Have I setup port 2 on the ESS correctly? This is the only bit that's driving me nuts .... so far.

On other news :) the e-stop works and the start/pause/stop buttons work as designed. Proxies to connect, touch off to get working and motors to connect is next on the cards.

Addendum to above post... Mach is recognising port 2, I switched the start button to a pin on port 2 and it worked. So now I am stumped....

When you find out let me know, I too have not got the "Little Black Button" to work, but then again I was happy with the pause and start buttons working and stopped trying.

Are you using a 126 Tom?

Yes, single port using phantom port 8 assignment to share specific pin inputs

The 126 can only use 2 inputs for the probe. At least that is how it was explained to me by Steve from PMDX. Are you using the correct port and pin combination?

I'm using pin 15 to input both my touch plate and probe inputs, one has to be active high and the other active low (or some combination there of). Refer to Section 5.6 of PMDX-126 Manual, you have got to be operating in expanded I/O mode if I remember correctly. There may be other pins involved I'm not remembering.

I am assuming you are using the 2010 screenset. I can not comment on that as I don't use it. I use 2 probe inputs and do not use expanded mode. I use the merge probe configuration.

If you have the C version of the 126 board it is page 19 Section 5.6

I think the expanded i/o mode is the only way I could figure I could use 1 cable, although I do have my control panel set up for 2 cables if needed.

You are correct Tom. With one cable you need expanded IO. Without knowing his individual setup this is a guessing game. Typical you would use both ports of the 126 to the ESS so he should not need expanded IO.

Sorry guys, timezones. Yes I am running Gerry's 2010 screenset. My 126 is in Normal mode without Charge Pump at this stage. The touch off cables are connected to Port 2, pins 11 & 12. My 126 is one of Steve's latest, purchased a month or so ago.

However, I am getting this No Probe Active message even when pressing the Chevrons on the screenset so it is more related to the 126/ESS combo than my black button.

Just had my morning coffee so am now off to the garage to do more on the beast. Will forget the touch off stuff for now and get everything else attached.

Mach is very specific about touch probe input. They must be on the designated port and pin described in the 126 manual.