Hennie,

My wife came up with that rule too. :(

Doug,
Does she know what the stuff really costs? :eek:

I use the system of 'buy and hide'. When she saw it 2 months down the line and told I had it for some time! :D

No Johan that doesn`t work for me the englishman is to sharp for that.

Heath,

If I use a cash and carry system, I can keep her in the dark. Luckily for me, she doesn't know a hammer from a nail. When she looks out in the garage, all she sees are mysterious looking gizmos and is unable to tell if anything is new.

One day I decided to test her so I quizzed her on the names of some of my tools. I almost wet my pants hearing what she came up with.

Last week, when I was in Pensacola helping my parents, Kathryn was my assistant. Whew, what a frustrating experience. She couldn't do even the simplest things you take for granted when another guy is helping you. For example, carrying the end of a sheet of plywood. She would get on the opposite side of the sheet so we were fighting each other. Or holding a tape measure with two hands so there is a distinct kink in the tape which throws off the measurement. Don't get me wrong, I've got a great wife that I love dearly but in the workshop, she is worse than a hindrance.

Now wait a minute Doug ...... how do you know it wasn't you that was on the wrong side of the plywood? :p:D

Cause I was in front and I wasn't able to swap sides as easily as the person in back. :D

I figured someone was going to bring that up. I should have known it would be you J.R.

Doug,
I hope our wives never figure out our passwords for this forum. :) And I will agree with you, women do work quite differently than men.

JR,
Too funny. :)

My wife balances the check book for me so,she knows how much I spend. Recently she ask about some motors that I had bought and if her vw had that kind of motor(pr296b2a-sg7.2). I assured her that it did not have that kind of motor and let it go at that.:D

My wife worked for her dad in the Hardware store so she knows too well what is a hammer and a nail:)

Hennie, I bet there where you first met your wife :D

jip

northwest florida build
 

Hello fellow builders. Its about time for a new post and pictures of my build. It has been a slow go but progress is being made. I have the angle rails cut to height and the the angle grind finished. My first mistake was getting 2.5"x2.5" angle instead of 2.5"x2.0". It took a lot more disc to cut the height down. The angle grind went real good after I figured the skate out. Took only one disc. I used a good size piece of oak and cut a 45 degree in the center for the sandpaper to fit and polished the rails. Got the 8" channel cut to size. Made a guide to clamp to the beam and used an old Craftsman saw with a Dewalt .055" metal cutting disc. Also have worked on the y car. Have it welded and powdercoated along with some other parts. Thanks Jimmy

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts098.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts118.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts116.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts121.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts128.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts124.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts127.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts001-1.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts004-1.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts003-2.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts089.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts112.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts110.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts111.jpg

Great Progress Jimmy!
Thanks for the pictures of the VW's in the background, I love the beetles.

Thanks Jimmy: I love your idea of the oak with the 45 degree cut and the sandpaper to polish the rails. I will use that on mine! Keep it up.

It makes two of us on those beetles show some more pic`s of the yellow one

The yellow bug was in for some maintance and is gone now. It is really a nice one. The customer is the original owner. It has gone thru a couple of restorations.

Thanks Jimmy

Northwest Florida build
 

More on the build: Have the legs cut and the foot plate welded to the legs . Have the adjusters built to level the table. The cross bearers are cut and drilled for the support board and holes drilled to bolt to the main channels. Some more pictures as we build. Thanks Jimmy

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts054.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts072.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts056.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts060.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts061.jpg


http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...dsParts109.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts004-2.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts003-3.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts001-2.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts006-2.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts001-3.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts002-3.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...Parts004-3.jpg

Looking good, Jimmy. Keep 'em coming!:D

Nice shop too.

The first thing that caught my eye in that shop was the 2 trash carts, then the 2 VW wagons, then the 2 sandblast cabinets, and then a bloke welding something together...:)

...I love "production" photo's. Jimmy - great work progress as usual. Thank you for the updates. Pictures make all the difference for us on the "outside" of a build.
Thanks,
Sean

Need help with Gantry
 

I'm in the process of building the gantry and having problems with the placement of the closure plates. I have some pictures of the way I think they go. I would like some opinions if that is correct or not before I start the welds. I have the cross tubes drilled and facing down. The clamp strap is inside of the tubes. Thanks, Jimmy

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...adspics008.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...adspics007.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...adspics006.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...adspics005.jpg

That looks good to me. Check again that its square and co planar and weld away :)

Jimmy,
That looks correct. When the gantry is properly placed on the table the cable chain connection should be the furthermost point away from 0,0 on the table.

Looks correct.

Sean

gantry
 

Thanks to Alan and Sean for getting me straight on thre closure plates. Now for some more build. Thanks Jimmy

Northwest Florida build
 

Time for some update on my MM build. The project is moving along but slower than I would like. The table has been put together and the rails have been bolted on. The gantary rolls on the X rails very well for not to be alined yet as does the Y car. I did extend the cable chain to the full length of the X and Y and made some more chain shelf brackets.The table has been taken apart now to be sandblasted , painted and some parts to be powdercoated. Have started to put the racks on the rails. I know that some people use just tape but I'll feel better with a couple of bolts. While the table was assembled in the shop a lot of customers wanted to know what we wre building. So the had to go through the story of the MM and Gearld in South Africa. Some ask if we are still going to work on cars. One person said "when I was a kid my grandpa had one of those". When it starts to be reassembled it will be at my house. Already making room for it. Things will slow down in the next couple of weeks so I hope to have a little more time. I think that I have everything for the control box build. I have the cad program(Turbocad) and will order the mach 3 program. Have not chose a cam program yet. Here are some pictures of our progress. Now really back to the kitchen table build. Thanks Jimmy

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2382.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2384.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2396.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2399.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2400.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2393.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2404.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2389.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2394.jpg

http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/v...5/100_2392.jpg

Looking great, Jimmy! Congratulations on your build so far.

What's the significance of the picture of the part in the press. Did you do your own bending?

Northwest Florida build
 

John: The brackets that are being bent is for the shelf brackets when I decided to extend the X and Y chain length. They are made from cut off of the angle for the rails. I had to make several of them. You can see them in one of the pictures of the main beam.The shelf for the X is in two pieces so they would not be so long and I could still get them in my oven to powercoat them.Thanks Jimmy

Motor will not run
 

Need Help: I am trying to start the kitchen table build and need some help. I have Mach3 program loaded on a dedicated computer. I get to the driver test program and get the line off the top of the scale and can only see some spikes a the 80 line and pulse per second was about 12305. It says system excellent. I go thru the ports and pins and think that they are set right but can't get motor to turn. I changed computers and have a good driver test line and pulse rate but motor still will not run. I followed Gecko trouble shooting diagram and came down to: check controller timing G203V Step input Specs: Min step '0' Time = 0.5 uS
Min step '1' Time = 3 uS
Could someone explain this and how do you correct if it is not right?:confused:

I have the license Mach3, PMDX, Gecko 203V, and OM PK296AZA-SG7.2 motors. Have a 36K resistor in the 203V, have Anter Power Supply PS-5N38R12. The motor is wired black to A, (3) yellow/A(4), Red to B(5), white to /B(6). I'm using only one Gecko and one motor at the time to see any movement. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Jimmy

Jimmy,

I always start at the very beginning when things like this happen, so here is teh list in my head I used when I was doing my kitchen table:

Check...
- Voltage on power supply
- Check voltage on BoB and does the BoB show sign of light?
- Check voltage on Gecko drive and is the Gecko light on?

- When powering up the control box, is the stepper motor energized? You can check this by trying to rotate the stepper, if you cannot rotate it by hand, it's energized.

- Are there 3 wires from BoB to each Gecko connected and do they measure a connection and no shortcut (multimeter check).

- Check if parallel cable is connected from PC to BoB (yes I missed this one myself during a demo I gave a couple of weeks ago :) )

- Check charge pump.. Do you have the CP connected on the BoB? if so, temporarily disable the CP, Mach3 might not output the CP ay the moment.

- Check if Step and Dir is configured correctly in Mach3 for the outputs of the BoB

- Check e-stop circuit and jumpers on the BoB

Can you post a picture of your BoB and/or picture of the setup in general?

I personally don't know the steppers you are using so may be somebody else can chime in here?

Ries

Jimmy, we have all been at this frustrating point. There are a couple of incidents listed in the Troubleshooting forum:

Motors do not turn - Ports & Pins setting for charge pump
Stepper motor refuses to turn - Wiring & jumper errors
Motors won't turn after the setting up - PMDX-122 jumpers incorrect
Cannot get motor to turn - Mach Ports & Pins setup
Motors do not move after initial setting up - Mach setups

Ditto on the E-stop. Also the jumpers for the PMDX board.

What colors are on those resistors?

http://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Electronics/Color/

33k is Orange,Orange,Orange,Silver (or Gold)

Don't trust the guy or the bin unless they came from a true radio shop.

Good morning guys: Got up this morning with a clear head and a hot cup of coffee and set out to fix "no motor run" problem. Thanks to all that replyed. First to Ries.There is power to the power supply from the wall outlet, there are 37 volts out of the p.s.,and 12v to the bob. The motor is energized and a green light on in the gecko. The cable is connected from the PC to the bob. The wiring from the gecko dir, step, common to bob checked out with a mulitmeter. I think that the jumpers are set right on the bob and the charge pump and e-stop are set right in the mach3. I will post some pictures of the set-up thanks. Gerald, i will read those post again and again and again.:) Metalhead, the resistor colors are orange, blue, orange, red. They ohm out to be 36.0 k. Is this correct? The power supply is made by Antek not Anter. It is 6n38r12. Thanks again now to work. Jimmy

Jimmy, I'd like to know whether or or not the motor will run in response to a manual step input:

shut it off, disconnect the step input, get a 3-5 volt source (a couple of batteries will do nicely), connect the - side to the common (Gecko terminal 10). Turn on the system, and tap the + side of the voltage source on the step input (terminal 9) a bunch of times. The motor should move a little.

If it does, you know the power, gecko, motor part of the circuit is working and can concentrate on the computer, software, and bob as the source of the problem.

- Check what mode your parallel port is set to in the BIOS.
- Ensure you have no voltage on the disable (terminal 7) input to the Gecko.
- Measure the voltage on terminal 8 (direction). See if it changes as you command Mach to move the motor in opposite directions (this is easier to see and measure than the step pulses).

Good afternoon guys: A good day of work and the motors turn. Started with one gecko and one motor. Went over all of the wiring connections with a multimeter. Turned on the power supply and the mach program, pushed the reset button,pushed the tab button for cursor control. and pushed the x+ button and the motor turned. Boy did I do a double take. Did not believe what I just seen. Then I moved that motor to rest of the geckos one at a time and they all worked. Really don't know what made it work. Had not been into the ports and pins today yet. They were as I had left if them the last time I had worked on it. Went to my shop and got rest of the motors and wiring and wired all of the motors. It was really good to see all of them turning. Even loaded the "roadrunner" file and watched it run several times. I did make note of the setting just in case they get changed. Did take some pictures and will be posting. Now on to more of the kitchen build. But first time for a beer or two. Thanks everyone. Jimmy:):):)

jimmy,

congrats, will drink on that!

Congrats Jimmy, sure feels good when something ticks you off and you solve it. :)

Jimmy, I reassembled the thread above from smaller threads to make it coherent. It actually makes a fine read on a fine looking machine. Other readers are encouraged to look at the whole thread. :)

Jimmy,

Good for you. That is great that you have your motors running.

Now, go to the folder that has Mach3 and save the "what you called your Mach3 setup".xml file. That is your Mach3 configuration file. Mine is called MechMate_CNC.xml.

You will need that saved so if you change the file and things don't work you can get back to the right configuration.

This will save you butt to have a copy some place.

JImmy,
I know this has been mentioned before - but now is good time to copy and backup the mach file. Make a backup as you move forward on each significant change as your set up your machine. It will keep the headaches lower when you have a "good" restore point to go back to. Gosh how I know :)

Sean