Greg, stay out of the hostpital....they will try to kill you.:eek:

If those doctors saw the quality of work that you were doing with your MM, they would be jealous.;)

Take it easy!!
Joe

Greg,
Take it easy and I hope all stays well with you from here on in.

Hi Greg and Karen, I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive when you went quiet for 2 weeks. Sorry to hear of the setback, but glad to hear you are on the real path to recovery now. Take it easy.

Thanks Guys,

It is so wonderful to be home and eating :).

I miss my shop and so close on completing the MM. It's amazing how little energy I have. For now, I can only walk out to the shop and look at the beast. Still, just looking at the MM lifts my spirits. :)

Thanks again,
Greg and Karen

Back In The Saddle
 

Finally back working in the shop. You have no idea how great it feels to be working on the MM and listening to a baseball game in my shop. :D

Anyway, I've got the gantry trued and riding the rails very nice. All 4 V-rollers are in contact. Thanks Gerald, I couldn't have done it without your help.

I clamped 3 corners using C clamps and wood blocks. Since the Channel had angled edges, a small wood shim on the lower edge of the clamp made the clamps hold strong. On the corner requiring adjustment, I used another C clamp and made small adjustments. Overall, I move the corner 1.779" for a 0.253" adjustment. That was too much, so I just went to the corner needing adjustment and made the correction. Very simple and straight forward.

I had to add weight to the table because the table was flexing. I used weights from my tractor (Doctor said I can only lift 20 lbs, and the tractor weights have handles for the gantry crane). I added 200 lbs (90 kg) to the corner that I was making adjustments and its diagonal. 400 lbs total.

I hope that helps anyone that has twist in there gantry.

Hi Greg, great to have you back!

Thanks Gerald.

Tonight I'll repaint the gantry, enclosure door, and touch up the table. Tuesday evening, I'll get my butt in gear and start finally assembly. Shouldn't take too long. Maybe start wiring by Thursday.

Hi Greg glad to hear you are back to work. Is that a picture of Gerald in the background?

Jason

Nah, it is his dartboard.

Gerald,
Do we all need a dartboard in our shops? :rolleyes: What is the official size? :)

postage stamp size, painted full blue to hide that face!

On the opposite wall, Greg probably has a pic of his prize cow :p

Actually, I didn't get inspiration, so I accepted entertainment. ;)

Progress Report
 

Have everything wired up, but troubleshooting.

When I press the on switch, the contactor does not engage (at least that's what I think it is). All E-Stops are in normal condition. I've gone over the wiring schematic numerous times. Everything seems fine. Just have the blinders on.

I'll get it figured out, but any suggestions are helpful.

Greg,
Does the system fire up when you manually depress the contactor in the center of the relay?
If so, it's a wiring issue in your e-stop / pushbutton loop.
If it doesn't, then it's an issue with your power feed into and out of the contactor to the power supply/transformer.

Good luck.

Send a pic, I might be able to help if I can see most of the wires.
Sean

Hey Greg,
thanks for stoping by Sat., to check out the MM.

Sounds like something very simple, you will get it...
maybe try checking voltage from the source to the contactor relay, sounds like that relay is not getting voltage to operate the contactor. If that is what is happening you may need to go over the wires behind the pushbuttons going to the relay, light, and the estop circut.

I printed a copy of the wiring page and checked each wire and highlighted it if it was correctly wired. That is an easy way to troubleshoot if there are alot of wires the same color and it starts gets confusing.

Hope you get it!!

Greg J,

Your problem sounds exactly like the problem I had with my contactor. Are you absolutely sure it is hooked up correctly? Reread my posts about my contactor and look at the photos I took. There are connections on the rear of the contactor that I and someone else missed. I think it may have been Sean.

Good luck.

Thanks Guys,

I'll double check everything tonight when I get home.


Ed,
Thanks for the hospitality and you've got one nice MechMate.
I think that qualifies as the first meeting of the Southern Rockies / Desert chapter of the MechMate Builders Association (MBA). I always wanted a MBA. :)

Doug.....yep - it was me.
The CN 9, 11, 22 and 25 contactors all have the A1/A2 coil contacts UNDER the relay. VERY easy to miss and inadvertently wire the coil contact to the NC/NO auxiliary contact on the far right hand side of the 3 pole contact block.

A mistake that is easily missed. This was the REAL reason I asked if you can manually engage the contactor by pushing the block in. :)

+1 on that I did the same thing when doing the kitchen table project and had to go to the factorymation website and recheck the wiring diagram for the contactor, and caught my mistake.

Okay on the MBA but do we have to grow beards:eek:.....the itching the chaffing

Did you guys come up with a hand shake when you had the MBA meeting for the Rockies? Shouldn't it be MMBA?

I suppose we need T-Shirts and Hats!

Test 1 - I checked the E-Stop loop by taking the ohm meter and performing a continuity check. When the three E-Stops on the gantry are not engaged, I get a closed loop (meter beeps). When any one of the three E-Stops IS engaged, I get a open loop (no beep on the meter).

Test 2 - With power to 4T2 and 2T1 of the contactor, I can depress the contactor in the middle of the relay and power everything. The fan works, the drivers have power, etc. A1 and A2 are utilized.

Test 3 - I've rechecked the wiring to the schematic and it looks good (not saying that if I check it again, I might find the problem :))

Here are a couple of pictures.

Attachment 1469

Attachment 1470

Greg,
Just for giggles...check to make certain that your CN-22 contactor is the correct voltage. I assume you are using 110V coil? On occasion, factorymation/automation direct have been known to mislabel a relay or two.

Greg....I was studying your picture. I assume the back of the front panel block is the on/off block. With that said...Does L3 go to center blcok or to the start block.?

110V - US schematic for reference.Attachment 1471

Sean,

First, thanks for your help. First beer at the MM conference is on me. :)

Question 1 - Yes, the CN-22 is the correct voltage. I had everything working in the kitchen project.

Question 2 - The back of the front panel does show the on/off block. The left block is the NO (on) block, the center is the light block, the right block is the NC block (off). L3 goes to the off or NC block. T3 (the other white wire) goes to the NO (on block)

Additional test - Continuity check between T2 and A2 is open when NOT pressing the on switch. When the on switch is press, the circuit is closed. I did this test to make sure the contactor coil was getting current when the on switch was pressed.

I also check continuity on the BOB, J6 between E-stop and GND. When E-stops are not engaged, the circuit is closed. When the E-stop is engaged (pressed) the circuit is open.

Beards are optional, but if grown, they must be grey - its in the terms of use agreement right after painting the MechMate blue...:D:D:D

Oh good,
Dont think I could grow anything but grey these days! :eek::)

I always tell people, "it's not grey, it's silver". :)

Yes Silver in the hair, gold in the teeth and lead in the feet at our age.

And titanium holding the internal joints together. :cool:

Greg,

Beside your contactor is a Magnecraft unit. What are you using it for and can you provided some additional information.

Thanks

Greg, something doesn't look quite right on the contactor wiring. Hard to orient because it it upside down to how I did mine but check the following wire I think it is on the wrong side of the light contactor. I think the neutral or N wire should go to the side of the light that doesn't go to the NO or on button. I checked mine and the diagram is how I am wired at the contactors

oops the bottom wire on the on button or NO contactor I forgot to label, it goes to L3 on the contactor

ED....I that's what I was trying to figure out...I think that might be it.
Greg?

and check the white wire on the top of the NC, I think it should go to the top of the NO if that wire goes to T3 on the contactor. Hard to see where the wires are going to the contactor in the photo

I see one other thing to check. on the light contactor there is a white wire on top and a black wire on the bottom, but at the contactor relay there are two white wires. Check to see but one contactor relay wire should go to one side of the light and the other contactor relay wire should go to the other side of the light. So being that the colors don't seem to jive in the photo maybe check those also.

Thanks again guys.

I will check when I get home this evening.

It sure is nice to have an extra set of eye's to troubleshoot.

Greg,

You do have it plugged into the wall right? And is there power at the outlet?

Got It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!
 

Thanks Guys,

I finally got it!!! I had the off (NC) switch wired wrong.

I like detailing my mistakes, because if one person who thinks they don't have the confidence, or expertise to build a MechMate, decides to actually take the adventure and fabricate "the beast", then maybe, ... just maybe, ... engineering can change humanity for the better. OK, so I've had a couple of beers. This is cool stuff.

Sorry for the rambling.

The off (NC) switch was wired wrong. I tried wiring per Ed's suggestions, but only made the lights in the shop slightly dim. Talk about pucker factor. :)

The next step was to totally rewire the on/off switch. No big deal, but it's interesting that I checked the wiring ... oh, 5 times, and it looked good. Once I started to re-connect the wires, the light bulb over the head went off, and I saw the problem. You have to have a beer after a moment like that. :) Anyways, I finished the rewiring and everything worked great. the E-stops work. The motors turn. The pause/start buttons are getting to the computer. It was a good evening.

Glad you got it fixed:), sorry if the wiring drawing misled, I went out opened my box and took my wire ties off my contactor wiring and marked each wire where I have mine, and rechecked with the wiring plan. I will take a look again today and make sure I didn't do the drawing incorect.

Hi Greg,
I checked my drawing with how I have mine wired and with the plan again, and it all checks out. The wire coming from the contactor T3 can be wired to either to the on or off button contactors as long as it is on the same side as the above drawing(opposite the estop and L3). When I marked T3 and L3 on the drawing I didn't explain but that is the third or unused legs on the contactor if your using the three pole contactor. Again sorry for any confusion.

I ordered my dust collector yesterday.:):) And I have an order for a tube amp that I will be using the MM to make the logo badge and faceplate for:D

yeahoo my first paying job with it.