Okay, that screw head does clear okay.

That part of the Y-car can be drilled for the cables. I might even add some holes there on the laser cuts.

The smaller radius cable chain should be okay. It is decided by the minimum radius of the stuff you want to put into it. That might include hoses and thick cables for serious spindles and/or air/sand blasters.

Kitchen table started help needed!
 

We are not getting any movement.
Please, will the voice of experience help!

Will post pics of mach screen shots shortly.

Mach settings
 

Mach screen shots.

Justin,

In the Motor Outputs tab, the "Dir Low Active" should be checked green.

I'll check for other things.

Greg

Havn't checked your Mach screens because I am rusty on that, but the following may help . . . .

Have you moved jumper JP1 on the PMDX to the lower GND side for the G203's?

Are any green LED's changing on the PMDX when you try and make the motors go forwards and backwards? (The LEDs nearest the DIR pins. ie pin2 on J1) should be "on" for one direction only). The STEP LED will blink too fast to see with the eye.

Have you checked to see that your port address is correct?

Mach defaults to 0x378 but that is not always correct.

Check it in device manager. If not sure what that is then watch the Mach setup videos.

Greg

Thanks for the input we will check all these things and report back.

Have you checked to make sure all of your wires have continuity. You can touch the heads of the terminal screws at both ends of the wires with the probes of a multi-meter. I usually set the dial so that it beeps when I have continuity.

Thanks Doug, we will try that also. Can't get to it till this weekend, what a bummer.

Motor turns with different computer
 

We made the suggested changes (THANKS GUYS) but still no movement. So we installed mach on different computer and were able to get the motor to turn in one direction very slowly. My guess is that the printer port on the first computer is not strong enough. Can't wait to hook up the big power!

Video of one motor turning.
 

Check out the smoothness of the motor, can't get over it. Most of our problems in getting the motor to turn came from not having the jumper pins on the PMDX 122 in the right spot. Remember, there are more than just 1.


http://picasaweb.google.com/Tadeo.Luna/MechmateProgress

nice pictures

Hi Justin

Glad to hear that you have your motors turning smoothly now. How are your jumpers different from this post?

Gerald

My mistake was only moving JP1 down and not moving any of the other pins. We now have it just like your post. Did any one watch the Video?

Great pics Justin.

Couldn't find any video though.

Justin,

Nice Pictures, but what's that big eagle in the background?????

I want one. :cool:

Justin I watched the video :cool: it's picture 41 of 49

feeling dumb now:o

Justin,
Watched the video and looks great. You have a nice set of pictures on there as well. Will be a good reference.

All right! some feed back on the video. The shop you see in the pictures is not ours. It is my brothers friends dads shop, his name is Larrry and he is a metal fabricator and artist. The Eagle is his sculpture that he will bronze. Thank, God for exsperienced old guys! Only poking a little fun on Halloween.

Drilling Pinions for grub screw
 

Has anyone drilled their pinions for grub screws? We got our pinons from McMaster Carr and they don't have the keyway or grub screw hole. I am not sure if drilling the holes and taping them is easy or hard to do. Any procedures that I need to be aware of before moving forward.

Thanks

I purchased mine from a company called Kaman. They are made by Martin and have a beefy hub... they come with the screws already...
$25/ea. I didn't want to take any chance with the gears (30 teeth)

Justin, I personally find tapping to be very easy today, but 40 years ago it was nerve-wracking! :)

First you need to buy the right tap, plus the right drill size. (I don't have the experience of the names and sizes used in your part of the world, so I'll hope that a "local" fills you in).

For the small quantity of pinions, it could be more economical to take them out for someone else to tap, since a decent quality tap is not so cheap, and you are unlikely to need it again soon.

In this thread: Tapping threads into metal the discussion is more for tapping the rail screws, rather than the pinions, using power tools to drive the tap. For the pinions, you won't use a power tool, but the other comments there are mostly valid.

Hi Justin,

I was worried about tapping the pinions as well. As it turned out it was easier than I expected. Just set it up in your vise and away you go. I wouldn't give it any worries.

I had the same concerns as you and GregM above and I just tapped my pinion gears on Sunday. It was really a piece a cake and, given your ability as shown
in your photos, this will be trivial for you.

Here's a tap-and-drill guide for US sizes:
http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-in...rill-Size.aspx

I've been watching (Lurking) your build as I'm about a month behind you.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the finished photos!

Cheers,

-Jeff

Hey Justin,

I bought the same pinions from McMaster. Tapping is not that big of a deal.

In fact, I screwed up (no pun intended) the first hole. I just rotated the pinion 180 degrees and proceeded with a new one.

You will see some discussion about tapping two holes for two set (grub) screws. Just for reference, I tapped one hole and used two set screws in the same hole. I have not had any problems with pinions coming loose. Just the way I was taught.

It finally clicked! "two set screws in same hole" . . . .

I have been used to working with 1" diameter pinions and just couldn't figure what 2 screws in one hole meant - but you are talking of bigger 30T pinions where the hole is deep enough to get 2 short grubscrews one behind the other. Good idea! (must admit that I had never seen or heard of it till now).

The ungeared, direct drive stepper motors from Oriental Motor have 2 flats on the shaft, 90 degrees opposed. The geared motors only have one flat. We are grinding a second flat (short) for 2 grubscrews to mate with the shaft. Backing them up with 2 more grubscrews (for the 30T pinions) should be extremely secure.

The last couple of posts on grubscrews will be copied to a new topic in the technical sections. Photos and illustrative drawings will be welcome! ;)

Thanks guys,

I will take lot's of pictures and give feed back on our procedures.

Pinions drilled and taped
 

Pinion gears were purchased from McMaster Carr. It is a Boston Gear with 35 teeth. The set screw is 6mm. They were very easy to drill and tap. I don't even remember why we were nervous about drilling them!