MechMate CNC Router Forum

Go Back   MechMate CNC Router Forum > Personal Build Histories > Construction started, but not cutting yet
Register Options Profile Last 1 | 3 | 7 Days Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #121  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 14:03
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
ok, got a question for the folks that used a external heatsink in their control box. did you sandwich the control box side between the heatsink and the geckos?...or cut out the control box side to allow the heat sink to contact the bottom of the geckos?
Reply With Quote
  #122  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 14:06
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
I cut the box and used thermal transfer paste so the geckos say directly on the heat sink. Sandwich method will kill your thermal transfer.
Reply With Quote
  #123  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 14:33
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
That was my concern...Was thinking thermal tape on both side of the panel side, but the cutout is probably the way to go.
Reply With Quote
  #124  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 14:34
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
And thanks for the quick reply
Reply With Quote
  #125  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 14:50
Duds
Just call me: Dale
 
Canberra
Australia
A steel control box makes an excellent heat sync itself. It has a large mass and surface area.
Reply With Quote
  #126  
Old Fri 03 October 2014, 15:13
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
As long as the box is big enough. Yes the box will work. If it is small you can raise the internal temperature up and possibly cause heat issues. Placing the heat outside the box on the fins of the heatsink is preferred.
Reply With Quote
  #127  
Old Sun 05 October 2014, 01:40
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Not sandwiched. Mount the the heat sink out side and cut the panel so that my driver can tape to the heat-sink directly.
Reply With Quote
  #128  
Old Sun 05 October 2014, 05:43
MetalHead
Just call me: Mike
 
Columbiana AL
United States of America
Ditto on the cut out.

Look at Gary's box here.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showt...8&postcount=76
Reply With Quote
  #129  
Old Sun 05 October 2014, 16:05
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
For lack of the willpower to tell the whole sad tale...what is the best place to get the prescribed fuses for the inside of a Gecko 203 drive? Mouser or ???
Reply With Quote
  #130  
Old Sun 05 October 2014, 18:44
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Who ever carries them. You can contact Gecko Drive also. They have great customer support.
Reply With Quote
  #131  
Old Sun 05 October 2014, 20:30
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
K, have ordered from MOuser before, they were pretty rough on shipping and handling...was hoping there might be another supplier. Will try Gecko
Reply With Quote
  #132  
Old Tue 07 October 2014, 08:22
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
Back at it.

Got side tracked for a couple of months with the real job. Blew the dust off the 90% done kitchen table project. Re-discovered the real danger of getting side-tracked from a project like this. You forget where you were at...I started looking for what was still left to be finished and reviewing the wiring diagrams...things just got "fuzzy" after sitting for several months. The net result was sending 48V reverse polarity to the PMDX 134 board with all 4 of my Gecko 203V's attached...promptly zapping their internal fuses. That was the exact moment that I realized spending the little extra money for the 203's was SUCH a good thing, because I would have just turned the cheaper Geckos into paperweights. In this case I made a call to the nice folks at Gecko and ask them how much a set of those little fuses would cost and was informed they "were on the house"...including the shipping. To say Geckodrives has good customer service is the understatement of the year. Those folks are awesome!

A few pictures of the progress made getting the dust blown off the project.

Cutting the side of the box to allow the Geckos to make direct contact to the heat sink...


Attaching the heat sinks with a couple of bolts and a few blind rivets.


Mounted the Geckos to the heat sink with a thermal pad. All was going well...right up until I zapped the fuses in the drivers :-(


In other progress, got Mach3 installed on a laptop, IP address configured and talking to the ethernet smoothstepper. Need to verify it is talking to the PMDX 126. Not sure yet if Mach is seeing both of the emulated LPT ports that the ESS provides. Want to hook up a quickie test circuit to emulate a Z-zero touch probe and verify that Mach can see it.

Onward...
Reply With Quote
  #133  
Old Tue 07 October 2014, 08:51
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
...Gecko has always been awesome with Customer service. Glad you had a good experience too.
Reply With Quote
  #134  
Old Wed 08 October 2014, 01:02
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Nicely done!
Other then lowering the box temperature & cool looking box. The added bonus of a external heat sink is that you free up lots of premium box space instantly. Easier to for organizing your wiring & more room for more bells & whistle.
Reply With Quote
  #135  
Old Mon 13 October 2014, 07:52
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
Ken, I thought for a while about sticking the computer in the box as well...plenty of room. Could have mounted the motherboard and everything on the door and made it nice and clean. Theeeeeeennnnnn I went in to a Best Buy and saw how cheap touch screen laptops are getting. I decided the box mounted PC would actually have more cables (keyboard, mouse, monitor) running between the workstation and the box then a laptop setup with a ESS (ethernet cable) So I am setting it up with an old laptop and one day I will switch it out to a touch screen laptop to run MACH 3 to give touch screen control of MACH 3.
Reply With Quote
  #136  
Old Mon 13 October 2014, 08:37
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
Well...it is a good thing to have this forum. Without this I would have no one to hear the "WOO HOO's" when I figure something out ;-) Family doesn't exactly "get" the whole CNC build in the garage thing and certainly don't understand the satisfaction of figuring out something that has had you beating your head on the wall for a few hours. Let's just say that MACH 3 is in control of the kitchen table project and things MOVE! Got all motors jogging and MACH 3 controlling the spindle relay. Still need to setup a Z-Zero touch plate circuit. intending to go ahead and install 2010 screenset and figure out the particulars there.

Waiting on about 2 tons of steel to get fab'ed for a bolt together Mechmate table and a hydraulic rubber pad press setup for a related but separate project. The shop is about to get BUSY...

Kitchen Table project- MACH 3 in control
Reply With Quote
  #137  
Old Mon 13 October 2014, 10:26
Fox
Just call me: Fox
 
Amsterdam
Netherlands
I am still waiting for the first one to dress up his steppers like penquins and add some flappy feet the to the axles, when I see those laying next to each other on a test bench

Congrats ! Feel nice, heh !?
Reply With Quote
  #138  
Old Mon 13 October 2014, 23:57
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Separating the PC from control panel is a very wise decision, the control panel space vanishes in a hurry when you put the Mobo in... & the wires for keyboard & other mod-cons....
Reply With Quote
  #139  
Old Mon 20 October 2014, 08:13
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
Got to give a pat on the back to fellow MechMate builder "Drexel" on the forum... finished taping his gear rack and realized he had at least another machine worth of 3M tape left...passed his extra down the line to me. Still some generous folks out there in the world...good to meet another one!

Thanks again!
Reply With Quote
  #140  
Old Tue 21 October 2014, 18:07
Rusty Nuts
Just call me: Gary #86
 
Valley Grande, AL
United States of America
Hi 1planeguy

Great looking build. Getting the motors turning is great progress, won't be long now till your making chips. Where is Smiths Station?
I'll be watching from Valley Grande.

Gary
Reply With Quote
  #141  
Old Fri 07 November 2014, 18:30
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
Well, the project just got a lot heavier! Had a shop I do work for run the material through their CNC beam line. Everything is pre-punched and cut to length...now time to fire up the welder and stick metal together!


Reply With Quote
  #142  
Old Sat 08 November 2014, 02:42
Fox
Just call me: Fox
 
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Dang, everytime you think you've seen it all... Pre punched cnc cut beams, that's like triple word value in the diy cnc builder world. I thought I was being fancy when I welded mine one a big welding table at my friends shop.
Reply With Quote
  #143  
Old Sat 08 November 2014, 10:49
rcboats1
Just call me: Kelly
 
Everett (WA)
United States of America
That's cheating, (I wish I had thought of that).
Reply With Quote
  #144  
Old Sat 08 November 2014, 13:04
Tom Ayres
Just call me: Tom #117
 
Bassett (VA)
United States of America
Its not really cheating if you can afford it or you have friends in the right places.
Reply With Quote
  #145  
Old Sat 08 November 2014, 14:18
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
Send a message via Skype™ to Alan_c
I still think its cheating (only because I can't afford it and my friends are definitely not in the right places )
Reply With Quote
  #146  
Old Sat 08 November 2014, 16:26
servant74
Just call me: Jack
 
Nashville (Tennessee)
United States of America
Yep. Cheating is a relative term. It is only cheating because I don't have friendly local vendors and friends with the capabilities either!

It is good to see that someone else thinks out of the box and uses the tools and facilities available to them! Yep, I am jealous because I can't find a way to cheat like that too!

Way to go 1planeguy!
Reply With Quote
  #147  
Old Sun 09 November 2014, 04:18
Tom Ayres
Just call me: Tom #117
 
Bassett (VA)
United States of America
Alan, look at it this way he doesn't get to experience all of the build like the rest of us.
Reply With Quote
  #148  
Old Sun 09 November 2014, 04:50
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
Send a message via Skype™ to Alan_c
LOL Tom, so what you are saying is we need to feel sorry for 1planeguy?
Reply With Quote
  #149  
Old Sun 09 November 2014, 06:09
Tom Ayres
Just call me: Tom #117
 
Bassett (VA)
United States of America
Exactly what I said
Reply With Quote
  #150  
Old Sun 09 November 2014, 08:19
1planeguy
Just call me: 1planeguy
 
Smiths, Al.
United States of America
I'll even admit this is cheating ;-) If you saw the accuracy this stuff is cut to...Y'all would probably throw me off the Mechmate builders site. There are actually 2 projects on that trailer...a 50 ton shop press for doing rubber pad forming and the 5'x12' mechmate. I'm actually welding up the press first. The I-beams are cut within 1/32 of intended length and dead square. I saw a demonstration of the CNC saw that did a squaring cut and then moved the beam down and cut a perfect 1/8 slice off the end (of a 21" tall beam)...it makes trying to make things square a heck of alot easier for sure.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Register Options Profile Last 1 | 3 | 7 Days Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Mechmate "Junior", table and gantry welded - Portland,OR Sherman McCoy Construction started, but not cutting yet 100 Wed 21 March 2018 05:40
Seating the Y Gantry on the X Rails - correcting a twisted gantry Greg J 20. Gantry 30 Wed 14 April 2010 02:55
Y Car Welded - France fawzikach Construction started, but not cutting yet 30 Wed 24 March 2010 15:15
Table welded, parts shopping going well - Dundee, MI GregA Construction started, but not cutting yet 111 Thu 07 February 2008 10:00
Programming a simple pushbutton control station for ShopBot Mike John Human Interface Devices (HID's) 25 Fri 11 January 2008 10:47


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:08.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.