Re: [Emc-users] A great example of CNC work and motion control.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Boston Dynamics has retired their Atlas robots. Their new model is all 
electric. As a farewell they posted this video showing a lot of Atlas' 
failures, including many hydraulics blowouts from when it landed too hard and 
popped a hose or seal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9EM5_VFlt8


On Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 01:58:44 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

Just by chance is anyone here interested in advanced machine control and CNC’d 
metal parts?

Here is a real product you can buy today for $16K that defines the above. It is 
just like our 3-axis milling machines but 43-axis. It just went on sale.  API 
is on GitHub.
See video —>  
https://www.unitree.com/images/Unitree%20G1%20EN%201080p%20%281%29.mp4

No connections to LCNC except to show what a few guys in China are making with 
their CNC mills.  

Already on another list, people are organizing some sort of group to buy one 
for shared access.  This is not at all like the Boston Dynamics “Atlas” which 
cost millions of dollars and was never intended to be sold.  This machine is 
currently being mass produced and is for sale today.

For the technically minded.  The robot has up to 43 motors, half of which are 
in the hands.  Each motor accepts commands for position, velocity, and torque 
and has two rotary encoders, one on the motor and one on the joint after the 
geared reduction drive.  

There is a network protocol to send the motor commands.  They need to go over 
WiFi unless you pay extra for a second computer that fits inside and then 
commands can go over Ethernet.

The other control mode works in cartesian coordinates and you can give 
high-level commands like “stand and balance” or “walk” or “move hand to X,Y,Z”.

The internal battery claims a 2-hour run time based on some average motion.

Mechanically, it is just some BLDC motors and sun-planet gear reductions of 
maybe about 6:1 or 9:1, lower than some might expect.  All of the rotation 
shafts are hollow to allow cables to be routed through the moving joints.  What 
is impressive is the machine work.  As seen in the video, It is light enough to 
be lifted by one of the engineers at Unitree.

No more science fiction or “some day you will be able to buy a robot…”. If 
you've got $16K it ships directly from China.  The company has a decent 
reputation for building good quality hardware.


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Re: [Emc-users] Beam Stiffening?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

A triangular tube with an isogrid pattern cut into it to reduce mass without 
sacrificing stiffness. Could have it laser cut with slots on the fold lines to 
make it easy for a sheet metal break to fold accurately. The design could have 
tabs and slots to interlock on the joining edge. Then TIG weld along the bend 
slots and joining edge. Weld it like they do top fuel dragster frames, a little 
bit here, a little bit there - to eliminate warping.

Or it could be possible to design three panels to bolt together and to the 
gantry using tabs and Rivnuts.

The round holes at the vertexes of the triangles wouldn't need to be cut, 
except in places where you'd want Rivnuts to mount things.

For isogrid design there's the 1973 book 
https://femci.gsfc.nasa.gov/isogrid/index.html Page 42 of the PDF has the 
dimensions for the panels used for walls and floors in Skylab. The photos in it 
are mostly useless since the PDF was apparently produced from a microfiche of a 
FAXed (or early non-greyscale photostat) copy of an original printed copy of 
the book.

In some dusty, forgotten file cabinet there must be an original printed copy of
Isogrid Design Handbook - NASA CR-124075, Rev. A, Feb. 1973

A triangular tube is more twist and bend resistant than a square, rectangular, 
or round tube, and it is lower mass than a square or rectangular tube. Even 
less mass with all the bits removed to cut an isogrid.

On Monday, May 13, 2024 at 02:49:51 PM MDT, Todd Zuercher via Emc-users 
 wrote: 

Anyone have any brilliant ideas to stiffen a woefully inadequate cross beam on 
a gantry router without adding too much mass?  What is there now is a 4" x 8" 
rectangular 3/8" walled extrusion that is 145" long.

Under normal jogging commands the two servos control the ends of this gantry 
reasonably well, but while the axis is homing the thing shakes and wobbles 
terribly bad.  Also If I put a dial indicator in the center of the bridge and 
hit the bridge forward or backward it will flex and wobble enough to displace 
the dial indicator +/-0.03 and it takes nearly a dozen wobbles to dampen it.  
But on the ends the servo's only have a few thousandths of give.

I'm less concerned about the actual stiffness and more worried about dampening 
the wobble.


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Re: [Emc-users] Home to index triggers following error

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Nothing wrong with asynchronous processing in control of machinery, as long as 
there are checks built in to ensure that events that must happen in a specific 
order cannot be executed out of order due to things like race conditions or 
operators inputting parameters and hitting the go button too fast. Atomic 
Energy Canada Limited found that out with the Therac 25.

On Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 11:04:07 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher via Emc-users 
 wrote: 

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I've had to live with this on a machine that 
I'm using cascaded double PID loops on.  I have the velocity loop PIDs running 
in a fast floating point base thread to help with the tuning of some 
cantankerous torque mode servos.  The position loops are still in the servo 
thread (because I can't run the whole servo thread as fast as I can the 
floating point base thread.)  Reading/writing to the Mesa hardware in a faster 
loop than the servo thread seems to break the f-error disable for the encoder 
reset.  I think because the encoder reset doesn't always occur when the it is 
expecting it or something to that effect.  I've tried just running a faster 
servo-thread, but I can run the lighter floating point base thread about 4x 
faster than I can the whole servo-thread.


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Re: [Emc-users] Big Tree Tech Re: Mesa Card Stepgens?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Where do you get those breakout boards? I'm looking for ones already assembled. 

On Monday, April 15, 2024 at 08:25:05 PM MDT, gene heskett 
 wrote: 


The breakout board I'm using plugs into a stepstick socket, gives 2 6 
pin sockets I plug a 6 pin pigtail into


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[Emc-users] Big Tree Tech Re: Mesa Card Stepgens?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I have a Hictop printer with some issues so I'm gathering parts to update it. 
Among them is a Big Tree Tech SKR 1.4 board (not the Turbo, which is identical 
except runs the CPU 10Mhz faster).

Do you have any experience with that one? There are a ton of display boards for 
BTT controllers but what I haven't been able to find is a list of what's 
compatible with which.

Stepper drivers shouldn't be a issue since it looks like it takes normal 
StepStick / Pololu modules. I see someone did get around to making the bleedin 
obvious accessory, the StepStick breakout to screw terminals.
https://forum.makerforums.info/t/ariel-yahni-here-is-a-better-picture-of-the-stepstick-breakout-board/7272

That would enable driving big motors with high power external drivers.

On Monday, April 15, 2024 at 03:55:49 PM MDT, gene heskett 
 wrote: 

I'm running into the same problem in 3d printers, Peter. I am currently 
rebuilding an Ender5+ using the new stepper/servo drives from hanpose, 
that are rated for up to 90 volts for the nema 17 motors used on most 
printers. Most of the big tree tech controller boards use 1.5 micro-sec 
step pulses, but I am finding I need to stretch that to 2 micro-secs if 
I don't want an occasional miss, this while driving the lc42 driver. 
These drivers all have opto inputs, and need a little longer step on the 
less than 5 volt signals.


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[Emc-users] Those when I was a kid stories. Re: Carving a spiral

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Being of 1971 vintage, I had the good fortune to have as my 2nd grade teacher 
Valera Vargason. She started teaching in a one room schoolhouse in 1939, in 
Brookings, SD. She taught classes of 40 or more students across the full range 
of ages from 5 to 18 while just 19 years old.

Teaching a class of 25 7 year old kids in 1976-1977 was a piece of cake for 
her. Today's teachers gripe about 18 or 19 kids in a class being too many.

Valera "Leah" Vargason, November 23, 1920 to April 11, 2009. 
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/idahostatesman/name/valera-vargason-obituary?id=13352777

On Friday, April 12, 2024 at 09:32:34 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

> All very true and well for someone equipt with the income and mental gear to 
> use that chain of tools profitably. But I'm an old Iowa farm kid, we made 
> what we needed.  The "store" was 15 miles of horse drawn wagon over a mud 
> road the county graded about 2x a year and all of a days ride in a wagon 
> away. So we grew it, or made it from the woodyard, whatever. 2 miles to the 1 
> room school, I rode an old gentle mare the first mile but had to walk the 2nd 
> mile because there wasn't a barn for the mare during the day any closer to 
> the school when the weather was bad. Grandpa across the road had electricity, 
> a 32 volt delco wet glass batteries, charged by a zenith windcharger. The 
> prop broke, so mother who was the only girl in the 1929 class on aviation 
> technology at Des Moines Tech Hi School, proceeded to teach her father how to 
> carve the wing chord in a new prop. Worked well in less wind than the one we 
> could get from Chicago.  That led to grandpa having the first electric 
> washing machine in Madison County Ia when the Maytag hit & miss tried to 
> start backwards, broke the starter gears and grandma's ankle. A wagon load of 
> shelled corn went to town, and was replaced by an electric motor and enough 
> heavy wire to convert the Maytag. I still wear scars on one hand from getting 
> it caught in the wringer when I was 5. We did not want for anything, we "made 
> do"  That is a hard habit to outgrow.

But today you own a computer, lots of CNC equipment, a 3D printer and education 
is free and just a mouse click away.  None of the stuff I wrote about costs 
even one dollar.  I’m the old ririred guy now.  Fusion360 is free to use.  I 
can print ther prats and then if. Needed sand the same design to CNC machine or 
to an injection molder 

I think you are right about relativity, Einstein very much admired James Clerk 
Maxwell.  Someone said Einstein ”stood on the shoulders of Newton”.  Einstein 
corrected him and said “I stood on Maxwell’s shoulders”.  

Thanks for the story.  I always like to hear those “when I was a kid…” stories. 
 My four grandparents were born in 1902 through 1911 they could talk about the 
days before radio broadcasting and one-room schoolhouses.  One grandfather was 
a professional boxer in the 1920s and traveled a lot.  But even more 
interesting to me, my wife’s parents and uncles were born in pre-war Japan.  I 
think they lived through more change than any living American.  Sadly the last 
of them is in very poor health.  My wife is visting her mom in Tokyo right now. 
 

Maybe when I am older I will talk about the days of manually driven gas cars.


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Re: [Emc-users] How to treat rusted linear rails?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Steel wool, Deep Creep penetrating oil, and a lot of "elbow grease". Then once 
you have the rust off or smoothed you'll have to decide if the rails are too 
rough to use.


 On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 01:47:31 AM MDT, Viesturs Lācis 
 wrote: 


2) my main problem is the rust on linear rails. what is recommended
procedure to treat this?
Here is a picture that show the extent of the issue:
https://pasteboard.co/C1EAn0w5t8KT.jpg
What I did is brushing it with a piece of steel wool moisted with oil.
I am not sure that it is sufficient so I would appreciate any tips on
how to treat them.


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Re: [Emc-users] Axis direction

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Shouldn't cross slide motion be X and carriage motion be Z on a lathe? Like a 
mill tipped on its back.
 On a mill, towards the tool on the spindle axis (Z) is + and table movement 
(X) to the right is +

So think of standing on the left side of a Bridgeport then tipping it over to 
the left.

On Monday, February 5, 2024 at 11:05:50 AM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 

There's been an interesting discussion on the Unimat users list about axis 
direction.  As usual someone can always find something on the web that supports 
their opinion.
For example this one:
https://digit-chain.com/names-of-axes-in-cnc-machine/

However I disagree that movement towards the rotating axis, be it the chuck on 
a lathe or the spinning cutter in a mill spindle,  is a Z+ direction.  Doesn't 
even seem intuitive to me either.

Now it's true that you can set the Z=0.00 position anywhere in the G54... 
spaces depending on what you touch off on.  And then a movement toward the 
spindle could be positive.  But in an G53 machine coordinate space isn't a Z- 
direction towards the spinning tool or part?

That's the way I have my LCNC system and MACH system set up.  Even my ELS is 
negative towards the lathe chuck.

John


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Re: [Emc-users] strange problem, X not starting but only on 1 machine of 3.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I bet the easiest fix would be to image one of the working PCs and copy it to 
the one giving you guff, then change its settings as needed.

If you want to have fun fighting with it, go ahead. ;)

On Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 06:08:30 AM MST, gene heskett 
 wrote: 

My 6040 has decided I have to login after a reboot, to a tty and then do 
a startx from its own keyboard, other 2 wintel machines are giving me a 
normal login after x starts.

2 other identical Dells are Just Working.

What should I check? .XAuthority contaminated maybe?

Thanks.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.


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Re: [Emc-users] PCIe parallel port card suggestion

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Depends on if the board is of an age where it's still using the old ISA bus 
interface for onboard serial, parallel and some other low bandwidth I/O. There 
should be some newer boards that have completely done away with ISA and put 
that I/O on PCI.


On Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 09:08:16 AM MST, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote: 

The onboard (built in) parallel port of a mother board isn't a PCI device so 
won't show anything about it.
This command should show your built in parallel port address.
cat /proc/ioports | grep parport


Todd Zuercher
P. Graham Dunn Inc.
630 Henry Street
Dalton, Ohio 44618
Phone:  (330)828-2105ext. 2031


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Re: [Emc-users] Ball Screw Driving Questions

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

A while ago I saw a photo of an old metal lathe, looked to be from the 1920's 
or older, that had a lead screw on the front and the rear of the bed, connected 
across the tailstock end with a pair of gears. That would have the screws 
rotating in opposing directions so one would need to be left hand thread. The 
solution to that would be to use 3 gears.

But two ballscrews in tension with mounts to the bed would counter any bending 
force.


On Monday, December 25, 2023 at 11:37:04 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

When it comes to flexing and bending, think about the bed too.  If the servo 
motor and pullies are mounted at the tailstock end, then the bed will carry the 
reaction forces and see exactly the same tension and “twist” force as the 
screw.  But if the motor is mounted at the headstock end the bed sees no net 
forces.

The twist force on the bad will be the motor’s stall torque times the pulley 
reduction.  Would that be enough to warp a cast iron bad?  That depends on the 
detainees.

Also you. want the force of the motor applied to the fixed end near the 
headstock because none of the mounting points will move as force is applied.

In short, think about what bends as force is applied, the motor pushes on the 
screw one way and the motor mounts in an equal but opposite direction.


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Re: [Emc-users] Ball Screw Driving Questions

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Something that can be done with screw drives is put them under slight tension. 
Attach angular contact ball bearings to both ends of the screw in such a way 
they cannot slip, then make the mounts so they will put a bit of a pull on the 
screw. Not enough to distort the threads.

The slight tension keeps the screw from bending and whipping at high RPM. It 
should also twist less when there's rapid accelerations or rotation reversals. 
A smaller diameter screw can be used because the tension helps support it 
against sagging under its own weight.

Not that a 24 inch long screw is going to whip or sag much. A benefit that a 
short screw will have with tension is zero lash from end play because it won't 
have any end play.

On Monday, December 25, 2023 at 05:06:20 PM MST, Linden via Emc-users 
 wrote: 

Hello All,

    In the early stages of converting a 13 x 24 inch manual Chinese 
lathe to run with Linux CNC.

I have 2 questions regarding replacing the Z axis lead screw with a 3205 
ball screw:

 What I am thinking is mounting the fixed end in a pillow block at the 
head stock end of the lathe and the floating end in a second pillow 
block at the tail stock end of the bed. The question I have is there any 
reason I shouldn't  drive the ball screw from the floating end? My logic 
for driving at the floating (tali stock) end is  1 I have more room for 
belt reduction at this end and 2  with the fixed end of the ball screw 
at the head stock end is that the ball screw will be in tension when it 
is pulling the carriage toward the head stock during cutting and less 
likely to flex or bend.

The second question I have is what would be a realistic cutting speed 
range for the ball screw in RPM?  The servo motor I am using has a top 
speed of 3000rpm and I am trying to figure out reduction ratio that is 
realistic.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.


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Re: [Emc-users] Suggested enhancment to linuxcnc

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Someone finally got around to making simple breakout connector boards for the 
Pololu stepper driver headers?

Not that it would be difficult to do a design and send it off to PCBway or one 
of the other places, it'd just be easier and cheaper for a company or person to 
have them made in mass quantities instead of a single batch of 4 or 5.

One could solder wires to 0.1" pin header strips and plug them in, but that's a 
hacky way. I'd prefer screw terminals to connect external, high power stepper 
drivers.

On Sunday, December 17, 2023 at 09:56:13 AM MST, gene heskett 
 wrote: 



Top that with signal stealing plugins that fit the driver socket of 
these boards I'm rebuilding 2 bigger printers with nema-17 versions of 
the closed loop servo/steppers with optical encoders that use drivers 
like we use with linuxcnc, 2m542 sized stuff, but now rated for 90 volts 
and up so they can be driven at unreal speeds w/o losing home.


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Re: [Emc-users] ot: slicing blade for table saw

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Try a meat slicer blade. They're made in a variety of sizes and thicknesses, 
with a plain edge or with a serrated edge that's like a bunch of short blades 
ending with a short step towards the center to the start of the next 'tooth'.
With a lathe it should be easy to make a pair of stepped steel washers to clamp 
one securely to a saw arbor.

What they all have in common is they *do not* spin at anywhere near table saw 
speed! I'd expect that high speed to burn and melt foam. Cutting cardboard with 
a knife edge blade would only work for narrow trimming so the off-cut can curl 
aside. Unlike foam it's too rigid to plow through. You'd need to have the blade 
go at it like a knife, just high enough to barely cut through. Same for if 
you're cutting rigid foams like expanded polystyrene or foamcore.

Even with a setup that can successfully cut cardboard you'd run into the 
problem every blade cutting paper products has, fast dulling. Paper is very 
abrasive, as has been demonstrated by people putting paper circles on table 
saws and slicing through soft woods, plastics, and some other things.

So rather than putting a meat slicer blade on a table saw, I'd make a dedicated 
foam cutting table using a three phase motor with a VFD to run it just fast 
enough to do the job.

For cutting cardboard a rotary shear mounted to a table could be the ideal 
tool. Unfortunately the ones available now use a rotary cutter and a fixed 
platen or anvil or whatever it's called. You'd want one like an old Black and 
Decker 7975 Rotary Power Cutter. It has a round wheel below the blade so 
there's no drag on one side of the material. There are several examples of that 
old tool available to buy from various places on the web.

On Friday, December 8, 2023 at 09:28:21 AM MST, fxkl47BF--- via Emc-users 
 wrote: 

i'm trying to find a slicing blade for a 10 inch table saw
a blade that is smooth and sharp, no teeth
for making smooth cuts in foam material and cardboard
i guess if there's no such critter i could make one
grind down the teeth on a cheap blade
have any of y'all seen such


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Re: [Emc-users] OT: novel 3+ n axes

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Can get 1 and 0.5 degree positioning with 360 teeth and two locks, with one 
lock spaced n+0.5 degrees away. Start at zero degrees, turn 10 then engage the 
lock that's at zero. Drill, then turn 22.5 degrees and engage the other lock 
which is at  20.5 degrees.

Could further increase the options with a third clamp at 30.33 degrees. Put as 
many clamps on as needed, as close as they can physically fit, to provide 
precision locks at a variety of sub-degree increments for common polygon angles 
that aren't whole degrees.

On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 12:29:25 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 


> On Nov 22, 2023, at 1:06 PM, gene heskett  wrote:
>> 
> I'd have to agree Andy.  I need to design a disk brake for my A axis as 
> there's half a degree of slop in the worm drive which if it gets to the motor 
> will be held, but the slop in the worm makes for sloppy looking holes, but 
> the activation method is still in my head. Even that is only important when 
> drilling a hole for the handle. I'll come up with something.

Would a simple disk brake work?  I think it might clamp the part any place 
within that 1/2 degree of slop range.  Ideally, you would have an index plate 
and some way to place a pin in a hole to lock the table.  But you could only 
have a few holes and not enough holes for one at every place you might want to 
stop.

What if the disk had “V” slots cut in the edge.  Like a very large US Quarter 
Dollar, but with maybe 360 grooves.  Then you could wedge a shape (like a tiny 
axe head?) into the slot and force the disk to stop on an even degree.  You 
could use more than one wedge, space them around the disk.


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Re: [Emc-users] trash collection

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How would that be handled if plastic pipe was used to build a large pipe organ?

On Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 11:07:50 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote: 

Remember, blowing large quantities of air though PVC plumbing can build up 
"entertaining" amounts of static charge.


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Re: [Emc-users] CNC machining setup cards

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Will it run using WINE? https://www.winehq.org/


On Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 11:30:21 AM MDT, Thomas J Powderly 
 wrote: 


Since this thread has 'evolved' into free 3D modeling software...

Can I ask how to get Fusion 360 on a Linux box?

I remember several failed tries but I font recall why.

LinuxCNC community people seem to really like it,

TIA

tomp


On 7/5/23 21:44, gene heskett wrote:
> On 7/5/23 06:50, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users wrote:
>>
>> This one has direct download links https://united3dartists.com/
>>
> That appears to be a windows program. Windows is extinct here. ;o)> 
> Thank you.


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Re: [Emc-users] CNC machining setup cards

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

This one has direct download links https://united3dartists.com/


On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 11:44:50 AM MDT, gene heskett 
 wrote: 





On 7/4/23 08:03, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users wrote:
> Caligari trueSpace can import STL and it can save to a wide range of formats.

No thanks for the link Greg, every button on that page leads to a porno 
dl with no exit buttons in sight. Its been compromised, probably by M$.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.


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Re: [Emc-users] CNC machining setup cards

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

One more thing about using trueSpace for STL, only work in metric dimensions. 
It doesn't matter if you select millimeters, centimeters, or meters. To STL 
they're all millimeters. The different units in the software just work for your 
own convenience for scale so you don't have to zom in. If you're designing 
something really small, in trueSpace set everything to Meters so the model will 
fill the screen. For larger stuff work in centimeters or millimeters.

If you set trueSpace to Imperial units what it outputs won't load at the right 
size in a slicer because of whatever trueSpace does converting Imperial to 
millimeters when saving to STL. I did one model for 3D printing in Inches to 
figure that out.

The rescale to 8 units issue can cause enlargement as well as shrinking. Create 
a 2 metric unit cube. Save to STL and delete the object from the scene. Open 
the STL and now you have an 8 unit cube.

trueSpace is a solid modeling program. If a mesh isn't solid then the things 
that can be done to it are limited. Fortunately it has an Add Face function. 
Select that and move around the non-solid mesh. When the cursor is over a hole 
it'll highlight the edges. Click and *poof* it's filled. If it has more than 3 
edges it may not be a *flat* face. Sooo, Add Edges.

It has its oddities, plenty of them. But I've used it for years and have 
learned some tricks for modeling while still not coming anywhere near to using 
its full capabilities. I've mainly used it for modeling, not texturing, 
rendering, or animation. Version 6.x and 7.x have the Lightworks rendering 
engine, which at the time it was added to trueSpace at no extra cost, as a 
plugin for Lightwave the Lightworks engine cost more than trueSpace.

I'd love to see some people figure out how to buy trueSpace from Microsoft and 
make it open source. Would probably have to leave out some of the 3rd party 
bits like Lightworks but if the open source builds could be installed over the 
free 7.x release from Microsoft the OS updated files should be able to retain 
the interfaces to the closed source parts.

On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 11:34:55 AM MDT, gene heskett 
 wrote: 

On 7/4/23 08:03, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users wrote:
> Caligari trueSpace can import STL and it can save to a wide range of formats.

> If you want to give it a whirl there are a few versions of 7.x here 
> http://truespace3d.free.fr/index.php/truespace-7-6/
> I use 6.6 since the Model Side of 7.x is essentially version 6.6 and I never 
> could get into the new 7.x Workspace. It's so different from 2.x through 6.6. 
> Hmmm, I don't remember if Workspace side has the size issue with importing.

I'll look at it, thank you for the link.


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Re: [Emc-users] CNC machining setup cards

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Caligari trueSpace can import STL and it can save to a wide range of formats.

However, it hasn't had any official support since Microsoft bought Caligari to 
position trueSpace as a competitor to Google's Sketchup. (I call it Messup 
because I've seen some of the worst geometry ever made by people using 
Sketchup.) Google had Sketchup for people to use to populate Google Earth with 
3D models of buildings. Microsoft whipped up Virtual Earth... and nobody cared. 
People weren't stepping up to voluntarily use the free version of Sketchup to 
make 3D stuff for Google Earth either.

Microsoft quickly swept trueSpace under the digital rug, left the site for it 
unchanged for a while until they got around to deleting it. Lots of people 
grabbed the free downloads and some patches and other things have been made. 
There's a ton of tSx plugins available for free, including many formerly 
commercial ones. Most tSx for version 6.x and some for 5.x will work but most 
for older versions won't.

One glitch that nobody has fixed yet is when importing some 3D file formats it 
scales the mesh down to make the largest axis, X, Y, or Z, exactly 8 units of 
whichever is the currently selected unit in the workspace. With STL I load up 
the model in a slicer to get the proper XYZ sizes then scale up to match in 
trueSpace then save a copy in its native COB format.

I always save in COB (frequently! it appends an auto-incremented number to the 
file names) and export to STL. Exports of the formats it supports are fine. 
It's just importing it has the size issue with. Would have been so nice if 
Microsoft hadn't killed it by buying the company. I've used every trueSpace 
version since 2.2a so I'm used to its oddities it inherited by originally being 
an Amiga program.

If you want to give it a whirl there are a few versions of 7.x here 
http://truespace3d.free.fr/index.php/truespace-7-6/
I use 6.6 since the Model Side of 7.x is essentially version 6.6 and I never 
could get into the new 7.x Workspace. It's so different from 2.x through 6.6. 
Hmmm, I don't remember if Workspace side has the size issue with importing.

On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 03:10:58 AM MDT, gene heskett 
 wrote: 

On 7/4/23 02:01, andrew beck wrote:
> I run a CNC machine shop full time.
> 
> We always want the step files.  Or SOLIDWORKS files etc.
> 
> And we make it own gcode from that.
> 
> It would be a nightmare to run someone else's gcode lol.
> 
I'll have to agree Andrew. Most of the stuff on thingiverse for 3d 
printers is in .stl formats, cura can usually make something useful out 
of them. but its maddening to see an .stl that needs fixed, and I've not 
found anything that can convert an .stl back into something that can be 
edited in openscad. So I wind up about 95% of the time, using the image 
as a guide to compose something that looks like it well enough to work.


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Re: [Emc-users] Drilling holes in the back of a stepper motor

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Make covers that fit over and hold the encoder. Snap the encoder into the 
inside of the cover, and the corners of the cover have holes to put screws into 
the existing holes in the motor end cap. This would have the benefit of 
protecting the encoder and the end of the motor shaft.


On Sunday, June 25, 2023 at 03:33:26 AM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 

The problem is the rear shaft isn't that long.  

I went through the process of considering an adaptor plate that fastened to the 
4 holes.    There may be a fancy way of making a thick plate with a thinned 
area just for the encoder mount.  But it would have to have a stud protruding 
away from the back and then a nut.  The plate can't be thick enough to hold 
both the encoder and threads for screws and still have the encoder disk mount 
to the back shaft.

The alternative would be to press fit on a shaft extension and then use the 
stepper motor to turn the extension to be symmetrical with the axis of the 
motor shaft.  Then I could use a thicker mounting plate.

Or, given that the motor drives a 25:1 planetary gear and I'm really only 
interested in tracking motor revolutions and detecting stall conditions (hence 
quadrature) I could likely get away with a custom disk and some slotted sensors 
too.  Also more complicated to build.  

Trying to keep it simple and the easiest is to have the encoder screw directly 
to the back of the motor.  However with StepperOnline motor by the time it's 
here in Cdn $ it's over $100.  So I can take the risk and drill holes in the 
back.  Or get creative with other approaches.
John


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Re: [Emc-users] Sewing Machine Stiffness

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Epoxy wouldn't be a good material for a long, unsupported beam like that, even 
if filled with glass fiber. A cast iron sewing machine arm isn't going to 
eventually sag under its own weight, though it may not be shaped to withstand 
horizontal bending and longitudinal twisting forces without some deflection. 
Fill it up with epoxy and chopped glass and it should become stiff enough for 
hanging a wood routing spindle on the free end.

This guy had an epoxy slab cured for 18 months yet in the sun it still easily 
bent. https://youtu.be/hCmE2yY8Kvk?t=619

On Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 01:14:47 PM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

If you are going to the trouble of filling a frame with epoxy then two things…

1) Why bother with the frame, just print a plastic mold and fill that. with 
epoxy.  Then it will be the exact size and shape you need.

2) Don’t use epoxy as it is not very stiff,  Mix the epoxy with glass fiber 
such that the fiber-to-epoxy ratio is as high as you can possibly make it.  You 
don’t need expensive carbon fiber as you don’t care about weight.  You want as 
much glass in the mix as possible.  The usual way is to use woven glass, wet it 
with epoxy then use pressure from clamps or a vacuum pump to compress the part 
and push out as much epoxy as possible.  But you can also mix chopped fiber 
with the liquid resin and make a paste. 

This is actually very low-tech and can be done with simple hand tools like 
paintbrushes and scissors.

The problem is the same as with any new design, you have to make some 
prototypes and measure them and likey redesign them a few times.  This is why 
people usually copy existing proven designs.


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Re: [Emc-users] Sewing Machine Stiffness

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

You'd need to get a frame casting, set up indicators, then do some pushing, 
twisting, and leaning on it to see how much it moves.

What could stiffen it is filling all its internal space with epoxy. The upper 
casting from one of these
https://china-highly.en.made-in-china.com/product/gSHxMeWyblRA/China-Hl-246-Long-Arm-Compound-Feeding-Super-Heavy-Sewing-Machine.html
could do the job since it bolts on from above it could be mounted over any XY 
base you can build.

Just might be workable for a wood router for sign carving. Z travel would be 
limited to whatever vertical slide you mount, and if you space the arm up 
higher.

I'd expect that the really long ones with arms around 30 inches, would be 
pretty well vibration damped in order to handle high speed sewing in heavy 
materials like canvas. Sewing is mostly a short vertical motion. I'd assume the 
main area of concern for adapting a long arm sewing machine to routing would be 
resistance to bending sideways and twisting around the long axis of the arm.



On Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 11:00:22 AM MDT, Thomas J Powderly 
 wrote: 

I saw an overarm router recently

and wondered if a sewing machine frame was stiff.

Compared to a desktop gantry mill.


I imagined a makita router mounted on the over arm

minimal Z travel ( 150mm at most)


I can find castings for industrial machines pretty cheap in qty 1

What i see are C frames, single casting, with base plate as long as over 
arm.


Any thoughts?

( I don't have a sewing machine to lean on ;-)


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Re: [Emc-users] Linux Workstation.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Debian is also what Open Media Vault is built to run on. I have it on a 2011 
Mac Mini running a DLNA server for playing videos on a Samsung TV. OMV 6 makes 
the Mac Mini obey the user when it comes to power settings and not going to 
deep sleep where it falls off the LAN. OMV 5 required a terminal hack to stop 
all power management in Debian.

I got a dual hard drive kit and installed a 500 gig and a 2 TB drive in the 
Mac. Plenty of room, for now. 

On Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 05:08:45 PM MDT, gene heskett  
wrote: 

When the next version of linuxcnc was based on debian I followed like a 
good little sheep, finding a huge, knowledgeable user base where busted 
stuff actually got fixed. A breath of fresh air indeed. And 80% of the 
rest of this planet uses debian, either directly from the debian repo's 
or indirectly by building from debian srcs.

My $.02, debian is where its at. And, unless some huge, show stopper bug 
is found in linuxcnc-2.8.x, linuxcnc will be part of the upcoming stable 
release of debian 12, aka bookworm.  What's not to like?

Take care & stay well.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.


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Re: [Emc-users] Linux Workstation.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

You can install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) on Windows 10 and run GUI 
Linux apps in Windows. Microsoft initially was only going to support WSL1 on 
Windows 10 but at some point they decided to support WSL2.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install After installing WSL, use 
the set default version command to set it to 2.

With WSL installed, you have bash in Powershell. Open a Powershell prompt 
(preferably Run as Admin, especially if you're going to be using sudo for Admin 
tasks in Linux) and type bash then enter to go to the bash shell.

You'll need a multi core CPU with virtualization support and virtualization 
enabled in UEFI or BIOS. WSL2 works very well on a Ryzen 5 3600 6 core CPU with 
32 gig DDR4. So far I've only installed GIMP and a few other things. Still have 
to figure out how to allow Linux apps access to USB devices so I can have my 
Canon LIDE scanner working with GIMP.

On Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 03:19:01 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 

I have a system based on an i7-2600K CPU @ 3.4GHz with 16GB RAM and 2TB hard 
drive that used to run the 64 bit WIN-7.
For the Windows side of things I have a newer system with WIN-10 that is 
ultimately upgradable to WIN-11.  I have no desire to ever run WIN-11.  But I 
have to have Windows simply to support what my clients want.

I'm thinking it may well be time to set up a real workstation with Linux for 
email, browsing, writing, spreadsheets and CAD, etc.

The last time I looked into this there was quite a variety of user interfaces.  
From Caldera, RedHat etc…

What's currently the most supported user friendly Linux?


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Re: [Emc-users] Conformal coating available in North America

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

A quick Google for removable conformal coating brings up Staticide 8695 
silicone conformal coating $13.75 and Staticide 8698 conformal coating remover 
$12.92. Sold by GoKimco, $50 minimum order.

There's also MG Chemicals 419D acrylic conformal coating and 8310 conformal 
coating stripper. Both 55 milliliters, $14.95 and $14.33 through Amazon.

Right below those is the ultimate guide to conformal coating removal by Vaniman 
Manufacturing Co.

On Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 10:24:41 AM MDT, Linden via Emc-users 
 wrote: 


Hello All,
    I'm looking for some help. Dose any one here have any experience with 
Conformal coatings for PCB boards. I'm looking for something available in North 
America in small quantities (approx 1 liter) What I have is a little PCB with 
through hole resistors soldered to it these get changed in the field to 
calibrate the unit. I am looking for something that can be applied and removed 
in the field to protect components and board from moisture in an environment 
that goes from -40 C to +150 C. Any help or suggestions would be much 
appreciated. Thanks Linden


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Re: [Emc-users] OT: Air cooled router spindle problem

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

You could try a micro compressor refrigeration system to cool the air that the 
spindle cooling fan takes in.
Here's a unit for $149.78 USD. Have to supply your own evaporator coil.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804487578057.html

This one is less compact but includes a cooling coil.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802213783912.html

Could put the coil into a tank of antifreeze then pump antifreeze through a 
radiator over the air cooling fan inlet.

Or to be much more comfortable overall, insulate the heck out of your shop and 
install a really nice mini-split heat pump. Big shop? Get a mini split that 
supports two or more air handlers.


I've heard that these tiny refrigeration compressors were originally designed 
for a US military project that got canceled. Having already done the R to a 
production ready state, the companies which submitted designs put them into 
production for civilian use. Now there are many companies making portable 
refrigerator / coolers that can run off battery power for longer than the 
thermo-electric coolers that have been around since the 1970's.


On Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 11:54:31 AM MST, Leonardo Marsaglia 
 wrote: 

Hi guys.

Sorry for the OT but I'm having a strange behavior with my spindle and I'm
a little worried.

The problem I had today for the first time is the spindle was getting
really hot and started to slip (you could hear the frequency from the
inverter was on spot but the rotor sometimes wasn't even turning).After a
few seconds of slipping the VFD triggered the over current alarm and the
spindle was stopped. Once the the spindle cooled down it worked perfectly.
This never happened before but also I must clarify that today the ambient
temperature reached 40⁰C and I'm sure that under that roof where the router
is placed there were 45⁰C so I suspect this has something to do with the
problem.

The spindle is rated 11kw of max power output and is air cooled. It has a
built in fan motor so it doesn't rely on spindle speed for cooling. It
always gets warm (there are several labels on the spindle’s body for
caution because of the heat) but nothing like today.

Could this be normal because of the extremely hot days I'm having here?
Should I think about changing bearings or even rewind the motor? I've only
had the over current alarms when the spindle was too hot.

I will be really thankful if you can share your thoughts about this.

Thanks for your help as always!

Leonardo.


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Re: [Emc-users] Milling Strategies?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Yet another method is find a used but still sharp shell mill that's close to 
the final diameter and and arbor to fit your mill spindle, then hog out a core 
sample. Cut from both sides if need be. Then relocate the center of where the 
finished hole needs to be and finish milling to final.

I did that with a very large steel gear to repair the back gear on a large 
1920's LeBlond lathe. It was a very odd one. Outfitted like a screwcutting 
lathe but with a Rapid Production headstock. Only 25" between centers yet was 
right at 7 feet overall length. No serial numbers on it anywhere.

On Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 03:00:51 PM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 

Hi Todd,
I'm the not an expert and I have no idea about the cutting speeds or depth of 
cut but here's one idea for you.  Generated by AlibreCAM (Unsupported MecSoft 
VisualCAM) you can program a hole profile to have tabs that hold the middle 
piece.

I created a 5"x5" piece 1.75" thick.  Created a 3.75" hole through it.  Then 
profiled the inside of the hole with conventional milling.

I've attached a screen shot and the generated G-Code.  Hope that helps.
John Dammeyer

> -Original Message-
> From: Todd Zuercher [mailto:to...@pgrahamdunn.com]
> Sent: February-28-23 12:54 PM
> To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> Subject: [Emc-users] Milling Strategies?
> 
> I need to mill about a 3.75" hole through a piece of aluminum about 1.75" 
> thick.  What is the best strategy to
> accomplish this on a cnc mill.  Is it best to us a pocketing strategy and 
> mill out the entire hole from the center
> out, or would it be better to use some kind of cutting strategy and mill some 
> size slug out of the middle?  I
> can see the first option being simpler, but the 2nd option saves a 
> potentially useful piece of material, but
> with the added complication of how to hold and prevent the chunk of scrap 
> from wreaking havoc when cut
> free.


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Re: [Emc-users] Milling Strategies?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The usual method to retain the center piece is to make connecting tabs at the 
bottom face, thin enough to easily cut away then treat the edge to remove any 
trace of them, or remove the center piece by working it around until the tabs 
break then making a final cleanup pass around the hole.

Another way is to mount the piece to a plate or fixture larger than the piece 
and drill and tap a couple of holes into the waste to secure it to the plate. 
Mill around the waste to finished hole size.

Yet another method which has proven to be highly resistant to coming loose is 
masking tape and super glue. Lay masking tape onto the bottom of the workpiece 
and top side of the fixture. Do not overlap the tape. Burnish it down for good 
adhesion. Apply super glue to the tape then press and wiggle the workpiece onto 
it. Allow the glue to fully harden. There's video on YouTube showing how well 
it holds, and how it can be pried apart and cleaned up.

For an example of a huge job that was mostly waste, there's the Isogrid panels 
made for Skylab. Panels like that made today would be mostly abrasive water jet 
cut rather than NC milling out the huge numbers of triangles. If you ever want 
to exactly duplicate the grid dimensions used in Skylab, they're on the 42nd 
page of a poor quality PDF of Isogrid Design Handbook - NASA CR-124075 Rev. A 
1973. I'd love to get a clean scan of an original copy of that. Heck, I bet 
NASA would love to get such a scan.

On Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 02:27:52 PM MST, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote: 

I need to mill about a 3.75" hole through a piece of aluminum about 1.75" 
thick.  What is the best strategy to accomplish this on a cnc mill.  Is it best 
to us a pocketing strategy and mill out the entire hole from the center out, or 
would it be better to use some kind of cutting strategy and mill some size slug 
out of the middle?  I can see the first option being simpler, but the 2nd 
option saves a potentially useful piece of material, but with the added 
complication of how to hold and prevent the chunk of scrap from wreaking havoc 
when cut free.


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Re: [Emc-users] Running PathPilot on non-Tormach Machines

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Windows has had a Hardware Abstraction Layer and Application Programming 
Interface for a long time, the objective is to make it much easier for hardware 
companies to interface their hardware with the software.

A manufacturer of a device like a 4th axis could provide the software required 
to operate it as a 'plugin' to the CNC operating system's universal software 
interface.

On Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 11:34:28 AM MST, Bari  
wrote: 

How many CNC machine startup's have there been in the past few years? 
Maybe a handful in some niche markets? The vendors in China offer the 
popular CNC controllers that we all are accustomed to or use ARM 
controllers similar to NVEM.

There have been several additive manufacturing start ups in the past few 
years but their investors and business strategy requires them to start 
from scratch and reinvent the wheels of PC controllers, Mesa FPGAs and 
LCNC. They don't want anything to be shared with their competition even 
though it can shave years off of getting a machine to market.


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Re: [Emc-users] hair brained idea?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

There are some new slicer optimizations to make better use of 0.6mm nozzles. 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=0.4mm+nozzles+just+became+obsolete


On Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 09:17:02 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

a huge printer is not as usfull as you might think.  The nozzle is still
0.4 mm in diameter or close.  Print time is the cube of the linear
dimension of the parts you make,  Can you wait a week while the printer
runs.  What if a 1Kg spool of filament is not enough?


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Re: [Emc-users] ? cutting a square carbon fiber tube ?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The Stanley 20-800 should do the job. Apparently Home Despot has discontinued 
selling that one, or any other hand powered precision miter box / saw. It's 
either the cheap plastic crap that can't cut a decent angle or the big power 
circular saws that cut out huge kerfs and are no good for cutting small or 
delicate materials.

But the Stanley 20-800 and similar from that and other brands are available 
many other places.

On Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 10:17:36 AM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

I bet you could print a better tool than this.
homedepot.com/p/Stanley-Miter-Box

Use a fine-tooth hack saw.  It is easier to cut a fiber tube than a
same-size hardwood dowel or same-size steel tube.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 5:38 AM gene heskett  wrote:

> On 12/1/22 00:47, Chris Albertson wrote:
> > Cutting square tubing is no harder than cutting molding around a door
> > frame.  Use a miter saw.  A fine tooth hacksaw blade works well for
> > carbon fiber.
> >
>
> My mitre saw is a 12" Bosch chop saw, the fawncy high $ articulated one.
> And I've a new carbide blade. New & carbide=dull.


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Re: [Emc-users] Deep slot chip removal

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Yes, you should mill slots with a slightly smaller cutter and cut slightly 
undersize. Then cut to the finished dimensions. That way during the finish pass 
only one side of the cutter is touching the work. Chips should be removed 
before the finish pass.

Some people make one or two 'spring passes' after the finish pass, without 
changing the cut dimensions. Speed up the spindle a bit and/or slow the feed 
rate a little so the cuts per unit of distance are different and it'll nip off 
any slightly high spots as well as allow the tool and work to cut completely 
straight. The light load removes any deflection or 'spring' from the tool.

On a lathe a piece can be cut to the correct dimension but the tool can still 
cut a small amount when making more passes without further advancing the tool. 
Slowing the feed rate and increasing the spindle speed on a spring pass can 
produce a smoother finish that still measures the correct dimension. But don't 
do it too much or the piece may end up too small. I've done that, though it's 
not as much of an issue with bigger, stiffer machines.

On Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 02:08:31 AM MST, Nicklas SB Karlsson 
 wrote: 

tor 2022-12-01 klockan 08:18 + skrev Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users:
> Flood coolant, air blowing, or vacuum. Or pre-drill a bunch of holes
> to almost finished depth to remove the majority of the waste before
> milling.

Got that. Then the only question left is if using a mill at least
slightly smaller than slot then cutting a deep slot is a good idea.


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Re: [Emc-users] ? cutting a square carbon fiber tube ?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Do you have a precision miter saw like this, or similar?
https://toolsandmore.us/stanley-20-800-miter-saw.aspx <-open box sale $29.95

Very thin, fine teeth, minimal set so it cuts a very narrow kerf. As for how 
many cuts the blade will last cutting carbon fiber??? 

On Wednesday, November 30, 2022 at 09:07:44 PM MST, gene heskett 
 wrote: 

Greetings all;

An unusual question. How to cut, neatly, and squarely, a 20mm square 
carbon fiber tube to length, say 550mm out of an 800mm tube. I'm making 
a linear rail bearing X axis for two of my 3d printers,

I have a die grinder that I can mount in a quick change holder, and a 2" 
by 30 thou CBN disk and 1/4" arbor, and a 4 jaw chuck on my Sheldon.

Do I need to print an 18mm square plug to insert into this tubing to 
support the 1mm thick tubing walls, or can a relatively light grip be 
enough to hold it fixed while I turn slow and cut it off with the CBN 
wheel running at about half line voltage in the die grinder?

All I can see in my minds eye is a hugely ragged edge cutting it by hand 
with a hacksaw.

Better ideas anybody?


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Re: [Emc-users] Deep slot chip removal

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Flood coolant, air blowing, or vacuum. Or pre-drill a bunch of holes to almost 
finished depth to remove the majority of the waste before milling.


On Wednesday, November 30, 2022 at 10:08:49 AM MST, Nicklas SB Karlsson 
 wrote: 

Milling a deep pocket spiral down work great first turn but after a
while torque is not enough and mill stop. Suspect it is because mill
have to cut old chips in addition to machining part.

Maybe it is a good idea to use drill bit a little bit smaller than
slot?


Nicklas Karlsson


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Re: [Emc-users] R8 Collets question

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

There are NMTB 30 spindles made for Bridgeport mills and clones. I have an ACRA 
made circa 1990 and swapped a Kennametal NMTB 30 quick change spindle into it. 
It was formerly installed in a genuine Bridgeport and all I had to do was swap 
the retainer below the bottom bearing since the ACRA used left hand thread. 
Everything else fit perfectly.


On Wednesday, November 9, 2022 at 06:36:48 PM MST, andy pugh 
 wrote: 

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 at 01:03, John Dammeyer  wrote:

I think it was on this forum that the discussion came up on the holding
> power of R8 collets and how they were essentially only useful for light
> machining.

Bridgeport machines were (are?) all R8 for decades and I don't think that
anyone considers them toys,


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Re: [Emc-users] need plastic with stable dimensions

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Put a bearing in the frame for the motor shaft to run in, then the motor has 
support at the shaft and the 4 fasteners on the opposite side. That would 
provide maximum support for a toothed pulley ring on the outside.

Another possibility is electric skateboard wheels with built in motors. They 
can be some pretty tough units. This guy takes his Maxfind board off a few 
jumps onto a street with no damage. It has one rear wheel with a motor. The 
board is designed for cruising, not stunts, but can still take plenty of abuse.

https://youtu.be/bFi55fSqdZY?t=1915

Jump to 31:55 if the link doesn't take you to the time.

Replace the urethane wheel with your toothed pulley or gear. The width of the 
wheel could be used for wider gears to spread out the load so the gears will 
wear less and be more resistant to breaking.

On Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 11:48:45 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

I'm actually thinking of using belts and motors where the outer housing
spins.  I could press-fit a toothed ring around the motor and make a timing
pulley with a motor inside.  The ring would need to be metal as it would
get hot.  A motor like below might work.  See that in this kind of motor
the shaft is welded to the housing and the entire motor housing spins.
getfpv.com/brotherhobby-avenger-2806-5-motor-870kv-1300kv-1460kv-1700kv.html



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Re: [Emc-users] need plastic with stable dimensions

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How about making it from pieces of FR4 PCB material? Cut with tabs and slots to 
insure perfect alignment, then solder the copper together.

https://hackaday.com/2015/06/03/how-to-build-beautiful-enclosures-from-fr4-aka-pcbs/


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Re: [Emc-users] Making ApplePi

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Intel CPU Macs can have a life well extended past their lack of OS X support 
from Apple. Install Linux, or Windows, or some other Intel compatible OS. I 
picked up a 2011 Mac Mini with a bad 500 gig hard drive, got a dual hard drive 
kit and a 2TB drive, put that and another 500 gig drive* I had in it, then made 
it an Open Media Vault server.

*I pulled it from a laptop a few years ago with a password on it. Finally got 
around to setting up an old PC with XP and the SATA controller in legacy mode 
so I could run password removal software. After all that it was one click of a 
"remove password" button. I'd tried everything I could come up with and got 
nowhere, figured I must have at least wiped the data on the drive. Nope, it was 
100% all there.

On Saturday, October 1, 2022 at 10:25:56 PM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

The Mac has an Ethernet port, does it not?  You say it is an older Mac, so
it likely does have one.    Some of the newer Macs lack the port, and you
have to buy a USB-C to Ethernet dongle.

If it has the built-in RJ45 jack simply connect it. If not buy the Dongle
on Amazon.

At some point, you will want to install Linux on the Mac.  Running from the
USB drive is very slow.

It is odd to say the Mac acts like a Raspberry Pi.  No. Any computer boots
to Linux looks like a Linux PC

On Sat, Oct 1, 2022 at 9:03 PM John Dammeyer  wrote:

> I used my wife's old laptop now no longer supported by Apple. Even the
> battery needs to be replaced again if I can find one.  It's essentially
> trash.
>
> Unless I make ApplePi.  Insert USB stick with the ISO.  Answer questions
> etc. And then reboot into Raspian looking just like a Pi.
>
> Now the question.  How would one go about adding LinuxCNC connected to a
> 7i92H
>
> John


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Re: [Emc-users] PCI-E adapter to PCI?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Also, on most computers that came with OEM installs of Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 
you can install Windows 10 for free, matching the Home or Pro edition that was 
originally installed.

On PCs that originally had an OEM install of Windows 7 Home or Pro you can 
install Windows 10 Pro using the GenuineTicket.xml trick. Microsoft used the 
same SLIC info in the BIOS for both. Basically, you install an OEM version of 
Windows 7 Pro with the OEM information that matches your PC brand then run a 
program that's on the Windows 10 disc to generate a GenuineTixket.xml file 
specific to that PC. Save that file and do a clean install of Windows 10 Pro. 
Copy GenuineTicket.xml to the proper folder and reboot Windows 10. The XML file 
is read, then deleted. Windows 10 is activated.

But on *some* of those OEM systems Microsoft has things tightened up in their 
registration server for Windows 10. The instant it connects to the internet for 
the first time it's unregistered. I tried every trick I could find to get 10 
Pro onto a Dell laptop that shipped with 7 Home. Finally had to give up and do 
a clean install of 7 Home, do the GenuineTicket thing, then put 10 Home on it. 
Getting 10 Pro on it would've required buying a 10 Pro license. A bit 
irritating since it would take 7 Pro without any problems.

Microsoft cannot block this method because it's what upgrade versions of 
Windows 10 do. Any blocking of it would would make doing in-place upgrades 
impossible.

If you have an older PC, especially a laptop, it can be a long and winding road 
to get the latest build of Windows 10 on it *and* have all the drivers 
installed and working.

After Build 1607, Microsoft deprecated all method of driver signing other than 
the new one introduced with Windows 8.0. If you install any build newer than 
1607, Windows will quietly block the installing of files from drivers signed 
with older methods. The installer will go through the motions but no files will 
actually be copied, nor will changes be made to the Registry. If you can 
extract the driver files and try a manual install through Device Manager, it 
will lie to you and say it can't find the file(s).

However, if you have Windows 7 or 8.x installed, or Windows 10 Build 1607 or 
earlier, with the older drivers installed, you can upgrade to newer builds and 
it will keep the drivers.
So do a clean install of 1607 and get all the drivers working. Then install 
build 1909. Why that? Because builds after 1909 will only install on builds 
1908 or 1909. What's especially infuriating is that they do not *start* the 
upgrade process with a simple version check then inform you that they cannot 
work with older builds. They'll waste all the time doing the install, popping 
up some cryptic error message like theres a problem with PC settings, then roll 
back.

Sooo, 1607+drivers, 1909, then build 21H2. No hacks, no messing about with 
disabling driver signing. The only way to get that old laptop with an old ATi 
GPU working. What's extra dumb about this is Microsoft's own driver library has 
a Windows *Vista* driver for several older mobile ATi GPUs that's signed with 
the new method, and it will *install* in Windows 10, but it most often doesn't 
work correctly. They do not have a Windows 7 driver with the newest signing 
method.

The laptop that caused me to discover this mess ended up working, but I had to 
completely disable all power management that did anything with the display, 
even just blanking it. It would not turn the display back on, just showed it 
all black with the mouse cursor. all that could be done was to hold the power 
button until it shut down - then it would briefly reveal the desktop just 
before shutting down. Microsoft broke that, they know they broke that, and have 
been (or were) releasing updates targeted at fixing the problem on newer 
laptops rather than simply releasing another patch to un-break it for all. It 
smacks of a deliberate attack by MS to force people to quit using older laptops 
by inconveniencing them by making power management of the display not work.

On Monday, September 12, 2022 at 09:36:17 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote: 

Actually about installing Windows on a used PC sold sans HD.  You actually can 
install Windows on them without buying a new license.  The OEM Windows license 
is tied to the MB serial number in the Bios and you can install the same 
Windows version as was OE and register it without buying anything.  (At least 
that is how it worked on the last HP I did that with.)  No more looking up a 
number on a sticker required.

Todd Zuercher
P. Graham Dunn Inc.
630 Henry Street 
Dalton, Ohio 44618
Phone:  (330)828-2105ext. 2031


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Re: [Emc-users] OT: Fly cutting slots?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How thick is it axially? If it's pretty thin it should be sandwiched between 
two pieces of softer metal. Go slow on the feed, high on the speed to make a 
lot of shallow passes with a slightly narrow cutter. Then use a full width 
cutter for a single full depth pass to clean up the slot sides.

I'd also make a bandsaw cut to near full depth in each slot to reduce the 
amount of material for the cutter to remove and provide a path for lube to get 
in/out.


On Monday, August 15, 2022 at 08:38:06 AM MDT, Leonardo Marsaglia 
 wrote: 

Hi guys, I hope you are doing well

I need to make some slots on a rotor I'm building and I would like to know
what do you think about fly cutting the slots with one tool only with
reduced feed off course.

The slots are 45 mm deep and 6 mm wide, the rotor is made of 4140 steel (I
attached a basic picture of the rotor). I could purchase the hss disk
cutter off course, but if I can get away with welding and grinding my own
tool it would be great because those cutters aren't cheap and I'll be only
using it for this job only.

The problem is, I'm afraid the carbide cutter will break soon making all
this process a waste of time.

What do you think?


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Re: [Emc-users] Matrix Wiring

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The previous line of Snap-On automotive diagnostic tools (prior to the 
introduction of CAN systems starting in 2004) had a lot of stuff built in, and 
plug-in modules to add various other features. But to fully access everything 
that was built in and in the modules required "keys" which were PCBs with a 
card edge connection.

Many of those keys were nothing but jumpers connecting various combinations of 
pins. Some had additional passive components. It should be possible to make one 
universal key with every component used on every key, and a bunch of DIP 
switches or jumpers to make it act like any of the keys.

What could be done for your project is a card slot with enough pins on each 
side, a PCB with contacts on both sides, and some small single board computer 
like a Raspberry Pi to manage how each pin on one side connects to a pin on the 
other side. Put one of the little touch screen displays on it, make a nice 3D 
printed case, and there ya go.

If you need to drastically alter the thing, yank it out of the slot connector 
and replace it with a new design without having to rebuild the whole thing.

Or go super simple. A PCB with the two connectors and two 0.1" pin headers and 
a bunch of jumper wires with a single socket on each end, like the ones used 
for connecting the power LED to PC motherboards.


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[Emc-users] ProLight 2000 Re: Spare 6i25?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Did you keep the original Animatics servo controller? I have one of these mills 
but the only software I know of that works with it is the MS-DOS software from 
Light Machines.
It's so antique it needs LIM EMS memory to load gcode into. Newer PCs with a 
lot of integrated IO have their high memory area so fragmented that even if 
they have a total of 64K free there's no pieces large enough for LIM EMS 4.0 
(or any other EMS manager) to remap into a single piece.


One of the Calumet universities had a CAD-LAB program that developed CAM 
software specifically for the ProLight 2000. They had Windows, Mac, and Linux 
versions. (That would be Windows 9x and Mac OS 8 or 9.) There's an archive of 
the site but whomever grabbed it all failed to get the contents of their FTP 
server so unless someone out there who was involved in the CAD-LAB kept a copy, 
that software is *poof* gone.

But CAM was all it was. It didn't directly control the PLM2000, it made gcode 
to feed through the crusty old DOS software.

I did get a copy of a bunch of information and software for those Animatics 
servo controllers from a guy at Moog-Animatics. He worked for Animatics and 
stayed on after the merger. He found it all on an old backup drive.
Let me know if you want a copy of it.

One trick the controller can do, which wasn't exploited by Light Machines, is 
it can have gcode loaded into its internal RAM to run headless and continually 
repeat it. Could setup up a fixture to hold parts and a cycle start button to 
have the mill crank out a lot of duplicates. But Light Machines did their 
software so a constant serial connection is required to the control PC. If the 
connection is interrupted it's just like hitting the e-stop.

If you've made the PLM2000 work with the Animatic controller and Linux CNC or 
something else, I'm very interested. I'd love to get mine working because I've 
not been able to find a PC old enough to be able to run EMS. 

Would be nice to have my old 80286 with 12 megabytes of RAM. 512K on the 
mainboard and three full length ISA cards. The first one backfilled the main 
RAM to 640K and all the rest on the three was divided between hardware EMS and 
XMS. Something like that, with all the extra RAM as EMS, could run some very 
large gcode to a PLM2000.

On Friday, June 24, 2022 at 12:58:02 PM MDT, Feral Engineer 
 wrote: 

How funny, I did a prolight 2000 with some students at my old high school.
I'll be putting up a little montage video on my YouTube channel pretty soon

Phil T.
The Feral Engineer

Check out my LinuxCNC tutorials, machine builds and other antics at
www.youtube.com/c/theferalengineer

Help support my channel efforts and coffee addiction:
www.patreon.com/theferalengineer

Order one of the coolest label makers on the market at
http://labelworks.epson.com, use coupon code "theferalengineer" and receive
20% off of your order 

On Fri, Jun 24, 2022, 1:45 PM Ralph Stirling 
wrote:

> Anybody have a spare 6i25 they would be willing to sell?  Helping a friend
> set up his Prolight 1000 mill, and discovered his SFF Dell computer doesn't
> have pci slots, so the 5i25 we got won't work.  Mesaus and Mesanet are out
> of stock.


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Re: [Emc-users] Spare 6i25?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Would probably be easier to get an older PC with a PCI slot.


On Friday, June 24, 2022 at 12:40:37 PM MDT, Leonardo Marsaglia 
 wrote: 


Hi Ralph,

This is more a question out of curiosity than a solution but, could a
PCI-EXPRESS to PCI adapter work? Because those are not expensive at all.

El vie, 24 jun 2022 a las 14:45, Ralph Stirling (<
ralph.stirl...@wallawalla.edu>) escribió:

> Anybody have a spare 6i25 they would be willing to sell?  Helping a friend
> set up his Prolight 1000 mill, and discovered his SFF Dell computer doesn't
> have pci slots, so the 5i25 we got won't work.  Mesaus and Mesanet are out
> of stock.
>
> Thanks,
> -- Ralph


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Re: [Emc-users] Do pnp prox switches need a pulldown load R?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Go traffic lights in Japan used to be blue. There may still be some blue ones 
in out of the way places. When the country adopted the international color 
standard for traffic light colors, supposedly their department in charge of 
such things chose the bluest shade of green they could get by with.


The plain old traffic light can be a bother for people who are red-green color 
blind. They have to note the position of the light rather than the color. Might 
be more of an issue with horizontally positioned ones, especially when at a big 
intersection with multiple lanes and lights.

What you don't want to do is drive with red sunglasses that are the perfect 
shade to 100% block the color of stop lights. Can't tell they're on at all so 
you have to know that when you see no lights, the red one is on.

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, 08:21:29 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

On Wed, May 11, 2022 at 3:03 PM gene heskett  wrote:

>
> I suppose in some circles that bleached red could be called brown. But
> blue has never been ground on this side of the pond. Which is odd, in
> electrical wireing, black is hot, white is neutral/ground, a static
> ground is green. Inside a radio, black is ground.


Yes, that is how it works in the US.  But they did other things
differently in the US too.  Like using inches and yards to measure
distance.  At about 60+ I might be the youngest to remember US units like
feet used in engineering work.  When I was in school they still had us do a
few of the problems in US units.  They stopped using that soon after and
from the 80s all work was metric.

There might be a cultural reason for using blue for ground.  My wife
sometimes slips up and in English calls the "GO" light in a traffic signal
"Blue" even though the color is green worldwide.    Her first two
languages, when she grew up were Japanese and Chinese.

In English Green, Ground and Go all start with "G", so I'd guess that is
why we used green.  But that coincidence only works in English.


Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California


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Re: [Emc-users] If you are looking for a cheap mini PC for LinuxCNC in the UK

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I looked on US eBay and the prices have dropped a lot on this model. It's 
desirable because it has a quad core CPU, USB 3.0, a SATA+Power socket for Disk 
On Module (or any SSD you can take out of its housing and fit in the space), 
plus a second SATA port and a power connector, but for that one you have to 
make a power cable. It also supports up to 16 gig RAM.

That's the Dx0Q. Don't confuse it with the Dx0D. That one has a dual core CPU 
and does not have USB 3.0.

On Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 03:27:41 AM MDT, Rob C  wrote: 

Thanks Les, much appreciated for the headsup
Rob

On Tue, 10 May 2022 at 09:44, Les Newell  wrote:

> I just spotted these on eBay 
>
> I've always been a fan of Wyse thin clients and this model works really
> well with LinuxCNC and Mesa Ethernet cards. I use one on my lathe. At
> £19 I'm guessing they'll probably sell out soon.


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Re: [Emc-users] Hight Frequency VFD

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Have you asked Marshall Wolf Automation if they have or can get a VFD with the 
specs you need?



On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 11:50:20 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote: 





Granted that is only a 12kw drive not a 15kw, but that is less than a twelfth 
the cost of what our machine manufacturer is quoting us.

I've never bought through Alibaba.  Anyone here from the USA with much 
experience buying through them? 


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Re: [Emc-users] NPN inductive sensors on 7i70 board

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

It also makes it very easy to connect multiple E-Stop and motion safety 
switches by stringing them all together in series. Any one that's pushed or hit 
opens the circuit and the machine stops. It's more complex to use normally open 
stop/safety switches because every one has to be wired in parallel with all the 
wires connecting together somewhere or two complete parallel lines of wire have 
to be run around to all the switches.


On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 10:29:42 AM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 

Ask yourself this question.
If a wire connecting to the limit switch or ESTOP breaks or becomes 
intermittent does the system safely stop?

One of the biggest reasons for using NC type switches (or PNP) is that a 
failure in the power or wiring to them also causes a stop.  
John

> -Original Message-
> From: Leonardo Marsaglia [mailto:ldmarsag...@gmail.com]
> Sent: April-20-22 8:55 AM
> To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> Subject: [Emc-users] NPN inductive sensors on 7i70 board
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> A quick question to see if there's anything wrong with this.
> 
> 7i70 comes ready for PNP sensors. In the mazak all the sensors were NPN so
> when we converted it to LCNC we had to add a resistor between the +24 volts
> and the input of each sensor on the 7i70 to have the two states and avoid
> replacing all the sensors. We used the inverted pins in HAL so it's all
> working ok.
> 
> I would like to ask if you see any downside with this approach, because I
> plan to do the same with another machine mainly because here NPN sensors
> are way cheaper than PNP ones.
> 
> Thanks as always for your help :)


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Re: [Emc-users] Can't compile MODBUS VFD in 2.8.2

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

It's a DE9. DB is the 25 pin size used for the large serial port, parallel 
ports, and old Macintosh SCSI.


A is 15 pin, used mainly for PC gameports and old Macintosh monitors. C is 37 
pin, most commonly used for old PC external floppy drives. D is a three row 50 
pin connector, uncommonly used for SCSI. Centronics 50 was far more common. 
Then for some reason they went down to 9 pins for E rather than logically 
having it as A then going up in number from there.

Apple's 19 pin D-subminiature connector they used for Apple ][ and old 
Macintosh external floppies never got assigned a letter. There was also 
something it was used for on some 1990's music synthesizers. Having long gone 
out of production, Big Mess O Wires (who makes floppy emulation devices for old 
Macs and Apples) had a Chinese company make a big supply of new ones, and IIRC 
Digikey went in on the order so they could have a stock. So at one point the 
BMOW guy had the world's entire supply of new D-Sub 19 pin connectors on his 
back porch, before shipping Digikey's portion off to them.

On Monday, April 11, 2022, 01:49:22 AM MDT, Danny Miller  
wrote: 

OK, I tried putty with 2 & 3 tied together and it loops back and shows 
keystrokes while tied.  So the NUC's RS232 port IS functional.

I found an FTDI USB RS232 but it ends in female pins, I need male.

Found a knockoff PL2303 USB-to-DB9 cable, I hope it's RS232 level, it 
does end in a DB9.  No luck there either.  Same "Modbus timed out" error.

There is an isolated RS232-Modbus bridge there in between.  I know it 
works because it's fine with the existing Dell and 2.7.  I did speculate 
if the electrical signal levels are somehow different it might not work 
on the new machine, but that doesn't make much sense.

I guess I need to bring the oscilloscope out- if the baud rate is wrong, 
that would do it, but I don't see how 2.8 would change that.  Same 
code.  But I'm running out of other things to check.

Danny


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Re: [Emc-users] Controlling DC motors.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

In other words the person who designed that created a pulse width modulation 
motor controller without calling it that.


On Saturday, April 9, 2022, 08:18:17 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote: 


Really nothing to do with LCNC or even automation.  

I've been cleaning out old shelves and I have piles of Popular Electronics 
Magazines.  This one from December 1965 (yes, almost 57 years old) has an 
article on how to improve model trains so they start slowly or crawl rather 
than lurching forward requiring backing off the speed control.

They call it pulse power.  Using only transistors and diodes the article 
describes a method of creating narrow pulses superimposed on a varying DC 
voltage.  One knob controls the width of the 12V pulses and the other the 
amplitude of the DC mixed with the pulses.  The pulses are 60Hz.

Now we just buy stuff like that for way less than what the transistors would 
cost.  Things have come a long way.

Just thought I'd share.
John


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Re: [Emc-users] need gcode maker

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Modern epoxies like the ones sold by Total Boat set up harder and don't yellow 
like the epoxies of the 1980's and earlier. An alternative to epoxies are the 
hard urethane resins, also typically made with UV protection.

Total Boat looks like it's the #1 brand of epoxy used by people making those 
"river" tables and mixing all kinds of weird stuff with epoxy to turn fancy 
bowls on wood lathes.


On Sunday, February 13, 2022, 06:16:31 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote: 

It is not the epoxy that is so hard.  It is the filler they mix with the
epoxy.  Many times it is a kind of glass, not unlike what they use to make
sand paper.  Other times they mix finely ground bits of steel.

I used to use a brand of epoxy that sold bottles of pure resin and cans of
filler.  I could mix what I needed for the job.  Sometimes I'd use "micro
balloon" filler these are tiny hollow balls of glass.  A gallon tub of them
weights about as much as an empty tub.  Mixed to a thick paste, it cures to
a foam you can and with a sure-form rasp.  But if you mix the same resin
with chopped fiberglass or chopped kevlar fiber it is as hard as stone and
you'd need an angle grinder to smooth it down.  I was building small boats
and canoes.

Yes epoxy can be damaged by UV light.  If doing a gunstock, put 4 or 5
coats of exterior marine varnish over it.  The marine stuff has UV blockers
(sunscreen) in it.


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Re: [Emc-users] who has used thin client pcs

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

HP has sold some desktop tower PCs that look like they're a regular tower from 
the front but around back where the expansion slots and power supply should be 
there's just blank metal, some even have pieces of metal riveted in those 
places. They took standard ATX case parts and substituted plain sheet metal for 
those areas.

The power supply is external, like for a laptop, and inside is a Mini-ITX 
board, a 3.5" hard drive, possibly an optical drive, and a ton of empty space.

   On Thursday, February 10, 2022, 01:09:04 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 
 Yes, "Mini ITX" is just a shape and a standard for where mounting holes go
but it is a shape that is sold to a cost-sensitive market where low power
ususage and low cost maters.  The ITX market is large enough that mass
production drives prices down.  So it is a good fit to hobby-level machine
control.  I would think a good place to look as Aliexpress as most of this
stuff ships from China at very low cost.

If you are never going to use the computer as an interactive desktop you
could use a Raspberry Pi4.    Then use any standard PC notebook to remote
log-in and run the display from the notebook over WiFi.  A Pi4 is 1/2 the
cost of the cheapest ITX board.  
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Re: [Emc-users] who has used thin client pcs

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I use a an HP t5740 with the expansion chassis to run 32bit Open Media Vault 5 
as a DLNA video server.
The expansion chassis comes with two riser cards (if bought as-new with all the 
parts, one with a 32bit PCI slot, the other with a PCIe slot which is 
physically x16 length but is only connected as x4.
Since it's not doing anything strenuous I disconnected the fan in the expansion 
section.
For storage I used a 90 degree SATA+Power adapter to install a small, caseless, 
4 gigabyte SSD. It has to be a specific type that's barely wider than the 
SATA+Power connector. A "half slim" SSD board is too wide. The mounting ears on 
the 90 degree adapter have to be cut off to clear the riser card slot and a 
large capacitor. There's also the SSDs HP had as an option for this series of 
Thin Client but they completely unavailable. I truied to find one but every 
place was out of stock.

That SSD is far more space than the minimal Debian install and OMV needs. Video 
storage is on an external 3.5" 500 gig SATA drive connected to a PCIe eSATA 
board in the expansion slot. I'm thinking about changing that to a PCIe x4 NVME 
Ultra SSD in a PCIe to NVME adapter so the media server will all be in one 
piece.
Will such a unit run LCNC? The basic t5740 has a RS232C port, some USB 2.0 
ports, DisplayPort, and a VGA port, plus a pair of PS/2 ports and Ethernet. The 
expansion unit adds a second RS2323C and a parallel port. Some people have 
found ways to mount physically larger SSDs and 2.5" hard drives inside. Zip 
ties are usually involved, also drilling holes. I didn't want to have to drill 
or cut anything.

Here's a site with information on a large number of older thin clients.
Repurposing Thin Clients

| 
| 
| 
|  |  |

 |

 |
| 
|  | 
Repurposing Thin Clients

Reusing old thin clients - why?
 |

 |

 |




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Re: [Emc-users] What Would You Suggest?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

What motor driven surface grinder with power feed *doesn't have* automatic 
reversing in X and adjustable auto feed step in Y? Even ones 100 or so years 
old had features like adjustable X travel stops. I'd bet there were grinders 
with Y travel stops so an operator could set it and forget it, then come back 
later to crank the table back on the Y axis, turn the spindle down a bit then 
set it off on making the next pass.


   On Friday, February 4, 2022, 02:07:48 PM MST, John Figie 
 wrote:  
 
 On Fri, Feb 4, 2022, 2:55 PM dave engvall  wrote:

> Hi,
> I seem to remember a crank as in crankshaft lashup to drive the table.
> Personally I think the hydraulic setup is better but harder to achieve.
> The free lunch is hard to find.
> Dave
>
>
> Hmm

I have a Covel hydraulic automatic surface grinder. I would rather have
motors - maybe a retrofit someday. The issues with hydraulic are power
consumption but the pump and leaking oil because it's old.  
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Re: [Emc-users] rotary table re-engineeering

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Knight Foundry in Sutter Creek, California still does iron casting. 
https://knightfoundry.com/

   On Sunday, January 23, 2022, 12:27:00 PM MST, Matthew Herd 
 wrote:  
 
 Depending on size, I’d consider some “durabar” or similar continuously cast 
iron bar. I made a compound for my atlas lathe and several other items from it. 
A bit hard on tools but the parts have come out great. I prefer to use a face 
mill to machine the flat surfaces and then carbide tooling to finish it. If you 
have a three axis CNC mill it might not be much more time and maybe less money 
than a casting. I usually buy it from speedymetals.com. 

I recently did the foundry route for a large (300) batch of aluminum parts and 
the price was right but it took a long time and required I make up a pattern 
board with 10 printed patterns per mold. Still haven’t finished machining all 
300 … but the castings came out nicely. I used cattail foundry near me in PA. I 
think it depends on the size and complexity of the part whether it’s worth 
getting it cast.  
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Re: [Emc-users] motor coolant for water cooled spindles.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I bet the coolant made for Toyota Prius engines and power inverters would be 
ideal for a CNC spindle motor. It only comes as a premix, and is only available 
from Zerex or Toyota. It's made with distilled and deionized water so it's 
completely non-conductive.
What might be a strike against it is when it dries it makes pink crystals. 
That's a thing to check for on a 2nd generation Prius. Feel around below the 
water pump for pink crystals, which indicates a leak. Only belt driven thing on 
those. 3rd gen went to an electric water pump.

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Re: [Emc-users] ER-32 Collet Wrench

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Looks like you could cnc it then use a bandsaw to cut the inside corners of the 
teeth.


   On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 01:49:54 AM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 So my Collet chuck arrived a week or so ago.  Today the ER-32 collet set 
arrived.  I no longer have an excuse for not completing my 4th axis driven by a 
real harmonic drive.  (Well it is raining and can't cast).  So I have drawn up 
the face plate adaptor and that looks to be a pretty easy LCNC project for the 
mill plus a bit of lathe work.
 
However, I foolishly did not order a collet wrench.  This seems to overall be a 
pretty easy CNC project with the exception of the 'teeth' that engage the 
collet.  I suppose I could mill out the profiles in some oil hardening steel, 
then file the teeth to have straight edges.  Finally harden it.
 
Alternatively make it out of 1/4" or so steel plate (or even aluminium) and 
drill and tap holes for screws to protrude out where the teeth are.  Turn down 
the screw ends to be smooth or even square and lock the screws in place.
 
Looking for suggestions here.  Don't really want to wait 2 months for one 
wrench with either low price and horrendous shipping or high price and low 
shipping.  Cost ends up being the same at about $28.
  
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Re: [Emc-users] Tormach writing open sorce ROS2/Machiekit/LCNC bridge.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

That repeatability is plenty good enough to drop work into an automatic holding 
fixture (which does the final precision positioning) then pick the pieces out 
for transfer to another manufacturing stage or into a box.


   On Tuesday, January 4, 2022, 02:36:42 PM MST, Ralph Stirling 
 wrote:  
 
 That AR3 robot is indeed interesting.  In the event
that anyone else wants to know the specs on the
robot, here is what I found on page 298 of the manual:

Reach – 24.75 inches (62.9cm)
Payload – 4.15 lbs (1.9kg)
Repeatability - .2mm
Robot weight (aluminum) – 27lbs (12.25kg)
Enclosure weight – 12.5lbs (5.6kg)
Max Power Consumption – 8.25amp (198 watts)

Reach and payload are decent, but repeatability is 10x
worse than typical industrial arms.  Still a very intriguing
system.  Not sure I envy the designer trying to support
buyers of his kits though.  There are an awful lot of bits
and pieces and assembly steps.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Choice of CNC conversions

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I used to want a Denford ORAC but I found a forum thread where someone took one 
apart to refurbish it and it's just a modified clone of the EMCO 8x20, which 
has also been widely cloned as the common 9x20 with a 1/2" increase in center 
height. For the ORAC the back end of the cross slide is cut off so the back of 
the enclosure doesn't have to be back so far, but that limits how far back the 
slide can be moved.

What would be nifty in an ORAC is to replace the car stereo with one of those 
DIN1 sized MP3 players and fit it with a waterproof shield made for use in a 
boat. Yes, the Denford ORAC is the only metal lathe to be equipped with a car 
stereo and speakers. The reason for it was to play the instructional cassette 
tapes that came with the lathe. No reason one couldn't play their favorite 
tunes while the lathe is running.

The EMCO Compact 5 is limited by it's 75 step per rotation stepper motors. Many 
owners toss them and all the electronics then retrofit with 180 step motors. 
There was a company that made an add-on circuit board called the WELTURN (and 
WELMILL for EMCO's CNC milling machines). I assume one would be nice if you 
wanted to retain the original hardware and improve it, but try finding a 
WELTURN or WELMILL board. Even if you can, how likely is it to work with LCNC 
or other modern CNC software?
If you're intending to work with the original electronics, the EMCO Compact 5 
came in a standalone version that went through several revisions, with the last 
being the best. Then there was the Compact 5 PC which connected to a PC for 
controlling it. In any case the Compact 5 is a *very light* lathe though much 
"beefier" than the tiny aluminum ones, the name of which currently eludes me. 
The bed is made from an aluminum extrusion and the parts and pieces have been 
used by many companies to make tiny "instructional" CNC machines after 
companies like ProLight, Intellitek, Denford, Emco etc bowed out of that 
market, went out of business, or discontinued their quite capable benctop CNC 
machines to build wee ones from that company's parts bin.

   On Sunday, December 26, 2021, 08:24:15 AM MST, Andy Pugh 
 wrote:  
> On 26 Dec 2021, at 13:44, Mark  wrote:
> 
>> stallation or do a number of standard operations.
> 
> Sure.  As long as you can guarantee that every single machine manufactured, 
> designed, built in someones garage or basement will be identical to each and 
> every other machine out there.

To get back to the original subject if this thread:

I think that could be done for some hardware. 
Emco Compact 5
Denford Orac
Maho MH500?
Any other suggestions? 

ie, reasonably common machines with reasonably fixed hardware.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Harmonic Drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

One method of strengthening 3D printed plastic is to pack the item very firmly 
in very finely ground salt then heat it just the point where the plastic begins 
to melt. The firm salt keeps the size and shape and the plastic layers melt 
together more. It only work on parts with 100% infill. Can also use plaster but 
it's a PITA to get off the parts. 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+printing+salt

   On Monday, December 20, 2021, 02:59:38 PM MST, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 
 Is it possible to post process a thermal plastic gear?  Lets say you took
a high-precision metal gear and heated it to 180C and the rolled it over
the printed gear with the correct center to center distance.  You would
need to build a test fixture to do this but might be worth it.

lately I've been experimenting with brass thread inserts.  I have 1/2
dozen different types and printed test blocks with different hole diameters
and I've tried the soldering iron at different temperatures.  The best
results are really good with the M3 size screw failing before the nut.
 The worst case is they just pull out easily with pliers.

The hard part seems to be repeatability and if the hole is parallel or at
right angles to the layers. Printer setting and part design seems to matter
a lot also.    I've got a walking-dog type robot and I need to convert it
all over to threaded inserts, about 80 places.  I find it helps to think if
each holes gets larger or smaller then design when it is printed. and this
depends on ho the hole is connected to the rest of the part.  By walls or
sheets or infill..  Engineering is fun...  
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Re: [Emc-users] Harmonic Drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Dunno why every CAD program with a gear wizard, generator etc doesn't do both. 
https://evolventdesign.com/pages/pitch-calculator


   On Thursday, December 16, 2021, 12:56:53 AM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 The AlibreCAM Gear generator doesn't accept module.  Instead it wants number 
of teeth and pitch diameter.  

So I whipped up a spreadsheet that converts say the module 1.25 that Todd used 
and chose 19 teeth for the sun gear.  That appears to be the right size pitch 
diameter for the test setup.  At least when I check it out with my calipers.  
But of course 19T don't fit.  It has to be 20T and that then physically doesn't 
fit.  

So creating a true planetary set with all the gears fitting appears to be a bit 
more difficult.

John



> -Original Message-
> From: Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users [mailto:emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net]
> Sent: December-15-21 8:22 PM
> To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> Cc: Gregg Eshelman
> Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Harmonic Drive
> 
> Does FreeCAD's gear wizard support both Diametral Pitch and Module gears now?
> 
> 
>    On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 04:36:00 PM MST, John Dammeyer 
> wrote:
> 
>  I still haven't been able to make a simple circle in FreeCAD.� I keep 
>looking for the Alibre way of doing it which for my brain has
> always been close to perfect.� Never could use AutoCAD and I find Fusion360 
> confusing .
> However the gear tool is quite nice in FreeCAD.
> 
> I'm still having some problem visualizing exactly how the gears turn to 
> create 67:1.� So I thought I'd blow a bunch of money on
> filament and print them.� In hindsight I should have expanded the pinion 
> holes to 22mm since that's a standard (cheap) bearing size.
> 
> Too late now.� Just over 2 hours before the other 4 are done.� I could make 
> some tubes that hold smaller diameter ones.� � Or just
> play with the motion here first.� See how it works and then decide if I want 
> to use my module 1.0mm cutters to make them out of
> metal.
> 
> Or just print ones with inset relief to hold 8x22x7 standard bearings.
> John  
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Re: [Emc-users] Harmonic Drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Does FreeCAD's gear wizard support both Diametral Pitch and Module gears now?
 

On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 04:36:00 PM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 I still haven't been able to make a simple circle in FreeCAD.  I keep looking 
for the Alibre way of doing it which for my brain has always been close to 
perfect.  Never could use AutoCAD and I find Fusion360 confusing .
However the gear tool is quite nice in FreeCAD.

I'm still having some problem visualizing exactly how the gears turn to create 
67:1.  So I thought I'd blow a bunch of money on filament and print them.  In 
hindsight I should have expanded the pinion holes to 22mm since that's a 
standard (cheap) bearing size.

Too late now.  Just over 2 hours before the other 4 are done.  I could make 
some tubes that hold smaller diameter ones.    Or just play with the motion 
here first.  See how it works and then decide if I want to use my module 1.0mm 
cutters to make them out of metal.

Or just print ones with inset relief to hold 8x22x7 standard bearings.
John

  
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Re: [Emc-users] to JD

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

What about silicone grease, like the stuff sold for waterproofing bayonet 
socket light bulbs and spark plug boots?


 

On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 11:03:20 AM MST, Gene Heskett 
 wrote:  
 
 its might, but being an animal fat will go rancid pretty fast. crisco keeps 3 
days short of 

forever. I don't use a lot of it in my cooking, so the lb can I have is like 6 
or 8 years old.



Take care John.
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Re: [Emc-users] Closed loop control of air motors.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How about an eddy current brake that uses a thick copper washer, a disk with 
some strong magnets, and use a small air cylinder to push the copper washer 
away from the magnets and springs to pull or push it close to the magnets when 
the air is cut off so the wrench stops fast.

Automatic brake release and fail safe engagement, but zero contact so there's 
nothing to wear out or jam up.

  On Sunday, November 21, 2021, 07:57:34 AM MST, Gene Heskett 
 wrote: 
Close to the truth, However there might be a salvation in a viscous 
greased disk that would absorb the rapid spin, trapped between two other 
disks. It would allow the initial slow unlocking but seriously impede 
the following rapid spin. Or an eddy currant brake but that would take 
burn it up power so it would need to be applied only when the air is 
applied, and possibly for half a second after the air valve was turned 
off. I like the suicide braking idea, but there is limited space and it 
needs more diameter than you have room for. A coil spring anchored to 
the tool that would allow maybe three turns of the socket before winding 
tight against the socket OD might be a softer stop. Or a pile of 
interlocking disks that were screw driven like the rear brakes on an old 
Schwinn bicycle?  That was fairly compact and lasted close to forever.

Just tossing out ideas to see if one sticks.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Closed loop control of air motors.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How about an eddy current magnetic speed brake? Powerful magnets moving close 
to a thick piece of copper ought to do it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENgdSF8ppANo power required, the right design 
should bring the impact wrench to a fast stop once the air is off.

   On Sunday, November 21, 2021, 01:26:32 AM MST, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 Actually that is along the lines of what I've asked.  Some sort of brake that 
could limit the speed.

If you go back to steam engines the two weights swung out and shut off the 
pressure to the engine to keep it from running away.  I'm not sure I could fit 
something like that in that space but I had an idea like that. 

Occasionally, until I solve that problem the socket goes flying off too.  The 
square shaft of the wrench is hardened and I've used a Dremel to create a 
dimple but it's not deep enough yet.  Adding a guard around the socket for 
safety is a good idea then.  And if centrifugal force causes two arms with 
brake pads to fly out and run against the guard to slow it down that would 
work.  But seems overly complex.

Using that same guard idea but with pads that apply load to the socket to keep 
it from spinning away might be easier.  If you think about the sound of an 
impact wrench it spins up and only when it hits a load do you get the hammering 
sound.  

I've been considering this as a solution instead.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000220757109.html  
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Re: [Emc-users] Shortening motor shafts

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Before you take anything apart on the mill, use it to make some spacer plates 
and get some longer bolts to mount the new motors.


   On Sunday, October 17, 2021, 11:12:04 PM MDT, Ralph Stirling 
 wrote:  
 I just got a great deal on three 750w brushless servos and drives to upgrade 
my cnc mill.  They have the same face dimensions, but the shafts are 5mm longer 
than the old brush servos. There was no clearance between the motor shaft and 
ball screw inside the coupler, so I need shorten the 32mm long 19mm diam shafts 
by 5mm.  Can this be done without damage to the motor from heat or vibration?  
I don't want to have to pull the ball screws.

Thanks,
-- Ralph  
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Re: [Emc-users] Replacing a handle.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The technology to look for in LCD resin printers is a high resolution 
monochrome LCD. They allow much more UV light through than the color LCDs and 
last longer before degradation from the UV light exposure ruins them. But since 
these printers are pretty much the only reason to revive old mono LCD 
technology, they come with a premium price - but the per layer speed is 
considerably higher.


   On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 12:01:01 PM MDT, Bruce Layne 
 wrote:  
On 10/13/21 12:03 PM, Martin Dobbins wrote:
> Bruce Layne wrote:
>
> Someone needs to make an upgraded MSLA printer that automates the post
> processing operations.
>
> I'll pull the trigger when they do, Bruce.

I think of the current state of resin 3D printing as similar to the 
early days of photography - nearly magical, but there is some 
inconvenient slopping of chemicals to make the magic work.  We need the 
3D printing equivalent of digital photography with all of the magic, 
instant gratification, and without the messy chemicals.

However, a little rinsing with isopropyl alcohol, air drying, and UV 
exposure to cure the surface is a minor price to pay for the resin 3D 
printing magic.  It's SO much easier to CAD a structural part and resin 
print it than it is to use CNC to make the part.  I complain about the 
IPA rinse, but it's much faster and easier than cutting raw stock, 
fixturing, breaking end mills, tool changes, clearing chips, multiple 
fixture setups, tumble deburring, etc.   As an added bonus, I can 3D 
print parts that can't be made by CNC or injection molding.  Small parts 
can be arrayed and they 3D print as quickly as a single part when using 
MSLA where the entire layer is exposed. Resin printing is an incredibly 
powerful tool in my engineering toolbox.



> Do you have an MSLA right now? What model?

I have a Qidi Shadow 5.5S and a Qidi S Box.  Both are budget resin 
printers that do a good job, but there are probably better options now.  
We're still fairly early in the MSLA technological development.  Prices 
are falling as the quality and features improve.

I've had good results with Saraya Tech ABS-Like resin.  It prints well 
at the printer's default settings.  I hung some parts outside in direct 
sunlight all summer and there was no degradation in strength or loss of 
aesthetics.  The quality of the available resins is quickly improving 
too.  I'm hoping the supply catches up to the increasing demand and the 
prices fall to a penny a gram.

Resin printing is enabling a lot of small businesses to make great niche 
products that wouldn't be viable if they required expensive high volume 
injection molding.  
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[Emc-users] Other replacement parts. Re: Replacing a handle.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

If you want to make some money, make metal triggers for Hi-Point 995 series 
carbines. The plastic originals like to break where the pin hole is and 
replacements aren't available.


   On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 09:48:22 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 
 If you can afford it, a part like this can be 3D printed in stainless
steel.  I think SpaceX 3D prints the injectors used on their Raptor rocket
engines in some exotic material like Inconel.  Printer that can do that
are expensive but you can use a service.

But I think the point of this handle is an exercise, not to make a handle.
Given that you have a CNC mill how to you best make an exact replica?
Think of this as a homework assignment.

Here is what I would do...

Take the CAD file and orient it so the two drill holes are on the vertical
axis. (I think? the crank and handle holes are parallel)  The in the CAD
system add a metal pedestal The elevates the crank.  On the bottom of the
pedestal are two blind threaded holes, perhaps M5 or M6 size.

Start by making the hole on the backside of the billet.  Fip the billet and
screw it to the table from the bottom.

Mill the crank top and sides and drill the holes.

Flip the crank and use the two holes you just drilled to screw the part to
the table, pedestal facing up.  You need spacers under the crank to make
the drilled holes vertical

Using an end mill finish the side of the crank that is now facing up. This
will turn the entire pedestal into chips.

For both cuts the top surface is flat but horizontal, so maybe a ball mill
is required, at least for finishing

A second method is to design the part with bridges to the billet.  You cut
the part, flip the billet and cutfrom the other side and then there is a
crank suspended inside the scrap and connected to it by maybe three
bridges.  then you cut them with a saw and the part falls out.  Finally,
you smooth over the saw cuts.    THis is like casting where you have to saw
off some parts.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Replacing a handle.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Sounds like you need an M.2 NVME PCIe x4 Ultra SSD. Those run around 3 
gigabytes per second. No M.2 PCIe slot on your motherboard? There are PCIe to 
M.2 adapters. Of course to get best performance it needs an x4 slot that's PCIe 
3.0 or newer. There are PCIe x1 to PCIe NVME adapters but that will reduce the 
transfer speed, so will plugging it into PCIe 1.0 or 2.0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#History_and_revisions
   On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 07:24:31 AM MDT, Gene Heskett 
 wrote: 
 Big projects with lots of union()'s and difference()'s eat memory for all 
three meals, putting it deep into 50 gigs of swap and of course that 
slows it down even if the swap is on its SSD at 900 megs a second  
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Re: [Emc-users] Fwd: Rogue Index Pulses

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

20+ years ago there was the Game Boy Digital Sampling Oscilloscope or GBDSO. 
http://www.radanpro.com/Radan2400/TestShematics/GameBoyScope.pdfGameboy 
2-Channel Oscilloscope Cartridge

| 
| 
| 
|  |  |

 |

 |
| 
|  | 
Gameboy 2-Channel Oscilloscope Cartridge


 |

 |

 |




   On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 06:32:54 AM MDT, Les Newell 
 wrote:  
 
 That looks like a lot of scope for the money. Having used both CRT and 
digital, in my opinion digital is definitely the way to go. I gave away 
my last CRT scope about 6 years ago.

Les

On 13/10/2021 12:49, Peter Hodgson wrote:
> They look nice. Which one do you usualy turn to?
>
> I've been shying away from the CRT scopes as I've seen many on eBay 
> for sapres or repair and for a few extra ££'s the one on this link 
> seems to cover all the bases and I can also claim the VAT back so 
> would only cost me £125 !! :
>
> https://banggood.app.link/a2038i0Ujkb
>
> It has a 7" screen and as afar as I can tell it has software so the 
> results can be viewed on the PC too.
  
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Re: [Emc-users] Replacing a handle.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Super glue and tape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-coDYZCmEw
 

On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, 11:33:19 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 Thanks Chris. 
I haven't needed the handle all that badly or I would have done something.  
What I also just noticed is the plastic handle is held with a rivet into the 
top of a larger extension.  New drawing attached.

But what I've found lately is my biggest issue with CNC is work holding.  

So start out with a block and turn the 7mm shaft to a depth of 17mm on the 
lathe or held in a vise and mill it round.  At this point in the 4th axis could 
grip this and the profile of the handle could be done with it held horizontal.  

Then rotate to the correct angle from narrow to the wide end so the end with 
the slot is wider than the knob end.  Flip it the other direction in the 4th 
axis and do the same horizontal motion that creates the expanding in size end.  

Likely the round part by the knob could also be milled around.  Rotate it so 
it's vertical and cut the slot?

Way more work than using the mill to cut the slot on the end in a piece of 
steel.  Heat and bend.  A bit of grinding and a hole to hold a screw for the 
handle and it's done.  Crude but as I said at the start.  This is more an 
exercise in how to use CNC than solve a problem.

John  
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Re: [Emc-users] VFD Recomendation

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

There are reasons for such restrictions. Don't want a repeat of the 
Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal, especially not with anything sourced from the 
USA.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba%E2%80%93Kongsberg_scandal
Between 1974 and 1985 the Soviet union obtained machine tools from France, West 
Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and the UK. An article I read about it back then 
said the machines were bought minus the control electronics, which allowed them 
to slip through loopholes in the export restrictions, bought by shell companies 
then diverted to the USSR. Likewise with the Kongsberg electronic controls 
bought in Norway. After they obtained the Toshiba 9-axis machines in the mid 
1980's, Soviet submarines began to run much quieter.
Rather than develop the advanced machine tools on their own to mill better 
submarine propellers, the Soviets decided it'd be easier to be sneaky about it 
and obtain them elsewhere.

These days with the web and cheap electronics available to all, along with open 
source software like Linux CNC, it seems silly to try restricting sales and 
movement of fancy machine tools when all the information is freely available to 
build them.

   On Saturday, September 25, 2021, 06:26:45 PM MDT, Stuart Stevenson 
 wrote:  
 I had to sign DOD papers to be able to import a Fanuc 15MB control. It is a
submarine control. 28 axis capable. (What I was told). (not really sure
what the truth is).

If the company moves the machine to another address or sells the machine
the DOD is to be notified.



On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 10:54 AM Gene Heskett  wrote:

> On Saturday 25 September 2021 09:50:31 John Figie wrote:
>
> > Actually the US export regulation is 600 hz. I worked in servo drive
> > development.
> >
> Thanks for the update John.
>
> In a roundabout way, that does seem to indicate that what Todd needs is
> going to be American made, accompanied by scary permit paperwork, and
> because of its limited use experience to fix common problems, not as
> dependable as we are used to.
>
> Among other things is the frozen technology. One of my sons /was/ working
> in a shop that repairs electronic stuff from nuclear power facilities.
> All of that tech is frozen at 1960ish tech levels, making it illegal to
> use a more modern, thousands of times more dependable semiconductor
> device to repair them. With all the environmental tests such repairs
> must pass, makes replacing a shorted 1n34 diode, which I could do for a
> few cents and my time, into a 10 to 50 thousand dollar job with 50% of
> that being the world wide search for an original part. You can't replace
> a a half watt rated 5 cent in 1962  carbon composition resistor with a 6
> month lifetime, with a 10 cent metal film fireproof version rated at 2
> watts that barring mechanical destruction, would still be in tolerance
> when our star goes nova in its death throes billions of years hence. All
> because its type approved stuff and that would cancel the type approval.
> All the bill payers involved are non-technical and will say it worked
> that way once, make it work that way again with original parts only.
>
> I first ran into that in dealing with the military in 1961, working for a
> contractor who had a contract to maintain the portal door cameras at the
> Titan missle sites wrapped around EAFB at the time. Complaint was the
> camera was just barely working, and there were no spares. So I went out
> and got it, brought it back to EAFB and found a germainium diode, used
> as a back porch clamp switch had about a 10/1 front to back ratio. A
> very poor choice for such duties so I replaced it with a similar but si
> diode that was at least a million times better device for the job. Best
> picture I'd seen out of any of those 3 cameras in the previous year. But
> somebody, processing the payment discovered the part wasn't original and
> decreed that only original parts could be used. The fact that the camera
> now worked better than new was of zero interest, so they had the parts
> crib in the MAMS building find an original part (that took several
> months) and I had to put it in when they finally got it. In the meantime
> of course, the air force had to delegate a crew of mp rated flaps to
> guard the portal door (it was a revolving door that was designed to
> withstand a 500 feet above 50 megaton blast, and was 2 or 3 flights of
> stairs underground, probably weighed 10,000 lbs), because the camera
> wasn't to be re-installed until it had the original part in it.
>
> All of which was assinine from my point of view. But at that time I
> didn't even have a 1st phone, which I fixed shortly afterwards, then saw
> the comm college in Norfolk NE, (Johnny Carsen's home town) was doing
> C.E.T. testing a few years later so I walked in the door, laid a $20
> (the application fee) on the profs desk and blew his mind 45 minutes
> later when I handed in the 4 hour test. He had been teaching that class
> for about 3 years then, and none of his students had 

Re: [Emc-users] Minimally printed rotary. Initial torque testing..

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

You almost sound disappointed that you couldn't break it. ;)


   On Sunday, September 12, 2021, 06:52:23 PM MDT, Sam Sokolik 
 wrote:  
 
 Small update

https://youtu.be/eW1GGI55Epc  
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Re: [Emc-users] Metallurgical Advice?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How about once the rest of the mill is fixed, drill and tap some holes in edges 
of the table to install a pair of plates to hold the pieces together. Then use 
the router to mill a recess bridging the crack, and an exact fitting splice 
plate, with matching holes for rows of socket head cap screws with their heads 
recessed. Use Devcon Titanium Putty to bond the crack edges together and bed 
the splice plate, and fill the bolt head recesses. Finish off with a full skim 
cut of the table to level it.


   On Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 7:03:29 PM MDT, andy pugh  
wrote:  
 
 On Wed, 28 Jul 2021 at 19:25, Milosz K.  wrote:

> Lock-N-Stitch pins are also another option. Advantage is it's a cold
> process, but it's rather slow.

I forgot to say, this does seem like an avenue worth exploring.
Especially as the part is already conveniently mounted under a router
spindle. The slow, tedious part is suddenly trivial.

-- 
atp
"A motorcycle is a bicycle with a pandemonium attachment and is
designed for the especial use of mechanical geniuses, daredevils and
lunatics."
— George Fitch, Atlanta Constitution Newspaper, 1912  
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Re: [Emc-users] electrical inspection pain

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How picky are they in Washington about DIY HVAC? I looked up the relevant code 
for Idaho and for doing an install on your own residence you don't need a 
"certificate of competency" but may need to have the install pass a mechanical 
inspection. (But many HVAC shop techs will insist that ALL such work must be 
done by a certified technician.)

There are a couple of companies that make DIY mini split heat pumps but their 
special refrigerant line sets only come in 16 and 25 foot lengths. I need maybe 
five feet between where I want to put the inside and outside units. For the 
other makes and models they have all the refrigerant contained within the 
outside unit and the refrigerant lines use flared ends and threaded fittings. 
Assemble the system, pull a vacuum on the service port. Close the service valve 
and disconnect the vacuum pump. Remove the caps off the refrigerant valves and 
fully open them with a hex key (usually comes with the system) then reinstall 
the valve caps. Wait around 5 minites to ensure the refrigerant has distributed 
through the pipes and inside unit and you're finished, aside from setting it up 
on WiFi and installing the app on your phone, if it has such features.

The DIY kits don't need a vacuum pump because the lines are either precharged 
or vacuumed and they have valves installed on their ends which open as they're 
screwed onto the other components.
NEC code requires a disconnect near the outside unit, placed not more than 6 
feet above ground level. Curiously, there's no minimum height above ground 
level for the disconnect. Rather odd how the NEC code can be so lax and vague 
on some things but very exacting on others.

I happen to have a very good Gast rotary vane vacuum pump that can pull 29 
inches of mercury. Just need to come up with the right fitting to put on the 
end of the hose. I've used it on some vehicle air conditioners, take the car to 
an AC shop to have the r134a pulled out, bring it home, do what parts need 
replaced, pull the vacuum myself then back to the AC shop to have it refilled 
because jumpering wires to the compressor clutch is a bit of a pain to make it 
draw in from the little cans. $25 to suck the refrigerant out, $25 to put it 
back in plus whatever for additional refrigerant if needed.

I can get a 15K BTU mini split heat pump for well under $1K, shouldn't have to 
pay some guy another few hundred just to bring out a vacuum pump for a couple 
of hours then open two valves.

The heat pump currently in use for the part of the house served by ductwork was 
installed over a decade ago and all the company used was a vacuum pump to 
evacuate the lines. After a couple of hours the tech took the pump off and 
opened the refrigerant valves. It had a 10 year parts warranty and about a week 
less than 10 years later the compressor quit. Installing the new compressor was 
what required the refrigerant recovery system and weighing how much new r410a 
was put back in. Got nicked $1000 for that for labor and new refrigerant when 
they should have only charged for the labor and any additional refrigerant that 
may have been required above what was pulled out.
Automotive AC shops will at least credit the value of extracted refrigerant 
because if they don't put the same stuff back in they'll use it on another job.


   On Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 6:28:32 PM MDT, Ralph Stirling 
 wrote:  
 I just got my inspection report by email.  The inspector
couldn't even remember that it was a mill, and called it
a "lathe".  He references RCW 19.28 and WAC 296-46B-903.

I think my best option is to use this as an excuse to buy
a phase converter.  It will be UL approved, and I'll connect
it to the 220 circuit.  It should serve as the "load" as far as
the inspector is concerned.  I don't want to start lying
about my machinery and intentions.  A phase converter
for testing and repairing 3ph machines is legitimate enough.
I'll either tarp my CNC mill in place as Chris suggested, or
move it temporarily ($250 for forklift rental twice).

The mill is a 1998 French Realmeca C2, with absolutely no
labels of any sort on it.  Good electrical diagram, but that
carries no weight.

Thanks for all the advice, everybody.  I'll update when I
finally pass.  I need another visit after I finish installing
my ductless heat pump anyway.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Metallurgical Advice?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The table can't be made worse. It needs replaced anyway, but if you can find a 
person who can weld it without warping the alignment of the guides, it would 
save a bunch of money. Some cast aluminum alloys just don't take well to being 
welded. They either resist having the weld metal stick, melt too easily, or 
after bring welded will shrink.
What might work is Muggyweld. There are many videos on youtube showing various 
repairs with it.


   On Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 11:28:00 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote:  
But the biggest problem is that the 5ft by 10ft 1.5inch thick cast aluminum 
table cracked!  It cracked about 2ft in from the front left corner and runs 
about half way across the table in the 5ft direction.  The table is supported 
from below by 10 linear guide blocks on two rails. The crack runs across 
between the 1st and 2nd set of blocks, about 4inches from the 2nd block.

Is there any hope of repairing the table?  Are we going to have to replace the 
whole table?  Could the crack be welded, or is that a bad idea?  My main fear 
is that warpage issues will cause the linear guides to bind.  (The table 
surface can always be re-milled flat.)  The crack isn't gaping or misaligned, 
and the table doesn't "look" warped now that It's cool  
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Re: [Emc-users] Power Draw Bar

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

It would be simpler to use belleville washers and an air cylinder to apply 
pressure to release the tooling. 
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/11/stacks-of-spring-washers-power-the-drawbar-on-this-cnc-mill-conversion/


On Sunday, July 18, 2021, 5:39:23 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 A long long time ago I read an article in Home Shop Machinist written by Rick 
Sparber on what he called a WUT. 
https://rick.sparber.org/Articles/drawbar/Drawbar.htm
Although I couldn't make mine exactly as his I was able to at least create a 
thick hex washer so that I could tighten the draw bar while holding the WUT 
with a wrench.  Testing with a torque wrench can actually reach the 20 inch 
pounds as the maximum suggested for the Tormach Tooling.  In reality I don't 
come close to that amount of torque and so far I haven't run into issues with 
anything slipping.  
 
I also paid for the instructions from homeshopaccessories for the power drawbar 
that uses a small butterfly air impact wrench.
http://home.insightbb.com/~joevicar3/cheap_drawbar.htm
 
In playing around with the power tapping project I also tried using the 
butterfly wrench to tighten and loosen the TT Tools.  First, the wrench has to 
work really hard to reach 20 inch lbs.  And it has to work really hard to 
loosen the drawbar if the torque wrench was used to bring it to 20 inch lbs.  
The more normal value is around 12 inch pounds which seems more than adequate.
 
However, and there's the issue.  Like any air impact wrench it chugs away until 
it breaks the nut loose and then spins up fast.  Fast enough to completely 
uncouple the draw bar from the R8 holder and the whole works drops out.  If it 
does that then there's no real point to the TT tools other than repeatability;  
which is an advantage..
 
My question is about controlling the reverse on the butterfly wrench to limit 
it to two turns.  I'm sure I could connect an encoder on the wrench shaft to 
count a number of edges per turn and after two turns shut off the air valve.  
But how fast does an air system react?  By the time you reach two turns is it 
already spinning so fast that it releases the R8 before the air pressure is 
gone?
 
Is there some sort of mechanical approach to allow it to turn two turns and 
then prevent further turns?  This can't be fixed in stone because there will be 
times where more than two turns are required for removing the R8 collet.
 
So I think LCNC with the MESA interface can count an encoder.  It can probably 
even switch off a valve within a few milli-seconds of N encoder counts.    So 
the HAL file would read in input for UnloadTool. Clear the encoder counter and 
assert an output to open the air valve.  On encoder_count = X close the air 
valve.
 
Actually I'd probably just program a separate micro-processor to do this and 
produce a done signal on the request input.  I either case though is there a 
way to limit the distance the butterfly turns?
 
John  
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Re: [Emc-users] Code of Conduct

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How about making it very simple, something like "Be excellent to each other."


On Sunday, July 18, 2021, 1:58:54 PM MDT, R C  wrote:  
 
 
On 7/18/21 1:22 PM, Mark Wendt wrote:
> Whoever decided we somehow needed a Code of Conduct. Someone needs to
> enforce it, no?

Nah,  it could be done like gun control in Chicago  
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Re: [Emc-users] Power Tapping

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Sounds like that bit of Heath Robinson (since you're in the UK) mess was just 
to avoid paying royalties to Clarence W. Spicer.
https://www.machineservice.com/products/universal-joints/history-behind-the-universal-joint/
On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, 7:30:05 PM MDT, andy pugh  
wrote:  
 
 On Thu, 8 Jul 2021 at 00:39, John Dammeyer  wrote:

> But for metal a spiral, or at least spiral point is a must I think.  Time to 
> do a bit more tuning but impressed as how well it works.

I power-tapped a bunch of holes into EN24 with a conventional
straight-flute hand tap at the weekend, though it was a bit
heart-in-mouth.

Bit of a story here. a slightly epic field repair. (literally, in a field)
I play with an old fire engine. (US: fire truck). It belongs to the
students of my old university (Latin: Almer Mater). They were invited
to an event about 50 miles from their base in South Kensington last
weekend, by someone they know from the Kew Bridge Steam Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Museum_of_Water_%26_Steam (home
to the second and third biggest steam engines extant). [1]

When I say "old" I mean that the fire engine was built in 1916.

The fire engine has an overhead worm drive differential, and drive
into that is via a "box joint" which is a crude sort of universal
joint where a square "knuckle" on the differerential input shaft is
driven by a hollow square. The outer faces of square knuckle are
radiused, and two bronze "slippers" fit between those and the outer
box (it's odd that there are only two, but the knuckle is rectangular,
with the slippers on the long faces, to make it square)

The knuckle mounts on a taper, pulled up by a nut. There are two
keyways at 90 degrees. But we only use one, as two keyways is stupid.
(It took about 30 years of our ownership to realise this, but with two
keys and a taper either only one key fits, or the taper can't pull up.
It is kinematically redundant, in a bad way)  
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Re: [Emc-users] Mounting spindle sensors.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Video from 2009. Milling a hard metal file at 125 ipm with no cooling and from 
a start temp of 81F the file only warmed to 
89Fhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeJCzN90Aj4

I couldn't find the video from a shop that resharpened end mills, showing one 
rapidly carving the faces of a hard file held on edge.
 

On Thursday, July 1, 2021, 1:44:40 AM MDT, andrew beck 
 wrote:  
 
 John.  You really really should be running carbide endmills.  They can be
run dry and hot for most jobs.  And they are just so much nicer than hss.
It's great when you don't have to think to much about if the cutter is
going to overheat. And more just about what shape you want to cut.

Pm me and I'll connect you up to my endmill supplier you can just buy
direct.  (I sell carbide endmills all the time through my tooling company)  
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Re: [Emc-users] Code of Conduct

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Look up "mansplaining". When it's a person's (specifically male) job to explain 
to a new employee (specifically female) how to do a task but the new person 
already knows how (or thinks they do) to do it and expects the explainer to 
somehow know that. Nevermind it's a requirement to explain to ensure the 
explainee has been informed to cover arses in case the new person screws up.
The genders of the people involved can be any combination but the one in the 
word points out which one teds to complain the most.
I think of a parachute jumpmaster. It's their job to go over the procedures 
*every time*, whether it's the jumper's first jump or 10,000th. If the jumper 
screws up they (or their relatives) have no beef with the jumpmaster.
 

On Tuesday, June 29, 2021, 2:13:15 AM MDT, andy pugh  
wrote:  
 
 On Tue, 29 Jun 2021 at 04:14, John Dammeyer  wrote:
>
> At the risk of being banned I'd suggest that this one point is a bit extreme:
>
> "Excessive or unwelcome helping; answering outside the scope of the question 
> asked"

It does seem a little odd. I suspect it is aimed at some manner of
behaviour that I have not (knowingly) seen on our forums.
It is a bit of a concern to think that I could be accused of breaking
the CoC for being too helpful.

I get the feeling that this CoC was written for a somewhat different
demographic than LinuxCNC users tend to be. (By which I am mainly
referring to age) .  
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Re: [Emc-users] New kind of 3-axis drive.

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Make it in metal, truncate the teeth to have a larger bearing area. Pack it 
with the grease used in front drive car axle joints. Wrap it in a flexible boot 
with a rotary bushing and shaft seal around the rod connected to the sphere.
There you have a hip or shoulder joint for robots, with no need to have long 
actuators or cables on the arm itself.


On Friday, June 25, 2021, 1:10:39 PM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 
 A new kind of 3-dof spherical drive.  This would work well for holding
parts in a mill.  It would allow 6-axis work on any standard 3-axis
machine.  The device would be easy to 3D print but very hard to make
precise.

What if the ball were 6" in diameter and made of hard steel?

https://youtu.be/AHUv9Zda_48

  
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Re: [Emc-users] Machining question

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

 Reamers can be some fun stuff. I hand reamed the spindle on a 1913 Sears 
Expert (made by South Bend, an "Old, reliable" manufacturer that was all of 4 
years old back then) 14" metal lathe out to just over 3/4". The ends of the 
spindle bore were just a hair over 3/4" but in between was smaller and pretty 
rough. I wanted to have it able to pass a 3/4" diameter bar all the way 
through, so I made it happen, one small increment at a time.


On Friday, June 18, 2021, 11:07:09 AM MDT, Gerrit Visser  
wrote:  
 
 Reamers don't work well in nominal size holes. So always leave enough meat ofr 
it to do its work. The attached link gives good info on that topic.

Machine reamers cut on the leading edge only, there is no taper. Hand reamers 
have a taper, and won't cut to a shoulder.

If concentricity is the key goal, then drill well under size, bore to reamer 
alloance and then ream.

https://www.fltechnical.com/news/reamer-guide-basic-technical-information-for-reamers

Gerrit

-Original Message-
From: John Dammeyer  
Sent: June 18, 2021 11:49 AM
To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) 
Subject: [Emc-users] Machining question

This isn't as much a LinuxCNC question but more of an approach to how to 
machine something.
 
The attached photo shows a coupler from a 3/8" encoder to 14mm Servo Motor so I 
can test on the bench the Pi4 closed loop encoder behavior.
 
This one didn't turn out very well.  I drilled all the way through and then 
used a reamer to bring it to 3/8".  It's a firm sliding fit on the encoder 
shaft.  Without removing it from the chuck I then drilled halfway to 13mm and 
then used a 14mm reamer to bring it to size, testing with the motor shaft.  
 
Problem was the reamer was slightly tapered at the front so it did a poor job.  
I finished it up with the boring tool but maybe a few thou too large.  However 
the wobble seems much worse than that.
 
I'm thinking the better approach would be to drill all the way through 
undersize 3/8" and then drill half way with 13mm.  Then only use the boring 
tool to bring the back half up to 3/8" and the front up to 14mm.  This way if 
the initial hole wasn't concentric with rotation the boring tool would ensure 
it is.
 
Make sense?  Or is there a better way?
 
Thanks
John
  
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Re: [Emc-users] Running 440V 3PH 2 speed motor off 220V 3PH or 1PH?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Everything I've read on VFDs says do not feed them from a transformer. Nor can 
you put a transformer between the VFD and the motor. Most of them say *nothing* 
should be between the VFD and the motor, direct connection only. The one on my 
1943 Monarch 12CK lathe recommends a noise filter on the input side to prevent 
noise feeding back into the line from the VFD from getting to other stuff on 
the circuit.


On Thursday, June 17, 2021, 3:31:57 AM MDT, Peter Blodow 
 wrote:  
 
 Am 17.06.2021 um 07:20 schrieb Roland Jollivet:
> ...
> I don't know if you can use a 110V:24V transformer in reverse, or whether
> you'll cook it. Worth a try...
>
> Roland
NO!!!

Peter  
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Re: [Emc-users] Spindle Control

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Use green sand, not dry sand. 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lost+pla+casting+green+sand 

On Tuesday, June 15, 2021, 10:27:15 AM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 
 Hi Greg
I've tried the lost foam method in dry sand.  Outside.  Can't stand the smell 
of the sand afterwards. 

Although PLA smell isn't that bad I've seen the castings produced by lost 3D 
printed lost PLA.  They are ugly just as 3D printed parts are actually quite 
ugly too.    If the goal is just to make something to cast with no care about 
surface finish I can see it.  And if the casting fails put the foundry away for 
another 24 hours or more of re-printing the next trial.

For me, making a nice pattern is part of the fun of casting.  Getting a smooth 
surface finish too.

Now having said that if I were to design something that would require a complex 
shape that cannot be easily turned into a multi-part pattern I might just try 
lost PLA for it.  

John

> -Original Message-
> From: Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users [mailto:emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net]
> Sent: June-15-21 2:30 AM
> To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> Cc: Gregg Eshelman
> Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Spindle Control
> 
> Print in PLA with only one perimeter and as little infill as you can get by 
> with, print all the sprues and vents as one part with the
> pattern too. Then all you have to do is pack the print tightly in sand then 
> pour in the molten metal to burn out the plastic. Look up
> lost PLA casting. With really fine sand you can make metal castings that look 
> like they were made on an FDM printer.
> 
> I really need to get my 3D printer working again so I can print the parts to 
> CNC my old Unimat lathe.
> 
>    On Monday, June 14, 2021, 9:04:42 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
> wrote:
>  Thank you for posting that.�
> So in the places where I'd make a pattern and cast from scrap aluminium you 
> 3D print the part.
> Very nicely done!
> John  
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Re: [Emc-users] Spindle Control

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Print in PLA with only one perimeter and as little infill as you can get by 
with, print all the sprues and vents as one part with the pattern too. Then all 
you have to do is pack the print tightly in sand then pour in the molten metal 
to burn out the plastic. Look up lost PLA casting. With really fine sand you 
can make metal castings that look like they were made on an FDM printer.

I really need to get my 3D printer working again so I can print the parts to 
CNC my old Unimat lathe.

On Monday, June 14, 2021, 9:04:42 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 Thank you for posting that.  
So in the places where I'd make a pattern and cast from scrap aluminium you 3D 
print the part.
Very nicely done!
John  
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Re: [Emc-users] Running 440V 3PH 2 speed motor off 220V 3PH or 1PH?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Voltage doubling VFD, but they start at 5 horsepower. 
https://www.phasetechnologies.com/voltage-doubling Says using a transformer on 
the input of a VFD is a bad idea.

Three doubling transformers in parallel, one per phase, might work, but so far 
it seems that if it involves 480V 5HP is the lower bound, overkill for the 
Hardinge motor that according to its plate tops out at 0.75

   On Monday, June 14, 2021, 4:43:49 PM MDT, Bari  wrote:  
 Maybe https://www.ebay.com/itm/254550292370  if you're in the states. A 
few on ebay for <$200.

On 6/14/21 5:33 PM, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users wrote:
> The motor is in a Hardinge UM mill, less than 1 horsepower. It cannot be 
> switched to 220V. Any way to get it running off 220 volts, three or single 
> phase, without breaking a few banks?  
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[Emc-users] Running 440V 3PH 2 speed motor off 220V 3PH or 1PH?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The motor is in a Hardinge UM mill, less than 1 horsepower. It cannot be 
switched to 220V. Any way to get it running off 220 volts, three or single 
phase, without breaking a few banks?

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Re: [Emc-users] Spindle Control

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

How old is that mill? Those Chinese mini mills and lathes have had PWM spindle 
motor controllers for many years. I used to have a Grizzly mini lathe with a 
low 3 digit serial number, probably from the first batch they imported. I was 
at least the 3rd owner and I had to fix a lot of issues, both original and from 
prior owner abuse. One fix was resoldering one end of a big resistor on the 
primitive and very noisy motor controller.
You can buy a new PWM motor controller and potentiometer to upgrade. 
http://benchtopmachineshop.blogspot.com/2017/01/mill-speed-controller.html
On Sunday, June 13, 2021, 2:30:15 PM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 I have a Harbor freight mini mill with the dumbest possible spindle
control.  The mill comes from the factory with a variable resistor to
control speed.  My idea was to connect a variable resistor to a $5 model
airplane servo.  So the PWM output from LinuxCNC drives the servo and the
servo turns the pot which controls the spindle motor.  I would never be
able to do rigid tapping with this setup.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Touch screen for LinuxCNC

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I always liked the rotary click wheel on many CRT monitors. Nice big wheel with 
an offset dimple. Put fingertip in dimple and push to get the menu, spin to 
highlight the configuration option then push. Spin again to select (for 
example) vertical position then push and spin to move the raster up or down. No 
slower (for me it was faster) than a mouse interface with "spin" controls that 
scroll a list or change a number. Only took me a few seconds to have a CRT's 
image all tweaked. That's why people lamented the loss of the clickwheel on 
iPods. It was FAST, easy to use, and didn't need eyes on it to be able to use 
it.
 
My current LCD has five buttons on the back. Only the bottom one (on/off) has a 
tiny bump. The other four are ??? and after the menu is brought up, their 
positions don't align with the order of the menu selections so one is literally 
poking around blindly trying to find what does what. Even a row of clearly 
labeled buttons on the front of a monitor was slower than a click wheel. If TV 
and monitor designers want a "blind poking" physical interface tucked around on 
the back side, they should bring back the click wheel. I have a couple of 
Samsung TVs that have, of all things, a tiny joystick *and* some buttons on the 
back. Now that is a crazy thing.

On Tuesday, June 1, 2021, 7:38:13 PM MDT, John Dammeyer 
 wrote:  
 Personally I like the tactile feedback of a button that moves.  But moving 
from buttons over to a mouse to then select entries is tedious so I can see 
either a number of buttons or a touch screen for that sort of thing.

For the same reason I really detest those interfaces based on Arduino's that, 
due to limited I/O use a rotary knob and button to select from all sorts of 
menus.  Or worse test enter each digit one at a time using the rotary knob.
Shudder

Way back HP had the right idea with what they called soft keys.  A row of 
mechanical buttons along the edges of the screen to select options displayed 
beside the button.  My Tek scope has those and the stupid rotary knobs.  
Invariably since they have two of those I tend to choose the wrong one first.

But to design such a user screen for LinuxCNC implies you also have to provide 
the buttons (and maybe a knob).  Easy to do with CANopen or ModBus or if you 
have one of the high i/o count MESA boards but then you are also running a 
bundle of wires up rather than a network cable.

Thanks for the feedback.
John Dammeyer  
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Re: [Emc-users] Can't find the PP. Where is lspci or equiv ?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Many motherboards still have an "ISA Bus" that has a few onboard peripherals 
such as a parallel port and an RS232C port and some other things that work fine 
slowly.

On Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 7:54:33 AM MDT, Todd Zuercher 
 wrote:  
 It won't show a standard onboard motherboard port, because those are not on 
the PCI bus.

Todd Zuercher
P. Graham Dunn Inc.
630 Henry Street 
Dalton, Ohio 44618
Phone:  (330)828-2105ext. 2031

-Original Message-
From: John Dammeyer  
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2021 8:26 PM
To: 'Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)' 
Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Can't find the PP. Where is lspci or equiv ?

[EXTERNAL EMAIL] Be sure links are safe.

> From: Jon Elson [mailto:el...@pico-systems.com]
> >
> >
> On some installs, for some reason, lspci is not listed in the right 
> library, and you have to use /sbin/lspci
>
> I have no idea why, might be a Debian idea.
>
> You DO have to run it under sudo or with privileges to see all the 
> details of devices, but the basic info of device type will show 
> without sudo.
>
> Jon

I thought I'd try that on my LinuxCNC system.  With or without sudo it does 
print a list of all the devices but it doesn't tell me the actual port address 
of the standard port on the machine (0x378) which I know because when I dual 
boot it into MACH3 instead of Linux and move the parallel port cable from the 
MESA to the back of the machine it works with that address.

I haven't run it with the back of the machine in Linux for a while but the hal 
file uses cfg=0 for the standard port and when I had a second PCI card 
installed it was cfg=0x2000

John  
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Re: [Emc-users] reducing rigid tapping overshoot

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

KERS = Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Various means of capturing some energy 
during braking then using it to help accelerate out of turns. IIRC Formula 1 
never fully implemented used of any KERS device due to some chassis 
manufacturers complaining about the difficulty and expense of cramming such 
things into the small vehicles, and the practical limitations on how much 
energy could be captured in such small space in such little time, then released 
just as quickly. The impact on fuel use would have been quite minimal. The 
impact on mechanical complexity and thus potential lack of reliability could 
have been as bad as their early years of electronic controls in F1 when races 
often had the majority of the field retire due to computer failures.

F1 has a history of making a bunch of rule changes then making so many new 
changes the next year that the teams must go back to the CAD workstations and 
start over from scratch. When combined with the F1 rule makers keeping an ear 
to the ground for any whispers of competitive advantage concepts they don't 
like then pre-banning them before anyone has so much as started scribbling on a 
cocktail napkin - designing F1 race cars must be one of the most fascinating 
and maddeningly frustrating jobs ever.
IIRC F1 banned KERS before anyone began development, then flip-flopped and 
insisted everyone was going to have to have KERS for "saving the planet"* or 
whatever, then flopped back on it when KERS was proving to be mostly pointless. 
 
*Which made as much nonsense as it did the year NASCAR shortened all their 
races in the 1970s to "save fuel".

On Monday, April 26, 2021, 5:31:38 PM MDT, Gene Heskett  
wrote:  
 On Monday 26 April 2021 17:37:10 andrew beck wrote:

> i have a friend that pulled apart a old 100+ kw vfd and collects caps.
>
> he has buckets of massive ones
>
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 9:02 AM Leonardo Marsaglia
> 
>
> wrote:
> > From what I could understand gene is using something similar to the
> > old KERS used in Formula 1. I don't know if this is a common
> > practice because it's really good idea. May be the only drawback is
> > the cost of the capacitors and that's why we don't see this approach
> > very often.
> >
KERS is an unk acronym to me.  Yes, I do have quite a bank of caps in 
that psu but the cost was zip, came from an old employee I was told to 
fire 30 years ago, but his building skills were very useful when my door 
had a nameplate with Chief Engineer on it.  I refused, and he had a job 
till we moved the transmitter in 2008. His navy pension isn't that much, 
so we get into a fight everytime I go raid his junkbox because I insist 
on paying him, IIRC that bank of huge caps, which have to be soft 
started else they'll trip a 30 amp breaker, cost me a $20 bill and I had 
to threaten him to get him to keep it.  
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Re: [Emc-users] wiring up mesa ency encoder

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

 There are ways of matching data signal voltages between disparate components. 
Here's a patent on one way to do it, likely it's the basis for various 
commercial products. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7023242

On Thursday, April 15, 2021, 1:45:18 AM MDT, andrew beck 
 wrote:  
 
 Hey gene and peter.

Well that's good to know that the ency card only supports 5v.  So that's a
no show.  All good I'll use them for something else I guess.

So gene.
First off my encoder has a b Z push pull single ended outputs.

Looks like your solution is the plan.
I have a spindle sensor already on the spindle.  And my vfd can output a
and b signals.  Fine.  Just no Z signals.  So I'll use A and B for speed
and the proxy sensor for rigid tapping plus spindle orientation.

I'll be in touch in a few days.  Once I get this encoder card working.

Regards

Andrew  
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Re: [Emc-users] Worn Ball Screw?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

There are companies that regrind and reball ballscrews. One I looked into 
claimed they could grind rolled ballscrews to be as precise as ground screws.
 
Some ballscrews have every other ball undersized to further reduce friction, 
but it also reduces load capacity. Replacing the spacer balls with full size 
ones, removing one or more from the total to make room, increases the load 
capacity and may improve precision or lower backlash.
Putting in oversize balls won't work with very uneven wear on the screw. It 
could jam on the unworn areas. At best if the screw has some wear all along you 
could oversize to be as tight as possible on the least worn area and have some 
reduction in lash elsewhere.

On Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 7:48:12 AM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 I have no experience with this but I've read about people using oversized
balls to fix this.  I think it is a stop-gap.  But you can see how they
would ride above the center of the groove and be very solid.  They are
talking *very tiny* amount of oversize.    I seem to remember having to
sort the balls using a micrometer.

On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 8:14 PM Stuart Stevenson  wrote:

> Plus or minus .010 is an amazing amount. Also, you mentioned another area
> on the screw you saw .001 lost motion. This leads to a screw problem.
> I would do what Jon Elson says as this sounds strange but I would expect to
> find screw wear. If it was nut wear the backlash in all areas of the screw
> would be close to equal. Not knowing the drive train maybe there is a gear
> train and one area of the gear train has worn teeth and where you found
> almost no lost motion is where the gear train is the best.
> Expect screw wear but hope for a gear train problem.
> HTH
> Stuart  
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Re: [Emc-users] Animatics. Was:Small PC for use with 7i90 / 7i96?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The PLM 2000 uses a single unit 3 axis servo controller. Or 4 axis for the rare 
ones with the HAAS rotary. I read from someone who worked there that they only 
sold around 40 with the 4th axis. Would have been nice if they'd equipped all 
with the 4 axis controller for easy upgrades.
 
This was before the merger to become MOOG-Animatics. I got the trove of data 
and software from a guy who worked for Animatics and stayed with the company 
after the merger. He found it on an old backup drive.

On Thursday, April 1, 2021, 11:56:59 AM MDT, Mark Johnsen 
 wrote:  
 
 Maybe you could reprogram the animatics to accept step and direction on
some inputs, if they're available and do it that way?

I had an IMS drive that I did that with to run linuxCNC.  Definitely, not
the preferred way to do it, though.  The IMS setup I had didn't seem to
work very well as the drivers had the integrated controller that had to
convert step and direction with an onboard processor.  I wouldn't recommend
that setup w/ IMS smart drives (think it was an Mdrive).

Also, with independent controllers on each motor like animatics, I would
think latency would cause some issues.  They'd be very minor, but one motor
might lag a split second compared to another.  I don't think it'd be too
noticeable for most applications, but not as robust as step and direction.

Mark

On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 10:48 AM Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users <
emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

>  I'm thinking it might be possible for software like LCNC to do things
> like translate complex moves the mill's controller doesn't have into
> combinations of things it can do that would produce the same end result.
> But first thing would be to just get it feeding the mill code it
> understands so that old computers running DOS and ancient EMS can be done
> away with.
>
>
>    On Thursday, April 1, 2021, 2:10:27 AM MDT, andy pugh <
> bodge...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  On Thu, 1 Apr 2021 at 00:43, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users <
> emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
> I have all the technical info and some setup/configuration software for the
> > Animatics servo controller but nobody is interested in adding support to
> > LCNC.
>
>
> I am not sure that you have ever explicitly asked anyone to. I thought you
> were trying to do it yourself.
>
>
> > Basically it streams gcode out by serial and listens for ack and things
> > like hitting an end stop, monitoring the position encoders, and things
> that
> > will cause it to stop the machine
>
>
> Though this does sound like DNC to an embedded controller, which isn't
> usually considered a good fit for LinuxCNC.
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>

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Re: [Emc-users] Animatics. Was:Small PC for use with 7i90 / 7i96?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

 I'm thinking it might be possible for software like LCNC to do things like 
translate complex moves the mill's controller doesn't have into combinations of 
things it can do that would produce the same end result.
But first thing would be to just get it feeding the mill code it understands so 
that old computers running DOS and ancient EMS can be done away with.


On Thursday, April 1, 2021, 2:10:27 AM MDT, andy pugh  
wrote:  
 
 On Thu, 1 Apr 2021 at 00:43, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users <
emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

I have all the technical info and some setup/configuration software for the
> Animatics servo controller but nobody is interested in adding support to
> LCNC.


I am not sure that you have ever explicitly asked anyone to. I thought you
were trying to do it yourself.


> Basically it streams gcode out by serial and listens for ack and things
> like hitting an end stop, monitoring the position encoders, and things that
> will cause it to stop the machine


Though this does sound like DNC to an embedded controller, which isn't
usually considered a good fit for LinuxCNC.  
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Re: [Emc-users] Small PC for use with 7i90 / 7i96?

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

The only way that can work with this mill is if Linux (or another OS) can give 
the VM 100% exclusive access to a serial port. NO interruptions at all, not 
even just a look-see to check the port status. Any communications interruptions 
and it stops dead.


On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 7:29:20 PM MDT, Chris Albertson 
 wrote:  
 
 For MS-DOS, use a virtual machine under Linux.  Oracle's "Virtualbox" will
run DOS 6.  Virtualbox is free.

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 4:43 PM Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users <
emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> I'm looking for something like that which can run MS-DOS and has a
> contiguous 64K upper memory region free or four 16K regions free to work
> with LIM EMS 4.0. The problem I run into with newer hardware is the UMA is
> so chunked up with areas reserved for all the built in peripherals, and
> disabling them in BIOS usually doesn't free up space in the UMA.
> My old ProLight 2000 mill uses old DOS software that only works with EMS
> as a place to load gcode. The software must predate the 80386 and they
> didn't want to be one of the few programs using the extended memory
> capabilities of the 80286, or use something like DOS4GW or another 3rd
> party "DOS Extender" to access additional RAM. I've run it off a laptop
> booted from a USB 1.44M floppy. Have to use the gcode file splitter utility
> that's with the mill software to chunk it into pieces that fit into low
> memory after DOS and the PLM2000 software take their parts. The splitter
> puts a command at the end of each chunk to load the next chunk.  
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Re: [Emc-users] experimental bearings for harmonic drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Try a Harbor Freight 2.5 gallon paint pressure tank. Unscrew the dip tube from 
the bottom of the lid and everything off the top to put in a hose fitting and 
vacuum gauge. Plug any leftover holes. :)
 

On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 3:33:55 PM MDT, Gene Heskett 
 wrote:  
I have an evacuation pump, but not a ready chamber big enough or strong 
enough to put a spool in. I'll investigate some big pvc pipe. Maybe that 
would work if 8" will take a spool.  If I can find caps I can o-ring 
seal. I dried a soggy hunk of maple that way for a gunstock 13 years 
ago, but had to glue the caps on keeping it better than 27" hg below 
atmosphere for about a year. Most stable piece of wood I ever carved, 
plain straight grained stuff with cherry trim.  Thumbhole style holding 
up a cheap TC 50 cal BP rifle, gets the ooohs and ahhs at the range when 
I drag it out.  Also does 1.25" 5 shot groups at 50 yards too. Pretty 
good for a $200 gun 25 years ago, with my mods of course. :)  
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Re: [Emc-users] experimental bearings for harmonic drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

Spread on the glue stick then spread it around with a damp paper towel. Heating 
the bed dries it to a smooth coating.


On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 2:40:24 PM MDT, Karl Schmidt  
wrote:  
 
 On 3/28/21 11:52 AM, John Dammeyer wrote:
> 
> A friend has told me he's had PETG stick so well that it breaks off some of 
> the glass build plate.  Seems a bit extreme but that's what he's reported.
> 

Never thought I would use my 3D printer as much as I do. I've also broken glass 
plates with PETG and nylon sticking too 
well (pulls out bits of glass) - I get mirror tiles to print on - very 
inexpensive, but I still don't want to break them...

The key I've found is getting the glass perfectly clean - (A-IPA with a 
chem-wipe should squeak) excellent for PLA - but 
other plastics can stick too well or not well enough - so for those I use 
Elmers glue stick - it breaks instead of the 
glass - the problem is getting  complete and consistent coverage. Supposed to 
be made of an acrylic polymer - wish I 
could find it as a spray.

I've printed gaskets using TBU - and used several nylon types - I've found 
Nylon-X to be amazingly strong - (a bit 
pricey - but printing something that is brittle isn't cheap in the long run) 
These days I use nylonX unless there is a 
good reason not to.. ( I use a vacuum chamber to dry filament - even PLA - 
makes a lot of difference).  
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Re: [Emc-users] experimental bearings for harmonic drive

[Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users]

I use an old food dehydrator for drying filament. Flowing air will carry 
moisture away quicker and heats more evenly. Same dehydrator I use for post 
curing resin castings.
 

On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 11:41:32 AM MDT, Gene Heskett 
 wrote:  

> Is it possible that the filament is damp? Has it been left out in the
> atmosphere for weeks?

Unsealed from a vacuum packed bag Sunday, so it should be pretty dry yet. 
So I now have one nearly empty spool of this odd size, and this one to 
use up yet. If I build a third, the nearly empty spool will get 
finished. The dremel claims it will pause and wait if it runs out mid 
build. I've no clue how it does that but the upper guide feeding the 
head mounted ejector, has a 3 conductor cable coming out of the bottom 
of its plastic molding.  And I've most of a roll of green PETG left on 
the ender that I'll probably put in the oven for a few hours before I 
rewind it on a dremel spool.  
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