New Tool Day: CNC Router!

[adam.beauchene]

So I've been reading, learning, lurking forums, planning, making spreadsheets, weighing options, and generally obsessing over this for about a year now, and I finally pulled the trigger!

I do all my designing in Rhino, a 3D modeling program (that a lot of the time I use for 2D.) This, for me, is the natural progression. I decided to document putting this together here, since there seem to be a lot of amateur builders such as myself who are interested in CNC.

So the router I have on the way is an XZero Raptor, a semi-DIY machine, made by a gentleman in Toronto. It has a 24"x48" footprint (slightly smaller cutting area) and 8" of Z travel. It comes as a bolt-together kit, and is about as heavy duty as these type of machines get. My router is on order, but while I wait for it, I can work on the control PC and driver box.

 

[EricssonB]

Way cool. We'd be friends if you lived in Denver. =D

 

[adam.beauchene]

First piece: the control PC. I'm going to use EMC2, an Ubuntu Linux-based program, to drive the machine. Mach3 seems to be the go-to standard for these type of machines, but I want to get better at Linux. I decided to put together a fanless mini-itx system, I figured fanless would be the way to go in a dirty workshop environment. So the parts list:

-Intel D525MW motherboard (1.8gHz Atom dual-core processor)
-OCZ Agility 60GB SSD drive
-4gb DDR3 RAM (SO-DIMMs, aka laptop memory)
-Serener GS-L05 fanless case
-150w Pico-PSU
Monitor and Keyboard from eBay

Started with a pile of parts:

This is my first time using an SSD, the price has come down a lot over the years. Got this from Newegg:

Coming together:

Got it to this stage to install the OS. You can see the heatpipe installed, vice the original heatsink, that moves the CPU heat to the fanless case heatsink. I've built a few PCs at this point, I always loathe having to take them apart again because the memory isn't seated right or something, so I install the OS from here:

I got hung up at this point for a few hours. I used a flash drive to install EMC2 (since this computer has no optical drive.) I used my Macbook to burn the Linux .iso to the thumb drive using Terminal and diskutil, but after making the correct BIOS changes, the motherboard would not recognize the thumb drive as a boot device. Reflashed the BIOS to the latest version, still didn't work. Tried 3 or 4 workarounds, eventually tried using a utility called unetbootin to burn the .iso to the drive. The utility would not see the thumb drive on my Mac, but I knew it was good because I used it to flash the BIOS on the motherboard! Finally, I tried unetbootin on the only Windows machine in my house (our HTPC that my boy watches cartoons on) and got it loaded onto the drive. The motherboard FINALLY recognized it, and began installing Ubuntu. (The trick seems to be that the motherboard won't recognize the thumb drive if it's formatted as an .iso, but it will if it's FAT32.):

Once it was installed, I buttoned it up. Sexy little beast of a case, the top is solid aluminum:

All set.

This keyboard is BOMBPROOF- heavy stainless steel, with rubbery buttons and a very nice joystick. Made by CTI electronics. Yay eBay!

 

[headlikeahole]

Must have that Christmas morning feel. Id be pacing in the driveway awaiting router delivery.

 

[hdracer]

Cool, Next to a new bass or amp, Great tools are always a treat.

 

[SurferJoe46]

From a guy using a hammer and chisels making his dream bass to you and your system - this is what a passionate and driven hobby is all about!

Good on ya! Very good!

My next hobby is making single malted Scotch. Is there a Linux app for that?

 

[adam.beauchene]

From a guy using a hammer and chisels making his dream bass to you and your system - this is what a passionate and driven hobby is all about!

Good on ya! Very good!

My next hobby is making single malted Scotch. Is there a Linux app for that?

There's forums for that...

 

[SurferJoe46]

There's forums for that...

I signed up for a Scotch-Hobbyist Site and they were all drunk ---- or someone mixed up the letters on their keyboards.

Thnls! thet rmeminds mof the tim I was sampliiiiiiing (hic) the most resenk batsh and I didnnrt notide is wush muuuuuuuuuuuuuuundey. i thot it wuz saderdae and I haf toooo dayx to get sobur yet.

 

[miziomix]

Hey... this is so cool! I am very interested in CNC routing.... that's where my future is too - but i don't have half your computer skills.... ahhhh

 

[Musiclogic]

I think. For what you will be doing with it Adam, it's going to be cool for you, and kudos to how you are putting forth the thread.

 

[AltGrendel]

Once you get your PC box setup, make sure you back up that thing. Get a large thumb drive, mark it, and dump the SATA disk to that. I know it's solid state, but you never know what's going to happen. If you really want to be cautious about it, make two and keep one in a safe deposit box.

Just sayin...

 

[adam.beauchene]

Miz- I'm sure you'd do fine. You have an entire MALL of computer parts in your city! Bet someone in there would put it together for you!

JC- Thanks. I plan to use my new-found powers for good.

AltGrendel- Most definitely. All it took was one drive failure in 2004, where I lost all my pictures and music since digital cameras and MP3s came out, to make me a drive-backup zealot.

 

[Beej]

OMG, geek much?

I'm really coming to expect awesome from you, because you have a history of delivering it. I can't wait to see what comes next...

 

[adam.beauchene]

Haha, thanks Beej! I'll do my best.

The next thing to do is start working on the driver box. In a nutshell, the motor drivers take the low voltage signals from the PC, and turn them into high voltage pulses to drive the stepper motors on the router.

The first sub-assembly is the power supply. In a lot of DIY CNC applications, people use switching power supplies, like the ones in a computer or the new micro-bass heads out there. Since the load varies wildly depending on what the machine is tasked to do, I chose to go with a heavy duty power supply. Parts list:

- PMDX-135 DC power prep module
- [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
- FR4 fiberglass board, leftover from the Red Baron pickup, to mount the pieces
-screws, standoffs, wire connectors from Lowes

The power supply, in this configuration, is rated at 50 volts, 20 amps.

Power prep module:

Transformer:

The backing plate, cut and drilled:

Bolted together:

Since it's a dual coil transformer, the primary leads have to be wired in parallel for 120VAC. Since I want max voltage (18V+18V) from the output side, I have to wire those in series. Checking my work:

And all wired up.

I'll test it out later, make sure it's putting out what it is supposed to, before moving on to the drivers.

 

[adam.beauchene]

Another eBay score- my motor driver box, Bud Industries C-1555:

It has two sections: the top is a 4U 19" rack space, the bottom is 2U. It's got a cross-piece, that I haven't figured out what holds it in place, maybe it just rides the rack panels:

This thing is cavernous. I wish I had taken a picture when it came this afternoon, my 2 year old decided to hide inside it. Here it is with the power supply:

The heat sink for the three Gecko drives will mount in the top section. It is not the optimal configuration for finned heatsinks (the fins should point up), but I'll be running them below their rated amperage, it's nothing a desk fan won't keep under control.

And I like the grey pearl powder coat.

I designed some panels using the app from Front Panel Express, just ordered these today. White powder coat, orange-filled engraving:

 

[miziomix]

my..... oh my.........

that's an Hebanero

 

[joeyl]

nice, I see tools, mini-ITX and CNC, my heart is beating faster

 

[ian_s]

Folks tend to use an RTOS like Mach3 is that they want fine timing control in a CNC setting.

For Linux, run a recent kernel, strip down what processes are running, unload unnecessary devices (esp. USB), have plenty of RAM.

 

[adam.beauchene]

nice, I see tools, mini-ITX and CNC, my heart is beating faster

Yeah, this is a nice synergy of many interests of mine, I thought some folks around here would appreciate a thread!

Folks tend to use an RTOS like Mach3 is that they want fine timing control in a CNC setting.

For Linux, run a recent kernel, strip down what processes are running, unload unnecessary devices (esp. USB), have plenty of RAM.

One of the reasons I chose EMC2 is for the real-time specs. RAM is maxed out, but thanks for the info on USB, didn't think of that. I'll disable in BIOS and see what happens. EMC2 comes with a built-in latency tester, I'm getting about 7800 nS worst-case (running OpenGL screensavers), very much in the useable range but I'll see what happens with USB disabled.

 

[AltGrendel]

One of the reasons I chose EMC2 is for the real-time specs. RAM is maxed out, but thanks for the info on USB, didn't think of that. I'll disable in BIOS and see what happens. EMC2 comes with a built-in latency tester, I'm getting about 7800 nS worst-case (running OpenGL screensavers), very much in the useable range but I'll see what happens with USB disabled.

Well, for one thing, you won't be able to use a thumb drive.