CNC – Page 16 – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

MPCNC: GCMC Spirograph Shakedown

The MPCNC instructions recommend running it for a while, taking it apart, then putting it back together, so all the parts have a chance to relax and get used to working together. To that end, I figured doing some full platform plots would run the rollers over the entire length of the rails:

MPCNC - Full-platform Spirograph - first pass — MPCNC – Full-platform Spirograph – first pass

I taped three B-size sheets together, with an A-size sheet in the far right corner, into a 29×19 inch sheet to put borders around the MPCNC’s 28×18 inch work area. The tape is on the top surface to prevent embarrassing accidents where the pen snags on an edge, at the cost of blurry lines where the ink doesn’t stick quite right.

The far left corner of the paper washes up on the tool length probe’s base, but the pen position turns out to be so repeatable (it should be!) you can swap them with gleeful abandon and get good results:

MPCNC - Full-platform Spirograph - multicolor — MPCNC – Full-platform Spirograph – multicolor

The pen rumbles along at 12000 mm/min = 200 mm/s = 7.8 inch/s with no hint of wobblulation. Most likely, those big loops aren’t particularly challenging, although watching the big central assembly whip around a tight curve can be startling.

I modified the pen holder for 3-point support, as the recess for the pen flange isn’t quite deep enough:

MPCNC - Pen holder - 3 point grip — MPCNC – Pen holder – 3 point grip

Good old masking tape holds the pens securely enough for now.

The glass plate I’d been using for B-size plots doesn’t cover the full area, but I’d set the Z axis limit switch to trip just before the bottom of the rails whacked into the glass. Extending the travel by 5 mm required a snippet of black tape:

MPCNC - Z axis switch - table limit — MPCNC – Z axis switch – table limit

The patterns come from a scratch-built Spirograph generator, because I wanted to review what’s new in GCMC. More on the software tomorrow …

2017-12-18

MPCNC: Pen Wobble

GCMC includes cycloids.gcmc, a test program producing a fixed set of hypotrochoids and epitrochoids, more commonly known as Spirograph patterns:

I’m using them to get familiar with bCNC’s Workspace Coordinate System settings and to exercise the MPCNC hardware; ya gotta plot before you can cut.

Most came out fine, but some showed distinct wobbles:

MPCNC - Cycloid wobble - star — MPCNC – Cycloid wobble – star

Tight curves and higher speeds produce more wobbles:

MPCNC - Cycloid wobble - loops — MPCNC – Cycloid wobble – loops

You’d probably never feed a wood router over 6000 mm/min = 240 inch/min, so this isn’t as much of a problem as it might appear. Also, I expect a few pounds of router will have fewer wobbulations than a weightless pen hung on a thin plastic mount:

MPCNC - Pen Holder Detail — MPCNC – Pen Holder Detail

Just one more thing to keep in mind.

2017-12-17

MPCNC: GCMC Configuration

The default GCMC prolog(ue) spits out some G-Codes that GRBL doesn’t accept, requiring tweaks to the incantation.

A first pass at a useful prolog, minus the offending codes:

cat ~/.config/gcmc/prolog.gcmc 
(prolog begins)
G17 (XY plane)
G21 (mm)
G40 (no cutter comp)
G49 (no tool length comp)
G80 (no motion mode)
G90 (abs distance)
G94 (units per minute)
(prolog ends)

Including any of the usual “end of program” M-Codes in the epilog(ue) causes GRBL to pause before exiting the program, so leave only a placeholder:

cat ~/.config/gcmc/epilog.gcmc 
(epilog begins)
(M2) (allow program to continue)
(epilog ends)

Having done a git clone into /opt/gcmc before building the program, the GCMC library routines live in:
/opt/gcmc/library

Limiting numeric values to two decimal places makes sense:
-P 2

With all that in hand, unleashing the compiler on an unsuspecting source file requires this jawbreaker:

gcmc -P 2 -I /opt/gcmc/library \
-G ~/.config/gcmc/prolog.gcmc \
-g ~/.config/gcmc/epilog.gcmc \
-o cycloids.ngc \
cycloids.gcmc

One might, of course, tuck all that into a little script, rather than depend on extracting it from the bash history as needed.

The resulting G-Code file looks about right:

head cycloids.ngc
(prolog begins)
G17 (XY plane)
G21 (mm)
G40 (no cutter comp)
G49 (no tool length comp)
G80 (no motion mode)
G90 (abs distance)
G94 (units per minute)
(prolog ends)
F2500.00
[pi@MPCNC tmp]$ head -25 cycloids.ngc
(prolog begins)
G17 (XY plane)
G21 (mm)
G40 (no cutter comp)
G49 (no tool length comp)
G80 (no motion mode)
G90 (abs distance)
G94 (units per minute)
(prolog ends)
F2500.00
G0 Z1.00
(-- tracepath at Z=-1.00mm --)
G0 X-145.50 Y-30.00
G1 Z-1.00
G1 X-145.51 Y-29.93

... vast snippage ...

G1 X175.50 Y30.00
G1 Z1.00
G0 Z25.00
(epilog begins)
(M2)
(epilog ends)

Then it’s just a matter of tweaking cycloids.gcmc to make interesting things happen:

2017-12-14

MPCNC: Tool Length Probe Station

Having a tool length probe station on the Sherline, I had to build one for the MPCNC:

MPCNC Tool Length Probe - plotter pen — MPCNC Tool Length Probe – plotter pen

It’s little more than a flange atop a wide base:

MPCNC Tool Length Probe - Slic3r preview — MPCNC Tool Length Probe – Slic3r preview

The flange offset puts the switch actuator on the midline of the base, not that that matters, and the base features rounded corners and a suitable legend, because I can.

I clipped the PCB’s through-hold leads nearly flush and stuck it to the flange with 3M permanent foam tape, which seems to work much better than screws & inserts for simple things that need never come apart.

The Protoneer CNC Shield includes a Probe input on the GRBL-compliant A5, although it took me a while to find the legend on the SCL pin in the I2C header. I moved the endstop power jumper to another header, then conjured a quick-and-dirty connector:

Protoneer CNC Shield - Tool Probe Wiring — Protoneer CNC Shield – Tool Probe Wiring

When I embed the endstop switch PCB in epoxy, I’ll add a drop to the connector while engaging in Magical Thinking. The whole Arduino + CNC Shield must go into an enclosure after I finish measuring the motor currents.

To forestall discussions about switch repeatability and accuracy, suffice it to say the MPCNC doesn’t claim to be much more than a woodworking router, so those switches seem Good Enough.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// MPCNC Tool Length Probe Station
	// Ed Nisley KE4ZNU – 2017-12-08

	/* [Extrusion] */

	ThreadThick = 0.25; // [0.20, 0.25]
	ThreadWidth = 0.40; // [0.40]

	function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit);

	/* [Hidden] */

	Protrusion = 0.1; // [0.01, 0.1]

	HoleWindage = 0.2;

	/* [Sizes] */

	EndstopPCB = [40.0,16.5,1.6]; // endstop PCB
	ComponentHeight = 6.0; // max component height above PCB

	SwitchOffset = [35.0,21.0,4.75]; // touch point center from lower left PCB corner
	SwitchTravel = 2.5; // first touch to switch actuation

	TapeThick = 1.0; // foam mounting tape

	WallThick = 4.0; // basic wall & floor thickness

	BaseRadius = 5.0;

	Base = [IntegerMultiple(EndstopPCB[0] + 2*BaseRadius,20),
	IntegerMultiple(EndstopPCB[2] + TapeThick + WallThick + 2BaseRadius,225),
	2.0];

	NumSides = 8*4;

	TextDepth = 2*ThreadThick;

	//- Build it

	union() {
	difference() {
	hull()
	for (i=[-1,1], j=[-1,1])
	translate([i(Base[0]/2 – BaseRadius),j(Base[1]/2 – BaseRadius),0])
	resize([0,0,Base[2]])
	intersection() {
	cylinder(r=BaseRadius,h=BaseRadius,$fn=NumSides);
	sphere(r=BaseRadius,$fn=NumSides);
	}
	translate([0,0,Base[2] – TextDepth])
	linear_extrude(height=TextDepth + Protrusion) {
	translate([0,-10,0])
	text(text="MPCNC",size=8,spacing=1.05,font="Arial:style=Bold",halign="center");
	translate([0,-18,0])
	text(text="Tool Probe",size=6,spacing=1.05,font="Arial:style=Regular",halign="center");
	}

	}
	translate([0,
	WallThick/2 + TapeThick + SwitchOffset[2],
	(EndstopPCB[1] – Protrusion)/2 + Base[2]])
	cube([EndstopPCB[0],WallThick,EndstopPCB[1] + Protrusion],center=true);

	}

view raw Tool Length Probe Station.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The original doodles show a severely over-complexicated solution desperately searching for an actual problem:

MPCNC Tool Length Probe - doodles — MPCNC Tool Length Probe – doodles

Putting a large flat pan at the end of a relatively long lever arm, with the pivot arranged to put the pan level at the switch actuation point, made sense at the time. Give the relatively small tools I expect to use, directly ramming them into the switch lever should work just as well.

Putting all that complexity in harm’s way seemed like a Bad Idea when I sat down and looked at it in cold blood.

2017-12-13

MPCNC: Z Axis Upward Homing with Opto Proximity Sensor

Homing the MPCNC’s Z axis at the bottom end of its travel made no sense, but the Z stage lacks a convenient spot to mount / trigger a switch at the top of its travel, so this sufficed for initial tests & fiddling:

MPCNC - Z min endstop — MPCNC – Z min endstop

The EMT rail carrying the switch moves downward, tripping the lever when it hits the MPCNC’s central assembly.

Somewhat to my surprise, a TRCT5000-based optical proximity sensor (harvested from the Kenmore 158 Crash Test Dummy’s corpse) and a strip of black electrical tape work perfectly:

MPCNC - Z Axis Opto Proximity Endstop — MPCNC – Z Axis Opto Proximity Endstop

The PCB wears a shiny new epoxy coat:

MPCNC - Epoxy-coated Endstop - Opto Prox Sensor — MPCNC – Epoxy-coated Endstop – Opto Prox Sensor

I soldered the wires (harvested from the previous endstop) directly to the PCB, because the pinout isn’t the same and fewer connectors should be better.

The mount uses black PETG, rather than translucent orange, in hope of IR opacity, and wraps around the EMT rail at (roughly) the 2 mm standoff producing the peak response:

IR Reflective Sensor module - TCRT5000 - response vs distance — IR Reflective Sensor module – TCRT5000 – response vs distance

In truth, I set the gap by eyeballometric guesstimation to make the entire mount arc sit equidistant from the EMT:

MPCNC - Z Opto Prox Endstop - top view — MPCNC – Z Opto Prox Endstop – top view

The mount includes the 2 mm spacing around the EMT OD and puts the sensor tip flush with the arc OD, so it should be pretty close:

TCRT5000 Z Axis Endstop Mount - solid model — TCRT5000 Z Axis Endstop Mount – solid model

A strip of 3M permanent tape, cut to clear the 608 bearings, affixes the mount to the MPCNC’s central assembly. The solid model now includes a midline reference notch, with a height rounded up to the next-highest multiple of 2.0 mm. It needs a loop to anchor the cable.

The blue twiddlepot sets the comparator threshold midway between the response over black tape (incorrectly on = too low) and bare EMT (incorrectly off = too high), in the hope of noise immunity. The range spanned nearly half of the pot rotation, so I think it’s all good.

The sensor doesn’t trip when the edge of the tape exactly meets its midline, which meant I had to trim a strip of tape to suit. As part of setting the twiddlepot, I shut off the Z axis motor and laid some test strips on the EMT:

MPCNC - Z Axis Opto Prox Endstop - Test Tape — MPCNC – Z Axis Opto Prox Endstop – Test Tape

I spun the leadscrew with one hand, held the sensor with the other, twiddled the trimpot, trimmed the upper and lower ends of the tape, and generally had a fine time. The sensor responds equally well to a half-wide strip of tape (in the upper picture), with the distinct advantage of not encroaching on the 608 bearing tracks.

The GRBL setup now homes Y and Z toward the positive end of their travel, with X still toward the negative end while a set of extension cables remains in transit around the planet.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// TCRT5000 Z Axis Endstop Mount
	// Ed Nisley KE4ZNU – 2017-12-04

	/* [Build Options] */

	Layout = "Show"; // [Build, Show, Block]

	Section = true; // show internal details

	/* [Extrusion] */

	ThreadThick = 0.25; // [0.20, 0.25]
	ThreadWidth = 0.40; // [0.40]

	function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit);

	/* [Hidden] */

	Protrusion = 0.01; // [0.01, 0.1]

	HoleWindage = 0.2;

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	/* [Sizes] */

	RailOD = 23.5; // actual rail OD

	OptoPCB = [32.5,14.2,1.6]; // prox sensor PCB
	ComponentHeight = 5.0; // max component height above PCB

	OptoSensor = [5.8,10.2,10.5]; // sensor head below PCB
	OptoOffset = 3.0; // sensor head center from PCB edge
	OptoRange = 2.0; // sensor to rail distance

	TapeThick = 1.0; // foam mounting tape

	WallThick = 4.0; // basic wall thickness

	Block = [WallThick + OptoRange + RailOD/2 + (OptoPCB[0] – OptoOffset),
	RailOD/2 + OptoRange + OptoSensor[2] – TapeThick,
	IntegerMultiple(OptoPCB[1] + 2*WallThick,2.0)]; // basic block shape

	echo(str("Block: ",Block));

	NumSides = 6*4;

	//- Adjust hole diameter to make the size come out right

	module PolyCyl(Dia,Height,ForceSides=0) { // based on nophead's polyholes
	Sides = (ForceSides != 0) ? ForceSides : (ceil(Dia) + 2);
	FixDia = Dia / cos(180/Sides);
	cylinder(r=(FixDia + HoleWindage)/2,h=Height,$fn=Sides);
	}

	//- Shapes

	// Main block constructed with PCB along X, opto sensor at Y=0

	module PCBBlock() {
	difference() {
	translate([-(WallThick + OptoRange + RailOD/2),
	(-Block[1] + RailOD/2 + OptoRange),
	-Block[2]/2])
	cube(Block,center=false);
	for (i=[-(RailOD/2 + OptoRange + WallThick),
	(OptoPCB[0] – OptoOffset)])
	translate([i,0,0])
	rotate([90,0,0]) rotate(45)
	cube([2ThreadWidth,2ThreadWidth,2*Block[2]],center=true);
	translate([0,(RailOD/2 + OptoRange),0])
	cylinder(d=(RailOD + 2*OptoRange),
	h=(Block[2] + 2*Protrusion),
	$fn=NumSides,center=true);
	rotate([90,0,0])
	cube(OptoSensor + [0,0,Block[1]],center=true);
	}
	}

	//- Build things

	if (Layout == "Block")
	PCBBlock();

	if (Layout == "Show") {
	translate([0,-(RailOD/2 + OptoRange),0])
	PCBBlock();
	color("Yellow",0.5)
	cylinder(d=RailOD,h=2*Block[2],$fn=NumSides,center=true);
	}

	if (Layout == "Build")
	translate([0,0,OptoSensor[2] – TapeThick])
	rotate([90,0,0])
	PCBBlock();

view raw TCRT5000 Z Axis Endstop Mount.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The original doodles, including a bunch of ideas left on the cutting room floor:

MPCNC Z Opto Proximity Sensor Endstop - doodles — MPCNC Z Opto Proximity Sensor Endstop – doodles

2017-12-08

MPCNC: A4988 Driver Microstep Waveforms

I measured stepper motor winding current with a pair of Tek Hall effect probes for future reference.

MPCNC - X Axis current measurement setup - overview — MPCNC – X Axis current measurement setup – overview

The pistol-shaped A6303 measures up to 100 A, so it’s grossly overqualified for the job. The much smaller A6302 goes to 20 A and is definitely the right hammer. The single-trace pix show 200 mA/div.

I’m using the default 12 V6 A MPCNC stepper power supply, with A4988 stepper driver boards on the Protoneer CNC Shield atop a knockoff Arduino UNO running GRBL firmware. The blue USB cable goes off to a Raspberry Pi running minicom for manual control.

All the pix use the same G-Code command: G1 X2.4 F180. Running at 180 mm/min = 3 mm/s eliminates pretty nearly all visible acceleration.

Each picture requires:

m9 to disable stepper power
Remove X axis A4988 driver board
Set jumpers to select new microstep mode
Reinstall driver board
Change GRBL $100 step/mm setting to match jumpers
Ctrl-X = reset GRBL
$x = unlock
m8 = enable power
Enable scope trigger (single-trigger mode)
g1x2.4f180 motion for next image
x0 = return to origin

With the A4988 stepper driver in 16:1 microstep mode:

MPCNC g1x2.4f180 - 16 ustep - 200 mA-div — MPCNC g1x2.4f180 – 16 ustep – 200 mA-div

Notice how some of the microsteps aren’t particularly crisp, notably around the zero crossings. I think the relatively low 12 V supply doesn’t give the A4988 enough control authority to boss the current around, resulting in difficulty holding the current setpoint, even at low speed:

MPCNC: Stepper Motor Power Control

GRBL responds to critical errors by disabling its outputs, which seems like a useful feature for a big-enough-to-hurt CNC machine like the MPCNC. Unlike the RAMPS 1.4 board, there’s no dedicated power-control pin, so I connected the Coolant output to the same DC-DC SSR I tried out with the RAMPS board:

MPCNC - CNC Shield - Power SSR — MPCNC – CNC Shield – Power SSR

With homing enabled, GRBL emerges from power-on resets and error conditions with the spindle and coolant turned off and the G-Code interpreter in a locked state requiring manual intervention, so turning the stepper power on fits right in:

$x – Unlock the controls
m8 – Coolant output on = enable stepper power
$h – Home all axes

The steppers go clunk as the power supply turns on, providing an audible confirmation. The dim red LED on the SSR isn’t particularly conspicuous.

Turning the stepper power off:

m9 – Coolant output off = disable stepper power

I think the A4988 drivers maintain their microstep position with the stepper power supply off, because their logic power remains on. In any event, you probably wouldn’t want to restart after an emergency stop without clearing the fault and re-homing the axes.

The board has Cycle Start, Feed Hold, and Abort inputs just crying out for big colorful pushbutton switches.

Unlike the RAMPS board, the Prontoneer CNC Shield does not feed stepper power to the underlying Arduino UNO, leaving it safely powered by USB or the coax jack.

2017-12-04