Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Getting pretty close, just about everything has been tested and is working like it should. I got the chip conveyor turning on and off from the macro today. I put a little video in the photo album along with a picture of the complete high voltage cabinet. It isn’t all bright and shiny, but after all it is a 40 year old oil machine.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KL88FycMxDj5WmwWA

Question about encoder cable.

Once the rest of the retrofit is complete I am planning to retrofit the air driven tool turret with a servo motor. I am using Leadshine EL7 drives and servos with absolute encoders. The encoder cable already has the motor connector on it and it is impossible to get it routed like it needs to be.

Is there any problem with cutting the cable and adding a connector close to the motor so I can fish the cable where it needs to go?

What kind of connection would be recommended? It will be enclosed under a cover.

glbreil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:08 am Question about encoder cable.

Once the rest of the retrofit is complete I am planning to retrofit the air driven tool turret with a servo motor. I am using Leadshine EL7 drives and servos with absolute encoders. The encoder cable already has the motor connector on it and it is impossible to get it routed like it needs to be.

Is there any problem with cutting the cable and adding a connector close to the motor so I can fish the cable where it needs to go?

What kind of connection would be recommended? It will be enclosed under a cover.

IMG_0252.jpeg

If you are even considering cutting that cable then please make sure you understand how the battery is wired. Remove the battery before cutting anything. I think there are diagrams or charts in the EL-7 manual for these cables.

I would probably use a sealed solder pot or crimp pin DE-9 or some other suitable higher speed shielded data connector. These encoders are using some form of serial communication. It will be best to keep the wires leading to the connectors the same length and to keep the connections short.

centroid467 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:58 am

glbreil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:08 am Question about encoder cable.

Once the rest of the retrofit is complete I am planning to retrofit the air driven tool turret with a servo motor. I am using Leadshine EL7 drives and servos with absolute encoders. The encoder cable already has the motor connector on it and it is impossible to get it routed like it needs to be.

Is there any problem with cutting the cable and adding a connector close to the motor so I can fish the cable where it needs to go?

What kind of connection would be recommended? It will be enclosed under a cover.

IMG_0252.jpeg

If you are even considering cutting that cable then please make sure you understand how the battery is wired. Remove the battery before cutting anything. I think there are diagrams or charts in the EL-7 manual for these cables.

I would probably use a sealed solder pot or crimp pin DE-9 or some other suitable higher speed shielded data connector. These encoders are using some form of serial communication. It will be best to keep the wires leading to the connectors the same length and to keep the connections short.

Thanks, I wire is plenty long, I would be cutting it simply to facilitate getting the wire where it needs to go. The connection would be near the battery box but on the motor side so the battery wires would not actually be cut since they run from the battery box to the drive connector. I would simply be slicing the cable wire for wire (6 I think).

So a DE-9 connector would be fine? Once routed I would not have a need to take it apart again, so they could be soldered and heat shrinked if that is a better solution? Thanks Gary

glbreil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 12:28 pm

centroid467 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:58 am

glbreil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:08 am Question about encoder cable.

Once the rest of the retrofit is complete I am planning to retrofit the air driven tool turret with a servo motor. I am using Leadshine EL7 drives and servos with absolute encoders. The encoder cable already has the motor connector on it and it is impossible to get it routed like it needs to be.

Is there any problem with cutting the cable and adding a connector close to the motor so I can fish the cable where it needs to go?

What kind of connection would be recommended? It will be enclosed under a cover.

IMG_0252.jpeg

If you are even considering cutting that cable then please make sure you understand how the battery is wired. Remove the battery before cutting anything. I think there are diagrams or charts in the EL-7 manual for these cables.

I would probably use a sealed solder pot or crimp pin DE-9 or some other suitable higher speed shielded data connector. These encoders are using some form of serial communication. It will be best to keep the wires leading to the connectors the same length and to keep the connections short.

Thanks, I wire is plenty long, I would be cutting it simply to facilitate getting the wire where it needs to go. The connection would be near the battery box but on the motor side so the battery wires would not actually be cut since they run from the battery box to the drive connector. I would simply be slicing the cable wire for wire (6 I think).

So a DE-9 connector would be fine? Once routed I would not have a need to take it apart again, so they could be soldered and heat shrinked if that is a better solution? Thanks Gary

I think it would be best to use a connector to make it easy to keep the shield over the new connections and seal them well. It sounds like you have this well planned out.

The battery box wires go to the drive side connector but then tie into two of the six conductors. After all, the encoder itself uses the battery.

Started setting up some tool offsets and doing some dimensioning tests.

Started out trying the DP-1 probe and found it to trip very accurately. When I hit it multiple times it almost always lands on the same number down to the tenth in both X and Z.

When using it to measure tools it seems to work very good on the Z axis, but I never did quite figure it out on the X. I am sure it is user error, but it didn’t take me long to revert back to taking a little skim cut setting the X that way.

I will probably spend some more time later, but I was eager to see if I could turn to the correct diameter.

Added a couple little videos to the album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KL88FycMxDj5WmwWA

You may find that you will always need a test cut. There is no way the probe can account for tool deflection and cutting forces.

I am really close to completing the retro-fit from the Fanuc GN10 to Centroid Hickory. All of the real work is done, but I still have quite a bit of putting back together, making some gaskets for covers and just general clean up of the wiring and need to do a little more labeling as well. I pretty much have the wiring diagram complete, but still need to put it all together so that a few months down the road I am not wondering what I did. That goes with getting older I think.

However with that said I have taken a little hiatus from the work to play with the lathe a little and see how it works. As part of my retro-fit I am planning to convert the air motor driven tool turret to a servo motor. I am going to use a Leadshine EL7-EC drive and 200 watt motor. Originally I was planning to use the front half of the air motor and connect directly to the shaft inside of the air motor, but after I got pretty far into it I found that the shaft inside the motor did not run true enough to couple another drive shaft to. Evidently the planetary gear setup in the air motor allows for some pretty serious runout, so I am still using the air motor housing, but making a new shaft that goes all the way through to the worm gear.

And of course because I now have the CHNCII running I wanted to use it to make the shaft. I have added quite a few details about the air motor and what the internals look like to the photo album, for those who are interested.

The photo attached is the front front half the the drive shaft that will connect the worm gear to my servo. Pictured with it is the internal shaft from the air motor. It is hard to believe how far out of concentric alignment the front and rear bearing surfaces are, and it might not matter, but it is too much for me.
The new shaft will have two bearings and a spacer between them, it will be inserted into the original air motor housing and the worm gear shaft thread on the front. You can get the idea from the album. More to come as the work progresses. Oh and just so you know Marc-cncsnw is going to help me with the PLC and programming. I can handle the mechanics, but not that part.

On a side note, this is my first time using Enercon is is really easy to use. For the lathe, I can’t really think that anything else would be needed for most projects.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KL88FycMxDj5WmwWA

glbreil wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 9:09 pm

On a side note, this is my first time using Intercon is is really easy to use. For the lathe, I can’t really think that anything else would be needed for most projects.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KL88FycMxDj5WmwWA

but it has a UI from 1998 it must be terrible! sarcasm.

cnckeith wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 5:43 pm

glbreil wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 9:09 pm

On a side note, this is my first time using Intercon is is really easy to use. For the lathe, I can’t really think that anything else would be needed for most projects.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KL88FycMxDj5WmwWA

but it has a UI from 1998 it must be terrible!

Well it’s only a few weeks old for me. I have used Bobcad in the past, but from Bobcad to the machine is not nearly so seamless.