Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I had good success with 1/2" barrel proximity sensors and also the "slab side" proximity sensors that came with my PRT-Alpha. To get bet results, I flattened the head of the adjustable target bolt head on a lathe so that the sensor would not have to deal with a arching surface. Also, ...

My eyes are not sharp enough to trace the wires, but I'm concerned about what I think that I see. Normally, the black wire in a DC circuit is COMMON/GND and the colored wire is V+. I would wire the power supply with +5V = Red wire, COMMON/GND = Black Wire, and +24V = Yellow wire. Color does not affe...

The 20K resistance setting is too high. A motor will only have a few ohms resistance. Try again using the meter's lowest resistance setting. If you have any low resistance resistors, measure one of them to test your meter. I keep a few 10 ohm resistors in stock so that I can do a quick check of my H...

Testing is the best way. You would think that driving simple stepper motors would be easy. The stepper motor driver has an opto-coupler input to isolate the input section from the output section. Nothing should be easier. But that's not how it works. A stepper driver is a chopper drive. It uses a hi...

Solid State Relays are dependable. I've used hundreds of them in photo printers without a failure. They do have one drawback which is that some of them allow leakage voltage when they are turned off. A normal mechanical relay completely opens the circuit when OFF An SSR doesn't always totally shut o...

The Acorn is versatile. It has options that may seem to be redundant; however, following Centroid's recommendations is more likely to be trouble-free for the long term. That being said, I have used Gecko G203v, G202, G540, and DM542 on both the DB25 connector and on the Hx connectors. On the Hx conn...

Have you downloaded and read the centroid_acorn_install_manual.pdf? Be sure that you spend a few hours reading it before getting too far into your project. Near the end of the manual, you'll find an Acorn specifications chart. The data in that chart shows the voltages and currents allowed. Using tha...

Keith, Thanks for the encouragement, but a tool changer is over-kill for my little Taig; however, I would be happy to help anyone who has questions about the electrical. After a little thinking, I realized that the Acorn could control a multi-position tool changer using only two OUTPUTs and one INPU...

If you can live changing speed by manually changing belts and pulley positions, then you don't necessarily need a VFD; but, if you want to change speed via program control, a VFD will let you do that. AutomationDirect has a good selection of VFDs at affordable prices. They also sell affordable 3-pha...

Awhile ago there were some topics asking how to control a multi-position tool changer with the limited number of I/O connections on the Acorn. There is a way to control up to 16 positions by using a Teknic ClearPath MCPV servo motor and an Acorn by using a minimum of two Output signals and one Input...