Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Dear Centroid Team

Would be great read here about estimated release date of Acorn Six and Hickory?
And second big ask about predicted additional features in which will be armed new CNC controllers?

greetings from Poland

Andrzej

Hello. Andrezej,

seems like everytime we put out an estimate on product release it seems to cause more issues than good. covid put some road blocks in front of us with both these projects but we are working around them!
and on other news Acorn Plasma will soon be in the public beta phase, very exciting performance from our new THC kit to go with the Acorn, videos will be released soon.
thanks for checking in,
Keith

@cnckeith I am excited that the plasma support will be coming out soon. I started a DIY cnc plasma table build back in 2017. I had the motion control working with a smoothstepper and MACH 3. THC was a big issue and I never got past it. That is when I shifted focus and converted a PM30 mill to CNC using an Acorn board. I've been patiently waiting for an Acorn plasma solution so I can continue the plasma table build.

Keith

I did two conversion: lathe and mill from Wabeco both but I'm waiting for something which is cheaper then OAK but has more encoder inputs than Acorn. I believe that Acorn Six or Hicory will be proper one for me.

greetings

Andrzej

In my migration to centroid, if there is something I would have liked, it is that they would have made a board with more inputs and outputs, with better delay times.

On a milling machine, 8 inputs and 8 outputs is far not enough. If there are 3 or 4 axes, the emergency fault inputs of the motor drivers already consume 3 or 4 inputs. The same for installing an ATC that requires an analog communications output and a fault input.

I have calculated that at least 28 to 30 digital I/O signals are required for a milling machine that must control its normal processes with a minimum of fail-safe status.

You don't need a separate input for each individual switch. For instance, Acorn only moves one axis at a time during homing, so you can connect all 3 (4?) home switches to one input. Similarly, you can parallel up the +limit and -limit inputs to 2 inputs. The VFD and drive fault lines can all feed into the Acorn and/or e-stop circuit. There are plenty of examples on this site showing you how it can be done safely using the Acorn, with or without the expansion board.

Why do you feel the need to know the individual fault status of all 3 or 4 drivers? A properly designed and implemented control system shouldn't be routinely generating driver faults, so you might focus more effort on making the system robust than having microscopic visibility of the status of every system component. The requirement for "failsafe" simply requires that the system handles faults safely and consistently. On the (hopefully) rare occasion that you get a fault, you can simply open the cabinet and see which drive is displaying a red LED etc.

rruizvial wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:46 am In my migration to centroid, if there is something I would have liked, it is that they would have made a board with more inputs and outputs, with better delay times.

On a milling machine, 8 inputs and 8 outputs is far not enough. If there are 3 or 4 axes, the emergency fault inputs of the motor drivers already consume 3 or 4 inputs. The same for installing an ATC that requires an analog communications output and a fault input.

I have calculated that at least 28 to 30 digital I/O signals are required for a milling machine that must control its normal processes with a minimum of fail-safe status.

You can add IO with an ETH1616 expansion board (on all models) 16 inputs and 16 outputs, maximum of 5 for a total of 80 plus the onboard.

rruizvial wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:46 am In my migration to centroid, if there is something I would have liked, it is that they would have made a board with more inputs and outputs, with better delay times.

On a milling machine, 8 inputs and 8 outputs is far not enough. If there are 3 or 4 axes, the emergency fault inputs of the motor drivers already consume 3 or 4 inputs. The same for installing an ATC that requires an analog communications output and a fault input.

I have calculated that at least 28 to 30 digital I/O signals are required for a milling machine that must control its normal processes with a minimum of fail-safe status.

Until you provide information/details about your build, we are just guessing at what you have. There are many types of 'Milling machines" We can not "SEE" what you "SEE"
Start a new thread with details about your build. Define what you mean by "delay times"

Provide more information and perhaps we can make some suggestions to help.

Marty

martyscncgarage wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:26 am Until you provide information/details about your build, we are just guessing at what you have. There are many types of 'Milling machines" We can not "SEE" what you "SEE"
Start a new thread with details about your build. Define what you mean by "delay times"

Provide more information and perhaps we can make some suggestions to help.
Marty

It is a suggestion for a future Acorn Six board, to have a signal distribution board with more direct digital inputs/outputs than just Acorn's 8.

If you notice, all servo motor drivers have fault outputs, for emergency stops.
I know that everything could go to the manual emergency stop circuit, but I think it is always good to differentiate such faults.

Also, the ATC issue when the milling machines have all 04 axes occupied (as in my case), it becomes a challenge to have few I/Os to install an ATC.

But these are just suggestions.

rruizvial wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:02 pm

martyscncgarage wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:26 am Until you provide information/details about your build, we are just guessing at what you have. There are many types of 'Milling machines" We can not "SEE" what you "SEE"
Start a new thread with details about your build. Define what you mean by "delay times"

Provide more information and perhaps we can make some suggestions to help.
Marty

It is a suggestion for a future Acorn Six board, to have a signal distribution board with more direct digital inputs/outputs than just Acorn's 8.

If you notice, all servo motor drivers have fault outputs, for emergency stops.
I know that everything could go to the manual emergency stop circuit, but I think it is always good to differentiate such faults.

Also, the ATC issue when the milling machines have all 04 axes occupied (as in my case), it becomes a challenge to have few I/Os to install an ATC.

But these are just suggestions.

That is understood.
Oak and All in One DC can handle this with their adder board. Gary mentioned you can add as many Ether1616 boards as you want to Acorn.
Based on your post, I was under the impression you had a mill already.
Marty