![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
Tool change seems to be working OK. I think the orient is close enough. If it becomes an issue there is an easy mechanical fix that will lock the spindle when the tool release lever comes down. A problem for the future...
I have been still battling furiously with motor drives. DMM and I have conceded that the DYN4 will never drive my motors nicely. I decided to remove the drives and got my hands on a second hand set of ABB E190 drives, one of the only drives I could find that will run these motors. Everything else has proprietary encoder signals these days. Anyways after paying $1800 for three drives and $180 for connectors, it turned out they were missing the memory card which was another $1500, so I cancelled those drives and returned all the parts. Just too expensive given the risk. So the time has come to abandon the motors.
1kW DMM motors are on the way. DMM are super confident they can meet my control targets with their motors. God I hope they work!!! Fitting them is going to be bit of a mechanical mission and involves, slotting the motor mounting holes, re-drilling the mounting holes on the machine in place and fabricating some panels as there is not enough room for the longer motors. At least I can put the old motors back on to the old controller and use it for my next project.
So, while I wait for motors to arrive, I started working on the control panel. As normal, I didn't do it the easy way. I want it to look in style with the machine and didn't want the "PC beside the machine" look. Below are some pictures of the new assembly. I have a 17" touch panel display that will be mounted vertically. The jog panel and MPG will be flush mounted. The MPG is in a pocket so you can remove it if you want. At the bottom of the panel are two USB connectors. For using a USB dongle or plugging in a keyboard. The control has no physical keyboard or mouse. I have been running with this setup for all of my programming and testing and it works fine (although I did use a physical keyboard for the bulk programming). I will probably just leave a wireless keyboard dongle plugged in and have a keyboard in the cupboard for the odd occasion. I was going to make the flush MPG holder from sheet metal as a simple box but then decided to 3D print it. You will only see the very edge of it. If the print doesn't work out, maybe I will machine it from billet for fun if I ever get the machine working! I just need to get all the parts laser cut now. I am pretty sure I will cock up the folding but will give it a go and see what happens!