Hi to all friends (sorry if this is a double post as i posted a similar one but vanished)
I decide today to finish an old project (being in quarantine because of the cove-19 virus gave me plenty of free time :P)
i had build a cnc router with an Arduino uno , Grbl shield, a 220v ac Router tool and a laptop.
(laptop, Ac router and Arduino are powered from the same power line )
My cnc works fine (moves ok when i send comands from the program )
The problem is that today was the first time i decide to cut something so i open (start spinning) the Router but when i am doing that (start the router) my program / pc lost the connection, stops seeing the uno (usb port)
If i choose to close the connection and choose again the usb port nothing happen.. says that is not present
I find out that if i leave the Router spinning and remove the usb and connected again... then the program can connect and my cnc works ok.. i can send commands from my program etc
Now if i stop the router the program looses again the connection and i have to repeat the same procedure to connect
i guess that this is has to do with the noise (digital) from the Ac router tool.. right?
in the dc motors we are using small capacitors to the brushes in order to filter the noise.
in the Ac motors?
should i use a round core ferrite to filter the noise?
i am not sure what you mean with the "workflow"... but if it is what i am thinking of... then the answer is that i am using to design my part and produce the grbl code the Freecad (path workbench ) program on a linux pc
i am using an external potentiometer to adjust routers speed
zwieblum:
Ok. _But .. when you are on linux, why don't you use LinuxCNC and get a way better functionality? Just asking ...
As i havent do deep research about linuxCnc (just only in the begging when i was trying to find the best/cheap option for cnc) i dont know if i can use it with my hardware (arduino uno, cnc shield v3) (even i have bought a 5 Axis MACH3 CNC Interface Breakout Board )
an other reason is that for a 3 axis cnc machine i think grbl is lighter and easier to use .
maybe in the future will try to setup a linuxcnc machine to test it and maybe find out that is more comfortable to use that instead of the grbl
As zwieblum states ferrites can be a great help.
As for switching the spindle on and off I found an opto isolated relay to be the best method but without speed control and simply setting spindle speed to max in the g-code to trigger it.
As you already have a speed control (similar to the way I operate) it should be quite simple.
I found a single loop around the ferrite to be the best solution but also adding filter caps where needed also helped a great deal.
Wiring paths can be especially critical in home brew machines so avoid AC lines crossing at 90 degrees over DC or signal lines. 45 degrees seems to help here.
caslor:
i dont know if i can use it with my hardware (arduino uno, cnc shield v3) (even i have bought a 5 Axis MACH3 CNC Interface Breakout Board )
You can't - at least in the sense of a CNC controller.
an other reason is that for a 3 axis cnc machine i think grbl is lighter and easier to use .
Last week I happened to set up a small CNC1310 with GRBL for a friend (explictly his wish - otherwise he would have gotten LinuxCNC). My problems started with not having a decent jog control, no automatic probing, no decent estop, loosing machine coordinates, spindle stopping by no reason, spindle not stopping when ... I think I tried every available GUI I could put my hand on (Candle, UGC classic + platform, OpenCNCPilot, bCNC ...). In the end the setup was OpenCNCPilot, as it has a decent probing functionality, but nothing like a real controller.
That's why I ask for a good workflow: most programs emit gcode, that need postprocessing - if not for GRBL, then for the GUI controller.
maybe in the future will try to setup a linuxcnc machine to test it and maybe find out that is more comfortable to use that instead of the grbl
When you have a PC with parallelport and realtime capability it's easy. Otherwise you'll need a MESA card and are fine.
As far as controlling from windows most of us use UGS.
It is fine for most smaller machines and the ability to add simple g-code macros means you can use subroutines to zero a tool and additional functions.
It does offer "on the fly" over rides for speeds and feeds etc.
Have used it here quite extensively.
A lot of what I do depends on what I want to make.
Usually it just involves artwork more than coding up.
That's where most of my time goes in looking for stray pixels which give me unwanted artifacts.
Once I am happy with that again it depends on what I am going to do.
If I am just going to laser it then it is straight into LASERGRBL which has to be one of the best laser programs for GRBL.
If its anything else then it depends on the size and complexity.
There are lots of packages out there to turn pics into code.
Although no longer available ARTCAM is still my GOTO for complex items. Just think myself lucky not to have opted into the subscription model.
For others you can often drop pics into such as CURA or other slicers and if you play with the outputs you can often get a darned good PRE-PROCESS result which you can then push up to either some of the online sources or smaller stand alone packages such as inkscape, gimp, BtoG etc.
