project_cnc_electronics ← Tangent Audio

In-Depth CNC Conversion Electronics Overview 2

Jan

2013

I converted my milling machine over to CNC back in late 2009. For most of the time since then, I’ve avoided the project of properly finishing up the electronics that run the machine. Last winter, I gutted the electronics of the machine, redesigned the system, created a number of circuit boards, and set about revamping. ...

CNC Electronics Enclosure Work Commences… 1

Dec

2012

Santa’s workshop was busy today. I finally got some motivation and time to continue work that I started a year ago, but really, has been a nagging task since day one of getting the CNC up and running. I have the machine up and running enough to make parts, with all of the controlling electronics ...

10lbs of Junk in a 5lb Box? 1

Mar

2012

I’ve been slowly working to model the components that go into the CNC milling machine electronics package, and fitting them into an off-the-shelf rack mount enclosure. I think I’m finally settling in on a layout that will work, though I need to put some additional thought into thermal design as there are some components which ...

Epic Hardware Hacking Weekend

Feb

2012

It turned out to be quite an epic weekend of building boards and getting things up and running. It’s good to be back in the groove with my own electronics projects – it’s been far too long that I’ve been away. As a wrap-up to the weekend I thought I’d put together a bit of ...

Machine Breakout 2

Feb

2012

I populated the machine breakout PCB this morning. This board will actually be installed inside of the CNC milling machine, and the various homing and index sensors will wire to it via the mini-sized green screw terminals. The 40 pin header adapts to a Centronics (old school printer) style plug, and connects back to the ...

Population: Tire

Feb

2012

I got my final batch of boards from Laen in the mail today. I had three designs in this batch, so I was pretty anxiously awaiting delivery. I set right in to populating the main CNC PC board, which I designed almost a month ago. I used a lot of different soldering techniques, and shot ...

Final PCB for the CNC Done (for now…)

Jan

2012

Finished my fourth board in as many weeks, finishing off the bare minimum of boards I need to get the CNC mill back up and running. This board mounts inside the machine itself, and connects via a cable back to the main PCB in the control. This board connects via screw terminals to the various ...

CNC Breakout Board Done

Jan

2012

My latest board is designed, laid out, and hopefully safely in the hands of Laen over at Dorkbot PDX. This is the main “breakout” board for the CNC electronics cleanup. It connects to my fancy new Mesa Anything I/O FPGA interface card, and provides some protection and signal conditioning before connecting to the myriad of ...

Another PCB Sent to Fab 4

Jan

2012

I’ve completed the design and layout for another PC board, all part of the CNC milling machine electronics cleanup project. This one is a nicer version of the isolated PWM to +/-10VDC output circuit, which I had prototyped on perfboard a couple weeks ago. This circuit is used to drive a fancy KBMG-212D DC motor ...

Shaking off the Rust 3

Dec

2011

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve done a PC board layout. Like, probably on the order of ten years. I think I may have done one design for work somewhere in the last ten years, but as far as I remember, the last thing I did for my own edification was the 6-layer ...