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.  I got things mostly up and running with the brand new electronics, but again I got distracted by the time good weather rolled around and the project sat dormant for months.

This winter I decided I had to get this project done, as the delicate electronics were lying around on the bench, subject to detah by flying metal chips and other terrible fates.  Just before Christmas, I finally picked up the project again, and after a fair amount of effort over the last month, I’ve finally pushed this project over a finish line.  No project is ever truly done, but this one is finally wrapped up enough to be useful as it is, and it leaves room to comfortable change or expand it more in the future.

Today I put together a fairly epic length mini-documentary about the electronics, going into lots of detail about the internals.  It’s probably a total snoozefest for most people, but hopefully it’s informative and will give someone else some interesting ideas for their own conversion.  Enjoy!

[youtube zz0gd3TS0LM]

If you’d like to use my LinuxCNC config files as a starting point for your own machine, download them below.  They will work with LinuxCNC 2.5.1.  Remember, unless you have the identical setup to mine, they won’t work for you out of the box.  They should provide useful info for several things however.

CNC Config Files JAN 27, 2013