Electronics Weekly
Although some potential upgrades have been identified, the software is in a thoroughly usable condition.
Find other Engineer in Wonderland cnc stuff here
In the photo on the right, it is sitting in ‘four-dashes’ to indicate the motor is not moving, then it will happily work up to the 3,500rpm top-end of the test motor, and down to 1rpm.
Btw: it normally has a red contrast enhancement filter, but was removed for the photo as it was reflecting the window in the room.
It includes the bonus PWM generator, that can be plumbed into the all-mains motor controller on the lathe via an opto-coupler (and a circuit that has yet to be designed) for speed control.
The PWM generator always starts at 0% regardless of the potentiometer position, and will not deliver more % until the pot has been wound down to zero – another layer of protection to prevent the lathe from springing into rotation when it is first powered-up.
Power still comes via a USB cable, but will eventually arrive from the machine’s 24V rail via a 7808 linear regulator.
Ironically, the first foray into cnc here in wonderland was an attempt to make pcbs, which has never fully happened, and this assembly now needs a pcb to hold the regulator and a few other bits and bobs.
