I can't do much here to start, cuz I don't have all the parts yet. But I did get my component kit in the mail today!

WOW is all I can say, What an awesome job Mark & Trish do packing and identifing parts for the build.

The steppers were included with the components, but they are having the driver board drop shipped direct to me.

Well more to come as things get here and get tested.

Rosie is on her way!!

 

Good luck with your build Burt. I look forward to seeing your progress on it. If you need any help, you only have to yell up and almost everybody on here will leap in with really good information.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

 

Best of luck on the build!!!

 

Big news for Rosie! She has a brain! She's a little scattered brain right now, but at least she has one.

My stepper board came in yesterday, So I spent some time last night and this afternoon hooking evertything up. What do you know she worked right off. Big thanks to those who have posted their settings for MKII with EMC2. I tu ubuntu with EMC2.

I went through the esay-cnc manual and set Vref as suggested - motors are 2amp - Vref=4.00Vdc.

My steppers are pretty hot when just sitting, hot enough not to leave your fingers on them for too long. Is this normal? Do I need to change/adjust something?

Next step for me is to give her something to stand on, and mount her brain. Then we just wait for her bonz. See how she really is a person? bonz,brain, and she will have some kind of personality when she is done.

Well I am all smiles now, only gets better from here!

 

I adjusted my Vref back to 3.4 or 3.6V on my MK1.5 (same steppers and Easy-CNC board) and the motors seemed to be happier and cooler. They sure don't seem to lack for power.
This pdf sorta confused the issue for me - it's why I tuned my Vref back. http://www.interinar.com/public_docs/PK266-02A.pdf
In the box on the lower left, it says "3.2V for 2.0 A per phase", but apparently that is a setting specific to the controller from Interinar Electronics (whatever it is.) So I settled on a number closer to 3.2 than 4.0, 'cause that's the kind of guy I am.
(Maybe it will let the magic blue smoke out more slowly this way.) :geek:

 

thanks Dennis, I will try that tomorrow. Its all at work right now. But yes I agree, anything to keep in the magic smoke

 

By the way, I finally adjusted my PFD's all the way to the left (CCW) because the motors only made more noise (high-pitched whine) if the PFD was set to anything else.
I believe the PFD is used to adjust-out some of the mid-band resonance that every stepper motor has, but I just don't drive my Y-axis at 110-120 ips (where my resonance band exists) and it works for me. Maybe I should get around to playing with the PFD adjustment again, some day when I've got nothing better to do.

 

And the wait is getting shorter, just received email telling me her bonz is coming. Guess I'll get it tomorrow or Thursday! Just in time for a phlat weekend.



P.S.@ dennis, how much coffee will a phlat cup hold?

 

Ha! I dunno - 12 oz. maybe?
I never measured it, 'cause when it gets empty I just refill it - so I guess it holds about "12 cups" (eventually.) :mrgreen:

Okay, I had to go look, at http://www.phlatboyz.com/phlatstore/#ec ... uct=479507 it says it's officially an 11oz mug. :geek:

 

2A is for unipolar, 1.4A for bipolar. The easycnc board is bipolar, so Vref max = 2.8V :geek:

 

Ha now that makes sense!

Can anyone tell me the mininum height a stand needs to be? I know there must be one to allow the flex cable room, but how tall is that? :?

 

If you pull out the flex shaft doesn't that give you a good idea as to the room needed. I assume you know about the posted plans and just want something else. Anyways, if you look on crash's build log for pictures, I measured to the bottom of the big opening for the cable and that measures 12 7/8". To the bottom of the dust tray is ~15.5". So that should be the max needed.

But, I've seen 1 or 2 people that seem not to even use a stand or jack it up a bit? You will have to ask them to make sure they are actually cutting like that. Like here, viewtopic.php?f=135&t=1210&start=25#p11820

-Kwok

 

See?? I told you I was confused! :?

 

well the flex shaft doesn't give me the whole story. I don't know where how the rotozip mounts relative to the business end. So I have no way of guesstimating the droop below the main housing. I have looked at the stand posted, but I haven't decided on Rosie's home yet. I am just trying to make sure I have a plan to set her on that will meet her needs.
So if I raise her up 12" it should be good?

On a fun note for me, her bonz will be here tomorrow (Friday), then I get to actually start posting build stuff.

 

Well what good is a build log without a build?

Here are some pictures, Rosie is running but needs to be calibrated. It seems a 12" X move is only 11.9375". But no big deal, thats just a setup thing!

I'm not very good at these sort of things, so I will just give an overview of the build.

First let me say the Mark and Trish have done an EXCELLENT job with the design of this fine machine! Not that you guys don't already know that, but I just feel the need to say it again. Things are very well thought out and the small details are payed attention to. A machine like this is a huge amount of work to design, and they have done an awesome job!

Items of note, part 64 is nowhere to be found, but no problem, Rosie will cut me one from balsa. Also needed to pickup 2 more bushings, Just went to Lowes and got them. Stepper screws were too big for the vexa steppers, so I picked up some 8-32's to use. These were the only issues I had, needless to say with a project of this size, I am so impressed that was all!!!

Rosie is built stock except for the top rollers, which are filled with steel grit. I wrapped the grip tape in a spiral.

My son and I started the build last Friday night, worked over the weekend with some time out to fly. Spent lots of time sanding and fileing slots and tabs. ( had to fit the square pegs in the round holes). By Sunday night, we had a pretty good start, build mostly done, just needed a lid and stand.

Monday I took off work early to go home and work on Rosie. Main cabinet done, lid glued together.
Tuesday, hard as it was, stayed at work all day, came home and finished her up.
Wednesday, Built stand wrong, watched the phlatshow.
Thursday, Fixed the stand, hooked up her brain, did some test cuts , watched the phlatshow.
Friday, Plan to calibrate and cut tables.

Here are some pics to enjoy:

Now to finish the cabinet, add doors, house the puter, on off switch and such. My wife says it just sounds like the vacuum is running when Rosie is cutting, I need to check with the down stairs neighbors to see if Rosie will be annoying them.

Looks like the first real plane cut will be a night owl, then I need to cut a part 64 from 1/4 balsa.

Attached files

 

Boy you are fast! Want to build mine? Just kidding. Actually, not. :? Ok, only kinda.

Ok, got two questions. I like the spiral wrap. Your job looks perfectly round. So any tips you learned while doing it?

And #2, I know the vexta stepper holes are kinda small. You said you got smaller #8-32 screws. You have to replace all the T nuts, is that right? I got to mess with this issue, myself.

-Kwok

 

Hmm build yours............

Spiral wrap, get someone to help start the wrap. wrap with the backing still on to set the pitch, have your helper peel the backing off enough for about a wrap, while you hold the rest on the roller. Then you can follow the edge created by the unstuck part to stick the grip tape and set the pitch. From there just peel and stick. The corners will prolly need super glue as they want to raise up.

Wrap the 2 small ones first, the drop from 1 of them should be enough to finish the bigger roller and you end up with an extra 25" piece.

The drive roller is easier, but more of a pain cuz you only get 2 wrap from a strip.
If this sounds confusing, let me know.

As for the screws, the kit comes with 12 10-24 screws and nuts. I just replaced them with 8-32, don't forget #8 flat washers. the screws and nuts come 8 sets to a pack, so get 2 packs.

 

Oh yea, while waiting to start your build, I found fileing the inside corners of all the slots sure made life better. Watching mark assemble his in the video makes it look like it will all just slide together, but remember its cut with a routerso there is no square inside corner.

All the "round" holes for tee nuts and bushings on mine were not round. So there was NO way of just pushing in those items. I just grabbed a screw and washer from the parts bag and pulled mine in with the screw.

Sorta like a screw press.

 

Note for Mark and Trish, using all you skills with sketchup, I assume you have a drawing of the MK2. If you included an exploded view of the printer showing the numbered parts and where thy fit, it would be much easier to build. I found myself watching the video to see what step is next and how it goes together, then rewinding to write down the part numbers when they flash on the screen.

Much easier if I could have watched a build step, then go assemble by looking at the picture.

Just a thought.

 

A question for all you guys, as I face Rosie, Y moves left to right for a positive value. I feel like +Y should move right to left. Also +X moves the foam out the front and +Z brings the tool up. Is this all correct? :?

 

Thanks so much, I knew z had to be reversed as I decided to look at some posted phlatcode and saw all z moves are in the negative direction. I may try leaving the Y backwards as then I won't have mirrored text, but I haven't thought this through yet, Prolly I'll just flip it to be the same as everyone else.

As to how to change it in EMC, I think I just invert the direction signal. Anyone know if this is correct? :?