Foxx Carve

[FoxxFighter]

So i treated me with a bunch of upgrades over the holidays and i thought i’ll share my upgrade process here.

So starting point is 2015 stock x-carve with nema23 motors. A wile back i made my own controller box with a spindle relay, a probe connector and the three control buttons. And an enclosure to reduce the dust and the noise.

The Updates planed:

• single x axis
• cnc4newbies z axis
• 9mm belts
• eccentric spacers instead of nuts
• new shielded cables with connectors
• phils aluminium base plate
• nema23 190ncm motors
• 4x “TB6600” driver
• new controller box (and later a v2.0 because v1.0 didn’t come out as expected)
• bigger drag chains
• quite fans

here some photos:

[FoxxFighter]

Here is a link to the easel project for my old controller box and v1.0 for the new one

Controller Box

as mentioned the new ones is not ideal and i’ll have to make some changes and cut it again when the machine is assembled again.
if anyone has some ideas or advice, i’m open to suggestions.

some question about power for spindle (and maybe dust collection. at the moment i have 3 power input terminals going in the controller box, one for the psu one for the spindle and one vor a vac/dust collection. Would it be ok to have just one input and split it inside the controller box ?

[FoxxFighter]

I’m also playing with the idea to make my own custom breakout board for the Arduino.
I played a little with EasyEDA and im far from knowing what i do so maybe someone with more knowledge may have a look at the pcb design i came up with.

https://easyeda.com/Foxx2442/grbl-breakout

[PatOrders]

Nice job. That looks really clean.

[FoxxFighter]

Thank you but now it is not so clean any more

[FoxxFighter]

Finally got some time to start.
First of take down my enclosure to have some room to work on.

Then taking down half of the machine.

Then started installing the new idlers for the bigger belts.

At the same time installing the new eccentric spacers.

[FoxxFighter]

Final steps for today where the new motors and the new z axis.

[Pyrex]

Where did you get the spacers? My eccentric nuts have been digging into the gantry, not a fan of that.

[FoxxFighter]

Hey Pyrex,
This is an upgrade set from inventibles

X-Carve Eccentric Spacer Upgrade

[Pyrex]

oh, lol, already have this then.

[FoxxFighter]

Well then you might have over tightened the locknuts. I had the issue before with the eccentric nuts but the spacers are fine.

[Pyrex]

probably because I’m not loosening the nuts enough when I’m adding tension.

[FoxxFighter]

So I was back in the Shop and could work on the new wasteboard

[FoxxFighter]

so After nobody had something to say to my breakout board I just ordered it. I’m super happy with the ordering process. 10 boards costed me 2$ and shipping was free for my first order. Arrived 4 days later and the plugs I order came a few days later.

So first time Running some tests on my new controller.

It seams I made a mistake with one of the connection cable between the machine and the controller box. When I use the false cable the driver do not show the green light as soon as I connect the cable. When I’m sending commands the blue light of the driver is blinking but the green light is always of. I checked for contenuity or shortages and couldn’t find any problem so I have to tear it down again to see if there is a problem. Does somebody have any idea what causes the driver to not work.
So I have a spare cable i could try everything seems to work fine and my breakout board seems to work fine. I still have to test the limit switches buttons and spindle output. But for the moment i’m pretty happy with it.