We are going to use an industrial enclosure that housed Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Power Supply Units (PSU), relays, and electrical bus strips. I've been calling this enclosure the PLC Case. After removing most of the components, I found that I had to remove a metal panel in order to unbolt the rest of the components. So, I removed the panel from the case, will finish removing components, and we'll decide if we want to continue with a metal panel that has to be drilled and bolted to, and if so, do we want to hinge it it so we can access it more easily. Or, we may want to replace the metal panel with a plastic or wood panel.

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11/26/14

"We're very close to finishing our Power task list. Let's choose a panel material to mount most of our controller internal onto- stick with steel or switch to plastic, wood, etc. We can reassign power bus strips for 120 VAC, 24 VDC, 24 VDC, 5 VDC, and since we'll eventually have a computer PSU, +12 VDC, -12 VDC, and maybe tap the 5 VDC from it too. We'll wire up our fuse bay, and figure out what we'll use for switches until we put the panel back into the enclosure that currently houses the toggle switches. We may want to install a power strip with breaker onto the panel, so we can get 5 VDC from a small adapter while working, and have the ability to plug in other PSUs to it as we work. We may even want to keep the powerstrip for when we reassemble the enclosure.

...

A revised, multitask plan might look something like this:

• Desolder servo Drive connectors from Motherboard, solder them to a perfboard
• Solder standard lines of 1/10" center pins onto the perfboard OR connect them directly to the Arduino Mega
• Mount a motor controller board, Arduino Mega, and perfboard to the panel
• Take a brushed DC motor with optical encoder that was hacked out of a printer, and try to control it through the Arduino IDE using the Arduino Mega and a motor controller board
• Simulate end stop sensors or use the ones on the printer if they already exist.
• Implement optical isolation wherever required
• Test the Seiko's own the end-stop sensors
• Connect the Seiko's end-stop sensors to the Arduino and test them in the Arduino IDE
• Try to implement over-current sensing protection on the Arduino motor test bed as well
• Then try to interface to the Seiko's A axis servo (end effector motor) using the robot's own cabling connections
• At some point, try to control an encoded motor using Firmata firmware on the Arduino, and control it with Snap4Arduino
• Connect a second motor. I'm guessing we'll want to use the 24 VDC PSU to power the A and Z axis servos, and use the 28 VDC PSU to power the X and Y axis servos.
• Try to control both the A and Z servos accurately with optical encoders, end-stop sensors, and overcurrent protection
• Get this all working through the Seiko's own existing cabling, and if needed investigate the box on the back of the robot that seems to be am Encoder Amplifier
• Connect the second motor controller and try to control the X and Y motors
• Servo Party"