Secret Project

...the long awaited pulleys arrived:

I only need one of these, but I was waiting for these a while.

The only thing still missing for the transmission is the tension spring, but I can build the thing without it. I should order the required mirror in the local shop quickly.

Finally, the electronics of the project started to wok.

I wrote the whole code in TI CCS. It is a long. I put incredible amount of work into it. ~30 lines of code including declarations, in around 10 mins :-D

Then I tried to set the current limit of the stepper driver. Almost fried it when I connected the required 12V onto the 3.3V power rail but survived. Luckily the MCU was not already in the socket.

Used this video for the setup:

https://www.pololu.com/blog/484/video-setting-the-current-limit-on-pololu-stepper-motor-driver-carriers

As the whole circuit started to work from my Lab PSU, finally soldered the power supply in. Last check. Still works:

What left:

• Some wiring
• Tweaking the motor speed and the micro stepping
• Minimal mechanical things like timing belt mount, mounting clamps, end stop insert, etc.
• Mounting the lighting
• Finishing the belt drive

There is one thing set me back, that the driving pulley and the belt tension spring didn't arrived yet. As some things I ordered together with it, and things I ordered weeks later already arrived, I'm quite sure, that the bloody Post lost them. Already ordered some from different suppliers, and will complain when the time come.

So, I'm waiting....

Slowly the components are arriving (hopefully all of them will be here in a few days).

The post(wo)man arrived with this today:

I almost finished the woodwork, the PCB have been soldered, except the power supply part (I don't want to do this until I see the stepper driver running correctly, the transformer just screwed in to be able to do the woodcut correctly).

Here is the device.

Closed:

Open:

I would love to do a video while it's moving, but the MCU programming, and the cabling isn't finished yet, and unfortunately some of the moving parts are still missing.

There is an aluminum frame of the device:

I made it during the weekend. It is almost finished. The only thing is missing from the frame the two L shaped piece, what I'll use the mount it.

I also made some supports for the optical endstops:

The other things need to be done:

- Etch the board

- Build the electronics

- Write the code

- Mount the electronics to the frame

- Cut out the place of the electronics/stepper from the LDF insert

- Mount the insert to the sliders

- Mount the lighting, etc. to the insert

- Order the mirror

- Mount the mirror to the insert

- Mount the pulley to the stepper, add the timing belt, spanner, etc. (most of them not arrived yet)

- Connect everything together

- Mount the device to it's final place