I use Johns ELS almost everyday and I think it¡¯s a great piece of kit. Does everything I need.
Thank you John
Peter Farmer
UK.
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On 23 Aug 2020, at 02:11, John Dammeyer <johnd@...> wrote:
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Hi Ralph,
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The design philosophy behind my ELS was that you could not use the on board stepper driver and use external ones with a break out board that also connected to the 1PPR sensor on the spindle and any limit switches and ESTOP buttons.
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Those would then come out the standard parallel port DB-25 from the Break Out Board to the ELS.? Or to a PC running MACH CNC.? In fact that's how I tested how well the ELS functioned.? At the time it was still MACH2 and then later MACH3.
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I'd move the cable over to a PC and run a thread or taper with MACH G-Code.? Then move the Parallel port cable over to the ELS and run the same thread or taper.?? So if a user needed to make 10 of something or something with an odd profile they could use CNC.? But for regular 'manual approach' usage people would go back to the ELS.
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So the original ELS as I designed it could be stand alone with Z axis control only.? Designed to provide threading to a lathe that didn't have gears and metric threading to an imperial lathe.? That I can produce 1.5mm x 50mm threads on this arbor without a powered cross slide on a 1942 vintage lathe shows just how simple it is to operate with that concept in mind.
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But I've always said once you move to two external stepper drivers perhaps because you need more than 3A and 48V on the Z axis a Break Out Board is always the wise choice for simplicity of wiring and for possible migration to CNC.
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At the moment my South Bend still only has a 3A motor with 2:1 toothed belt drive to the lead screw.? The gear shift lever and tumbler lever are all in neutral and the lathe is therefore very quiet. ?I haven't engaged the gears in probably 5 years or more.? And if I didn't have a taper attachment on this lathe I'd have added X axis control almost immediately.
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Anyway.? Attached photo shows a small bit of 6 degree taper done on the south bend to fit the spindle pulley.? Then the 50mm x 1.5mm thread also done on the imperial south bend with the ELS..? Finally, because Bob in Australia was having issues, I chucked the tapered end into the 3 Jaw on the Gingery which is very light 7" lathe with major vibration issues due to inadequate bed way design and then cut an oversize MT-3. ?The material is a casting riser that is very porous and soft hence all the little pin holes.
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John
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Yes John I have not totally given up on your ELS. Do you still require a Break Out Board?
What I like about the current versions of motorized Z & X is all they require is a stepper driver, the program just furnishes a software controlled?Step & Dir. I can live with pushing buttons as long I know what I am doing,?and your documentation is first rate.
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On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 8:09 PM John Dammeyer <johnd@...> wrote:
Hey Ralph,
"Old system" is relative.? If I were to design it all over again today I'd still have at least as many buttons.?
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There's nothing more annoying than the current crop of 3D printer controllers or most Arduino projects that are only capable of a couple of buttons so they are used to scroll through selections.?
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I suspect if you were to go back to your flip phone that had a standard keypad and required tapping each numeric key up to 3 times to select a particular letter for sending texts you'd be pretty frustrated.
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Those discussions were had over 10 years ago with respect to an ELS user interface. ?One particular one went on for a while where the poster claimed all that was needed was a couple of buttons, and a rotary knob to do all the selections.? He proved his point by creating a simple ELG (Electronic Lathe Gearing) that worked like that.?
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I can't speak for anyone else but I use the numeric keypad on my ELS all the time.? Mine also has what HP at one point called soft keys so the 4 buttons right under the display change personality depending on what you are doing with a description on the second line.
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If anything I'd add a few more buttons since the hardware does allow up to 64 and a 4 line display so more information could be shown while still maintaining the soft keys.? I'd like the high speed slew buttons for X.? The new software at least now uses ALT- X^ and ALT-Xv to move at fast speeds and you can release the ALT key once movement has started and just hold the X direction.?
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And whenever I look at a real CNC system like a HAAS etc. they have not regressed to the toy approach with 2 buttons and a knob.? I doubt many HAAS or other CNC operators would like to use a CNC system with only a few buttons.
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The latest development for my ELS is that the software has been ported to a PIC32.? Once I finish a couple of other projects I'll procure one of the PIC32 family devices that has hardware quadrature encoder support. ??For now in case I haven't posted it on this group here is a photo of the PIC32 Automotive Development Board with a ribbon cable to a 3.3V to 5V level translation board and from there a 40 pin ribbon cable to a 40 pin socket that replaces the PIC18F.?
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One thing I'm planning on building is a small board that has a PIC32 that plugs into the PIC18F socket.? So instead of installing a new 8 bit 40MHz PIC18F with upgraded firmware one plugs in a much faster PIC32.? With the same software the interrupt routine that used to take about 35 micro-seconds now takes under 3.5 micro-seconds.
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John Dammeyer
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ralph Hulslander
Yes Bob, John? Dammeyer's?ELS does threads and tapers it is a great but old system with lots of buttons. It was Jon Bryan's ELS that does not have X.
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Clausing 8520, Craftsman 12x36 Lathe, 4x12 mini lathe, 14" Delta drill press, 40 watt laser, Consew brushless DC motors and a non working 3D printer
<MT3-Taper.jpg>
