??????????????????????? you are speaking to the converted!

That’s exactly where I want to go! Well....at least two axis anyway. It would be nice to have backlash take-up as well. And of course to be able to go to software stops with one speed for machining and another for fast return....Perhaps I just need another ELS Hi!

I remember the early days, and as you say the Mach 2/3 people were quite loud. Computor’s/ laptops and screens are too expensive and fragile (oil and swarf are a bad combination) to live permanently in a workshop like mine. I suppose if I did all of my machining dry then it might be better.

A few casual measurements with my Pbatzimat M65 on the cross feed (which has a stepper motor connected directly to the end of the screw) gave me a better understanding of the 5% position accuracy of a “standard” stepper motor on micro stepping. If I’m going to do anything really accurate its going to be a 5:1 reduction at least from the stepper to the axis drive. So I have resolved to use a proper DRO read out on milling machines with as you say hole centres and arrays coming for free. My Bomatic sino DRO with 5 micron (SIC) resolution works very well. So its just the drives to the axises that I’m lacking. I am trying a windscreen wiper motor at the present but frankly its minimum speed is just a little too fast for good final machining.

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Thanks Bob,

I've been having a déjà vu discussion on the EMC Linux group that is very similar to the one we had back on the CAD CAM DRO group before we spun off into E-Leadscrew.

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The resistance against an ELS was nothing short of amazing.? Why bother!? Just install MACH2(3) and be done with it!? One member even made a simple ELS with a couple of buttons, an encoder knob and an LCD display.?? What people wanted though was something beyond manual but not with a CNC feel.

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Lately, as I modify my mill to be CNC I'm seeing the same discussions again.? I have it set to dual boot MACH3 or LinuxCNC.? I can run both off the parallel port although the LinuxCNC system can't step as fast as the MACH3 system can.? I did buy a MESA 7i92H to use Ethernet to Parallel and it works well.? I have a USB Smoothstepper on the CNC Router so I have also used that with MACH.

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Anyway.? I have proposed, to much resistance, that perhaps it's time to make a box that operates without CNC.? Essentially power feed for all three (or 4 or 5) axis with BEGIN/END positions for each and DROs for each axis.? Ability to deal with limit switches and home switches but no CNC behaviour other than the guiding that you get from something like a Shumatech DRO-350 or 550 for hole centers or array of holes.

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So you might say a souped up ELS for a mill.? But with one additional feature.? An Ethernet port compatible with say the MESA 7i92H board and maybe even with the Ethernet Smooth Stepper.

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So your run your mill the way it's always been run with a DRO and perhaps a single axis power feed but now you have all three axis powerfeeding and a DRO on each.? Could take it one step further and even input from DRO devices instead of using the open loop stepper driver or feedback from a Servo Motor.? And when you want, plug in that Ethernet cable from a Raspberry Pi4 or Beaglebone Black and run full LinuxCNC.? Maybe run LinuxCNC all the time.? Maybe not.

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Like on the CAD CAM DRO group there is no interest since the claim is you can do everything already with LinuxCNC.? So why bother?? And there's quite a disparity in quantities when asked about how many milling machines people think are out there that do not have CNC.? ?

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So why doesn't everyone have CNC on their mill?

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John Dammeyer

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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob T
Sent: February-24-20 3:38 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [digitalhobbyist] RELS Parts info

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Hi to all,

??????????????????????? I just wanted to add a couple of comments to Johns reply.?

I have two of Johns ELS boards. The first one (on my Boxford) was a very early one, and the second one only a year or so old (mounted on my MD65 pratzi). I blew the first one up and needed Johns help to get running again, so I can confirm Johns support level. I also remember those early days when the concept of of an ELS doing threading was an exotic thing. The ELS board is a very nice practical thing that just simply works. As has been said most of the work is in doing the mechanical and stepper motor interface (I still haven’t got my cross slide working on the Boxford yet ) The ELS allows one to fully set up the machine from the operator interface (ok there are a couple of links on the board as well) and I haven’t had to go near the software yet. My milling machine now needs some kind of stepper drive to it and is the main reason I have been lurking here on this site (with great interest).

Regards Bob