On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 03:19 AM, John Lindo wrote:
How may pumps would you recommend that I instal, one for each axis ? , and would that would mean 3 x nema 17 (3D printer size) ??
After paging through all of your links, and? I have just downloaded, I cannot find the actual Arduino IDE (.ino) file., I am sure it is there, I just can?t find it YET.
John,
Without seeing the install it's difficult to recommend how many pumps.? I guess one for each of the current oiling points, but remember you'll only get X number of drips depending on how you configure the Arduino sketch.? You won't get a pumped supply as with the oiler in your photos.
If you use stepper motors, the software only supports two motors.? It's a much simpler build to use DC motors of which you can use up to six.
there's no one Arduino sketch as it's configurable.? There are some example sketches in the example folder and Mark has written a very comprehensive Wiki on his GitHub on how to build a sketch manually.? If you have my level of programming comprehension, you'd be far better of using the app that Mark wrote which builds the sketch for you.? It can be found at?OilerLib-master\examples\OilerBuilder once you've un zipped the?OilerLib-master download.
The instructions for using the OilerBuilder app were a little more comprehensive in the MEW article so I paste below (minus the screen shots) for clarity ...
Arduino sketch and software
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As with electronics, this is not my area of excellence. All the sketches and software for this system were written by Mark without whose expertise this project would not have been possible.
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For those with no experience of things Arduino, there are numerous tutorials and how-tos available on line which explain things far better than I’m able, but as an overview for this specific project, you’ll need to down load the free Arduino software (known as Arduino IDE) from
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Choose an older release, ‘Arduino IDE 1.8.19’. Select the version suitable for your operating system, download and install it. The reason for downloading this older version of the Arduino software is that it was current when Mark wrote the OilerLib sketches and software so we can’t guarantee that later releases will allow for the automatic placement of the library or completed sketches.
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Next download Marks software from
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Click the green ‘Code’ button, select ‘Download Zip’. Open the Arduino software and click ‘Sketch | Include Library | Add .Zip Library’. Locate your download from Marks GitHub called ‘OilerLib-master’ which will usually be in your ‘Downloads’ folder and click ‘Open’.
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In a blue bar towards the bottom of the window the Arduino software should reward you with a confirmation that a library has been added to your libraries.
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Next you need to select the correct Arduino board and communication port. Go to ‘Tools | Board’ and select ‘Arduino Uno’. Then, with the Arduino Uno board connected to your computer using a suitable USB cable, go to ‘Tools | Port’ and select the correct port. The Arduino software should have detected you board and you’ll see something similar to ‘COM3 (Arduino Uno)’ click this and you’re all set to go.
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OilerBuilder app.
For the more experienced, you can build your own Arduino oiling sketch using the examples included in the OilerLib release and Marks extensive GitHub Wiki.
Next step for the less experienced like myself is to run Marks OilerBuilder app which will write the Arduino sketch for you.
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In your file manager go to ‘Documents | Arduino | OilerLib-1.5.6 | Examples’ and locate an application called ‘OilerBuilder’. Click on this and you'll most likely get a warning because it’s by an ‘unknown publisher’. Ignore this and after a splash screen you’ll be presented with a window with various tabs where you can detail the system you wish to build by entering a number of choices.
For demonstration I’ll show OilerBuilder populated for the system I built, a two DC motor system controlled by lathe rpm, but mention alternative variations as I run through. This example uses the pin numbers shown on the electrical schematic.
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Motor 1 tab
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Photo 15
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This first page defaults to a DC motor and relay setup but at the top is an option to set up a 4 pin stepper motor if preferred.
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‘Inputs Pin#’ is the pin to which you’ve connected the output from the PI sensor pertaining to motor 1.
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‘Inputs PinMode’ selects INPUT or INPUT_PULLUP. The electrical schematic shows a pull down resistor so INPUT is appropriate, but if you are using an alternative circuit internal pull up resistors can be set here if required.
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‘Inputs # Drips to stop motor’ is pretty self explanatory, it’s the number of oil drips required from this motor each time it oils.
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‘Inputs Debounce time (ms)’ This setting determines the minimum number of milliseconds required between valid signals from the Photo Interrupter. By setting a minimum value, it prevents duplicate or spurious signals implying a drip has occurred when it hasn’t. If for any reason you find that one drip is being recorded as multiple drips this value can be increased.
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‘Outputs Pin 1#’ is the out put pin which drives the relay to operate motor 1
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If a stepper motor is chosen there will be four outputs pins to set along with the required direction of rotation.
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Motor 2 tab
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Photo 16
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This is a repeat of motor 1, but obviously with the pin numbers to suit motor 2.
Motor tabs 2-6 are not changed unless you are oiling more than two locations.
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Alert tab
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Photo 17
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‘Alert pin#’ sets which pin gives the alert signal.
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‘Level held at during alert’ dictates how the alert pin behaves. High means it outputs 5v in alert condition and low means it sits at 5v all the time there is no alert, dropping to 0v in alert condition.
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‘Alert threshold’ sets the number of seconds or revs (dependant on later configuration) should pass between the start of an oiling operation and the alert being triggered. Be aware that the pumps will take time to produce a drip so don’t set this number too low or the system will trigger the alert before the drip has occurred.
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Please ignore the red note about setting multiples. This was a feature we removed and omitted to delete the note … apologies!
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Oiled Machine tab
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Photo 18
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Here you can set the mode of operation. Either ‘Power on’ or ‘Work done’ mode. You can enter details for both modes, but in the final tab you specify which mode you wish to use. If neither is selected i.e. both input pins are set to -1 the system will run in default mode where the system oils every X number of seconds all the time the system has power irrespective of what the lathe is doing.
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‘Power on’ mode uses a signal to say the lathe is running, typically an output from a relay operated by the lathe start/stop switch. The pin to which this signal is connected is entered into the ‘Input Pin #’ box.
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‘PinMode’ selects INPUT or INPUT_PULLUP. The electrical schematic shows a pull down resistor so INPUT is appropriate, but if you are using an alternative circuit internal pull up resistors can be set here if required.
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‘Sig Level’ dictates how the pin should recognise the input signal. High means that 5v will indicate the lathe is running and 0v indicates the lathe is stopped.
Low means the pin operates in the opposite fashion to above i.e. 0v means the lathe is running and 5v means the lathe is stopped.
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‘Work done’ mode uses a pulsed signal for spindle speed. The signal needs to be one pulse per revolution of the lathe spindle.
The pin to which this pulsed signal is connected is entered into the ‘Input Pin #’ box.
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‘Input PinMode’ selects INPUT or INPUT_PULLUP. The electrical schematic shows a pull down resistor so INPUT is appropriate, but if you are using an alternative circuit internal pull up resistors can be set here if required.
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Final tab
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Photo 19
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‘Set Motor Restart Mode’. Here you set the event that triggers motors to (re)start oiling. Not all options will be visible depending on previous settings, but the three options are:
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‘On elapsed time (secs)’. Default mode, where the system restarts the motors after a configured number of seconds. Irrespective of what the lathe is doing.
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‘On powered time (secs)’. System counts seconds that the lathe has been running and when this reaches the configured limit it restarts the motors
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‘On machine work (units)’. System restarts the motors after a configured number of revolutions of the lathe spindle.
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Select whichever mode you are using then and in the ‘Threshold’ box, enter the number of seconds or revs. between oiling operations.
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Finally ‘Sketch pathname’. If you have the Arduino software already installed, the OilerBuilder software will have created the sketch in a folder called ‘OilerBuilder’ in the standard Arduino sketch directory (i.e. in the same place the Arduino software normally stores sketches).
If this cannot be found it will create the OilerBuilder sketch in the ‘TEMP’ directory.
You can change the path to another destination if you wish.
If you are using the ‘Arduino Create’ web editor or the new ‘Arduino IDE 2.0 pc application’, OilerBuilder will not know where the sketches are normally kept and will, by default, put it in the TEMP folder or your chosen location.
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That should be it, click ‘Create Sketch’. You should get a small pop-up with an option to open the folder where the sketch is located, or you can open it via your file manager.
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Once open, you should see a sketch similar to this
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Photo 20
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You can change any of the #define parameters in the sketch. Each has a description of its purpose. Alternatively you can make changes by running the OilerBuilder software again and create another sketch which will overwrite the first.
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Upload it to your Arduino by clicking the upload button (a right pointing arrow in a circle) top left of the Arduino window. The Arduino software will compile the sketch and upload it to your board.
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Power up the system and the pump motors should run before you start the lathe. Each motor will run until its PI sensor has seen a drip. First priming the system could take some time as the pumps only produce a small flow and have to fill the interconnecting tubes prior to producing a drip. After this, whichever mode of operation you choose should run automatically. All you have to do is to remember to top up the oil tank.
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John Lindo