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BlackBox

Discussion in 'Other Builds' started by Mark Carew, Feb 22, 2019.

  1. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Yeah, I'm on 24V - It was on the todo list to up it to 36V (And even have the stuff to do it, but as with a lot of things spare time is rare)
     
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  2. Skip S.

    Skip S. Well-Known
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    Still waiting on fulfillment on my order, but excited to see what the black box can do.
    No room to order the mill I want so I'm going to have to wait until we buy a new house - so I get to see what this thing can do to control my laser cutter until I can get a Lead machine
     
  3. Giarc

    Giarc OpenBuilds Team
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    I would say the biggest difference is that the Black Box has higher amperage drivers so you can reliably use the larger stepper motors with it. That being said, I have never owned an Xpro. I have attempted to use a CNC shield with the same drivers that the Xpro uses (DRV8825 - unless it changed in V4). The drivers got real hot even with a large (household) fan blowing on them, the motors would get hot, and the machine would start missing steps. They are basically great 3D printer stepper drivers not CNC mill drivers (IMHO). I moved to DQ542MA drivers with an Arduino and all my troubles went away. It is a great set-up, but complicated for a new person like me at the time. Lots of soldering. The new Black Box looks like it gets you the amperage you need for high torque steppers with a simple plug and play hook-up for less than what I spent on 4 DQ542MAs and a genuine Arduino (or clone for that matter). When I build my next machine (CNC lathe), I plan to go with that. For my K40 conversion, I will probably use some older drivers I already have with an Arduino nano.
     
  4. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Built mine last night and now just need to find the time to connect and test.

    One thing that is 'missing' (in my opinion) on the build side is the connector for the 24V input - Luckily I had one of these plugs hanging about from another project so I am ok, but noticed that one is not supplied a standard.
     
  5. Knut Bøje

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    It should be included according to Assembly Instructions in documentation.
     
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  6. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    All of the stepper / limit plugs were in there, but nothing plugged into the 24V input
     
  7. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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  8. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Its not a problem as i have one in my spares drawer.

    Not sure if it should be included as it does not appear on the build video, but if not it may be worthwhile including it as not everyone will have the OB PSU?
     
  9. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Good stuff, still, counts for the next person reading it. If you need help, reach out to the store :)
     
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  10. Rick 2.0

    Rick 2.0 OpenBuilds Team
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    As there is no specific E-stop input on the system is there potential for using the door sensor input? Any limitations or benefits to this? Could the door sensor input be used simply for a pause button?
     
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  11. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Now that is a damned fine idea.

    Will play with that at weekend as my current setup has a pause button (that gets used occasionally)
     
  12. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Door signal pin is wired to Feed Hold pin (standard Grbl). If you enable Door a toggle switch could possibly work as play/pause. Else its only going to pause (feedhold)
     
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  13. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    I've been keeping watch on the forum, i think yours might be first to run :)
    Exciting!
     
  14. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    All down to getting time this weekend. :)
     

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  15. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    (; so the title is still up for grabs (;
    (You only win my respect - but cant wait to see who is the first customer to run theirs hehe)


    Oh, and i LOVE the photo!

     
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  16. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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  17. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    I am in the workshop tomorrow night from the look of it so will look at getting it wired in then.

    Need to figure out setting the current pots for the steppers.

    I have the high torque 23’s so can safely put 3A into them but without any sort of reference it’ll be a bit of guesswork.

    At ‘full volume’ what will the controller be putting out? As I might start at that and dial it back slightly. :)
     
  18. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Full volume is 3.2A RMS (minimum on the other hand is about 1A, so the dial in between isnt that sensitive) - but watch your thermals, at full tilt, climate depending, you might see the little red exclamation marks on the front come on (; - also at full power, those motors are SCARY! I dial them back out of respect for human limbs (; (And 44degC ambient summer)

    Start with them upright, center, 12'o'clock - Once you start tuning the machine you can tune them a little higher as needed.
     
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  19. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    MaryD and Chillimonster like this.
  20. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Close, but no cigar. :)

    Still got around 5 hours before i get home and hit the workshop
     
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  21. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    (; No 2 will still count high in my books!
     
  22. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Just back in from Workshop...

    Its in and wired, and running sweet.

    Still got to get it 'tuned' but started all axis on approx two thirds current and seems to be happy at that so far

    Going to tidy the rats nest of cables up tomorrow when its a bit warmer (and lighter - hate working in the workshop with no natural light) and have a proper play and post some videos for others to see. Also going to look at wiring an E-Stop in as at the moment i'm running without - That combined with no limit switches means i have to be ready at all times to hit the power!

    I've never run with limit switches though so nothing new there, but i suppose i could use the limit switch header for an E-Stop switch?

    I've got some panels to cut for some arcade machines tomorrow so will entrust them to the Blackbox and take some videos


    *** EDIT ***

    Just taking a look at the header.... I will be wiring limit switches in as well and just loop the E-Stop on one of the headers so it acts as though the Limit switch has been triggered if i hit the 'E-Stop' button.
     
    #112 Chillimonster, Mar 1, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2019
  23. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Congrats No2! You shall be remembered!

    Using limits as an E-stop: Grbl is quite set on pin assignments, but you can dig through the source and check

    However, I fail to see the point of a e-stop on the controller. It should be on the power, preferably the end of the extension cord closer to the door. I want to be able to hit the estop while running away! :) and it should cut power to EVERYTHING at once!

    Wiring in the Abort on Grbl to an emergency switch, i just dont get it. By the time you hit an e-stop, recovering where in the job you were is unlikely, it already crashed, caught fire, gone off track, else why would you hit the estop? :) - it should be POWER

     
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  24. Chillimonster

    Chillimonster Well-Known
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    Its more to do with 'user error' on my part (Not setting the workspace zero before cutting and want to halt the job before it goes off the rails) - think of it more of a pause button, just like the Door Ajar feature without the GRBL recompile.
     
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  25. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    The Stop and E-Stop software buttons in OpenBuilds control are immediate in nature, good enough for an Oops I started in the wrong spot. Clicking play, moving mouse to stop is 50px away (;
     
    #115 Peter Van Der Walt, Mar 1, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2019
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  26. GrayUK

    GrayUK Openbuilds Team Elder
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    Just out of curiosity, after loading the Gcode, does the Blackbox and OB program show how long the job would take?
     
  27. sitoru

    sitoru New
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    just got my blackbox, I have 2 hybrid servo steppers w/drivers that I've been using, but I'm wondering if its possible to still use them with the blackbox? can figure out what would be the correct wiring if it was possible.
     
  28. Mike Piechowski

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    I've confirmed that EstlCam can "see" and flash the BlackBox, so I think so. I'm still working on getting the inputs and outputs all sorted out, and I am still missing the 24V power input plug. That's on the way, just in another package, so I can't go much farther until that arrives.
     
  29. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    B
    BlackBox is aimed at beginners, thus have integrated drivers to make things easy to hook up.

    For external drivers, why pay for a box with onboard drivers if you wont need them. Just get a cheap Arduino running Grbl. See Kyo's wiring videos
     
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  30. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    We had it in a for a while, but its surprisingly hard to estimate gcode runtime (machine acceleration, between different machines, makes huge differences) - so removed. It also slows down the gcode parser to calculate the move time. Easier than fighting with users who complain its inaccurate (;
     
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