Introduction + My Cyclone 2.2 + feet for Cyclone + mistakes in BOM ?

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Kris Wauters

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Nov 14, 2015, 12:51:05 PM11/14/15
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Hello all,

Let me first introduce myself: I'm Kris, born in 1974 (so, 41 years old), based in Belgium (near Antwerp) a graduated software developer (currently business-analyst and project manager, the only software development I do now, is at home, for all my hobbies).
Happely together for 12,5 years now with my lovely wife Christel :-)
In general I'm a very happy and satisfied person, but I have lots and lots of health issues. (already had a heart-attack at the age of 29, due to inherited family-related blood issues and strugling for a few years now with sarcoïdose (something totally different).

I love trains (mainly steam and diesel, ERA III, German locomotives) - the real thing - but also HO (1:87 scale) and G-scale (my wifes' garden railroad at scale 1:32). We both love trains :-)
Furthermore we love travelling, watching movies, a good diner, and gadgets and (DIY) electronics and mechanics. (I love open-source !)
I make my own electronics for my home automation and to automate my H0 and garden railroad layouts ... (I already own a 40x30 CM portal CNC machine, and a very large HBM BF-25 mill (that I converted myself to CNC and Mach3),
a CO2 50W CNC laser, and a 250x550 HBM Lathe (stil conventional, conversion to CNC in the planning) and 3 3D printers :-)
So, besides electronics and 3D printing and lasering, I also build real steam-locomotives in scale 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" ...
(I'm very familiar with Solidworks, so design-files for my own ideas is not a problem or obstacle for me)

If you want to know more about me, you can always check my blog at http://www.digitalplayground.be

I just finished my Cyclone 2.2, and I created some extra feet for it. (I use a ramps board, and I did like to idea to put all electronics underneath the Cyclone)
you can download the STL file from thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1131591
Or look at my pictures at http://www.digitalplayground.be/?p=3255  (if a moderator would like to add a picture of my Cyclone to the worldwide Cyclone collection, please pick a picture from this link, they are availabel in high-res)

In the meanwhile I already printed a second set of parts (as you can see in one of the pictures), because I have a friend who wanted to build a cyclone, but does not have a 3D printer yet.
Furthermore, I have 2 other friends, started building a cyclone, under my guidance (they both have a 3D printer)

One more thing => I noticed in the BOM, for the first smoothrod, that the indicated quantity is 1, this must be 2 :-) Who can change this please ? :-)



best regards from Belgium,
Kris



Frédéric Coubard

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Nov 15, 2015, 3:09:14 AM11/15/15
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Hi Kris,

Impressive Lab and work :-).

Good catch for the smooth rod number. I just corrected it on the github wiki (and also on the french Gitbook).

I take the opportunity for an obvious question to those already having mounted a Cyclone (still not my case, in progress, sourcing vitamins...), I would like to precise in the documentation for which axis are rods.

For smooth ones :
8x210mmY
8x150mmZ
8x250mmX

For threaded ones :
M8x205mmY
M8x290mmX
M8x95mmZ


Is it correct ?

Regards.

Frederic

Kris Wauters

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Nov 15, 2015, 6:02:49 AM11/15/15
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Hi Frederic,

Your assumptions about the smooth rods and threaded rods about the X,Y & Z are correct :-)
Thanks for the compliments about my lab, if you like to see pictures of my personal lab, then take a look at : http://www.digitalplayground.be/?p=805

best regards,
Kris

Carlos García

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Nov 16, 2015, 6:52:53 PM11/16/15
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@Frédéric thanks for updating the wiki so quickly. I am so sorry for what has happened in Paris, hopefully you and your relatives are all OK. Big hug from Spain.

@Kris Welcome! Neat work with those model locomotives, they look pretty cool. I love the fact that you create your own circuits to manage the railways :-)

Thanks for sharing the feet for the machine, it looks like they might decouple some vibrations and really tidy up the assembly of the electronics.
Also, please let me know if I can help you to fix the "GRBL for Cyclone" firmware to re-incorporate the Z endstop.

I'll add the picture of your build to the wiki soon.

Cheers,
Carlos

PS: OMG your lab looks like TECH-HEAVEN!! I'm an absolute fan of the "Caution: this machine has no brain. Use your own."

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Kris Wauters

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Nov 19, 2015, 2:49:43 AM11/19/15
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Hoi Carlos,
 
Everything is comming along together nicely :-)
In the meanwhile, I designed an endstop for the Z-axis also, I like to have an upper-homing position also :-)
(STL file and pictures of the Z-endstop is included now in the thingiverse item, together with the feet - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1131591 )
I don't expect any problems with the firmware, I'm a software developer after all, but thanks for the offer ...
Milling will probably start this weekend :-)
Starting building a second machine, will start within 2 weeks ofzo. (I need to make a lot of PCBs for my home automation expansion and for the G-scale locomotives I built myself, so a second machine is not a luxury any more, lol)
In the meanwhile, my friend in the Netherlands almost finished his Cyclone, and the other guys I told about in my first posting, are currently printing all parts and waiting for me to deliver "the rest" (smoothrods, steppers, endswitches, power supply etc ...)
 
 
best regards,
Kris
 
 
groeten,
Kris

Nando

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Nov 19, 2015, 7:07:26 AM11/19/15
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Very nice build Kris!
Keep up.

I also have a Z end stop, after a good discussion with the developer of GRBL I understood that the Cyclone was indeed lacking it, so I also added it and works perfectly.
It makes working with most software's (like bCNC) much easier.


-Nando
Sent from my Sinclair ZX81

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Carlos García

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Nov 19, 2015, 8:34:30 AM11/19/15
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Kris, I can tell you have not yet looked at how "crusty" the GRBLforCyclone/RAMPS port is.
It is the "MOD of another MOD" of an old version of GRBL, it almost falls into the NSFW category:

https://github.com/carlosgs/grblForCyclone/commit/55fe29a81640f2dddb381167e8064d2311916fbb
In special you'll have to look at limits.c and probe.c

Good luck!
- Carlos




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Yiannis Mandravellos

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Nov 20, 2015, 5:32:47 AM11/20/15
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I haven't ever had the need to use GRBL with RAMPS but for some time now GRBL has support for ATMega2560 so it should work with RAMPS.
Worst case you 'd have to re-assign some pins :)

All you 'd have to change at the top of config.h is replace the

#define CPU_MAP_ATMEGA328P

with

#define CPU_MAP_ATMEGA2560

I haven't tried it but I guess that would be a good start :)
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Carlos García

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Nov 20, 2015, 6:25:58 AM11/20/15
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Hi Yiannis, let me explain the issue with GRBL and RAMPS a bit further:

GRBL has some hardcore optimization going on inside. It employs particular sets (ports) of CPU pins to drive each motor, endstop, etc.
Defining the pins beforehand allows for an extremely efficient use of interruption routines and so on.

The problem is with the differences in the electric connectivity in RAMPS, Sanguinololu and other 3D printer electronics. These were not designed with proper pin arrangements in mind (since Marlin, though less efficient, allows to define arbitrary pins for almost everything)

So in order to fit it into 3D printer electronics it is necessary to make modifications to core GRBL sources, which easily yields unbounded ugliness ;)

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Yiannis Mandravellos

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Nov 20, 2015, 6:39:13 AM11/20/15
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Thanks for the info Carlos!
Like I said, I haven't used grbl+ramps so what I say stands only in theory ;)

I know grbl uses port access for the pins and for this reason it needs specific groups of pins residing on the same hardware port. It's standard practice for efficient use. But an inconvenience for poor implementations...

I just assumed, by seeing that they have support for the bigger mega cpu, that the pins would also be assigned correctly (in terms of how grbl wants them to be grouped). From what you 're saying I understand that this is not the case with ramps wiring.. What a pitty.

Anyway, in that case, sorry for the noise.

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Carlos García

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Nov 20, 2015, 6:56:43 AM11/20/15
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No worries Yiannis! My thoughts were the same, the pinout thing is a pity. Just trying to save some headaches to fellow cycloners ;D

Though having support for the Atmega 2560 probably does simplify porting the latest versions of GRBL, so thanks for the tip!!

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