CORRECTION: Several people have pointed out that the Kapton tape on top of the switches is there to make them easier for the pick-and-place machine to grab them with a suction head. I said in the video that it was there to protect the switch during the board cleaning process. It looks like I picked up some bad information somewhere. Thanks for the correction!
Lols. I intended to watch these new videos eventually. However I came here from your weight loss video that was recommended after I re-watched your toolpost grinder build for probably the third time. Looks like you kept going. High five. I don’t feel alone anymore as far as people thinking you’re sick after having not seen you since you were overweight. Funny that is the default assumption. That’s usually the first question I get, “are you okay? You look skinny.” Makes me wanna strip down and flex, “that answer your question?” Lost 60 pounds. 5%body fat. Addicted to training. Looks like I got in a fight with spider man when my skin gets too hot. “The ugly truth of being shredded” 😂. Anyways congrats on the progress. I know sometimes it feels like you are the only one who seems to appreciate it. 👍🏻.
First I wanted to thank you for all your hard work in creating the project, filming, documenting, and sharing with all of us. In our home shop, my father always had a couple of lathes and mills. We have made many projects over the last 40 or so years. The one thing I never have done was single point threading. Changing the gears was always a pain and never had the right gears for the project, so we just used taps or dies. After seeing this project, I decided to convert our ALL manual shop to have some automation or at least something modern. My father is now 86 years old. He has been a machinist the mid to late 40s. He retired from the machining business and opened a Deli in 1972. When I told him about the project he was interested and wanted to know more but not very excited. (Remember, he still thinks the flip phone is such an advanced phone) I started to collect all the major parts and get things together over several weeks. Last night, I finally had everything in front of me and had time to work on it. I put it together and it worked exactly like your initial demo. My father came over to visit about an hour ago and showed him the demo. Now he WANTS me to convert one of the lathes. He also wants to convert to a VFD. Your idea has re-ignited the fire in my 86 year old father. Again, thank you for that and this project.
YOU DA MAN, JAMES! NOTICE ALL CAPS. I DID MY OWN DRAFTING FOR SO MANY YEARS AS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER. I TOO AM WORKING TO BUILD AND OPERATE A MAKER/FAB SHOP IN RETIREMENT. I CONSIDER MYSELF A JACK OF ALL TRADES, BUT JAMES, BROTHER. YOU ARE THE RENAISSANCE MAN!
Hi James I'm a elderly retired engineer who took up machining upon retirement. I purchased the ubiquitous Chinese mini lathe and mini mill and have used both to craft a number of model engines and shop tools with great success and satisfaction. Both machines have been modified over the years to make life much easier. I've been keen to build an electronic lead screw control. Having stumbled across your web site, has enabled me to start the journey. Parts are on order and I look forward to the build. I have to say your detailed exposition of the work steps you take for each phase are very good. I only regret not finding you sooner. Many thanks.
As a professional firmware developer, I think you did a pretty good job of describing the embedded tool chain and the programming process ... Oh, and this project is OFF THE HOOK! What a great application ... and I would be very surprised if the tool makers don't beat a path to your door ...
Yours are the clearest and most pain-free programming instructions I've ever viewed. They're the first I've followed that didn't require Novocain and a handful of Advil! They're the first that I've ever wanted to see again! They're the first tutorials I've ever wanted to see made into a major motion picture, the first I'd ever be willing to pay admission to see! I admit that it will never get an Academy Award (unless it's somewhere in the third-hour snooze portion of the broadcast), but I am certain it has already attained cult-status! I'm already looking forward to attending the first TI-Lead-Screwy Convention in some major city in the near future! They'll have balloons! We'll wear funny hats shaped like a PCB-- or maybe a ball-nut. Seriously, your patience, knowledge and generosity are clearly evident, and very much appreciated. Thank you, Guru.
Hi Folks. I'm almost 70 with no previous compile, link and load experience. I've done this firmware installation using James' excellent step by step instructions. I watched the video and made comprehensive notes from it. If I can, you can! BobUK.
As someone who has only dabbled into the Arduino IDE for programming in the last 15 years, this was quite interesting to see the process right from setting up the software and IDE for the TI boards. Thank you for the detail, I learned a lot.
I am enjoying each video as it comes on line. You have a clear way of describing each problem especially the electronics with helpful schematics. Keep up the good work and thanks for your efforts. Regards Richard Voller
I love your videos! But I also love seeing your face and how it's changed. Seriously. As someone who has lost significant weight and kept it off for years, I want to tell you how impressed I am with you for doing it and keeping it up. Being lean and athletic pays dividends everywhere! It is a great thing on its own, but it also makes everything else better. Kudos, sir. p.s. At 52, I am more physically capable and feel better than I did in my late 30s. It's so worth it!
Thanks! I couldn't agree more. I've never been in shape, so this is all new to me. I'm wearing smaller jeans now than I did in middle school. Over the last nine months, I have intentionally put on about 10lbs after hitting the wall at the gym. Those 10lbs allowed me to add 140lbs each to my squat and deadlift, and 75lbs to my bench. That feels pretty good, too.
@@Clough42 That's fantastic! Number one thing that correlates with aging well is the amount of muscle you have. And that's averaging in bodybuilders and NFL athletes, who typically don't age well! But if you want to predict longevity by 50, just look at the total muscle mass! (Yes, I practice what I preach. DL 500, SQ 400, BP 350! And all of this is new to me in the last 10 years.)
Yup... sign me up for the kit when it's ready! I've got a mill/lathe combo that is pre-drilled to accept servo motors, so this would be an easy upgrade for me.
James, this whole series of videos is fantastic. You have gone where no man has gone before and I appreciate it. You have been so methodical in showing your viewers everything. The whys of choosing floating point, the error bars of the threading and so forth. I have come to trust you, your hardware and software. I have just about everything I need. Except, what powers the TI board? Is that the $400 power supply that I haven’t bought yet? I hope not. All that’s left for me to do is download the software. Please don’t take down any of these videos or I’ll be totally lost. I have an old HP workstation that’s running Windows 7, but it’s 64 bit. I hope this is ok. Please tell me about the power supply and the origins of Clough54. Thanks, Paul
As usual, you make the complicated highly understandable for all skill levels. I have a 9x20 HF bench lathe with a lead screw gearbox. You still have to mess around with change gears for different threading operations. I personally would like to completely remove the entire gear train and just use the servo/stepper controlled lead screw for threading as well as carriage feed control.
The difficulty depends on how fancy you want the feature to be. Simplest setup I can think of is a proximity sensor that mounts to your lathe (maybe make a bracket that slides along the ways with a clamp screw and holds the prox sensor in place). Connect the prox sensor to a GPIO of your choice. Then add an `isEnabled` flag to Core.h. At Core.h line 98 [1], also check the `isEnabled` flag. If flag is false, skip the `if` code block, and the stepper motor doesn't update. You might update the previous values after the `if` code block, otherwise your carriage may take off when you reenable the flag. At the top of Core.h::ISR line 97 [2] read the prox sensor and when it detects the carriage, clear the flag `isEnabled = false`, and the stepper stops moving the carriage. When the carriage isn't detected, set the flag `isEnabled = true`, and the stepper will start moving the carriage again. This is a rough idea, some testing and tweaking is recommended to iron out the bugs. [1]: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/blob/master/els-f280049c/Core.h#L98 [2]: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/blob/master/els-f280049c/Core.h#L97
James, I don't know if you read comments on your old posts but wanted to let you know I'm finishing up my 2nd ELS on an Atlas 618 lathe. I've been waiting about 5 months for the TI microcontroller, but finally got one from Digikey. I've got one on order with Mouser also, (for a different project) but they still show a longer delivery. Putting an ELS on an Atlas 618 may be Overkill, but as you say that is Underrated. Thanks again for doing the heavy lifting, pun intended...
Awesome! Few instructors could ever do this with the ease that our "James" does it. What a gifted man. Praise Jesus. Can't wait for the kits. Keep up the good work James. (And do blink your eyes, we won't mind LOL)
Ha! I hadn't noticed that. I guess I'm not blinking much in the to-camera pieces, am I? I generally shoot those early in the morning when it's quiet. Maybe I'm not awake yet. :)
I've been using mine for a couple weeks now but I am looking forward to getting a board so I can set and save settings. This is a great project and you do mighty fine work. Thanks
Thanks for the clear explanation! I am now eagerly looking forward to seeing the clarification on how to convert the program for a metric spindle! Fantastic project!
Just purchased your board and am collecting all the other necessary components, can't wait to complete the electronic lead screw upgrade, will be using NEMA 23 servo's with DQ860MA servo drivers do I to make changes in the firmware. I now have both the G0602 lathe and G0704 mill and will be making the same modifications to them as you have to yours. Thanks Al
I just programmed my third TI board with the MacBook using Code Composer Studio version 10.4.0. I loaded Clough42 v1.400 and made minor changes to Configuration H for stepper ratio. I was not able to install CCS 9 build 10 on this M1 Mac due to permissions so I had loaded CCS 10.2.0 weeks ago which was then updated to 10.6.0. TI warns that CCS will be updated every 6 months. This time on build there was a warning “ A firmware update is required for the XDS110 probe.” Once I clicked on that update, the build completed the flash. So far the updates from TI have all worked. I am now waiting on 3M pulleys and belts for the 12 inch Enco.
Yes, they update constantly. The firmware update for the XDS110 probe is just flashing the probe chip on the LaunchPad to match the version of the debugger you're using. If you later want to use CCS9 again, it will flash the chip to match.
@@Clough42 Right, I have CCS 9 build 10 on a Windows 10 computer, but it is Clough Version 1.301 and my alternate workspace for Clough version 1.400 did not seem to pan out. CCS is a witches brew of TI utilities reflected by the documentation. I suspect you use it at work and virtual machine it off in to a safe corner per project. Its easier for me to change operating systems. Thanks again for all your labor on the programming. There must be a thousand working ELS systems by now.
hello james small question to just program the TI with the boost board is the external 5v required or is it also possible to just do it thru usb by leaving those 3 jumpers in place? also what are your thoughts on kwackers fork of the els with the thread to shoulder option?
Very interesting. Between this project and Roger Webb's CNC conversion the cheap Chinese mini-lathe will be popular for some time to come. Integrating both with your VFD project is also quite interesting. Thank you.
By the magic of planning ahead, (and a gracious neighbor helping out the postal service), I received my kit this morning AND this afternoon I received the Launchpad (ordered directly through TI, delivered via Singapore). I was following through this video step by step, and I was wondering what modification needs to be made to the configuration file for the 180W servo from "Clearpath Killler" in order to run the stepper microsteps at 3, with a stepper resolution of 1000, but then 2:1 through the gearbox? does that make my stepper_resolution 500? Planning to install on a G0602, but mine still has most of the factory flaws. Also, thank you again for all of this. I have watched the series multiple times, with multiple rewinds and pauses, but you have provided a LOT of information, and I am a little slow on the uptake. Also, Code Composer is up to v12, I am not sure if that is going to be an issue yet, or not.
@@boldford It looks like Jon Bryan was able to accomplish this. Take a look at 15:18 in "ua-cam.com/video/rKKs4lCEXwE/v-deo.html". He doesn't explain how he re-synchronizes the lead screw and spindle after the lead screw stops at the shoulder. I'm sure Clough42 would be able to come up with a process that would work.
@@mgillis1948 If you listen again he explains that he uses the half-nuts in the normal way when he cuts imperial (inch) threads. He would use the thread dial indicator to pick up a partially completed thread. He leaves them closed all the while when he cuts metric and runs up to the stop using the lathes jog function. You would use James's ELS in exactly the same way.
@@boldford I did listen again. He does use the half-nuts for normal threading. If you listen to him at 15:16 he explains about threading to a stop. If you watch from 15:20 he sets up a 40 pitch inch thread while leaving the half-nuts closed and sets limits. At 17:00 he says that it will thread to that limit and then Stop.
@@boldford If go to James's GitHub Page. github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew You'll see: "Future Goals While this project is starting out as a simple gearbox replacement, some features seem attractive, even for that simple case: Threading/feeding up to a hard shoulder with automatic stop Automatic recall and resync with hybrid threads (e.g. metric threads on an imperial leadscrew)" To me it sounds like James would like to thread to a shoulder also.
My LaunchXL arrived today and while I was having a look at it I noticed that the pinout on the supplied card is different than the actual pinout numbering on J6 and J8, they seem to be mirrored ! Never mind just read it on your GITHUB page :-)
Hi James, I adding the ELS to my 12in Craftsman lathe, I'm confused about the configuration setup concerning "counts" on the servo motor since for torque concerns, I want to run a planetary gear reduction of 5 to 1 so by my limited understanding, the count entry for config would be 200?
Well I just bought a lathe that I'm restoring that has no change gears (an old boxford) I was looking at doing a conversion to a gearbox model or where I might buy gears, but you've sold me on this idea, would probably be about the same price now.
Wow Nice job and really well explained well done !!!👌👍 haven't used ti products for years but seeing all that gives me strength to jump back into the game 🙄 I couldn't see this one coming, I really enjoyed it !😁 It is really a awesome project you have started. I might not be a machinist but still think that it is super cool and that I want one even the fact that I don't have a lathe 🤔 I shall also be lot thankful for what you share with us and all that hard work you have put in !!! It might not contributed as much as I would like to, but again if you seeing that, thanks you for all !!!😉😁👍
Congratulations, your work is very interesting. I have learned a lot by watching your videos. Thank you for your project and your dedication! I'm from Brazil.
I have tryed to watch the video but something have changed on ti.com. I had the instruction running in one window and ti.com in a nother And it looks like that the compiled program ended up on the controller board. Thank you for your good work James
Hi folks, in part 14 later on James suggests that one Launch Pad board he was using may possibly have been damaged by inadvertant static electricity. It can happen to the best of us. (He also gives another reason). As a result I'd strongly suggest taking the appropriate precautions before even opening the anti-static shielding bag contaning the TI Launch Pad board. Again, watch part 14 to see how to do this - and don't wear nylon clothing! BobUK.
I had been thinking about designing this myself when you came along and did the work for me. Thanks!! Would you consider making some milled boxes and 3d printed rubber keys available along with the interface board. Bob M
Quick but important question, does it have to be exactly this board or would it also work with the LAUNCHXL-F28379D? I bought this Lead Screw Kit around 2 years ago, but didnt had time yet to install it. Now i have the problem that the F28049c isnt aviable.
The key part is actually your interface board; have you decided whether you're going to sell them? I've already ordered the development board, display/button board, and optical encoder, but am a bit unsure on the stepper/servo. Have you decide which is "better" in such an application, the hybrid servo or straight stepper? Would hate to get one then have you announce that the other is superior :)
Yeah, I knew that was a risk when I decided to share the development process from the beginning. I'm going to go with the servo for my lathe, but my tests show that the stepper also works fine. I'm currently planning to make the interface board available and leave the choice of motor and driver to the builder. Different lathes will have different mechanical requirements. A 12" mini lathe won't require as much power as a vintage Boxford.
What is you opinion on vim, (C)make, gcc, and gdb? I just use CCS by TI but I was told to check them out, the cli is scary but I know that they carry a lot of power.
You developed your own project using new stuff while i'm here with a 'Fagor 8010m' controller and making it work with outdated 'servos' and old Heidenheim encoders ahahah still a great machine after 30 plus years :p keep up with your awesome videos!
You’ve got this set up so simple man thanks I just purchased the boards from eBay will you be offering a pre machined case or is this a buy your own make it fit
Just a couple of experiences in case they help anyone else out. A year on from James' video, version 10 of Code Composer Studio is available. I did try it (as the latest version) but it either didn't support the debug probe or it was just not mentioned. It also wouldn't compile James' code; complaining that 'make' wasn't found. Version 9.1 worked flawlessly. When I first programmed the board, it required an update to the icepick debug firmware. I have an Anker powered USB3 hub for convenient access to ports. When the board was connected to that the firmware update failed. I'm pretty sure I've seen something similar before. Connecting directly to a port on the PC solved this issue. I first tried an old Apple 5V 1A USB power supply to test things once programmed. The lights came on but it did not work. I'm guessing that 1A was not enough power as plugging it into the aforementioned USB3 hub (power-only port) made it work fine. If you want metric as the default, the setting is in UserInterface.cpp at line 61 (in version 1.1.02) and you need to change "this->metric = false;" to "this->metric = true;" When soldering James' board, make sure you solder the 20-pin connectors to the UNDERSIDE of the PCB. Soldering them to the top (with all the other components) will definitely result in a bad day. I didn't manage to get them off without pulling some of the pins out of the shell. You can order replacements (if you've managed to do this too) from eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/282120149502 (UK seller - plenty others available) You want the 2.54mm PCB Female header double row, straight pins (not right-angle) and they list the number of ways as "10+10".
Fantastic channel! Just found your channel today and subscribed. Your presentation stye is excellent and extremely organized and very clear. Can;t wait to get through all your videos in this series. I have a question maybe you can answer. For designing a CNC machine with stepper motors, for the long axis moving the whole gantry, steppers can be connected in parallel and Mach 3 or Linux cnc or other stepper controller can clone the two motors as 1 single axis. If you were to replace the 2 steppers in that case with servos, how would you tune 2 parallel servos to work in tandem on 1 axis?
Great project, benefiting so many folks. Thanks! Could one drive two screws, 1 lead and 1 cross slide on a mill/ lathe combo by stacking two of your boards and some additional programming? Or would it best to use identical motors and switch between them?
OK` I sussed it out and finally got it programmed. IF you dont have any boards connected you must have the 3 jumpers installed. You see the red LED without them so you think its on but the programming port is not recognised. Once you enable the 3 jumpers then the board becomes alive and you can then program it. The 110 driver firmware updated automatically this was done with CCS 9.3 and until I get the boards from Clough42..hopefully next week I can then get it all together and see that it all fires up. I have the servo and other stuff just waiting on the encoder as well. I didnt realise he had his other boards powering the whole system. I didnt notice that on the video but it will not compile with V10 CCS
James, First off I really appreciate your style of presenting information. Your skill at making a presentation that even an ole dummy like me can understand. I am seriously considering doing this project instead of cncing my lathe as I feel it will actually be more usefull in the long run. Stumbled on your Overview video day before yesterday and have gone through all 10 of them and at this point, have just a couple of comments. 1. First off, I am really glad you put the note up in #10 about the install time of the IDE because I was starting to get worried about how long it was taking. On my machine, it was a little over 45 minutes! At times, thought it was hung:{( 2. I have probably missed it along the way, but is there any diagrams on the interconnection of the various parts such as the encoder to the main board, connections of the display to the main board etc.? As others have stated, Thank You very much for your presentations and looking forward to the kit board. Regards.
My apologies, as I finally read the “readme.md” file in the github download. Sure enough, my #2 comment was answered right there in black and white! Now for another question, I am attempting to decipher the feed tables layout and have a question in particular about the 11.5 TPI construction. Here are the lines for the 11 and the 11.5 TPI: { .display = {BLANK, BLANK, ONE, ONE}, .leds = LED_THREAD | LED_TPI, TPI_FRACTION(110) }, { .display = {BLANK, ONE, ONE|POINT,FIVE}, .leds = LED_THREAD | LED_TPI, TPI_FRACTION(110) }, and in particular am looking at the TPI_FRACTION() for the 11.5 TPI line. Should it not be 115 instead of 110 which is the same as for the line above it???? Also am I correct in “assuming” that if I want to add an additional line to the table that all I have to do is add it in the appropriate place and then recompile or do I have to adjust table size values somewhere else?? Thanks in advance.
Nice video James, the project looks like it is going well. I will get round to converting my lathe one day, but as usual there are a ton of other projects to distract me. Keep up the good work my friend.
How accurate is of an X/Y measurement is reading the angular position of the lead screws and displaying it vs. glass or magnetic scales in a DRO? I’m looking into building a version of your electronic lead screw and thinking about using it as a DRO also, by adding an rotary encoder for the cross feed and displaying another set of LED displays.
First off thanks for all your video's, I really enjoy all the different topics and how easy you make it to understand some of the things that are outside my normal skill set. I am currently upgrading my g9729 lathe/mill combo machine using your control panel and interface board and was wondering if there was an easy way to make the encoder inputs selectable to utilize 2 encoders? Being out of my depth when it comes to this I had incorrectly assumed I could just switch the power to the encoder I wished to use, but soon realized that caused the spindle speed to read extremely low as well as fluctuate badly. `Just hoping someone can point me in the right direction, until then I guess it's time to hit the books again. Thanks again for the great video's and keep up the good work. :) Edit: Looks as though it did work the way I originally thought but my switch needed to be on the ground side, all is stable and working perfectly now.
Before this order information was posted I ordered a board directly from TI. I received a launchpad XL F28069M. It is similar but not exact. Will it work with this application? I just ordered the correct board through the link from Digi-Key but wondered if it would work.
Great Project and an excellent presentation of your work. Thank You! I have a couple of general questions please. I am considering using this board for other projects. 1. It looks like the project is mixed C and C++ code, is this correct? 2. Is there any RTOS being used or is it just a foreground / background system?
I think, it a problem for us who are "older", when it comes to getting it pregaming in to flesh memory . is getting to the page. to do what you have demonstrated i have windows 10 & have not got any were near the page even with your links . to program the siystom board The board should come pry program redy ti install. with it memory loaded to flash. the lath i will be attempting to adapt is a old school lath of my youth, & to cut thread's it as no threads no what wuld be the led screw at all . just a shaft with a keyway down it lenth that drives a nut with an external six trends to the inch . driven by a gear. the nut that in tern drives a shat that move the carnage along the rack . & it's change gear give us a set of third to cut. I suppose then the pitch would be that of the nut thread's of Six TPI that of the nut . I'm locking for you your ELS to be provide a full package, as a ELS this would include steeper motors , programmed mother boards in standard flash memory redy to plug & play all the necessary edweeno { excuse the spelling } & systems needed to Mont it in to A cabinet along with it power supply. My job will be to mount in to the cabinet & fit motors & interface & switch on & ues I am over 70 years of age suffer' with arthritis & Dislexcea I get by it tacks a time for me to get on I have been at this now as ling AS you have been building it. IT a product i thing will adapt my lathe But i need it in kit for with all it programming in place . so i can di the physical stuff my self. If you can supply such A Package then. I think it will finally Up , grade most lathe. that ues Chan gears today Even replace then in the markit place. thank you les England.
Man love the videos. Glad to hear you are planning on making it AIO. I agree take your time anf get it right. Because I will be getting one for sure. Looking forward to it. Keep up the awesome work.
So I have the eval board, and the display board just showed up, but of course nothing can happen without the logic level conversion. Hmmm, what to do: order the converter board that you used in the prototype, or wait for your board. The latter is certainly cleaner, but knowing roughly when you're thinking whether/if/when it'll be available would help me decide. Thanks again for a very cool video series!
I am starting this project for my lathe, thanks for all the great information. Is the schematics for your interface board available? I didn't see it on the github. Also, I went to order one from ebay but it says you don't ship to Canada. I'm happy to build one my self so a schematic is more than enough if one is available. I'm very early in the project, I have the micro controller and lathe, still waiting on the display board, servo motor and driver to come in the mail.
Very interesting. I'd love some more information, sometime, about how you work with VMs for development. I'm just planning my home dev environment (prior to retirement) and very interested in better ways to do things.
Hello James, Thanks sharing your knowledge with us I really apprecheate it. do you have a link where I can find Texas Instruments Launchxl board. I purchased your other boards on eBay but no luck with this TI Lanchxl. Thank for many project ideas you have passed on!!!
A year and 4 months later than this video, things have changed. CCS is now at version 10, which some subscribers say does not work. It did give me a make error on a Linux download. Version 9 for Windows 10 can be found in the TI archives as mentioned on the Git-Hub. There are 3 versions of CCS 9 including 9.1.0 build10. Ignore the TI question about the "simple" version of CCS and get the default. The extract and setup of CCS takes a very long time. My Windows V10 decided I needed an update and stepped on my first install of CCS9. but it worked the second time. Git-hub is slightly different as well, and you will find three program zip files under CODE including the test board program. Currently its the release is 1.3.0.1 which has Metric leadscrew support and a bunch of safety features. Late-comers advantage: Your Git-Hub troubleshooting page is very well done. You can find that here: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/wiki/Troubleshooting . I simply printed it out. Some folks may want to run two computers for some stuff, one for UA-cam C42 and one for CCS/Git Hub/downloads. Great Job James, you've been a very good lad and deserve all the toys Santa left you.
Use the USB cord provided. I got ‘target not found’ with other USB cords. The computer will see it as a USB device and will sound the USB notification on plug in.
Well I finally gave in and ordered a LaunchXL board, I'm in the UK and the cheapest place to get it from was direct from TI, it is shipped from Germany and it worked out at £37, now to find the rest of the parts. Is there a PCB design to download so I can get them made? *** Sorry just remembered you put it on Circuitmaker *** And thanks very much for all the time and effort you've put in for this project.
I would love to use this as a power feed. Maybe with material type, diameter , RPM, tool type and then it will give you some nice feeds for roughing finishing etc. Or I could stop being lazy and just type in what I want :-)
I have tried downloading the software & programming the prototyping board which I think has worked ? But despite having power to my display PCB its otherwise dear i.e no display ! I've tried a second display board & checked that all connections are good but still nothing ? How can I tell if it's an issue with the TI PCB or just that the software hasn't installed ?
Code suggestion: Just completed my build and installation on an Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathe. Fantastic project!! However, my build has a third mode called "Break Tool". This randomly happens every few minutes. It will act like all buttons have been pressed simultaneously. The leadscrew reverses, the display shows "No Settings", the mode flips to metric threading and the feed speed increases dramatically. Oops. I was able to suppress this significantly by adding 33 ohm series resistors to the head cable STB, CLK and DIO lines on both ends, but it still occasionally happens. My head cable is a 4-foot piece of standard 8-wire #22 shielded industrial control cable. I suspect that the "feature" is caused by either a corrupted "read switches" code being sent to the display, or a false readback of all-switches-pressed for unknown reasons. I've added a crude sanity check to the switch readback code in ControlPanel.cpp. The simplest way to do this is to check that the value of newkeys.all is less than or equal to 128 for a valid keyswitch readback. I've made the following 3 line addition to 1.1.02 ControlPanel.cpp in the ControlPanel::getKeys() routine around line 239: newkeys - readKeys(); // Original Clough42 code // Detect invalid key responses NLG if(newKeys.all > 128) { //NLG return noKeys; // Bail out if bogus key readback NLG } /NLG if( newkeys.all != this->keys.all ) { // Original Clough42 code A slightly better but slower solution: newKeys = readKeys(); /Clough42 code // Detect invalid key responses NLG 9/23/20 switch(newKeys.all) { case 128: case 64: case 32: case 16: case 8: case 4: case 1: case 0: break; // Pass on if OK default: return noKeys; // Bail out on bad key data NLG break; } // End of NLG mod if( newKeys.all != this->keys.all ) { // Clough42 code The only valid values for newKeys.all are 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 1 and 0. All others are either fat fingers or bogus reads. I suspect others can do a much better code job than this. This code addition has completely solved my issue. Thanks again for the fantastic project.
I’m also going to install this on an old atlas/craftsman lathe would love to see how you mounted all the components on your lathe Thanks for any suggestions newbe
Hi James, I get the following error when using debug and Release when compiling the code "Cannot run program "make": Launching failed Error: Program "make" not found in PATH" can you point me in the right direction
The newer versions of the TI debug program (9.3 and newer) do not have the "TI XDS Debug Probe Support" option. You can still download the 9.1 or 9.2 versions though.
How do you see this working on a lathe that has separate feed screw for general carriage feed and a conventional lead screw driven with different gear trains to achieve any given thread pitch? Would you just eliminate the non-lead screw for feeding the apron in all situations except for cross slide operations like facing and parting?
Interesting question. I think I would probably use this to drive the threading screw and just let the feed mechanism run as designed. The kind of lathe you describe is probably pretty full featured already, though, so an electronic leadscrew might not add much besides hybrid threading.
Hey there James, I'm in the process of setting up your lead-screw on my Sheldon 11" and just wanted to say that I'm really impressed with the level of detail that you've provided both in your videos and on your GIT hub wiki. I was working through the soldering portion yesterday and couldn't help wonder if the 42 in Clough42 is a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Had to ask LOL
@Chris Mower...if there will be a kit available...why am I banging my head against the wall trying to build this?!? I'm just hoping James will make the etched cover for the bud box....do I buy a bud box? Will he supply the whole box or just the front? No idea, probably won't know until James feels like filling in the blanks. Well between the VFD links I've purchased from and the now this ELS, I'm doing my part....YOU THERE JAMES?
CORRECTION: Several people have pointed out that the Kapton tape on top of the switches is there to make them easier for the pick-and-place machine to grab them with a suction head. I said in the video that it was there to protect the switch during the board cleaning process. It looks like I picked up some bad information somewhere. Thanks for the correction!
I'm sure it helps with the pick-and-place, but I've seen datasheets mention the tape as an option to be compatible with washing
@@fuzzy1dk cool! Everyone can be right!
Lols. I intended to watch these new videos eventually. However I came here from your weight loss video that was recommended after I re-watched your toolpost grinder build for probably the third time. Looks like you kept going. High five. I don’t feel alone anymore as far as people thinking you’re sick after having not seen you since you were overweight. Funny that is the default assumption. That’s usually the first question I get, “are you okay? You look skinny.” Makes me wanna strip down and flex, “that answer your question?” Lost 60 pounds. 5%body fat. Addicted to training. Looks like I got in a fight with spider man when my skin gets too hot. “The ugly truth of being shredded” 😂. Anyways congrats on the progress. I know sometimes it feels like you are the only one who seems to appreciate it. 👍🏻.
Hey Jim, are you using a hybrid stepper servo or a true servo motor? If you're using a true servo, please provide a link to purchase it. Thanks
Please
First I wanted to thank you for all your hard work in creating the project, filming, documenting, and sharing with all of us.
In our home shop, my father always had a couple of lathes and mills. We have made many projects over the last 40 or so years. The one thing I never have done was single point threading. Changing the gears was always a pain and never had the right gears for the project, so we just used taps or dies. After seeing this project, I decided to convert our ALL manual shop to have some automation or at least something modern. My father is now 86 years old. He has been a machinist the mid to late 40s. He retired from the machining business and opened a Deli in 1972. When I told him about the project he was interested and wanted to know more but not very excited. (Remember, he still thinks the flip phone is such an advanced phone) I started to collect all the major parts and get things together over several weeks. Last night, I finally had everything in front of me and had time to work on it. I put it together and it worked exactly like your initial demo. My father came over to visit about an hour ago and showed him the demo. Now he WANTS me to convert one of the lathes. He also wants to convert to a VFD. Your idea has re-ignited the fire in my 86 year old father. Again, thank you for that and this project.
YOU DA MAN, JAMES! NOTICE ALL CAPS. I DID MY OWN DRAFTING FOR SO MANY YEARS AS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER. I TOO AM WORKING TO BUILD AND OPERATE A MAKER/FAB SHOP IN RETIREMENT. I CONSIDER MYSELF A JACK OF ALL TRADES, BUT JAMES, BROTHER. YOU ARE THE RENAISSANCE MAN!
Hi James
I'm a elderly retired engineer who took up machining upon retirement. I purchased the ubiquitous Chinese mini lathe and mini mill and have used both to craft a number of model engines and shop tools with great success and satisfaction. Both machines have been modified over the years to make life much easier. I've been keen to build an electronic lead screw control. Having stumbled across your web site, has enabled me to start the journey. Parts are on order and I look forward to the build. I have to say your detailed exposition of the work steps you take for each phase are very good. I only regret not finding you sooner. Many thanks.
As a professional firmware developer, I think you did a pretty good job of describing the embedded tool chain and the programming process ... Oh, and this project is OFF THE HOOK! What a great application ... and I would be very surprised if the tool makers don't beat a path to your door ...
Yours are the clearest and most pain-free programming instructions I've ever viewed.
They're the first I've followed that didn't require Novocain and a handful of Advil!
They're the first that I've ever wanted to see again! They're the first tutorials I've ever wanted to see made into a major motion picture, the first I'd ever be willing to pay admission to see!
I admit that it will never get an Academy Award (unless it's somewhere in the third-hour snooze portion of the broadcast), but I am certain it has already attained cult-status! I'm already looking forward to attending the first TI-Lead-Screwy Convention in some major city in the near future! They'll have balloons! We'll wear funny hats shaped like a PCB-- or maybe a ball-nut.
Seriously, your patience, knowledge and generosity are clearly evident, and very much appreciated.
Thank you, Guru.
Hi Folks. I'm almost 70 with no previous compile, link and load experience. I've done this firmware installation using James' excellent step by step instructions. I watched the video and made comprehensive notes from it. If I can, you can! BobUK.
As someone who has only dabbled into the Arduino IDE for programming in the last 15 years, this was quite interesting to see the process right from setting up the software and IDE for the TI boards. Thank you for the detail, I learned a lot.
I am enjoying each video as it comes on line. You have a clear way of describing each problem especially the electronics with helpful schematics. Keep up the good work and thanks for your efforts. Regards Richard Voller
Your presentation is really good. Your tone of voice makes words easily understandable. Congratulations.
I love your videos! But I also love seeing your face and how it's changed. Seriously. As someone who has lost significant weight and kept it off for years, I want to tell you how impressed I am with you for doing it and keeping it up. Being lean and athletic pays dividends everywhere! It is a great thing on its own, but it also makes everything else better. Kudos, sir. p.s. At 52, I am more physically capable and feel better than I did in my late 30s. It's so worth it!
Thanks! I couldn't agree more. I've never been in shape, so this is all new to me. I'm wearing smaller jeans now than I did in middle school. Over the last nine months, I have intentionally put on about 10lbs after hitting the wall at the gym. Those 10lbs allowed me to add 140lbs each to my squat and deadlift, and 75lbs to my bench. That feels pretty good, too.
@@Clough42 That's fantastic! Number one thing that correlates with aging well is the amount of muscle you have. And that's averaging in bodybuilders and NFL athletes, who typically don't age well! But if you want to predict longevity by 50, just look at the total muscle mass! (Yes, I practice what I preach. DL 500, SQ 400, BP 350! And all of this is new to me in the last 10 years.)
Yup... sign me up for the kit when it's ready! I've got a mill/lathe combo that is pre-drilled to accept servo motors, so this would be an easy upgrade for me.
James, this whole series of videos is fantastic. You have gone where no man has gone before and I appreciate it. You have been so methodical in showing your viewers everything. The whys of choosing floating point, the error bars of the threading and so forth. I have come to trust you, your hardware and software.
I have just about everything I need. Except, what powers the TI board? Is that the $400 power supply that I haven’t bought yet? I hope not.
All that’s left for me to do is download the software. Please don’t take down any of these videos or I’ll be totally lost.
I have an old HP workstation that’s running Windows 7, but it’s 64 bit. I hope this is ok.
Please tell me about the power supply and the origins of Clough54.
Thanks,
Paul
I do love kits like this and I thank you for sharing your projects in this manner.
As usual, you make the complicated highly understandable for all skill levels. I have a 9x20 HF bench lathe with a lead screw gearbox. You still have to mess around with change gears for different threading operations. I personally would like to completely remove the entire gear train and just use the servo/stepper controlled lead screw for threading as well as carriage feed control.
yaaaaaaaaaay. a new clough 42 video. its oging to be a good day. love this build
Nice work! How difficult would it be to add an external sensor to stop the feed? To act as a carriage stop?
The difficulty depends on how fancy you want the feature to be.
Simplest setup I can think of is a proximity sensor that mounts to your lathe (maybe make a bracket that slides along the ways with a clamp screw and holds the prox sensor in place). Connect the prox sensor to a GPIO of your choice.
Then add an `isEnabled` flag to Core.h. At Core.h line 98 [1], also check the `isEnabled` flag. If flag is false, skip the `if` code block, and the stepper motor doesn't update. You might update the previous values after the `if` code block, otherwise your carriage may take off when you reenable the flag.
At the top of Core.h::ISR line 97 [2] read the prox sensor and when it detects the carriage, clear the flag `isEnabled = false`, and the stepper stops moving the carriage. When the carriage isn't detected, set the flag `isEnabled = true`, and the stepper will start moving the carriage again.
This is a rough idea, some testing and tweaking is recommended to iron out the bugs.
[1]: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/blob/master/els-f280049c/Core.h#L98
[2]: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/blob/master/els-f280049c/Core.h#L97
Ok for straight turning. Problomatic for thread cutting as it would be necessary to re-synch the tool with the workpiece. BobUK.
Just got mine up and fully running. No hitches! Thanks James!
Awesome! Great to hear.
Fantastic instructions James. Board soldered together and Launchpad programmed. Now ready to start installing pulleys and belts. Thank you.
James, I don't know if you read comments on your old posts but wanted to let you know I'm finishing up my 2nd ELS on an Atlas 618 lathe. I've been waiting about 5 months for the TI microcontroller, but finally got one from Digikey. I've got one on order with Mouser also, (for a different project) but they still show a longer delivery. Putting an ELS on an Atlas 618 may be Overkill, but as you say that is Underrated. Thanks again for doing the heavy lifting, pun intended...
Very cool. I love mine, and whether I could easily install one will be a consideration for any potential new lathe purchase. :)
Awesome! Few instructors could ever do this with the ease that our "James" does it. What a gifted man. Praise Jesus. Can't wait for the kits.
Keep up the good work James. (And do blink your eyes, we won't mind LOL)
Ha! I hadn't noticed that. I guess I'm not blinking much in the to-camera pieces, am I? I generally shoot those early in the morning when it's quiet. Maybe I'm not awake yet. :)
@@Clough42 You be dah man James! We luv yuz. No kidding, blink or no blinky LOL
I've been using mine for a couple weeks now but I am looking forward to getting a board so I can set and save settings. This is a great project and you do mighty fine work. Thanks
Is there another version of this board that works? It looks like F280049C is out of stock everywhere.
Thank you for leaving the clip of you struggling to get the tape off. It was hilarious. hardest part of the whole project, lol.
Thanks for the clear explanation! I am now eagerly looking forward to seeing the clarification on how to convert the program for a metric spindle! Fantastic project!
Still agog, and waiting for more. THANK YOU.
Regards,
Ruaidhri
Dublin
Just purchased your board and am collecting all the other necessary components, can't wait to complete the electronic lead screw upgrade, will be using NEMA 23 servo's with DQ860MA servo drivers do I to make changes in the firmware. I now have both the G0602 lathe and G0704 mill and will be making the same modifications to them as you have to yours. Thanks Al
Nice to see you James, we watch this to learn though we are not doing this project it is fine, you share well, thank you.
Lance & Patrick.
Awesome. Thanks!
I just programmed my third TI board with the MacBook using Code Composer Studio version 10.4.0. I loaded Clough42 v1.400 and made minor changes to Configuration H for stepper ratio.
I was not able to install CCS 9 build 10 on this M1 Mac due to permissions so I had loaded CCS 10.2.0 weeks ago which was then updated to 10.6.0. TI warns that CCS will be updated every 6 months. This time on build there was a warning “ A firmware update is required for the XDS110 probe.” Once I clicked on that update, the build completed the flash. So far the updates from TI have all worked. I am now waiting on 3M pulleys and belts for the 12 inch Enco.
Yes, they update constantly. The firmware update for the XDS110 probe is just flashing the probe chip on the LaunchPad to match the version of the debugger you're using. If you later want to use CCS9 again, it will flash the chip to match.
@@Clough42 Right, I have CCS 9 build 10 on a Windows 10 computer, but it is Clough Version 1.301 and my alternate workspace for Clough version 1.400 did not seem to pan out. CCS is a witches brew of TI utilities reflected by the documentation. I suspect you use it at work and virtual machine it off in to a safe corner per project. Its easier for me to change operating systems. Thanks again for all your labor on the programming. There must be a thousand working ELS systems by now.
hello james small question to just program the TI with the boost board is the external 5v required or is it also possible to just do it thru usb by leaving those 3 jumpers in place?
also what are your thoughts on kwackers fork of the els with the thread to shoulder option?
Very interesting.
Between this project and Roger Webb's CNC conversion the cheap Chinese mini-lathe will be popular for some time to come. Integrating both with your VFD project is also quite interesting. Thank you.
By the magic of planning ahead, (and a gracious neighbor helping out the postal service), I received my kit this morning AND this afternoon I received the Launchpad (ordered directly through TI, delivered via Singapore). I was following through this video step by step, and I was wondering what modification needs to be made to the configuration file for the 180W servo from "Clearpath Killler" in order to run the stepper microsteps at 3, with a stepper resolution of 1000, but then 2:1 through the gearbox? does that make my stepper_resolution 500? Planning to install on a G0602, but mine still has most of the factory flaws.
Also, thank you again for all of this. I have watched the series multiple times, with multiple rewinds and pauses, but you have provided a LOT of information, and I am a little slow on the uptake.
Also, Code Composer is up to v12, I am not sure if that is going to be an issue yet, or not.
Great job! Being able to thread to a shoulder would be a wonderful feature.
It doesn't have the ability to control the half-nuts.
@@boldford It looks like Jon Bryan was able to accomplish this. Take a look at 15:18 in "ua-cam.com/video/rKKs4lCEXwE/v-deo.html". He doesn't explain how he re-synchronizes the lead screw and spindle after the lead screw stops at the shoulder. I'm sure Clough42 would be able to come up with a process that would work.
@@mgillis1948 If you listen again he explains that he uses the half-nuts in the normal way when he cuts imperial (inch) threads. He would use the thread dial indicator to pick up a partially completed thread. He leaves them closed all the while when he cuts metric and runs up to the stop using the lathes jog function. You would use James's ELS in exactly the same way.
@@boldford I did listen again. He does use the half-nuts for normal threading. If you listen to him at 15:16 he explains about threading to a stop. If you watch from 15:20 he sets up a 40 pitch inch thread while leaving the half-nuts closed and sets limits. At 17:00 he says that it will thread to that limit and then Stop.
@@boldford If go to James's GitHub Page.
github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew
You'll see:
"Future Goals
While this project is starting out as a simple gearbox replacement, some features seem attractive, even for that simple case:
Threading/feeding up to a hard shoulder with automatic stop
Automatic recall and resync with hybrid threads (e.g. metric threads on an imperial leadscrew)"
To me it sounds like James would like to thread to a shoulder also.
My LaunchXL arrived today and while I was having a look at it I noticed that the pinout on the supplied card is different than the actual pinout numbering on J6 and J8, they seem to be mirrored !
Never mind just read it on your GITHUB page :-)
Hi James, I adding the ELS to my 12in Craftsman lathe, I'm confused about the configuration setup concerning "counts" on the servo motor since for torque concerns, I want to run a planetary gear reduction of 5 to 1 so by my limited understanding, the count entry for config would be 200?
Well I just bought a lathe that I'm restoring that has no change gears (an old boxford) I was looking at doing a conversion to a gearbox model or where I might buy gears, but you've sold me on this idea, would probably be about the same price now.
Wow Nice job and really well explained well done !!!👌👍 haven't used ti products for years but seeing all that gives me strength to jump back into the game 🙄 I couldn't see this one coming, I really enjoyed it !😁 It is really a awesome project you have started. I might not be a machinist but still think that it is super cool and that I want one even the fact that I don't have a lathe 🤔 I shall also be lot thankful for what you share with us and all that hard work you have put in !!! It might not contributed as much as I would like to, but again if you seeing that, thanks you for all !!!😉😁👍
Thanks!
Hi James, Not sure if you discussed this already, but have you considered programming for multi start threads?
Would definitely be amazing if we could buy the interface! Thanks for all your work! Its an amazing project
Congratulations, your work is very interesting. I have learned a lot by watching your videos. Thank you for your project and your dedication! I'm from Brazil.
I have tryed to watch the video but something have changed on ti.com. I had the instruction running in one window and ti.com in a nother And it looks like that the compiled program ended up on the controller board. Thank you for your good work James
Another great video. I am loving this series!
Hi folks, in part 14 later on James suggests that one Launch Pad board he was using may possibly have been damaged by inadvertant static electricity. It can happen to the best of us. (He also gives another reason). As a result I'd strongly suggest taking the appropriate precautions before even opening the anti-static shielding bag contaning the TI Launch Pad board. Again, watch part 14 to see how to do this - and don't wear nylon clothing! BobUK.
I had been thinking about designing this myself when you came along and did the work for me. Thanks!!
Would you consider making some milled boxes and 3d printed rubber keys available along with the interface board.
Bob M
I look forward to the kit being available.
Love this project and would be interested in 3 full kits for my lathes to Australia
Make it 5 kits and ill take the other two and split the postage the spindle rpm alone is Brilliant
Quick but important question, does it have to be exactly this board or would it also work with the LAUNCHXL-F28379D?
I bought this Lead Screw Kit around 2 years ago, but didnt had time yet to install it. Now i have the problem that the F28049c isnt aviable.
The key part is actually your interface board; have you decided whether you're going to sell them? I've already ordered the development board, display/button board, and optical encoder, but am a bit unsure on the stepper/servo. Have you decide which is "better" in such an application, the hybrid servo or straight stepper? Would hate to get one then have you announce that the other is superior :)
Yeah, I knew that was a risk when I decided to share the development process from the beginning. I'm going to go with the servo for my lathe, but my tests show that the stepper also works fine. I'm currently planning to make the interface board available and leave the choice of motor and driver to the builder. Different lathes will have different mechanical requirements. A 12" mini lathe won't require as much power as a vintage Boxford.
Thank you for continuing with the series!
I want to add this feature to my HBM 550X250
What is you opinion on vim, (C)make, gcc, and gdb? I just use CCS by TI but I was told to check them out, the cli is scary but I know that they carry a lot of power.
Yaaaaaaaaaay , been hanging out for another video, can’t wait to get my hands on one of those daughter boards. Thanks james
Helped my grandpa figure out how to update the code. Thanks
You developed your own project using new stuff while i'm here with a 'Fagor 8010m' controller and making it work with outdated 'servos' and old Heidenheim encoders ahahah still a great machine after 30 plus years :p keep up with your awesome videos!
You’ve got this set up so simple man thanks I just purchased the boards from eBay will you be offering a pre machined case or is this a buy your own make it fit
Just a couple of experiences in case they help anyone else out. A year on from James' video, version 10 of Code Composer Studio is available. I did try it (as the latest version) but it either didn't support the debug probe or it was just not mentioned. It also wouldn't compile James' code; complaining that 'make' wasn't found. Version 9.1 worked flawlessly.
When I first programmed the board, it required an update to the icepick debug firmware. I have an Anker powered USB3 hub for convenient access to ports. When the board was connected to that the firmware update failed. I'm pretty sure I've seen something similar before. Connecting directly to a port on the PC solved this issue.
I first tried an old Apple 5V 1A USB power supply to test things once programmed. The lights came on but it did not work. I'm guessing that 1A was not enough power as plugging it into the aforementioned USB3 hub (power-only port) made it work fine.
If you want metric as the default, the setting is in UserInterface.cpp at line 61 (in version 1.1.02) and you need to change "this->metric = false;" to "this->metric = true;"
When soldering James' board, make sure you solder the 20-pin connectors to the UNDERSIDE of the PCB. Soldering them to the top (with all the other components) will definitely result in a bad day. I didn't manage to get them off without pulling some of the pins out of the shell. You can order replacements (if you've managed to do this too) from eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/282120149502 (UK seller - plenty others available)
You want the 2.54mm PCB Female header double row, straight pins (not right-angle) and they list the number of ways as "10+10".
Fantastic channel! Just found your channel today and subscribed. Your presentation stye is excellent and extremely organized and very clear. Can;t wait to get through all your videos in this series. I have a question maybe you can answer. For designing a CNC machine with stepper motors, for the long axis moving the whole gantry, steppers can be connected in parallel and Mach 3 or Linux cnc or other stepper controller can clone the two motors as 1 single axis. If you were to replace the 2 steppers in that case with servos, how would you tune 2 parallel servos to work in tandem on 1 axis?
As always very good info plus you do get great comments for ideas !. That TI launch is pretty cool.
Great project, benefiting so many folks. Thanks! Could one drive two screws, 1 lead and 1 cross slide on a mill/ lathe combo by stacking two of your boards and some additional programming? Or would it best to use identical motors and switch between them?
That's my plan, so I can cut tapers.
Very well done project...!!!
One question.. Why you did not use arduino as microprocessor???
OK` I sussed it out and finally got it programmed. IF you dont have any boards connected you must have the 3 jumpers installed. You see the red LED without them so you think its on but the programming port is not recognised. Once you enable the 3 jumpers then the board becomes alive and you can then program it. The 110 driver firmware updated automatically this was done with CCS 9.3 and until I get the boards from Clough42..hopefully next week I can then get it all together and see that it all fires up. I have the servo and other stuff just waiting on the encoder as well. I didnt realise he had his other boards powering the whole system. I didnt notice that on the video but it will not compile with V10 CCS
Hi James, can you use Windows 7 instead of widows 10 ?
James,
First off I really appreciate your style of presenting information. Your skill at making a presentation that even an ole dummy like me can understand.
I am seriously considering doing this project instead of cncing my lathe as I feel it will actually be more usefull in the long run. Stumbled on your Overview video day before yesterday and have gone through all 10 of them and at this point, have just a couple of comments.
1. First off, I am really glad you put the note up in #10 about the install time of the IDE because I was starting to get worried about how long it was taking. On my machine, it was a little over 45 minutes! At times, thought it was hung:{(
2. I have probably missed it along the way, but is there any diagrams on the interconnection of the various parts such as the encoder to the main board, connections of the display to the main board etc.?
As others have stated, Thank You very much for your presentations and looking forward to the kit board.
Regards.
My apologies, as I finally read the “readme.md” file in the github download.
Sure enough, my #2 comment was answered right there in black and white!
Now for another question, I am attempting to decipher the feed tables layout and have a question in particular about the 11.5 TPI construction.
Here are the lines for the 11 and the 11.5 TPI:
{ .display = {BLANK, BLANK, ONE, ONE}, .leds = LED_THREAD | LED_TPI, TPI_FRACTION(110) },
{ .display = {BLANK, ONE, ONE|POINT,FIVE}, .leds = LED_THREAD | LED_TPI, TPI_FRACTION(110) },
and in particular am looking at the TPI_FRACTION() for the 11.5 TPI line.
Should it not be 115 instead of 110 which is the same as for the line above it????
Also am I correct in “assuming” that if I want to add an additional line to the table that all I have to do is add it in the appropriate place and then recompile or do I have to adjust table size values somewhere else??
Thanks in advance.
Nice video James, the project looks like it is going well.
I will get round to converting my lathe one day, but as usual there are a ton of other projects to distract me. Keep up the good work my friend.
I know exactly what you mean.
How accurate is of an X/Y measurement is reading the angular position of the lead screws and displaying it vs. glass or magnetic scales in a DRO? I’m looking into building a version of your electronic lead screw and thinking about using it as a DRO also, by adding an rotary encoder for the cross feed and displaying another set of LED displays.
First off thanks for all your video's, I really enjoy all the different topics and how easy you make it to understand some of the things that are outside my normal skill set. I am currently upgrading my g9729 lathe/mill combo machine using your control panel and interface board and was wondering if there was an easy way to make the encoder inputs selectable to utilize 2 encoders? Being out of my depth when it comes to this I had incorrectly assumed I could just switch the power to the encoder I wished to use, but soon realized that caused the spindle speed to read extremely low as well as fluctuate badly. `Just hoping someone can point me in the right direction, until then I guess it's time to hit the books again. Thanks again for the great video's and keep up the good work. :) Edit: Looks as though it did work the way I originally thought but my switch needed to be on the ground side, all is stable and working perfectly now.
Before this order information was posted I ordered a board directly from TI. I received a launchpad XL F28069M. It is similar but not exact. Will it work with this application? I just ordered the correct board through the link from Digi-Key but wondered if it would work.
i have up dated windows 10 yet i cant down lowd the (ccs) Ide file. how do i get past this problem . have window 10 disc?
Great stuff! is this project written in C or C++ or Objective C?
Great Project and an excellent presentation of your work.
Thank You!
I have a couple of general questions please.
I am considering using this board for other projects.
1. It looks like the project is mixed C and C++ code, is this correct?
2. Is there any RTOS being used or is it just a foreground / background system?
Great video. Thanks for sharing the coding process. Keep up the great work!
Fantastic video!!! Excellent software interface & TI board. Great job showing us how it works! Great project!! :D
I think, it a problem for us who are "older", when it comes to getting it pregaming in to flesh memory . is getting to the page. to do what you have demonstrated i have windows 10 & have not got any were near the page even with your links . to program the siystom board The board should come pry program redy ti install. with it memory loaded to flash. the lath i will be attempting to adapt is a old school lath of my youth, & to cut thread's it as no threads no what wuld be the led screw at all . just a shaft with a keyway down it lenth that drives a nut with an external six trends to the inch . driven by a gear. the nut that in tern drives a shat that move the carnage along the rack . & it's change gear give us a set of third to cut. I suppose then the pitch would be that of the nut thread's of Six TPI that of the nut . I'm locking for you your ELS to be provide a full package, as a ELS this would include steeper motors , programmed mother boards in standard flash memory redy to plug & play all the necessary edweeno { excuse the spelling } & systems needed to Mont it in to A cabinet along with it power supply. My job will be to mount in to the cabinet & fit motors & interface & switch on & ues I am over 70 years of age suffer' with arthritis & Dislexcea I get by it tacks a time for me to get on I have been at this now as ling AS you have been building it. IT a product i thing will adapt my lathe But i need it in kit for with all it programming in place . so i can di the physical stuff my self. If you can supply such A Package then. I think it will finally Up , grade most lathe. that ues Chan gears today Even replace then in the markit place. thank you les England.
Man love the videos. Glad to hear you are planning on making it AIO. I agree take your time anf get it right. Because I will be getting one for sure. Looking forward to it. Keep up the awesome work.
Thanks!
So I have the eval board, and the display board just showed up, but of course nothing can happen without the logic level conversion. Hmmm, what to do: order the converter board that you used in the prototype, or wait for your board. The latter is certainly cleaner, but knowing roughly when you're thinking whether/if/when it'll be available would help me decide. Thanks again for a very cool video series!
Do you plan to offer the box/buttons for the controller?
I am starting this project for my lathe, thanks for all the great information. Is the schematics for your interface board available? I didn't see it on the github. Also, I went to order one from ebay but it says you don't ship to Canada. I'm happy to build one my self so a schematic is more than enough if one is available. I'm very early in the project, I have the micro controller and lathe, still waiting on the display board, servo motor and driver to come in the mail.
Great video, but how do I know if I need to invert the pins?
Very interesting. I'd love some more information, sometime, about how you work with VMs for development. I'm just planning my home dev environment (prior to retirement) and very interested in better ways to do things.
Hello James, Thanks sharing your knowledge with us I really apprecheate it. do you have a link where I can find Texas Instruments Launchxl board. I purchased your other boards on eBay but no luck with this TI Lanchxl. Thank for many project ideas you have passed on!!!
Mouser and Digikey are both expecting more in July
A year and 4 months later than this video, things have changed. CCS is now at version 10, which some subscribers say does not work. It did give me a make error on a Linux download. Version 9 for Windows 10 can be found in the TI archives as mentioned on the Git-Hub. There are 3 versions of CCS 9 including 9.1.0 build10. Ignore the TI question about the "simple" version of CCS and get the default. The extract and setup of CCS takes a very long time. My Windows V10 decided I needed an update and stepped on my first install of CCS9. but it worked the second time. Git-hub is slightly different as well, and you will find three program zip files under CODE including the test board program. Currently its the release is 1.3.0.1 which has Metric leadscrew support and a bunch of safety features.
Late-comers advantage: Your Git-Hub troubleshooting page is very well done. You can find that here: github.com/clough42/electronic-leadscrew/wiki/Troubleshooting .
I simply printed it out. Some folks may want to run two computers for some stuff, one for UA-cam C42 and one for CCS/Git Hub/downloads.
Great Job James, you've been a very good lad and deserve all the toys Santa left you.
Use the USB cord provided. I got ‘target not found’ with other USB cords. The computer will see it as a USB device and will sound the USB notification on plug in.
Well I finally gave in and ordered a LaunchXL board, I'm in the UK and the cheapest place to get it from was direct from TI, it is shipped from Germany and it worked out at £37, now to find the rest of the parts. Is there a PCB design to download so I can get them made? *** Sorry just remembered you put it on Circuitmaker ***
And thanks very much for all the time and effort you've put in for this project.
I would love to use this as a power feed. Maybe with material type, diameter , RPM, tool type and then it will give you some nice feeds for roughing finishing etc. Or I could stop being lazy and just type in what I want :-)
Once it's digital, lots of options open up. At that point, it's just software. :)
I have tried downloading the software & programming the prototyping board which I think has worked ? But despite having power to my display PCB its otherwise dear i.e no display ! I've tried a second display board & checked that all connections are good but still nothing ? How can I tell if it's an issue with the TI PCB or just that the software hasn't installed ?
Great job , thank you for your video.
Code suggestion:
Just completed my build and installation on an Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathe. Fantastic project!! However, my build has a third mode called "Break Tool". This randomly happens every few minutes. It will act like all buttons have been pressed simultaneously. The leadscrew reverses, the display shows "No Settings", the mode flips to metric threading and the feed speed increases dramatically. Oops. I was able to suppress this significantly by adding 33 ohm series resistors to the head cable STB, CLK and DIO lines on both ends, but it still occasionally happens. My head cable is a 4-foot piece of standard 8-wire #22 shielded industrial control cable. I suspect that the "feature" is caused by either a corrupted "read switches" code being sent to the display, or a false readback of all-switches-pressed for unknown reasons.
I've added a crude sanity check to the switch readback code in ControlPanel.cpp. The simplest way to do this is to check that the value of newkeys.all is less than or equal to 128 for a valid keyswitch readback. I've made the following 3 line addition to 1.1.02 ControlPanel.cpp in the ControlPanel::getKeys() routine around line 239:
newkeys - readKeys(); // Original Clough42 code
// Detect invalid key responses NLG
if(newKeys.all > 128) { //NLG
return noKeys; // Bail out if bogus key readback NLG
} /NLG
if( newkeys.all != this->keys.all ) { // Original Clough42 code
A slightly better but slower solution:
newKeys = readKeys(); /Clough42 code
// Detect invalid key responses NLG 9/23/20
switch(newKeys.all) {
case 128:
case 64:
case 32:
case 16:
case 8:
case 4:
case 1:
case 0:
break; // Pass on if OK
default:
return noKeys; // Bail out on bad key data NLG
break;
} // End of NLG mod
if( newKeys.all != this->keys.all ) { // Clough42 code
The only valid values for newKeys.all are 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 1 and 0. All others are either fat fingers or bogus reads.
I suspect others can do a much better code job than this. This code addition has completely solved my issue.
Thanks again for the fantastic project.
I’m also going to install this on an old atlas/craftsman lathe would love to see how you mounted all the components on your lathe Thanks for any suggestions newbe
Thanks clough..you are honest..hats off..☺
I've really enjoyed your build. My servo will be here tomorrow. How about putting your SMD PC board on oshpark.com? How do you like your Rigol scope?
Hi James, I get the following error when using debug and Release when compiling the code "Cannot run program "make": Launching failed
Error: Program "make" not found in PATH" can you point me in the right direction
This is going onto my Myford asap.
This video is pretty informative..thank you Sir 👍🙂
The newer versions of the TI debug program (9.3 and newer) do not have the "TI XDS Debug Probe Support" option. You can still download the 9.1 or 9.2 versions though.
Where did u get ur blackbelt software skills!?
Thanks, thanks, thanks, was very clear and you are great
Fyi this controller is on backorder is there a newer replacement that will work
The one you want is the LaunchXL-F280049c. Mouser has a few hundred in stock at the moment.
Super job. Many thanks.
How do you see this working on a lathe that has separate feed screw for general carriage feed and a conventional lead screw driven with different gear trains to achieve any given thread pitch? Would you just eliminate the non-lead screw for feeding the apron in all situations except for cross slide operations like facing and parting?
Interesting question. I think I would probably use this to drive the threading screw and just let the feed mechanism run as designed. The kind of lathe you describe is probably pretty full featured already, though, so an electronic leadscrew might not add much besides hybrid threading.
13:05 "They're not just for scam baiting."
LOL
Very nice and hard work! Thank You!
You're welcome.
Hey there James, I'm in the process of setting up your lead-screw on my Sheldon 11" and just wanted to say that I'm really impressed with the level of detail that you've provided both in your videos and on your GIT hub wiki. I was working through the soldering portion yesterday and couldn't help wonder if the 42 in Clough42 is a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Had to ask LOL
@Chris Mower...if there will be a kit available...why am I banging my head against the wall trying to build this?!? I'm just hoping James will make the etched cover for the bud box....do I buy a bud box? Will he supply the whole box or just the front? No idea, probably won't know until James feels like filling in the blanks. Well between the VFD links I've purchased from and the now this ELS, I'm doing my part....YOU THERE JAMES?
Yup. I have front cover PCBs in hand, and I'm waiting on a few parts to make control panel kits.
Clough42 ok...I need to stop buying parts then. Do I need to keep the Nema 23 & Driver? Can I get on a pre sale...cash up front?