Because of the fantastic amount of feedback about the mill, I've opened up a forum!

The forum consist of:
- an updated set of drawing files
- the current Arduino code base
- General Discussion forum

I have also been working on an assembly manual and a quick-start guide, which will hopefully be turned into a wiki before the project is complete.

It's a little early, because the project isn't 100% complete, but in the spirit of the season I want to send out a *HUGE* thank you to everyone who has helped me get this far. After 3 years of tinkering I can finally see the end of this project. But, if things go well with the forum and the small community that has formed, I'm hoping this is just the beginning of an entirely new project.

Happy Holidays,
Edward

There's something wrong with the X axis. Unlike the Y, it's very difficult to move. Well, not very difficult but more difficult than the Y. I think there may be a bit of a design flaw... stupid designer.

From what I can tell, there is some friction between the X-axis-rail-mount-plates (the ones slotted end to end) and the X-axis-cross-plate (the one that the X-axis acme nut mounts to). I'll try taking some sandpaper to it and if that doesn't work, perhaps the dremel? Someone also suggested I use wax.. i don't even know where I'd find wax though. Also, I should have boxed in the X-axis cross plates because there is flex when the nut is being driven.

I'm going to move forward and continue with the current iteration. After the new power supply is delivered and the EasyDrivers are installed, I'll see where we're at. But, I'm afraid I'll have to make some changes to the design and re-order all of the parts from ponoko. It's not the end of the world but I hate the fact that I didn't get it perfect the first time...

Though, I should be used to that by now.

On a different note: When I started this project I was certain that a computer would be running the machine. However, I've been using the arduino to test the motors and when I get the 2 additional EasyDrivers I'm planning to run them through their paces with the arduino as well. I keep thinking how awesome it would be to use the arduino permanently as the controller. Yes, replace a full PC with a tiny arduino! My machine has a very small footprint to begin with, and I keep thinking how cool it would be house *all* of the controls in a tiny matching box! I don't even know if that's possible, but wouldn't it be sweet!

I'm imagining something like this: Obviously, do the CAD/CAM on a workstation but save the G-code to an SD card. Then, insert the SD card into the arduino, turn the arduino on, it would then look for a specific text file. Parse the file and run the machine! I know it's a lot harder than that and I'm doubting there would be enough room on the arduino to store the code to both control the reading of the SD card and parse the file and run the machine.  Either way, a guy can dream right?

Just one short day after figuring out the Y-axis, the X and Z are both moving!

I decided to stop by Radio Shack and pickup some DB9 connectors (1 male, 3 females) to make switching between motors easier. Although soldering all those pins on (24 total) wasn't much fun, it was totally worth it. In addition to making it easier switching between X,Y,andZ, the connectors also cleaned up a lot of the wiring.

I also soldered headers onto the easy driver so I could actually mount it on the breadboard instead of just setting it there! Worked like a charm.

As for the power supply, i switched from the ATX PS which was pushing 12v, to an old Dell Inspiron 20V 90W power supply. I'm not certain on this, but I'm pretty sure the extra power has really added to how smooth the motors run. I'm not even sure if that's possible, but it seems like it to me.

Here are some video of the other two axis' running. The Z looks especially smooth, which i'll say is from the fact that the acme rod is short which pretty much eliminates the chance of it being bent (as I suspect is the case on the Y axis). The X axis is coming along but there seems to be some friction somewhere along the path which is causing it to hang up and stall the motor (even with the ramp up / ramp down code)

I ordered two more Easy Drivers from Sparkfun yesterday, they should be here early next week. At which time I'll try hacking together something that runs all 3 axis in an indefinite "test" pattern.

Pretty exciting stuff here!

The Sparkfun forum guys really helped me out. After getting the Y-axis stepper up and running with the Arduino, there were some issues. Mostly it was loosing steps in a bad way. Plus, the vibration threatened to tear my machine apart! OK, that last bit was an exaggeration, but the vibration was pretty bad.

The guys on the forum pointed out that you cant just start a stepper at full speed, you have to "ramp up". Which after thinking about it, makes perfect sense. At this point in time, i've learned enough to know that in most cases, "it's already been done". Meaning, there was no need for me to write new code to "ramp up" the arduino. I mean, there are tons and tons and tons of stepper based arduino projects on the web, surely someone must have written some good code.....

The short answer: Yes, it's out there . But, the really surprising part is, that link is the only one i found where the steppers were "ramped up". Now, don't get me wrong, it WORKED! Check the video for proof of that. The difference with a smooth start is night and day compared to just the standard method. BTW: the standard method is: Start a loop, Pull step pin HIGH, put step pin back to LOW, delay for a set amount of time, loop. Most people just set the delay to something that won't stall their motor. This varies greatly depending on the specs, but for the most part people are between 200 and 400ms. I guess I'm wondering why more people don't start smooth? maybe it's just easier to set the delay and forget it... who knows. Either way, I'm really happy with the progress so far. Things are starting to come along.

The guys in the Sparkfun forum are really helping me get this thing going! Right now I'm working one axis at a time. Here is my attempt to move the Y-Axis with a 60oz/in stepper and the EasyDriver from Sparkfun.

If you have a listen, it starts out pretty well and then makes this terrible grinding/vibrating noise. I found out that is the motor stalling and/or loosing steps, It's could be from a variety of things, all of which sound pretty managable. I'll try to get it smoother and more consistent.

Although it's not perfect, I'm fully confident this solution is going to work.

Have a look at the mill page for a peak at my first schematic! I posted a question yesterday to the sparkfun project forum asking how to connect an 8 wire stepper motor to their Easy Driver stepper motor controller. After a few hours and some really helpful replies, I had my answer!

I wanted to try it last night, but ran out of time. Hopefully I can test it out tonight and report back tomorrow on two things:
1.) If it works!
2.) If the motor is strong enough to move the Z axis :)

Thanks again to the guys in the forum for their help!

Also, I used a program called "Project Draw" from the Autodesk Labs website to draw the schematic. Although I'm more comfortable drawing things in Illustrator, Project Draw works really well. I'm by no means a professional electrical schematic drawer, so I can't attest to how great it is at that, but as far as an easy cloud based way to make a line drawing. It works just fine and has plenty of built in symbols to use. So check it out if you get a minute, you might find it useful as well.

There is a point in every project’s build cycle that puts you face to face with the details you have procrastinated. This is the time that you need to focus, keep scope, budget, and timeframe in mind, and make some tough decisions. For me, this time came over the weekend.

From the time I received the first nest from Ponoko, I started thinking about points of failure and then possible design changes. I plugged away, carefully assembling what I could without fully committing myself. In retrospect, I was just buying time I think, time to convince myself that I should change the design, that I should fix some inconsequential mistakes, that I should start over.

Then I glued the main box together, it scared the crap out of me clamping the pieces together and waiting for it to dry. One thing i really liked about the designed made from steel was the fact that you can unbolt them! With glue... well it's sort of permanent. Everything worked out just fine. So I glued the uprights in place, then I glued the cross supports in place. Then there was only one item left to glue, and I glued it.

Now I'm on to the hard part: The electronics. It's so frustrating/exciting to dive into something you know so little about, it's difficult to know where to start. However, working through the reference material I'm reminded of why I like projects so much: Learning!

I was just browsing through my Google Reader page and caught an interesting headline that read "New Hackerspace in Chicagoland: Workshop 88". Exactly what I've been looking for! Looks like to first meeting is scheduled for Monday. At my wife's Alma mater non the less!

I can tell already, this is going to be great!

Here's the story: I bought this netbook for my mom. Figuring that it would be a great little laptop for her to kick around the house with, easy to use, decent battery life, perfect for what she needs it for: internet, email, pictures. It worked OK for what she needed it for. There were a couple of problems.
1) Processor/General Performance: With the default ubuntu 8.04 installed, the performance was pathetic. Period.
2.) The SSD went bad. Yeah, I knowwhat are the odds of that right? The good part was that Dell sent me a new one. The bad partwas I had to talk to Dell for 45 minutes...

While she was waiting for her netbook to get fixed, i loaned her one of my other laptops. 1.4Ghz 15" screen, 1GB RAM. Needless to say, she wants to keep that one. So... here I am with a Dell mini 9....

The first thing I did after installing the new SSD was to replace the OS. I chose Moblin (see my other post regarding the wireless config). Moblin was nice, fairly snappy, quick to load, quick to shut down. But I didn't really like the UI all that much. It was confusing to me. Plus, without Facebook integration the idea that you can call it an OS designed for social networking is sort of laughable.

Next up: Ubuntu Netbook Remix UNR (9.04)
This one was good. In fact I'm typing this post from it! However, there was one glitch. Apparently if you switch from the default UNR desktop to the classic desktop it throws out some sort of error. What you are left with is a blank desktop. With no icons. Even after a restart the blank desktop returns. Here is how to fix it:

1.) Right click on the screen
2.) Create a new launcher
3.) for the name and the command type: xterm
4.) click OK
This will create a desktop icon which will give you access to the xterm terminal.
5.) Launch the icon and type desktop-switcher
6.) Select the UNR desktop. This will take you back to the standard launcher type setup.
From here. open a terminal and type the following:
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/session/required_components_list --type list --list-type=string ["windowmanager","panel"]
7.) Download this file: here
8.) Double click the file
9.) restart your computer
10.) ENJOY Ubuntu Netbook Remix!!

Besides that "minor" bug, its a great netbook OS.

Just a short rant here on linux: Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan. The more I use it the more I like it. Mainly Ubuntu. Both the server and the desktop version, are for me, very good and very straightforward. The server version more so than the desktop though.

The one thing that I can't figure out is why it's so damn hard to get wireless running on the desktop versions. I know that in some cases it just works right out of the gate, but for me no matter what laptop I install Ubuntu (any version really) the wi-fi is an epic PITA! I dont' see how linux will ever be adopted on a large scale if this isn't rectified. Most people are not going to want to apt-get a bunch of stuff, or wget + rpmbuilt, etc, etc. It's just too much work.

Either way, linux is drastically better now compared to a few years ago, so maybe a few years from now this will be a non-issue, but right now: it's frustrating.

Luckily there are many many people much smarter and more experienced with linux than I am, so when you do have a problem there is usually a solution already in place. The hard part is finding it!

Here's the short version of how to setup wireless on a dell mini 9 running the newest version of Moblin (v2).

This information was gleened from: http://slaine.org/_slaine/Dell_Mini_9.html

1) Activate the moblin toolbar and select the applications icon
2) Choose the Accessories section and select Terminal
3) Install the various tools you’ll need : sudo yum install rpmdevtools
4)Install the compilers and other tools: sudo yum groupinstall “Development Tools”
5)Install the kernel-netbook-devel package: sudo yum install kernel-netbook-devel
6)Now we’re ready to build and install the new broadcom drivers: wget
 http://slaine.org/files/moblinv2/wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm
    rpmbuild --rebuild --target=i586 wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm
7)Install the resulting rpm:
sudo rpm -ivh ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i586/wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.i586.rpm

For me, this worked 100% the first time. Just be sure you do all of the steps in the order presented and you should be fine. For safe measure i did a sudo reboot after the proceedure and VIOLA! The wireless adapter showed up.