Revision as of 21:34, 2 October 2013

NEED TO KNOW MORE INFORMATION ON YOUR MACHINE

• We can recommend some motors and drivers but first tell us more about your machine. What is the work envelope of your machine? What type of drive mechanism will you use (lead screws, rack-in-pinion, belt drive, chain drive, etc.)? How many turns to move the machine one inch? Any other details that you can think of that may affect motor sizing.

COMET FREIGHT SHIPPING (INTERNATIONAL)

• The FireBall Comet must ship freight. Therefore you will have to contact a local freight forwarder in your country to process the freight and customs paperwork for you. Unfortunately this is not something that we can do on our end. Tell them you want to receive a package in a crate 48"W x 48"D x 30"H and weighs 350lbs to be picked up FOB from Peoria, IL USA. They will know what to do then.

METEOR FREIGHT SHIPPING (INTERNATIONAL)

• The FireBall Meteor must ship freight. Therefore you will have to contact a local freight forwarder in your country to process the freight and customs paperwork for you. Unfortunately this is not something that we can do on our end. Tell them you want to receive a package in a crate 72"W x 48"D x 30"H and weighs 450lbs to be picked up FOB from Peoria, IL USA. They will know what to do then.

ENCLOSURE DIMENSIONS

• The large enclosure is 10-1/2” x 11-1/2” x 4-1/2”. The small is enclosure 10-1/2” x 8” x 4-1/2”.

WHAT IS THE 'READY TO RUN ENCLOSURE' OPTION?

• The ready-to-run option is all of the electronics professionally wired and installed into an included enclosure. This includes, switches, fuses blocks, fuses, heat sinks, fans, motor connectors, motor wires, etc - everything setup and ready to plug into your PC. It's a lot of work, really, plus all of the parts - the cost of which add up pretty quickly. If you are handy with electrical wiring, fell free to hook it up yourself - many people do. But if you want to save cost and time, let us do it for you. We buy at discounted rates in bulk, so it will likely cost you less to have us do it. You can find more information about the ready-to-run enclosures here: http://www.probotix.com/index.php?view=information&information_id=18

If you choose a power supply upgrade, and you wish to have us wire it all up with the ready-to-run option, you must choose the large enclosure because the upgrade power supplies are too large to mount into the small enclosure.

Also, if you want to expand your system later, the large enclosure has enough room to mount additional electronics, such as a relay board or an additional motor driver for a 4th axis, such as a rotary table.

MOTORS

• You cannot run two motors from one driver. No two motors are exactly alike and it will cause an imbalance in the current and likely fry the drivers. Each motor needs its own driver.

Stepper motors will get hot, very hot. Sometimes up to 180 degrees. This does not hurt the motors, as they were designed to run that way, but it may hurt your elbow if you lean on it. You can turn the current down on them, that would decrease the torque but keep them slightly cooler.

GANTRY TYPE MACHINES

• Gantry type machines are not well suited for metal milling. When you have metal cutting metal, the tool will want to chatter. The only way to eliminate that is with mass. Metal working machines have heavy iron columns. There is a reason why metal working machines with the same work envelope of the V90 start in the $30K range.

The other issue is with available tooling and cooling. There is very little selection in 1/4" shank aluminum cutting tools. Also, aluminum is very gummy and will pack in and clog the bit. You have to be able to run a lubricating coolant.

With that said, we use V90s/X90s to cut out thin aluminum face plates for electrical enclosures. But in that application, tool deflection doesn't affect the finished product and we mist the bit with WD40. I wouldn't be afraid to do ornamental type aluminum (think aluminum belt buckle), but I would never expect a gantry type machine to be able to make precision parts for my RC helicopter.

BREAKOUT BOARDS

• USB to parallel adapters do not work. The parallel port based software (Mach3, EMC2, etc) requires low-level direct address register access to the parallel port in order to provide a smooth pulse train to the steppers. The USB to parallel port adapters are emulated parallel ports and do not give that low level access. Without that smooth pulse train, the steppers will stall. If you must use a USB connection, you will need a special purpose USB CNC controller like the one found here: https://www.probotix.com/pxb-usb_usb_interfaced_cnc_controller/

The PBX-USB and its control software combination moves the stepper motor control functions to an off-board micro controller where USB latency has no effect.

The standard PBX-2 breakout board is a direct connection to the parallel port. The PBX-RF breakout board adds isolation to protect your breakout board in the event that something would go wrong on the high voltage motor side of things. Both of the breakout boards use any of the parallel port based control software such as MACH3 or EMC2. The PBX-USB uses the USB port instead of the parallel port and works only with the CNC USB controller software from www.planet-cnc.com

MISCELLANEOUS V90/X90 INFORMATION

• The V90/X90 needs needs no lubrication. Delrin is self-lubricating and does not require any additional lubrication. Also, the oilite bearings are self-lubricating and will not need any additional lubrication. So basically the V90 is maintenance free. The anti-backlash nuts will eventually wear and will need to be replaced. But that depends upon how often and how hard you drive your machine. Normally, they will need replaced about once a year.

Base model V90 weighs 46lbs. (50 with packing materials)

Fully loaded V90 weighs 70lbs. (75 with packing materials)

Base model X90 weighs 55lbs. (60 with packing materials)

Fully model X90 weighs 80lbs. (85 with packing materials)

POWER SUPPLIES COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR VOLTAGE

• All of our power supplies are switchable to your voltage. The 24V switching power supplies has a switch on the side of them. The 40V power supplies need to be wired as described here: http://www.probotix.com/downloads/240VAC_power_supply.pdf

WHAT DOES THE BASE V90/X90 MACHINE COME WITH?

• The base machine is offered for the many folks who already own a stepper motor driver kit. With the base model you get the entire mechanical machine frame ready to bolt on a NEMA23 stepper motor driver kit. This includes the frame, linear rails and bearings, ACME lead screws, shaft couplers, spoil board, Z-axis, shaft couplers, and a tool holder of your choice. We currently offer Bosch Colt, Dewalt DWP611, Porter-Cable 450 and Rigid 2401.

WHAT WILL I NEED TO ASSEMBLE THE V90/X90?

• To assemble the V90/X90, you will need:

7/16" Nut driver and wrench

3/32" and 7/64" Allen wrenches

#2 & #3 Phillips Screw Driver

Large Flat Screw Driver

Acetone & Rag

WHERE CAN I FIND ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE V90/X90?

• All of the documentation we have on assembling the V90, can be found on our website here: http://www.probotix.com/manuals/V90-X90%20Assembly%20Manual.web2.pdf