Hobby Robotics » CNC

8/8/2019 Hobby Robotics CNC

1/32

June 13, 2009 at 7:02 pm Filed underArduino, CNC, Circuit, Photography, Sensor

I made a new version of Camera Axe. Here is my store where I sell them.

Camera Axe is open hardware and open software project that helps you get some of those difficult to capturephotographs. It can use various sensors like light triggers and sound triggers to activate a camera or a flash.Here are a few sample images of the things this hardware has captured.

Here is a gallery with more pretty pictures. I apologize that some of them are a little blurry. I dropped anddamaged my flash about a week ago and dont have the funds to buy a new one right now. The flash now doesa few micro pre-flash outputs before the full flash is triggered. This is is why some of the images have aweaker ghost images in them causing a blurry appearance. (UPDATE: Here is are some new photos I shotonce I got my flash repaired. And here are some more.)

These are just a few images Ive used to test this software/hardware. The possible uses range from takingpictures of wildlife while youre not there to photographing a bullet piercing an apple. The fact that everythingis open source offers advantages over solutions that are being sold today (beyond the cheaper price). As anexample lets say you want to take pictures of wildlife at sunrise/sunset. You could modify the software so thelight sensor only actives the camera at light levels that represent sunrise/sunset and then you could use themicrophone to actually detect animal movement. Since the hardware is easily understood you can add newsensors as needed, one sensor Ive thought about making is piezo pressure sensor.

Here is a list of the components you need to make Camera Axe.

Sparkfun

Break Away Headers $2.50

y Robotics CNC http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotic

2 11/11/2010


2/32

Mini Push Button Switch $0.35

Serial Enabled 162 LCD $24.95

16 MHZ Crystal $1.50

ATmega328 with Arduino Bootloader $5.50

DIP Sockets Solder Tail 28-Pin 0.3 $1.50

5V Voltage Regulator $1.25Optoisolator with Darlington Driver 1 Channel $1.25

0.1 uF Capacitor (4) $1.00

22 pF Capacitor (2) $0.50

10 uF Capacitor (3) $1.35

RF Link 2400bps Receiver 315MHz $4.95

3-Pin Screw Terminals 3.5mm Pitch (2) $3.00

Super Bright LED Green (4) $3.80

DIP Sockets Solder Tail 8-Pin $1.50

Diode Rectifier 1A 50V (2) $0.30

Custom Circuit Board PCB $21.43

Mouser

NPN Transistor (2) $0.54

Plastic Enclosure $7.62

3.5 mm Audio Jack (4) $1.40

Push Button Switch (6) $7.80

1M Ohm Potentiometer $0.90

Op Amp $0.33

9V Battery Holder $1.05

1/4 Watt Resistors * 47 (1) * 220 (4) * 1K (1) * 10K (14) * 100K (1) $2.52

McMasters Carr

#2 Spacer 3/16 OD, 3/16 LENGTH (4) $1.04

#4 Spacer 3/16 OD, 5/16 Length (4) $1.16

Undersized 4-40 Nut (4) $3.28

Undersized 2/56 Nut (4) $5.23

2-56 Bolt 5/8 Length (4) $4.64

4-40 Bolt 3/4 Length (4) $5.09

Total Cost $119.23

Getting the bill of material cost significantly under $70 should be pretty easy if anyone want to make 10s ofthese. Many of the parts above start significant volume discounts at pretty low quantities. Also some of thehardware from McMasters I only needed 4 of something but I had to buy a pack of 100 so building multiple


2 11/11/2010


3/32

(or finding a supplier where you could buy 4) would decrease the price by about $15. You could reduce thecost the the PCB from $21.43 to about $6.50 if you ordered them in quantities of 17 from BatchPCBssupplierGold PhoenixPCB (Id really suggest using BatchPCB until you know what youre doing). Lastly,redesigning the board to use surface mounted parts would lead to large cost savings.

I designed this circuit and PCB board in Eagle. Eagle is a powerful circuit and PCB design tool. You can get afree version for non-commercial use. This is the first PCB I ever designed and must say that Eagle combinedwith these four great Sparkfun tutorials (1, 2, 3, 4) really got me up to speed. I then sent my design toBatchPCB. It took a little over a month to get my test board back, but it worked great. Here are my eagle filesfor this project and the Girber files I sent to BatchPCB. If you install the free version of Eagle you can look atand modify my schematic and board layout. Below is a picture of this boards schematic for those who dontwant to install Eagle to look at it.

Being my first board I made a few mistakes with the PCB that Ill correct if I ever print more boards. Luckilyall my mistakes were minor and the board I printed works fine.

Rename Light to Sensor on the silkscreen since that is a better description.One of the bolt holes is one grid point off center so I should make sure all the bolt holds are centered.I should label the value of the Potentiometer on the silkscreen (1M ohm).The silkscreen for the RF receiver is missing +5 for one of its pins.The LEDs are too bright and the 220 ohm resistors should be replaced with something larger.The schematic is correct, but the parts I used for the focus and shutter are ECB transistors. These havean odd pin layout for transistors (1=emitter, 2=collector, 3=base). Switch these to a normal transistor(1=collector, 2=base, 3=emitter).

After I got the PCB back, it was just a matter of soldering all the components in place. If others want to buildthis and want more detailed directions on soldering the circuit board components into place, I may be willing


2 11/11/2010


4/32

to write an instruction guide to assist in this.

To make the enclosure I designed the holds I needed to drill and the few places I needed to cut with myDremel in Inkscape. Then I just printed that out onto some sticky paper and had the pattern I needed to cutout on the box. This worked out pretty slick. Here is the cutout pattern I designed (drill/cut template, finalsticker template).


2 11/11/2010


5/32

I used an ATMega328 with the Arduino bootloader for my microcontroller. This means I could use the verypopular and easy to use open source Arduino development environment. I used version 0014, but newerversions are usually backwards compatible with older ones. You can download the Arduino developmentsoftware here.

In order to download software to this board you will need thisprogramming dongle.

Here is the software I wrote for this project. Ive created this video that demonstrates some of the features ofthis software.


2 11/11/2010


6/32


7/32

Female Hotshoe (Cheaper ones available, but this one has is good quality) $16.50

3.5 mm Extension Cord $5.24

External Flash (I assume you already have one)

Total Cost $21.74

This allows you to plug the flash into Camera Axe. While Camera Axe can triggeryour camera directly, if you need an instantaneous capture you should use the flash. This page gives theexpected shutter lag for many cameras. The flash reacts to its triggering in well under a millisecond.

Notice: Camera Axe assumes you have an EOS compatible flash. Some older flashes use high voltages totrigger them. If you use one of these high voltage flash units you will likely blow Camera Axes optoisolaterand need to replace it. I use a Canon 580EX flash, but there are many other options. Here is a list of flashesthat should be safe.


2 11/11/2010


8/32

Plug to trigger your camera (Price varies by plug (see below) under $5.00

Audio cord with 3.5 mm plug $3.15

Total Cost $8.15

The higher end Canon DSLR cameras (20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 5D, 1D)have a a special Canon Plug called N3. I have not been able to find this plug for sale anywhere, but you canbuy a cheap Chinese trigger for these cameras on Ebay for under $5 and use the N3 plug from it. I have a 30Dso this is what I demonstrate here. Canons lower end cameras (300D, 500D, 1000D) use the much cheaperand easier to get 2.5 mm jack. Im not sure what Nikon use, but Im sure a little research will figure that out.

Electret Microphone $0.95


2 11/11/2010


9/32


Total Cost $4.10

Electret microphones like this need some serious amplification. LuckilyI put all that amplification on Camera Axes PCB. You can adjust the sensitivity of the microphone with thepotentiometer on Camera Axes PCB. Just play with it until you find a sensitivity you like.

Photo Transistor $0.42


Total Cost $3.57

Most photo transistors filter out visible light and only trigger on IR light.I did some searching and found this one that triggers on visible and IR light. This is nice because one of theuses I had for this was to use it in conjunction with a cheap $5 laser pointer (search Google orAmazon) tocreate a laser trigger. All you do is point the laser at this and when the beam is broken you trigger the cameraor flash.


2 11/11/2010


10/32

Another good use of the this sensor is taking pictures of lightning. It will make getting night time lightning lesswork and you can even get daytime lightning which is something human reflexes cant manage.

RF Link Transmitter 315MHz $3.95

Other parts ???

Total Cost ???

I put a receiver in Camera Axe so I could trigger it remotely. The transmitter I put in along with this receivershould have a range of about 200 ft, but I have not verified this distance yet. I did verify the remote works atcloser ranges by putting together a breadboard circuit to verify it. The circuit is extremely simple since thisdevice just needs power, ground, and a serial transmit wire to send the it the signal. Maybe Ill make a niceremote someday, but until then youll need to design your own if you need this feature. Here is the Arduinosoftware I used to test this feature.

PermalinkComments (67)

November 20, 2008 at 9:11 pm Filed underCNC

Previously Ive written about my CNC build , a sound proof box I made for it and a description of thesoftware Im using with it.

After some usage I found a few weaknesses in my CNC machine. Today Im going to cover 3 improvementsthat target those weaknesses:

Installing some new parts from CNCRouterParts (ACME Anti-backlash Nut, Z-Axis Plate and LowProfile Bearing Block)


32 11/11/2010


11/32

Installing clamp-on couplers from DumpsterCNCBuilding a custom dust control vacuum system

Previously I had used these ACME anti-backlash leadnuts from DumpsterCNC. These seem to be a commonsuggestion on CNCZone. They worked fine except that mounting them onto my 8020 Aluminum frame

required some custom mounting brackets. I spent hours designing and making these brackets. Ive had a fewproblems with them. One of my brackets was ever so slightly out of alignment causing some binding issues.They also had a few bolts/nuts that could vibrate loose so I had to keep an eye on these and tighten them fromtime to time. There were no major problems here, but these issues were annoying.

I ordered some ACME Anti-backlash Nuts from CNCRouterParts to replace the ones from DumpsterCNC. Iwas told these would mount directly onto my 8020 frame without any special brackets. Another advantage isthat they are cheaper ($18.50 versus $22.50). As promised they mounted directly to my 8020 frame. Ive usedthem for about an hour and they seem to work very well.

In my mind the CNCRouterParts solution is vastly superior to anyone building their frame out of 8020 due tofact that they are way easier to mount. I think that even on most non-8020 machines these would e easier tomount.

As a full discloser, I got this part free of charge from CNCRoutnerParts because I was the first to post aninformative blog about other parts Ive bought from them. I do not feel this has influenced my evaluation ofthis part.

Thisplate is well designed and a good deal at $28.75. Originally I spent many hours designing a steel platesolution. This gives more Z axis reach than my steel plate since the router is mounted lower than in my design.The biggest advantage is of this plate is time savings. I could just bolt my K2CNC router mount to this plateinstead of spending the time to create my own. If you dont mind spending a few hours you can save a fewbucks by making your own, but I feel its money well spent.


32 11/11/2010


12/32

As a full discloser, I got this part free of charge from CNCRoutnerParts because I was the first to post aninformative blog about other parts Ive bought from them. I do not feel this has influenced my evaluation ofthis part.

The low profile bearing blockadds about one inch of Z travel to my machine over the standard bearing blockbecause it lets the Z axis plate to travel over it. That said I like the standard bearing block more and after sometesting went back to the standard bearing block. One reason is this new block uses a bushing instead ofbearings so there is significantly more friction. I found this limited the speed I could run my Z axis at. Anotherissue is that I dont need the extra Z travel and the standard block adds a hard stop to my Z axis, which I like

as an extra safety precaution. With the low profile block I could run my Z axis rollers off their rails. If youneed more Z travel you might want to look at the low profile bearing block, but Ill stay with the standardbearing block which is an excellent product.

Its also worth mentioning that the standard blocks are significantly more expensive after adding in the cost ofthe bearings so if price is a high concern that might give you more incentive to try and use this low profilebearing block.


32 11/11/2010


13/32

I wanted to try these couplers from DumpsterCNC instead of the lovejoy connectors I used to mount myACME screws to my stepper motors. The DumpsterCNC couplers are a little cheaper and they take up less

space than the lovejoy connectors. They work just as well as the lovejoy connects so in any future builds Illlikely use these instead of lovejoy connectors. I have nothing else to say since both products do their jobperfectly.

My CNC machine is in an enclosed box so I dont need to worry about dust getting all over my basement, but

I found that having dust get all over my CNC machine was problematic. The biggest two areas of concernwere dust on the ACME threads and dust on the roller rails. Instead of trying to stop dust from getting onthese parts by covering them I decided to add a vacuum to suck up the dust before it could go on anything.

I bought this vacuum because is small, powerful, and cheap. I fabricated a small mount out of aluminum andwood to attach the vacuum to the router. The only other components I needed were some wire and duct tape.I used the wire as a structure and the duct tape to form a flexible skirt around the router to help suck up thedust. The pictures show this better than I can describe in words.

I am very pleased at how well this works. I really believe this is nearly an optimal solution. It took much lesstime to build than the solid wood/aluminum skirt designs Ive seen, and I think this flexible design should


32 11/11/2010


14/32

perform better. It might not be pretty but it works great!


32 11/11/2010


15/32

Heres a few objects I made while testing.


32 11/11/2010


16/32

PermalinkComments (9)

October 26, 2008 at 2:22 pm Filed underCNC

Ive already written aboutbuilding my CNC routerand making a sound proof box for it. The last step Ineeded to do in order to make pretty pictures is the software. This post will walk you through the software Iused to draw an image and then engrave that image into a piece of wood.

First I needed to draw a picture. I didnt want to use something like Photoshop or Microsoft Paint because Ithese are raster based programs and I wanted my image to be stored as vector graphics so that I could tell myCNC machine exactly what vectors to draw. There are ways to transfer raster graphics to a CNC machine,but for more things using vector graphics works better. Corel Draw is probably the most popular software fordrawing vector graphics, but it was pretty expensive. I found the free open source inkscape worked very

well. I drew a picture in inkscape called and saved it as HelloWorld.svg (I will be giving links to all the files Icreated).

After this I had to change all the text and other complicated objects into paths. The reason for this step isbecause these objects are stored as complex mathematical models that later software would not be able toproperly understand. Converting objects to paths is just a single mouse click in inkscape, but if you forget todo this youll be scratching your head trying to figure out why some parts of your drawing are missing. Afterthis I saved the image in inkscape again as HelloWorld.dxf. The reason I used the DXF format is because itsa wildly used vector format that other software can understand.


32 11/11/2010


17/32


18/32


19/32

Here are some pictures of the finished box. I was quite happy with how much quieter my CNC machine isafter I put it in this box.

Heres alink tomy CNCbuild.

PermalinkComments

August 3, 2008 at 10:33 am Filed underCNC

The goal of this project is to design and build a CNC wood router/engraver.This turned out to be a much largerproject than I had anticipated. Bigger both in terms of dollars and hours I spent on it. It took me about 50hours to build the mechanical portion of my CNC machine and I still have to do the electrical and softwarework. This posting will focus on the parts list and the mechanical systems.


32 11/11/2010


20/32

I have done a lot with electronics and with software, but never have I build such a complicated mechanicalmachine before so I needed to do a lot of research before I started my build. The best tools I found for thisresearch phase where cnczone and google. Eventually I decided on a gantry style table because the were themost common and simplest form of table. This thread in particular on cnczone influenced my final build. Ididnt do a very good job at recording the time I spent during this research phase, but it was probablysomething like 30 hours.

There is no way Im going to take the time to explain every step of this build procedure, but here is a part list

and the price I paid for each one. I wish this list had existed before I started my build so I would have had anexample of the different components you need to build a full CNC router and the approximate cost.

Frame

8020 Garage Sale Series 15 Aluminum Frame, connecting plates, bolts, nuts, $581.80

CNC Router Parts (6) Linear Carriage with ABEC 7 Bearings $141.00

CNC Router Parts (2) Extended Linear Carriage with ABEC 7 Bearings $67.00

Speedy Metals Cold Rolled steel (2) 0.25x4x36, 0.25x6x32, 0.25x4x16 $89.26

K2 CNC RM-PC892 Porter Cable 690 & 892 Mount $57.95

Local HardwareStore

Bolts, angle iron, washers, screws, $50.00

Electronics

HobbyCNC HobbyCNC PRO Driver Board Packages with 305 oz-in motors $240.00

Mouser Pactec case #DM-4 $37.21

Allied Electronics 24VAC 10A Triad Transformer $52.00

Amazon Porter-Cable 690 LR Router $125.85

XYZ ThreadedAxises

Go to CNC Router Part List to see how these axises are assembled(note: I did not use the drill that he listed as optional).

CNC Router Parts (6) Bearing Block and Cover for 1/2 ACME $75.00

CNC Router Parts (3)NEMA 23 Motor Mount $37.50

McMaster (3)5 Start 10 thread/inch 1/2 Acme Threaded Rods 3ft $117.51

VXB 10 R8ZZ Bearings (only use 6) $31.34

DumpsterCNC (3)1/2-10 ACME 5 Start Anti-backlash Nut $73.50

MSC (12)Thrust Washer $10.08

MSC (6)Clamping Collar $9.06MSC (6)Thrust Bearing $17.52

MSC (3)Spider Lovejoy Connector $5.31

MSC (3)1/4 Lovejoy Connector $9.90

MSC (3)1/2 Lovejoy Connector $9.90

Total 1838.69

Some other parts youll need are an old PC and the CNC software, but Ill discuss these in a future post.


32 11/11/2010


21/32

The main tools I used were hammer, table saw with aluminum blade, hacksaw, screw drivers, wrenches, handdrill, drill press, threading die (5/16th-18 male), center punch, Allen wrenches, Dremel, and a measuring ruler.

The best way to describe the my machine is with pictures so here we go.

Images of my engraver from different angles.


32 11/11/2010


22/32


32 11/11/2010


23/32

Images of the threaded axis assembly.


32 11/11/2010


24/32


32 11/11/2010


25/32


32 11/11/2010


26/32

The plate used to attach frame to threads.


32 11/11/2010


27/32

Image of the moutned motor.


32 11/11/2010


28/32

Image of the rollers on the y-axis.


32 11/11/2010


29/32

Image of the y-axis (its upside down so you can see the bottom).


32 11/11/2010


30/32

Image of the z-axis.


32 11/11/2010


31/32


32/32

SensorUncategorized

October 2010September 2010

June 2010April 2010February 2010December 2009November 2009August 2009June 2009March 2009January 2009December 2008

November 2008

October 2008September 2008August 2008June 2008May 2008April 2008

RegisterLog inEntries RSSComments RSSWordPress.org

Please feel free to email me with questions about an article, consulting work, product review requests orany other reason you have. [email protected]

Design by Beccary and Weblogs.us XHTML CSS


Documents

Hobby Robotics » CNC