My kickstarter finally arrived!
Nifty little square thing to allow IT control of our AC over the internet by an app.
Tado – website
Tado – kickstarter
I’d have a play at freezin’ the missus whilst I’m out at work but I can’t get it going 🙂
have asked the support team how to do a hard reset as it’s stuck on ‘not configured’ right now
Have been thoroughly googling just how exactly to create digital masterpieces that can be ‘realised’ with this shiny new tool of mine.
Blimey……
There’s a bit of a general workflow to CNC. It seems to go something like this….
It seems that every forum, every person has different answers to different requests. There’s a myriad of hardware drivers out there, different softwares more suitable for different drivers.
Right now, I’ll stick with a generic solution to learn and see how it goes.
I’m thinking
3D stuff -OpenSCAD – http://www.openscad.org/index.html
2D Stuff / 2.5D Stuff – Inkscape – https://inkscape.org/en/ (i’ve already used this a little with my KNK ZING cardboard cutting machine
OpenSCAM – http://openscam.com/download.html#install – seems to be used a bit for making or simulating toolpaths
Heeks CNC – https://sites.google.com/site/heekscad/ – some sort of code producer for the CNC toolpaths – Costs 10 quid
Rather ill little ‘uns these past few days, no real progress other than interwebbing and….
Found some great offers on ‘Dremel’ parts at the local DIY Store (Bunnings) – picked up four bits that look like they’ll work in the CNC reduced from nearly $80 down to less than $20
also picked up some offcut accrylic for under a tenner at some place that said “perspex” on the outside,
finally, got a few ikea kitchen painted pieces of wood for $1 each
pics another time, my seven minute parcel of personal time’s over
Our quick ikea trip resulted in the purchase of what I think must hold a record for “ikea product with the most components”
look….
……..and that’s just 310 smaller bits…. there are 38 larger panels
There were 4 boxes weighing 149.1 Kilos too! blimey.
Another night somewhat short on content….Lots of planning though.
Whilst on a trip to Ikea, I noted the Lack Coffee Table. I have one of these spare at home now we’re cleaning out the spare room
At 55cm x 55cm (Google metrification <> imperialisation link for you inches guysGoogle metrification <> imperialisation link for you imperial guys) this $7.99 (at time of writing) is the ideal sized throne upon which to sit my CNC.
Having roughly measured the CNC, it takes up roughly
An Ikea Lack table for those not familiar with paper masquerading as wooden furniture
An overly meandering perusal around the maze that seems to be Sweden’s least favourite furniture store can be enlightning. Not only are you kept alert looking for just the right part to do something with that it’s not supposed to, you’re also well fed. a Lack table, with some minor modifications can probably serve as an enclosure for the CNC!
I recon, stacking two tables and Bolting some see -thru plastic of some sort may do a cheap, temporary job until something better comes along?
Here’s a quick drawing my 3 year old knocked up, honest
Have spent a few days now reading up on solving the parallel port issue.
it really seems that Eight out of Ten CNC owners prefer Mach 3
Mach 3 is a somewhat antiquated piece of software it seems, I’ll figure out if it’s really worth purchasing a copy or if I stick to the lower number of lines limit for Gcode, or, well, i’m not really sure (other software maybe?)
None of my computers have a parallel port. few, if any are running a 32 bit OS. and Prices of devices to convert the 25 pin Parallel port on the controller…(shown in the pic below)
are fairly high (though perfectly reasonable) compared to the price of the CNC mechanics.
There’s an absolute myriad of controllers, convertors, power-ers, drivers, thingies and other stuff that’s been developed, kickstarted, knocked up, and sold on a whim, too much choice really.
I went the stingy route and picked up an ONTRON USB CNC Parallel convertor for just $34 AUD. My thought process was
The Device I purhcased……
It was shipped within 5 minutes of buying it (somehow I doubt the French are that efficient), Fingers crossed it arrives in the next two weeks like the auction said it would
Not able to do much tonight, late day out watching the awesome Minions, The Movie in a jam packed, Sold out cinema.
Home late after entertaining a couple of youngsters and some adult conversation.
have some rather nice images of this beastly machine courtesy of the eBay seller.
Personally, I can’t stop myself from Ogling that 4th Axis….just look at those curves!
So far, a list of things I’ve discovered
Seems there’s really no accurate information out there for this little thing. A good summary would be though ‘a bit crap’…..if you compare it to all the others available, every website suggests this is the lowest possible spec in its size. Maybe time for an upgrade 😛
It’s been fun getting back to my old routine and hitting up teh interwebs.
There’s a huge amount of resources out there
A few that I’ve discovered so far
And there’s quite a bit else out there too, I’ll try to keep this page up to date as I go along,
I’ve found that a quick Google for terms such as 3040, 3020, 6040 seems to bring up more webpages than you’d think.
There does seem to be quite a few different versions of this machine out there though, most look superficially similar, I’ll try to figure out what the differences are
From the Auction, Specifications are as listed below. Certainly does seem quite impressive for the money.
Even more so considering I saved nearly $100 off the price!
2 years Free warranty
It’s now the weekend, If I can’t have fun playing with the CNC, driving it electornicially in the manner it’s intended, I’ll have fun with the screwdriver instead.
11 Philips head screws later (yep, these Cheap CNC’s are really screwed up well)
Some things of note
The Stepper motor driver board is labelled JP3163-B, uses Toshiba TB6560AHQ drivers. Looks like it’s only a 3 channel board
There’s a smaller stepper driver board on the side labelled JP-1635A. This looks like it’s fulfilling the 4th Axis role. it’s probably not on the main PCB as most of these devices will only ever be sold as 3 Axis….why spend the extra few dollars on un-used components.
The Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) Spindle driving Board is labelled JP-1482
There’s a HUGE HDB-200 (200VA?) toroidal transformer in there. centre tapped 18-36V secondaries.
Looks like there’s some googling to do tomorrow
More unboxing. This time the power supply, another three of those 57HD0401-15SB steppers. two have large adaptor things on them, one has a smaller – must be the X,Y axis and the Z axis
Layed out nicely on the dining room table
I did get quite excited now, thought I’d be CNC’ing on the weekend IF the power supply was 240V as ordered. Well, it is. However, I did see a somewhat ominous DB25 style connector, a parallel port. That’s something that i’ve not seen on a computer for a while. annoyingly, none of the computers I own (don’t ask) seem have the pre-requisite hardware to drive this thing.
A quick Google suggests that it’s not gonna be that easy and more hardware’ll be required.
Ah well, a cute little case full of Screws, bits and tools is always good for a cheer up
Tad gutted at the 110v issue, however, lets keep going regardless. I’m liking the new CNC smell too much
These Guys sure wrap their stuff well, Plenty of foam
And, Brilliant. Never have seen a 110v inverter with a pointy, handley thing on it before
Mislabelled box is proven to hold the 4th Axis of the machine – i’ll put more detail another time
A close-up of the first ‘part numbered’ part i’ve seen so far, A 57HD0401-15SB Stepper motor. 1.8 Degree Steps, 2.0 Amps rating and N1504 (whatever that means?)
I’ll list all the parts I come accross another time
Some more pictures….
Pulled out the smallest box to start with, this is exciting
However, something a little ‘odd’ here, I’d ordered a 240V version of the CNC, could it be possible they’ve sent some other voltage?
Aaw, crap, this means I’m probably not going to be able to ‘play’ on the weekend
For those thinking of having one of these delivered….
The outer packaging was pretty much 51cm x 40cm x 40cm,
DHL had it down as 0.082 cubic meters and 24.2 Kg
Not exactly small……
I’m rather impressed really, Twenty Five Kilograms rolled up to the front door on Thursday. Just four days after purchasing…..
I Purchased this CNC from An eBay 3020T CNC seller late one late night,
it was the 15th June and the chaps at Ozbargain had become aware of a fantastic 20% flat discount off anything purchased from eBay offer.
Turned out that eBay had goofed somehow and globally enabled a discount code only intended to be released to select individuals back home in Blighty.
That discount code tipped me over the edge. I frantically rummaged around for my credit card details, my forgotten paypal account’s password and perused the behemoth auction site for something, anything, a bargain to acquire. I simply MUST save money (ironically by spending money)
I’ve always liked the thought of making stuff, have been ‘making’ vicariously through various websites over the years, finding little time to end the procrastination and actually, physically do something. This CNC, this 3020T I believe will allow me to grasp within my grubby mitts the ability to turn some lovingly crafted and digitally stored squiggly patterns, three dimensional wotzits, any old crap really. It’ll allow me to turn digital crap into actual, physical, holdy in your handy, crap.
Yep, that’s right, I’ll effectively be procrastinating no further, no longer filling hard drives with even more ones and zeros. This CNC, it’s an enabler, I’ll be contributing physically to the amount of detritus in my abode by converting those digitally stored files into three dimensional junk that I can store all over the house, thoroughly annoying the missus even more!
Unboxing to come
Purchased one of those Chinese CNC machines the other day. One of the smaller machines, known as a 3020
My model happens to be the 3020T, and just for fun I decided to puchase the 4 Axis version.
Bleugh.Biz Blog Thingy 