My wife is a professional piano teacher but I am swooning over another kind of music. That other kind of music has  four speakers and three channels.

What I am hinting at is the HB2 has come alive and is singing it’s stepper pulses. Anyone familiar with stepper motors knows what I am talking about. The steppers actually sing in the audio range as the pulses are being fed to them. The HB2 has four motors (speakers) and three channels (X, Y, Z).

The PS2 Power supply is complete and working as good if not better than expected. I made up all four XLR 5 pin plugs and they are a perfect match to the stepper motor cable I am using. I haven’t done the finish wiring at the motors yet as I plan to test for awhile.

I’ll get some pictures tomorrow and post here. Maybe a video too. I also need to do a write up for the web site. For today I just wanted to mark this milestone that the HB2 is now self powered. I could actually do some cutting if I come up with a hold down.

Dan’l

UPDATE  3/8/09: Pictures of the PS2 are now in the THMS website. Look under SITE TOOLS and What’s New for this entry: 03/08/09 – HB2 Construction Section 6, The PS2 Controller/Power Supply. At last the HB2 gets the power and brains to move on its own!

I did some work on the HB2 power supply/controller today. I have all the panels cut or drilled and some components mounted. I have a lot of wiring to make up so that will take a bit of time. The hardest thing for me to do was commit to a final layout. When I get to make all the decisions myself it is sometimes easier to not make any. But once I started drilling holes it gets easier and more exciting. I am liking my new layout very much.

Where in the heck is the time flying? I look at the blog calendar and it is weeks since my last post. Uh… make that a month! I guess that sort of proves I don’t spend all my time in front of the one wide-eyed monster. Then again I do. I really do if you count the time at my real job.

I have been working in Aspire which is the new CNC graphic and vector to code software from Vectric. Wow! What a powerful tool if you want to do detailed CNC carving, engraving and router work. I have posted a few times in the Vectric forum and am dieing to get the HB2 Power Supply and controller working to run some larger projects. All the other operational mechanical work on the HB2 is finished. I will add limits switches and other details once I get it running.

I ordered the last few parts for the power supply/controller. I am going to use 5 pin XLR plugs for the motor leads. I have been wracking my engineering brain trying to decide on suitable connectors that look good. Not cheap but neither is the project. The plugs and sockets are big enough for the 20 ga. super flex wire I am using and the pins in the 5 pin style can take the current flow. They are like a DIN connector/plug on steroids.

I had considered DB9 style connectors but the pins are just too small and close together. The current rating however was not going to be a problem. The DB9 is used by several name brand controllers. The motor (stepper) wiring must be lighter than what I am using.

My steppers are not large but they will be running for hours at a time.… Continue reading →