yep, they need pulling low. I think there's a pullup on the board but it wouldn't hurt to provide this on your board. Pay attention to the isolation on the spindle drive as the input could be floating up at mains potential.

Starmill PC converted to run with Mach3. As with almost all these machines it's done very little work and most of that was with wood. I've not had it very long but need just a little more travel in the X axis and so have had to upgrade to a bigger machine. Really nice clean, unworn machine. Has an e...

Has anyone fitted flood or mist coolant to a starmill?

If this was fitted as a factory option, was anything special done to the mill? eg, a drain hole cut in the base, some extra guards/seals to prevent moisture ingress anywhere?

Thanks
Andy

Thanks for everyones input. I've been able to determine they are DA collets, and managed to buy some from Ebay, listed as DA200 collets. Andy On another note, just finished converting my Starmill to run Mach3 so if anyone needs any pointers let me know. Simple job to do if you keep the drives and mo...

I'm just converting mine- haven't actually wired the thing up completely yet. Am I correct in thinking that the BOOST inputs control full/halfstep drive to the motors? If so, which way did you end up tying them? (I guess they're probably pulled one way on the base board anyway). Half step=better res...

Browsing the links posted here I can now see that the collets I've got are DA20. This seems to be different to the currently available collet holders that take an ER20.

I'll probably go ahead and buy a new collet chuck to allow me to use the ER20s.

Thanks All.

Andy

Thanks for the replies, The posilock collets wouldn't fit the standard easychange collet holder- they look a lot more like the vertex set I have for my manual mill. I'd seen the other easychange collet chuck (Coventry) but it appears to use a different collet style. Think it'll probably be easier to...

anyone got a 3mm collet for an easychange milling chuck that they'd like to sell? (only need the collet)
Would be interested in other sizes, and in a drill chuck adaptor as well.

Thanks
Andy

I've been looking at this today and my new best-guess is that it's an Acme thread. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_thread_form So the options would be, buy a tap or grind a lathe tool to the correct profile. There's a possibility of using a single point tool to cut the trhead, but I'd probably go ...

I often use this site to identify threads. Very usefull. http://www.gewinde-normen.de/en/specifications.html The only 10tpi 1/2" thread I could see was- http://www.gewinde-normen.de/en/knuckle-thread-din-405.html The thread could be entirely non-standard though! I guess I could cut one on my CNC if ...

if you find that even with the bolt as tight as you can get it the thing still wont shift, you may need to shock the pulley. A few ways to do this (with varying risk of damage). Heat the pulley. Tap the pulley sharply and try not to damage it! Use a tapered ball-joint splittter tool between motor an...

I'd probably make up a simple 'puller'. Flat strip of steel (say 10mm or thicker), drill 2 holes to allow you to bolt it to what look like threaded holes in the pulley retainer, and a larger threaded hole in the center (bigger the better). You could weld a big nut here if you haven't got a large tap...

sorry for the missleading info!
In the manuals dowload section is the scanned manual for the triac- there are connection details there

http://www.denfordata.com/downloads/dos/manuals.zip

try also
http://www.denfordata.com/downloads/dos/triac.zip

this may help testing your 232 connection.

You may also find the manuals for the triac here, though I've not checked.

from the orac manual (should be the same as triac)

I see in the specs that taper interpolation is 20:1. I've no idea what that means though! But, (i'm converting your numbers roughtly to metric) with a resolution of .01mm, and a taper of 1.25mm you'll be able to resolve 1.25/.01 discreet positions (=125) therefore over a length of 200mm you'll be st...

The CD20s have gone (to a guy on here) but I still have SD3s. Message me if interested.

Thanks
Andy

Your original drives (CD20) would be 3amp. You may get a bit more cutting force and acheive higher feed rates with higher currents but this puts extra stress on the machine. I'd keep to sensible traverse rates of perhaps 1000mm/min max I wouldn't go much above 4 amps drive. My best guess would be th...

on my cd20s Q32 is a BD242. Just in case the designations have changed, it's layed down- not on the heatsink, top left corner near connector.

If you have any problem getting that specific transistor and need help to source it/an alternative, let me know.

Andy

I just noticed I put SD2's, I've acutally got SD3's.