44 AeroModeller - June 2018with pre-made cables and Ooznest
provide a purpose designed 3D printed
end cap to keep all this covered; it also
has a mounting point for the LED voltage
display. It is important to secure all the
cables on the frame; I used P clips as
shown but don’t forget to make sure
the cables are long enough to allow full
movement of the Z axis on the X axis
gantry and they don’t get caught up
when the cutting table (on the Y axis)
moves fully back.Hello World
As suggested in the build video, I
installed Grbl Panel on my laptop to talk
to the C Beam controller. You may have
to additionally install some software
drivers, but this is all explained in detail.
Once connected the fi rst thing you need
to do is make a few changes to the
board parameters and a screen shot
image is provided to make this easy.
Next connect up the PSU and Stepper
motors to the controller, have a fi nal
check that all the wiring is as shown and
you’re ready to take the plunge; pun
intended! In the software download youget a jpg image of how the axes should
move when you operate the appropriate
jog tab in Grbl panel; you also have the
option to use the arrow keys on your
keyboard. If any of the directions are
reversed just swap the wiring on the
appropriate stepper motor to correct
this before trying your fi rst cut. When
everything is moving as intended a fi le
can be found in the software called Hello
World so load this into Grbl panel in
readiness. For this test cut I used a piece
of 20mm foam; jog the router to its start
position and hit the start tab.
Nobody was more surprised than me
when it started doing its stuff. I would
suggest using a vacuum cleaner to
catch all the cut material as it fl ies off
the cutting bit, otherwise you’ll have
a major clean up job when it’s done.
When completed I decided to see how
accurate it was so, without moving the
cut piece I ran the same program again.
The result was perfect, no more material
was removed it followed the original cut
exactly. I was very, very impressed with
it and what superb value for money this
machine is. I’m glad I didn’t skimp on theTechnology for Aeromodellers
A modifi cation suggested by the designer is
adding a TVS diode across the blue power
connector to protect the electronics from back
emf voltage spikes.Power supply and control electronics wired up
in place. A 3D printed end cap houses the LED
display, low voltage, mains sockets and encloses
all the wiring on the PSU.It’s important to keep the cabling secured and
out of the way of all the moving parts. P clips and
tie wraps work well.Grbl Panel was the control software used.
You just need to load up the G Code hit the
start button and watch the magic happen.The machine axis reference picture is used
for checking everything moves as intended.“First cut is the deepest,” as the song goes.
The marking around the top O and the lower
gear shaped O was down to me manually
playing with the Z axis control.Aluminium, MDF, pine and ply example pieces.COMPUTER ROUTER.indd 44 26/04/2018 15:45