Drill Table project

[SouthernAtHeart]

We made a 'drill table', for our machine shop, for parts we make quantities of. It automatically drills all the holes on the part. We can save the hole info on an SD card, so it never has to be entered again. It uses a roboclaw controller with encoder feedback, home switches, and has an I2C keypad/LCD interface. We made a custom PCB from OSHpark, which houses an arduino chip (the Atmega2560). This daughter board takes away so many extra wires, as it has terminals for the encoders, S3/S4/S5 pins, and it includes pull-up resistors, and decoupling cap on the lines. The daughter board also has 2 high amp outputs, for driving relays for air cylinders, and 3-phase starters.

Here's a 60 second video of the machine in operation:
https://youtu.be/StGIuXJ1gFE

[Rebel_Ace]

Very Cool. Was that a 45 or 60 amp RoboClaw?

[SouthernAtHeart]

It's actually just the 15 amp version. The motors only draw about 7 amps when it's running wide open, as it's geared down enough not to have much load. The shield or daughter board on the roboclaw is a great way to go! If anyone wants the eagle files for it let me know. I also have a board for sale on eBay I'd let go pretty cheap. It has minor differences than this one. For example: I learned that you should have 0.1uF decoupling caps on the home switch lines so my AC motor wires (running in the same cable carrier) doesn't throw false triggers.