Hello everyone, I decided to build a machine to wind transformers and coils. I believe it can be useful for those who also want to build.
It is controlled by a computer via the USB port.
The shaft is driven by a stepper motor, as is the wire spreader.
One of the biggest difficulties was the wire spreader, where I wanted something with precision.
So I found something ready that can be bought for 20 or 30 dollars on those Chinese shopping sites, you can search for "mini linear guide with motor".
You will also need two stepper motor drivers, one to control the mini linear guide motor and the other for the shaft motor. A suitable one is the TB6600 - steper motor driver -
A USB interface to connect the PC and drivers. You can find it by searching on the same websites for "cnc usb mach3". It costs between 6 and 12 dollars.
A 24V dc or 36V dc, 2A power supply. 36Vdc is best as the motors can run faster.
As for the motor for the shaft, it can be reused from some printer scrap, or also purchased new from the same websites... the size of the motor depends a lot on the size of the transformer that you want to wind or the winding speed. I use a "nema 23" size motor.
They can cost around 10 dollars.
And some more pieces, some made by me, others I asked a friend to make for me... I think the photos will help anyone who wants to have one!
Lastly, the software is called Mach3, it has a free version, and I'm using a personalized screen that can be obtained from the software manufacturer's website
It is controlled by a computer via the USB port.
The shaft is driven by a stepper motor, as is the wire spreader.
One of the biggest difficulties was the wire spreader, where I wanted something with precision.
So I found something ready that can be bought for 20 or 30 dollars on those Chinese shopping sites, you can search for "mini linear guide with motor".
You will also need two stepper motor drivers, one to control the mini linear guide motor and the other for the shaft motor. A suitable one is the TB6600 - steper motor driver -
A USB interface to connect the PC and drivers. You can find it by searching on the same websites for "cnc usb mach3". It costs between 6 and 12 dollars.
A 24V dc or 36V dc, 2A power supply. 36Vdc is best as the motors can run faster.
As for the motor for the shaft, it can be reused from some printer scrap, or also purchased new from the same websites... the size of the motor depends a lot on the size of the transformer that you want to wind or the winding speed. I use a "nema 23" size motor.
They can cost around 10 dollars.
And some more pieces, some made by me, others I asked a friend to make for me... I think the photos will help anyone who wants to have one!
Lastly, the software is called Mach3, it has a free version, and I'm using a personalized screen that can be obtained from the software manufacturer's website
Now that me, my phone and my computer are in agreement, I'll try to send the photos 🙂
There are still several improvements to make, fixing the drivers and USB interface... Add an adjustable pulley to better guide the wire...
Very nice.
Keep in mind, a jacobs chuck has a runout of about 3 mils (.003 inches). With fine wire, it can give some problems with line fit winding.
The linear looks good, but remember that if you microstep, the accuracy will not be what the microsteps calculate to. I suspect the 1.8 degree step with what looks like perhaps a 5 mm single start (?) ballscrew should be good enough.
I just purchased two sets of rails with ballscrews to build an EDM machine, so I will also be looking for a controller, possibly mach3 as well.
John
Keep in mind, a jacobs chuck has a runout of about 3 mils (.003 inches). With fine wire, it can give some problems with line fit winding.
The linear looks good, but remember that if you microstep, the accuracy will not be what the microsteps calculate to. I suspect the 1.8 degree step with what looks like perhaps a 5 mm single start (?) ballscrew should be good enough.
I just purchased two sets of rails with ballscrews to build an EDM machine, so I will also be looking for a controller, possibly mach3 as well.
John
Jneutron, thanks for considerations!
The thread pitch is 1mm, you can choose any value when purchasing! I'm working with microsteps, 800 microsteps per turn. But yes, there is a small gap between the screw and the nut, I believe 0.1mm, maybe by dismantling I can fix it and bring it close to zero! I used 32awg wire (0.25mm) and the coil came out perfect, better than the one in the video I posted!
An important thing in your project is not to use this specific red interface, as it has a "break" every certain number of steps. There are other similar cheap boards, "BL-UsbMach-V2.1" for example, which I tested and do not present this failure in the steps.
The thread pitch is 1mm, you can choose any value when purchasing! I'm working with microsteps, 800 microsteps per turn. But yes, there is a small gap between the screw and the nut, I believe 0.1mm, maybe by dismantling I can fix it and bring it close to zero! I used 32awg wire (0.25mm) and the coil came out perfect, better than the one in the video I posted!
An important thing in your project is not to use this specific red interface, as it has a "break" every certain number of steps. There are other similar cheap boards, "BL-UsbMach-V2.1" for example, which I tested and do not present this failure in the steps.
Ah, linear is a screw. Typically there is a spring and two nuts with a screw. Designed to put sufficient force on the nut to screw interface that it never comes away from one side of the thread. (edit: sometimes they use a plastic nut with a clamp screw that closes the nut down on the threads. But I don't like them for friction and wear.)
The issue with microsteps is that the torque between steps reduces hugely. In open loop, the motor rotor linearity will prevent you from seeing 1mm/800 accuracies..you are actually not getting 1.25 micron placement accuracy. Friction prevents that. If you run closed loop (not recommended for this application), you can get down to within one or two encoder counts static. In practice, if you use a 1 nanometer resolution encoder, it is easy to get within 5 nanometer accuracy static, 25 nanometer dynamic.
For this application, that is huge overkill.
The other reason to use high microstepping is motor noise. However, I think it sounds really cool..
Here is a video of the winder I made 3 years ago. A guy at work needed toroid winding on a 1 inch form and the existing commercial units were not able to give accurate turn to turn. It was for a DCCT that needed 50 ppm accuracies in measurements. I made it in my basement on the cheap, and if it met the need, we were going to have design draw up a good one to provide production capacity. Turned out we made a deal with a vendor, so this sits in my office gathering dust.
I used an arduino for the program. The pop sound that occurs every ring turn is the software delay as the display is being updated. I just used standard arduino code for the project, so the code doesn't run that fast. If they were going to use it for production, I'd have had one of the new guys write legitimate control code.
Again, a very nice build, congrats.
John
The issue with microsteps is that the torque between steps reduces hugely. In open loop, the motor rotor linearity will prevent you from seeing 1mm/800 accuracies..you are actually not getting 1.25 micron placement accuracy. Friction prevents that. If you run closed loop (not recommended for this application), you can get down to within one or two encoder counts static. In practice, if you use a 1 nanometer resolution encoder, it is easy to get within 5 nanometer accuracy static, 25 nanometer dynamic.
For this application, that is huge overkill.
The other reason to use high microstepping is motor noise. However, I think it sounds really cool..
Here is a video of the winder I made 3 years ago. A guy at work needed toroid winding on a 1 inch form and the existing commercial units were not able to give accurate turn to turn. It was for a DCCT that needed 50 ppm accuracies in measurements. I made it in my basement on the cheap, and if it met the need, we were going to have design draw up a good one to provide production capacity. Turned out we made a deal with a vendor, so this sits in my office gathering dust.
I used an arduino for the program. The pop sound that occurs every ring turn is the software delay as the display is being updated. I just used standard arduino code for the project, so the code doesn't run that fast. If they were going to use it for production, I'd have had one of the new guys write legitimate control code.
Again, a very nice build, congrats.
John
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Yes, thanks for the comments! In fact, I had already made another CNC machine, and I had noticed that using microsteps there is a loss of torque. In this winder I used microsteps due to the interface problem. For a given movement, it sends the correct number of steps, that is, it does not lose steps, however, at regular intervals it places a larger space between steps. So the engines don't run smoothly. To minimize this problem and continue using this interface I used microsteps. Apparently it is one of the most used cards in small and homemade machines, but I only saw one comment on the internet reporting this problem.
Your machine is very interesting! It takes skill to build one!
Happy new year, André
Thanks. Not skill, perseverance.
That, a mill, lathe, and decent metrology. I'm still learning how to machine as well as how to approach the machining process.
Happy new year to you as well.
John
That, a mill, lathe, and decent metrology. I'm still learning how to machine as well as how to approach the machining process.
Happy new year to you as well.
John
So very interesting...
After posting sunday about my starting to build an EDM machine, today I started getting directed ads for EDM wire.
Coincidence? I think not.
John
After posting sunday about my starting to build an EDM machine, today I started getting directed ads for EDM wire.
Coincidence? I think not.
John
@jneutron. Yeah, no coincidence there... I do hope you post your EDM progress though. Its far too ambitious a project for me, but Id love to follow along.
Will do. Just got the 200 mm HGR 20 rails in, the range of travel is not enough. So I just bought two pair of 300 mm HGR 15 rails and bearings (this amazon point and click is so dangerous to my credit card!!).
Tools and parts are NEVER returned... they always find a use in my basement!
I think I will do that progress thing on my you-tube channel, and link whenever I do something significant. I'm not sure what forum an EDM build would fall into here. Maybe equipment and tools, this forum? I have a 4k camera and a good mike, just never used it for the channel yet.
I have a friend who is a retired ME, we share clock repair work.. He can design parts and produce G-code, so I will have to figure out the hardware. I have an old smoothie board, but I see that the tech has improved quite a lot. You can buy a module that has stepper drives, limits, as well as G-code capability. Will have to revisit that as I progress.
This effort has been spurred by his request for a complex part for a clock, he thought I still had my 3018 cnc machine. I gave that to my son about 4 months ago for him to learn and play.
John
Tools and parts are NEVER returned... they always find a use in my basement!
I think I will do that progress thing on my you-tube channel, and link whenever I do something significant. I'm not sure what forum an EDM build would fall into here. Maybe equipment and tools, this forum? I have a 4k camera and a good mike, just never used it for the channel yet.
I have a friend who is a retired ME, we share clock repair work.. He can design parts and produce G-code, so I will have to figure out the hardware. I have an old smoothie board, but I see that the tech has improved quite a lot. You can buy a module that has stepper drives, limits, as well as G-code capability. Will have to revisit that as I progress.
This effort has been spurred by his request for a complex part for a clock, he thought I still had my 3018 cnc machine. I gave that to my son about 4 months ago for him to learn and play.
John
Why does anyone think there is a lag when they operate their computer with any search engine?
Or, why is anyone surprised that the Chinese have hacked another website?
The Chinese hacked the US OPM website years ago, stole millions of OPM SF86 forms, including the digital OPM fingerprints the US government had collected. If you travel to China and you had any type of US federal security clearance, the Chinese government has your fingerprints and knows you have/had a federal security clearance.
BUT- you have free credit score information for the rest of your life!
I feel all warm and fuzzy.
Or, why is anyone surprised that the Chinese have hacked another website?
The Chinese hacked the US OPM website years ago, stole millions of OPM SF86 forms, including the digital OPM fingerprints the US government had collected. If you travel to China and you had any type of US federal security clearance, the Chinese government has your fingerprints and knows you have/had a federal security clearance.
BUT- you have free credit score information for the rest of your life!
I feel all warm and fuzzy.