Hi Alexander,
If you where on the waiting list, than yes, please use the notification list. If you are already on the notification list, then you don’t need to do anything. This weekend the the kits wend fast. I expect to have new kits ready end of February / begin March.
Cheers Michel
Are there any builders here willing to share how their build went as well as how their panel looks?
I’ll share that I found putting a drop of dish soap on the USB port’s threads eased threading the nut. The platic suffered from severe stiction while threading the nut on.
I would be willing to pay now for one of the kits. This would perhaps relieve the building cost. Let me know what to do. Great work
Hi Tom,
They are available (and still a couple in stock):
Hi all is anyone out there thinking of building these to sell complete ready to plug and play
Despite being a time served engineer my knowledge and ability with electronics is appalling, coupled with tree stump fingers, 50+ yo eyesight and a few hand tremors
I really like the look of the device and have followed it from the start and would love to own one but I know it would just be a waste of money buying it in kit form
Happy to obviously pay an agreed rate for its assembly
Cheers
Darren
Hey Darren,
If you love shop work like me, (1F included) I’m pretty sure you could assemble one of Michel’s V3 kits. He has done all of the heavy lifting so assembly is pretty straight forward, i.e. screwing control buttons onto the face plate, and plugging connectors together. Soldering seems minimal, like splicing wires, etc… The only real dicey part might be separating line power for distribution, but that is more than straight forward too. Admittedly, I’m only 40 years out from this stuff myself but the eyes and tremors seem to put me in the same boat as you.
I’m not saying plug and play doesn’t have its place but why miss out on the fun of being part of the creation process?
As for me, I’m taking it slow and wearing magnifiers when needed. LOL
I haven’t had a chance to even look at mine, it’s still in the box unopened.
I’ve been too busy with the 3D Printer and other stuff around the house now that the WX has warmed up a bit.
This is the first time I have been on here for more than a couple minutes in about 2 weeks.
I’ll try to get a couple of pictures of my enclosure build tomorrow. I might change it though because I’m not sure where I want it to be permanently, it’s just sitting beside my machine now. I integrated some outlets and two power inlets into my enclosure, one for the dust collector and one for everything else, so it was a bit tight to fit everything inside.
Getting the nut on the USB thing was really difficult for me as well, I had to use some 3in1 oil and pliers to get it to screw on.
I am super happy with how well it works though. The automatic on/off of the router and dust collector is really great as well as one-handed jogging control. I haven’t wired up my touch probe yet but I think I’m gonna modify the plug so it doesn’t stick out so far.
I also would love to see some pictures of build enclosures. Thinking of creating a showcase gallery on the site.
I personally did not encounter this tight nut -problem myself. I guess it might be related to humidity or temperature. I have added the tip to use a drop of soap to the documentation if it’s too tight.
I update the documentation constantly if I answer questions from users that could benefit others. So if you haven’t build it yet, you might read it again (date of last update is at the top of the page)
Are you concerned the plug is blocking interaction? The location on the panel shouldn’t obstruct user interaction. It’s on the lowest row to prevent the probe cable dangling over buttons. I also think the longer plug might prevent bumping / breaking plugged in USB sticks. Anyhow, if you want a solution that doesn’t stick so far out, you could use a angled XLR connector:
Here’s some pics. It’s not very fancy and like I said I may rebuild it eventually.
Each of the outlets in the 2-gang box are hooked up to each of the relays, with the bottom inlet feeding the router, acc1, acc2, and the 1-gang outlet with the USB ports.The top inlet feeds the dust collector (shop vac for now) so it’s on it’s own supply and I plug that one into a dedicated circuit so no chance of tripping the breaker.
The wall-wart is to power the control panel because I didn’t feel like opening up the onefinity controller to grab power from it’s psu, and the built in USB I use to power the monitor
With the XLR connector I just don’t like how far it sticks out, not a big deal just personal preference. You do make a good point about it sort of protecting the USB stick though. I had thought about buying a right angle connector but I’m too cheap.
Your enclosure looks tidy and neet and I like how you’ve arranged the 20amp outlets along with distinctly separated line supplies. Do you find yourself using the joystick more often left or right handed now?
It’s located on the left side of machine and I’m already left handed so that’s how I use it but I would find it just as easy to use it right handed if it were on the other side.
I love that I can control it all with one hand, without the need to pick up a gamepad. Especially when I need to stick my face right next to the router bit so I can line it up with a precise spot, I can do that without looking at the controls.
I have to mention how awesome it is to have automatic on/off for the router and dust collector also! I like that I can let a project run and walk away without having to worry about turning them off once it’s complete, and the lack of noise lets me know it’s finished.
With two items outstanding yet, my remote control panel is nearly complete!
I elected to mount the panel on a movable pedestal which, I feel, will allow me easy movement when working projects that involve tiling or other large carves. Not only is the panel now movable within a reasonable range of the 1F but it adjusts up/down as may be needed and it doesn’t interfere with using the swing table function.
Because it would be moveable I wanted to eliminate having mains power in the ‘tether’ cable between 1F and the remote panel. To accomplish that I added a separate panel containing extra control relays and a 12vdc PS to the remote control panel package. The end result is that the tether cable carries only low voltage witch reduces any safety hazards that might be associated with an unattached control box.
The down side is there is added cost and minor build complexity vs. the intended stock setup.
The up side, for me anyway, is the tremendous flexibility it provides. Additionally, it should be much easier to upgrade to a spindle at some point in the future since the added isolation relays are already present.
The photos show separate cables at the moment but that will be resolved when the spiral cable wrap arrives. I also intend to terminate the spiral wrap at each end to help relieve strain on the cables.
In the process of hook up, I manage to damage the micro-USB connector on the Arduino board. I’m not sure when, but the combination of fat fingers and hands didn’t play well with it for sure.
A new board is due to arrive early next week and, with Michels help, I’m ready to load the firmware to it. Two extra words of caution when dealing with the circuit board, make sure you take anti-static measures and be very gentile with that USB!
After spending some time with the new setup today, I noticed how much more convenient and friendly the new controls are! The game pad works great but this brought my 1F to a whole new level of control that I encourage you to think about when considering upgrades.
Oh, and no more game controller timing out to save battery either.
I do like how easily you can move your panel around.
What relays did you go with?
The CRM (master control) is:
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H6RXX8K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details),
The individual control relays are:
(Ximimark 5Sets DC 12V Coil Power Relay LY2NJ HH62P JQX-13F DPDT 8 Pin 10A Wit... 657835635039 | eBay)
CRM supplies power to the 12vdc power supply and line voltage to the each of the control relays (except the dust collector which has a separate incoming line supply).
I finally finished up my control panel and can’t be happier with how it works.
All the components are high quality and having auto on/off is a game changer!
It looks great and I’m sure that over time you’ll be asking yourself how you were able to work with out it!
I find one of the best features is simply no longer fiddling with constantly powering up the game controller when manual control is needed. Additionally, the joy-stick works incredibly smoothly and I haven’t had a manual crash “oops” moment with it yet! I could go on and on about various features but suffice it to say it is just what my 1F needed.
If there is one niggle I would have preferred it would be to have the labels at the top of the buttons rather than below them. Coming from a manufacturing controls background I’m still trying to break myself of my learned reflex of looking for them there. Note though, that is such a minor point and is negligible compared to the quantum improvement this panel presents in operation.
I would have purchased one, but I just moved to a 220 spindle so some of the features were unusable. I would be all for one that had some mods to allow for control of the VFD, maybe a breakout box for the relays that need to be bigger…
Kind of what I’ve done where there is no line voltage in the remote panel which controls relays in a secondary control relay panel? Hopefully the ‘router’ control relay will accomodate VFD spindle control in the future for me.
I am in the process of finishing up my build of the control panel but have a couple of questions:
What is the purpose of the DB25 connection to the 1F controller? Mine doesn’t seem to want to complete the startup process with it plugged in. The display blinks a lot and startup never finishes.
The emergency stop button. I have been running my 1F controller and router off 2 different power sources and I would like to continue to do so with this new control panel - with the hopes that I can have both the 1F controller and the router turned off by the emergency stop button. Now I am not a hardware guy (rather a software guy) - so I figured since there were what looks like two sets of terminals I could run my two power sources through it - but that does not appear to be the case. I’m not sure what the second set of contacts (23, 24) are for, but they appear to be closed when the emergency stop button is in (has been ‘hit’). Is there any way to run the 1F controller and router on 2 power sources and use the emergency stop button for both. Obviously I would also like to use the Router button to turn the router on/off.
Still having some issues with the relays (i.e. they are not working) but wanted to get these first two questions posted.
Thanks
Jim
