Milling a PCB on a LPKF machine

Jim Fouch

Here is a video I threw together showing my LPKF PCB milling machine.

I bought this machine from BEAN about 2 years ago. It has taken some time to get the hang of the machine, but well worth the effort. This video shows my first attempt at doing a double sided board. Even though I failed due to a simple mistake I made in configuring my layers, it should be pretty easy.

In the near future, I'm going to add a prop to monitor the starting and stopping of the motor and turn on the vacuum automatically. The PC sends text commands to the machine and it looks pretty easy to intercept the Motor On/Off commands. :-)

Leon

The Pulsonix PCB software I use can output LPKF files.

Publison

Jim Fouch wrote: »

Here is a video I threw together showing my LPKF PCB milling machine.


I bought this machine from BEAN about 2 years ago. It has taken some time to get the hang of the machine, but well worth the effort. This video shows my first attempt at doing a double sided board. Even though I failed due to a simple mistake I made in configuring my layers, it should be pretty easy.

In the near future, I'm going to add a prop to monitor the starting and stopping of the motor and turn on the vacuum automatically. The PC sends text commands to the machine and it looks pretty easy to intercept the Motor On/Off commands. :-)

Great video Jim, Thanks for taking the time to share!

Jim

Tiger

Jim - You don't need a Propeller to control your vac. I'm on my third LPKF so I don't remember the details of how I arrived at what I did on mine, but all you need is a solid state relay and two wires going to the "HEAD" connector. I think this is the same way LPKF does it if you buy their vac option. I just took my connector apart for you to see what pins I used and it was pins 6 and 12. I don't remember and didn't check the polarity, but you can do that with a meter before you connect to the SSR. I used one of those SSRs that is a block about 1.5x2" and an inch thick that handles 10A. I just connected the two wires to the SSR's optically isolated input and I was up and running. It's really convenient not having to mess with the vac. I see in your video that you have found Think and Tinker for tooling. That's the only way to go for the drills and cutters. Right now I'm running a C40 machine, but on the older ones I had like yours, I'm sure I used the same hookup.

...Tiger

electronicsbasecom

It is very good prototyping machine. I used it to make prototypes from Altium. But, unfortunately the main motor is dead and replacement costs 2000 Euros

Jim Fouch

Tiger wrote: »

Jim - You don't need a Propeller to control your vac. I'm on my third LPKF so I don't remember the details of how I arrived at what I did on mine, but all you need is a solid state relay and two wires going to the "HEAD" connector. I think this is the same way LPKF does it if you buy their vac option. I just took my connector apart for you to see what pins I used and it was pins 6 and 12. I don't remember and didn't check the polarity, but you can do that with a meter before you connect to the SSR. I used one of those SSRs that is a block about 1.5x2" and an inch thick that handles 10A. I just connected the two wires to the SSR's optically isolated input and I was up and running. It's really convenient not having to mess with the vac. I see in your video that you have found Think and Tinker for tooling. That's the only way to go for the drills and cutters. Right now I'm running a C40 machine, but on the older ones I had like yours, I'm sure I used the same hookup.

...Tiger

Thanks for the info. I may still use the Prop route so I can display other information local at the machine like motor RPM. I have taken a peek at the control protocol and it seems pretty straight forward.