Tue, Jul,11,2017

- made sensor-head and mounted it on test-rig

- wrote monitoring-programm (in processing) for visualizing CapSensing-data

- first test-samples measured on the test-rig with new sensor-head, see video [1]

sensor-head made from 2.75mm copper wire, outer diameter 42mm, inner diameter 32mm
whole sensor-probe with shielded coax-cable and BNC-connector
Experiment1: moving probe along 10mm in steps of 0.1mm
Experiment2: moving probe along 50mm in steps of 0.1mm
Experiment3: moving probe manually along 50mm in steps of 10mm ==> 5 distinct plateaus

Wed, Jul,07,2017

- soldered 3 PCBs

- testing circuits, all seem to work basically

- checked for firmware in Aidan Log from 2014; use the latest firmware-version from him

soldered SMD parts
added ThrougHole parts
made 3 PCBs
added Arduino Nano
first test-rig, utilizing Osci-probe as sensor
measuring against a copper-plate, grounded by crocodile-clib

Tue, Jun,27,2017

- the pcbs of the cap-sensing TorchHeightCTRL have arrived. Perfect quality.

Pcb frontside
Pcb backside

- made progress with printing and assembling 3D-parts for the universal axes for a D3D printer. I have meanwhile printed all parts for the raw-axes and started assembling them.

Parts for the raw-axis, 3D-parts made from ABS
4 axes assembled, incl. Idler
Motors, pulleys, belt and endstops to go

Sun, Jun,25,2017

- 3d-printed jog-wheel knob [2]

manually steered height control
Jog-Wheel for KY-040 rotary encoder

- made wiki project page for manual height ctrl, see CNC_Torch_Table_Z_Height_Control

Mon, Jun,19,2017

- made manual heightcontroller for torchtable, based on Arduino/Ramps and TB6600

manually steered height control
TB6600, Arduino_Mega/Ramps, KY-040 rotary encoder
stepper driven lineardrive

- demonstration video on youtube: [3]

- made from standard components, nothing to solder ;)

Wed, Jun,16,2017

- completed Mouser part-list and setup project on mouser. This can be accessed at [4] and there you have to type in as project-key 64fff8ecbf

- added exported part-list also to GitHub

- printed more 3d-parts for D3D

Sun, Jun,11,2017

- exported Gerber files from kicad and set up a pcb-project page on go.aisler.net [5], including option to order the pcb. I ordered three, for 36.00 EUR (incl. shipping) in total. production time is about 12 days or lower.

pcb manufactured by Aisler
Ordering page at Aisler
Detailed views on each pcb layer as Gerber file

Sat, Jun,10,2017

- today i received an order from a special material filament named "Iglidur I150 Tribo-Filament" from Igus [6]. This is specially suited for 3dprinting sliding parts and is about 50 times less abrasive than ABS.

I tested it with printing a surrogat for the lm8uu linear-bearings in the universal axis. Prints nicely at 255 °C. The bushings should give less play and a lower noise-level.