Thread: Any plans for those home made Dro extension displays

G'day Andy,
This is a wild try, but there is a site where the real nerds live, and they maqy have something there that will suit you.
These guys run their houses from their ipods.

www.hackaday.com

you will have to search archives

Apparently the chinese scales use a system that is not standard, so the external bit is hard to come by...You may find some help here -->> http://www.shumatech.com/products/index.html

You looking for goodies like these?

http://www.shars.com/
on page 54 of their on line catalog
http://www.shars.com/files/products/...009/Page54.pdf

Another company selling similar.
http://www.cdcotools.com/index.php

Yadro? see http:/www.yadro.de These kits can be purchased from NZ distributor Jones

Just back from a week in Perth and waiting for me on the doorstep was a Shumatech DRO kit from Shane at Sabworkshop.com.

Only $230 plus shipping (only a few $$ ). Assembly looks pretty straightforward but will have to wait until my scales arrive before I can test it.

[Have a look at the Yahoo Shumatech group too ]

Those kits look great. do you mind doing a follow up when you have it assembled as to how easy it was.

also is the kit JUST for the DRO, or does it also include some cables that would connect the DRO to the quill's. (not explained as far as I can see, on their web site.

Regards, Andy

The Shumatech DRO's are great things. I built one up around 12 months ago for my mill. They are not too hard to assemble and as long as you follow the directions and take care with your soldering all should be good. The UK based supplier has some assembly instructions here which I think are a little better than the one on the Shumatec site as it walks you through each stage of the build. Testing each stage as you go so you don't get yourself into too many problems.
Cables are not supplied with the kit. I used video cables purchased from Jaycar, cut them up and put plugs onto them.
For my scales I went on the cheap and just used cheap digital calipers. I just cut the jaws off them with a dremel. I have them mounted to the mill on the X, Y, Z1 & Z2 axis. You can buy the more expensive scales but you need to also buy a QCC-100 to make the scales compatible with the DRO.

The only problem you can strike is that some of the digital calipers they are now selling are not compatible with the DRO and as far as I am aware there is no way of telling for sure unless you put them on a CRO. I ran into this problem with the first scale I tried mounting and spent ages running around in circles trying to find a problem with my build until I realised the scale was the problem.

When all else fails the Yahoo group is very active and helpful at solving any problems you may encounter.

I can't speak too highly of these units. It's a way of getting a DRO on your machine at a reasonable price and you built it. If it breaks (highly unlikely) you can fix it. Not throw it out lke the commercial products.

Once you have one you don't want to go back to the old way of counting number of turns and allowing for backlash.

Agreed, the Schumatech kits are good, good quality circuit board, easy to solder together, and worked first time with very accurate and repeatable readings.
The Measumax scales sold by Hafco DO NOT work (different protocol and connector), the type pictured on the Schumatech web site, and the cheap Dick Smith verniers do work, however be careful with the pinouts of their data outlets, the instruction sheet supplied with the vernier may be wrong. In particular check the pos and neg pins against the battery connections, and you may need to swap the data and clock leads if it doesn't work first time. It's best to solder the leads directly to the data outlet pads, and you will need to add capacitors to the read heads to reduce interference if your leads are more than about half metre.(look for the file 'experience with chinese scales.pdf'). A lot cheaper than the commercial units, and quite accurate, and the calculations and tool offsets etc in the software are very useful.

Evan
PS.. The read heads from the cheap verniers will fit the Measumax scales, with a bit of drilling new screw holes, and work very well.

Originally Posted by Nurgle

Those kits look great. do you mind doing a follow up when you have it assembled as to how easy it was.
Regards, Andy

Happy to document the construction of the kit.
I don't have the scales as yet (in transit somewhere between here and Chicago!) so I'll be testing with a cheap digital caliper.

be wary what type of scales you use, especially if you use coolant.

some of the digital scales do not react well to moisture. If the scale doesnt work, ie no output or meaningless output, then your reader head wont have anything to display.

Yes, the commercial ones are more expensive, bulkier etc, but they are dsigned specifically for use in the environment that lathes and mills work in, such as moisture, vibration etc.

just my opinion, for what it is worth

For anyone in the market for a low cost DRO for a mill or lathe, the local source (SAB Workshop) for these is selling up and getting rid of stock at reduced prices.

These are a kit so unless you have some experience with soldering PC boards, they may not be for you.

Update: I've heard back from Shane at SAB Workshop and all of the complete kits are gone. He still has the PC boards and other components though.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

For anyone in the market for a low cost DRO for a mill or lathe, the local source (SAB Workshop) for these is selling up and getting rid of stock at reduced prices.

Hi Geoff. I saw that. The prices are really good. I think the complete kit is about $30 cheaper than I paid for mine 18 months ago.

How's your build going?

Build has on the back burner at the moment while I've looked for work.

There's a long weekend coming up so perhaps I should make an effort to get it finished (or I should say started ...)

Finally finished building the Shumatech DRO350.
Pretty straightforward if you follow the instructions, it took between 2 - 3 hours from start to finish (including a dinner break).
It powers up and runs self test OK (didn't need the oscilloscope)
I haven't connected it to the scales yet, it's getting a bit late.

Second photo shows the power on screen, bit hard to see with a flash (too blurred to see without a flash)

Now I need to get stuck into the mounting hardware to put the scales on the mill.