Yoon Chee Tuck – watercolor artist, seascape, landscape, malaysia, sea, river, water

Artist, watercolor, painter, seascape, water, sea, sky, landscape, art
  • Home
  • About 1
    • About 2
    • About 3
    • About 4
    • About 5
    • About 6
  • 2013 Paintings
    • 2014 Paintings
    • CNC Carvings
  • Paintings 1
    • Paintings 2
    • Paintings 3
    • Paintings 4
  • Judith 1
    • Judith 2
  • Spiritual Journey
Facebook LinkedIn RSS
Get Updates of New Paintings
Your name (First, Last):



Email address:


HTML: Yes No

Categories

  • CNC
  • DIY
  • Painting
  • Spiritual

Tags

accuracy alignment artist boats breakout board cnc cnc machine components computer design DIY drill press engraving epoxy resin g-code gcode house lead screw linuxcnc machine machining malaysia marine mdf milling motor movable bed movable gantry cnc movable gantry cnc machine Painting plywood scenery sea seascape sky spindle stepper motor timing belt water watercolour wiring wood x axis y axis z-axis

Lizard-proof Computer Processing Unit

Apr07
by Thomas Yoon Chee Tuck on April 7, 2019 at 11:52 pm
Posted In: CNC, DIY

One day, I was surprised when my computer did not give any response when I pressed the start button. Only a few days back, I had been using it, and it did not show any problem at all.

As always, I like to do my own troubleshooting before I consider the computer beyond repair and ready for the scrapyard. I must admit the computer was rather old, but it was ideal for running LinuxCNC for my CNC machine as it had a parallel port. I wanted to maintain it in working condition as much as possible.

My troubleshooting finally led me to focus on the Power Supply Unit or PSU. Normally, by just substituting this with a new power supply unit, I would have solved the problem, but I wanted to find out exactly what was the problem. Sometimes, I could go right down to the component level, replace the faulty component, and the psu would be as good as new.

Dead lizard found in Power Supply Unit

Dead lizard found in Power Supply Unit

So I opened up the PSU for examination. What I found was rather surprising and was unexpected. There was a dead lizard inside, and I could find parts of it sticking to the fan blade of the exhaust fan. That was what caused the PSU to fail. Perhaps some of the body parts had caused a short in the circuits. I knew there were high voltages inside the switch-mode power supply unit and the lizard could easily be conducting electricity through its body and thus shorting some components.

After I have removed the dead lizard and cleaned up the mess, the PSU came back to life, although the fan rotor with blades seemed to be running noisier. I dismantled the fan blade from the shaft to clean up the air gap. The motor was a Brushless Direct Current, BLDC Motor and was supposed to be very quiet.

Large opening for Power Supply Unit cooling fan

Large opening for Power Supply Unit cooling fan

In the area where I live, these lizards or geckos are quite common. Furthermore, I had the intention to place the computer and the cnc machine outdoors when I shift house. I had to think about preventing such occurrences from happening again in the future.

The openings of the exhaust fan of the PSU were large enough for any lizard to crawl through. I felt that they could be attracted to crawl inside at any time. They had a knack of quickly squeezing through any cracks especially when they wanted to escape from predators.

Fitting steel cover of smaller hole size over the original PSU exhaust outlet

Fitting steel cover of smaller hole size over the original PSU exhaust outlet

To prevent this, I decided to add in another piece of mesh over the existing fan opening, so that creatures the size of lizards would not be able to pass through. I am sure insects would still be able to find their way in, but this had to be a compromise between becoming a barrier for unwanted intruders and to allow sufficient air to flow through the PSU for cooling purpose.

Installed lizard proof cover over Power Supply Unit

Installed lizard proof cover over Power Supply Unit

I will monitor to see whether this countermeasure is effective for the time being.

└ Tags: bldc, brushless direct current, computer, cpu, exhaust fan, gecko, linuxcnc, lizard, motor, psu, short, switch mode power supply
 Comment 

monitor-keyboard-mouse moving gantry cnc

Mar07
by Thomas Yoon Chee Tuck on March 7, 2019 at 10:40 am
Posted In: CNC

Previously, I had to keep the computer, video monitor, keyboard, and mouse in a separate trolley on wheels so that they could be brought near to the movable gantry cnc machine when connecting to the breakout board of the stepper motor drivers.

In my previous post, a shelf had been made to keep the computer CPU for operating the cnc machine. My next task was to figure out where to keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse so that I could easily view the video monitor while manipulating the mouse or typing on the keyboard. At the same time, it would be nice if I could see the movement on the cnc machine in response to the computer commands.

As I plan to shift the whole machine to another house in the near future, I had also considered designing the layout of the cnc machine to fit into its new location. With all the above considerations in mind, my plan was to make use of one of the legs supporting the cnc machine as a support for the video monitor, keyboard and mouse, adding in supporting struts so that the whole assembly would be clear of the moving gantry of the cnc machine.

I was able to remove the original base of the table mounted video monitor and fix the latter onto the end of a wooden pillar with screws. Next came the keyboard and mouse. As their normal operating position would be somewhere below the monitor, I decided to make supports for these items on the same pillar as the monitor. These would put considerable amounts of stress on the struts holding the pillar, so I made sure that it could stand the weight.

I also liked the idea of folding up the keyboard and mouse support when they were not in use. So I used a long hinge for the keyboard support. The mouse also needed a flat surface to operate. I cut this from a piece of mdf board, separated it from the keyboard support with a single vertical stick and supported the whole assembly by a single strut moving on a fulcrum. When not in use, the keyboard, and mouse pad could be folded down. The use of single supports made it easy to set up, but the mouse board tended to sag on one side, although not too badly because they were restrained by the hinges.

Support leg for monitor-keyboard-mouse assembly

Support leg for monitor-keyboard-mouse assembly

After a while, I found that the weight of the monitor-keyboard-mouse and structure was making the center of gravity of the cnc machine move away from the footprint area within the support legs of the machine. I was afraid that this additional side force might make the support structure fail on one fine day. To avoid this from happening, I decided to add another piece of wood at the bottom of the assembly so that all the weight would be rested on the floor.

Overall, I had eliminated the use of a trolley and had made the computer a part of the cnc machine.



└ Tags: cnc machine, computer, DIY, foldable keyboard, keyboard, monitor, mouse, movable gantry cnc, moving gantry cnc, project, stand, trolley, video monitor stand
 Comment 
  • Page 5 of 48
  • « First
  • «
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • »
  • Last »

Other Interests

Marine Engineer World
Facilities Engineer
Cartoons
Find & Dine Advice
Jewelry Showcase
Creation Answers
Jesus Film Project
Y-Jesus
Middle East Media Research Institute

Recent Posts

  • Tramming the Z-axis – Movable Gantry CNC Machine 15
  • Hold Down Clamps – Movable Gantry CNC Machine 14
  • Squaring an Engineer’s Square
  • Cyclone Dust Collector
  • X Axes Stepper Driver Replacement – Movable Gantry CNC Machine 13

Archives

  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • February 2015
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • May 2013
  • December 2008
  • April 2008
  • January 2008

©2008-2019 Yoon Chee Tuck | Powered by WordPress with Easel | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑