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Plotter machine from old CD/DVD drives

MrData

Sep 10, 2014
4
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
4
Hi there,

I'm building a Plotter (CNC Machine) from old computer parts and an arduino, my objective is to reuse materials and spend the smallest amount of money possible.

I did some research and from what i found using an arduino seemed to be a good aproach (already had one).
I also identified that i need something to control the stepper motors and i found i could use a couple of drivers to do that.

So, enough talking, lets get to some action.

Material List :

- 1 Arduino UNO or MEGA (in my case it's a UNO)
- 3 Easydriver stepper drivers (v44)
- 2 steppers from old CD/DVD
- 1 stepper from old diskette drive (can be a CD/DVD too)
- Multimeter
- Soldering Iron
- Some wire

First Part :

Disassembly of an old CD/DVD drive

Should be straigh forward unscrewing the bolts until you get to the CD/DVD bed:

This is what you want to end up with (don't throw away the rest of the stuff left from the CD/DVD)
20140909_220218.jpg


After that you want to focus on the four pins soldered to the motor, and with a multimeter just probe the pins until you get continuity (a sharp sound) you need to find and pair any 2 that sound "the bells".
20140910_005225.jpg


After you find them just solder some jumper wires to identify them (i used red and black to each pair in sequence) as you can see on the next image :
Note : Be carefull not to solder the next pin because it will cause a short circuit and might ruin the driver or the stepper.
20140910_010722.jpg


you need to do this twice (for both CD/DVD steppers) and also for the diskette drive motor.

Now choose one of the drive "beds" so we can build a structure to hold the plate to hold the material to print on.
For that i used a strip of styrofoam and split into 3 pieces roughly the same size so i can stack them.
Note : i could have user another material like wood, plastic etc.. but i want to get the weight to a bare minimum because these motors don't hold that much torque, and the lighter the faster they are. But feel free to use any other material with that in consideration.

20140910_203017.jpg

20140910_204658.jpg


And the final assembly looks like this
20140910_205321.jpg



Now we need to get a flat surface to get on top of that as the tray.
The motion on the CD/DVD axis is roughly 40mm or 4cm (in my case it's 38mm) so i looked around and found a bit of plywood with 60mm square, wich is more than enough to be used as the tray like this

20140910_214023.jpg


But before that lets get something to hold the paper down like a spring.
I found a small bit of aluminium foil about 1mm thick and chopped 2 pieces around 4cm.

20140910_214414.jpg


Bend them a bit, drill a hole on the side and drill the wood and attached them together like this, and then hot glue the base to the styrofoam, make sure the holes have at least 55mm between them so you be left with a safe space for the head.
20140910_220818.jpg

20140910_220828.jpg


Ok guys, hope you find the stuff usefull so far, tommorow i will come back and edit with more stuff, i will try to have at least one of the axis ready so we can try it out.
 

MrData

Sep 10, 2014
4
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
4
Hello again,

Today i had sometime to move forward a little bit more, so this is what i got.

I had a small board of plywood wich i used to serve has a base for the X axis and decided i want to suspend the axis in the "air" with some nuts and bolts. Why suspend? because that way you can "calibrate" the height and let it be leveled.
20140911_190835.jpg

20140911_190853.jpg


After that set the Y axis above that one rotated 90º and check maximum movement (by hand) of the axis to align and do some drilling to suspend the other axis like this :

20140911_193057.jpg


And then calibrating the Y axis too with a level on the top part of the axis.
20140911_194305.jpg


On the bottom part of the axis.
20140911_194321.jpg


And center on the axis, at 90º (sideways)
20140911_194503.jpg


This doesn't need to be 100% accurate but it helps ;)

Now that we have 2 axis assembled, it's time to test them individualy.

We should use an external source, like a 9v battery to connect the stepper to. Using the source power on the arduino USB port my damage the Arduino or USB port.
To do that, just connect the Arduino and the Driver like this
595x669xExample1_bb.png.pagespeed.ic.1X5b_pWnZK.png

To powerup the 3 motors on the end part you need a power supply of 15 to 18V with at least 1.5A.

Now lets open Arduino IDE, setup a new sketch and copy paste this lines.
Code:
void setup() {               
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);    
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(8, LOW);
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
  delay(10);         
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);
  delay(10);         
}

Don't worry because you don't have to write any code apart from this one.
After you saved to project, upload to the arduino.

The code i did on mine it's a bit more complex, but it's a nice way to show you what is the actual speed you can achieve with this setup.

X axis movement

Y Axis movement

Tommorow i will try to set the Z axis so we can go to the software part.
 

BobK

Jan 5, 2010
7,682
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
7,682
Pretty cool.

Once you get Z working (for a plotter you really only need 2 positions, no?) I would like to see if you could make a PCB by using a resist ink pen and drawing on the copper.

Bob
 

MrData

Sep 10, 2014
4
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
4
Hi bob,

Even for a plotter i think you need to have to Z axis, or else you would draw a lines all over ;)
Unless it's ink jet, that way you don't need to set down the pen on the paper.
If you send me the PCB file you want i can show you how it gets printed.
 

BobK

Jan 5, 2010
7,682
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
7,682
When I said 2 positions, I meant pen up and pen down. Yes, this is a Z axis, but it does not have to be a range, just up and down.

Bob
 

MrData

Sep 10, 2014
4
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
4
Hi Bob,

You are right, you only need 2 position, but the way i'm going to setup is with full range, but has you will see, you don't have to worry much about how deep you gonna set the z axis. That way you can play later with pressure, or even setup a way for holding a light drill (never tried that tough)
 
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