The conversion of the HBM BF-25 to CNC is finished ! I added home/limiting switches to all three axes. (X/Y/Z) Due to how Mach3 works, I’m able to control these 3 switches, by one I/O port on the breakout board. I still have a few input and output ports left.
So, after this conversion, I wanted some add-ons. First one was to be able to not only turn the motor on and off (already done), but also I wanted to control the motor-speed of the spindle. The spindle-motor in this machine, is a DC 200V/800W motor. I ordered a PWM module, to control the speed of this motor, by Mach3. The PWM module was so cheap, that I couldn’t build it myself. You can use the module with a regular potentiometer/knob, but also by a pwm signal, comming from the Mach3 breakout board. (1 output port is enough) A light-sensor acts a a rotation counter. (connected to an input board) So Mach3 is able to control the speed and direction of the motor, but also able to read the rotation-speed, so it can “adjust” the PWM output accordingly.
Furthermore, I bought a wireless pendant, XHC HB04. This is the perfect pendant, and much better then the other pendant I had … Another nice add-on, are the LED ring-lights I found on ebay (the are actually sold as LED rings for BMW cars) They use 12V, and do fit perfect over the spindle itself.