Camper test trip

  All though the camper was not completely done. In august I  took my tiny camper to the Potter county archery festival. Things worked out pretty well.

 There are are a couple of things I want to change after using it.

 One is to change the seat storage lid,I found myself piling stuff on top of it, then having to move it all to gain access to the storage compartment. Second, need more storage and nooks to put stuff. Third the galley need drawers to put stuff.

Camper frame and assembly

  The original plan was to use my existing 4X8 trailer and slide the camper on. But a I found a bare frame cheap with a title. It just needed to be cleaned, painted and new tires. Assembly of the camper body was like putting together a piece of IKEA furniture.

Drop axle

Stripped down frame 

Cleaned with new fenders, ready to be painted. The axle was
moved forward 6 inches.

Painted with test fitting of  decking boards

Finished frame with epoxy coated floor

Side walls being attached

Roof section

Side pop out showing clearance from tire. This was a concern of
mine because it was designed for a different trailer frame.

Side showing fender in the up position. 

Fender folded down

Rear view with all lids on.  

    Now I need to do all the detail work, weather stripping, latches and the other stuff I forgot about.  The roof and side popout canvas will be done over the winter.

Camper roof and door progress

    I finally got the angle, hinges and hardware, so I can hopefully finish it and use it this summer. The roof and rear hatch doors are done and need to be covered with fabric. For the door I found a window at the Rehabit store and disassembled it and cut it shorter.

The roof installed 

Inside view of the door with latch installed. Just need to seal the wood work.

The aluminum pipes  that will raise the roof  will slide on the wooden rafters.

The rafters overlap causing a slight bow to help shed off water.

I used a ratchet strap to clamp the roof sides while the glued biscuits dried.

Front inside view. Need to stain the roof to match and maybe make some insulating panel inserts.

Custom M codes for coolant nozzles

  Ok, I was making a screen set for my mill that gets rid of all the stuff that is not used. And I thought wouldn't it be nice to have an M code that sets the coolant nozzle functions automatically. The special function screen could be pretty much forgotten about.

  The M codes are M1000 through M1008, (M1000 is function code 0, M1008 is function 8 etc.). Sweep angle can be set using the same process.

   Using the VB script editor in Mach3, this code was made:

    SetUserDRO(2060, 8)
 
   The 2060 is the DRO code that the function number is displayed in, on the special function page.

   This was named M1008 saved  and placed in the macros folder in Mach3.

  In the G code an M1008  is written and an 8 will automatically be put into the special function dro. I use sheetcam and it allows for code snippets to made and added. The code snippet is selected and added before a machining operation.

   When the m code is placed before tool number the special function brain must be unenabled. If it is after the tool code it doesn't matter.

     The above picture shows the code that sheet cam added. Lines N080,N090,N100.  The far right shows the nozzle position code.

Camper update

   Ok, this project has turned into a long term one. I was hoping to be able use it at the camp Mack  archery shoot in April. But I don't think it will be done by then due to budget constraints. Right now I need to get the aluminum hinges and angles to continue the build.

   All the plywood used in the galley and storage bench is recycled from old kitchen panels a friend gave me after a remodeling job.

rear of galley there will be fold down shelves here

galley 

door with full window

this is the side that will have the fold out tent 

a seat/storage in the front

Coolant nozzle formulas

    I had some free time so I put together a cad drawing of the formulas that are used in my coolant nozzle brains, this way I don't forget.
 
    I was also thinking it might be better to put the formulas in the arduino program. This way it may be easier to change if  I ever upgrade to Mach4. It looks like Mach4 does not use the same types of brains. It uses Lua (Oh Boy! looks like I'm going to have to learn more stuff) instead of the graphical programming. This way I may be able to  pass the inputs over the modbus and let the arduino do all the calculations.

  Will wait a couple of years and study how Mach4  modbus works.

Servo coolant screen set is done

 Ok folks I have finished the servo coolant nozzle screen set for Mach3. So far it has been working pretty good.
   When I installed it on the ORK mill, I got my tool off set measurements wrong. It drove me nuts for an hour or two. I was thinking, Gosh it worked perfect on my cardboard testing setup. Here I was measuring the tool  length from the flange instead of the difference between my zero tool and current tool. Have been doing other things besides machining and forgot.

   I tried my best to make it easy to install. The screen set folder contains a few setting pictures and installing directions. There are two options in the nozzle parking Brains Ver1 and Ver2.   Ver2 is the default  and has a more positive, solid  action. Some of the arduino code needs to be changed for Ver1 to work correctly. There is a note pad file in the screen set folder with all the details.

  The screen set can be found on this CNC zone thread. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/open-source-controller-boards/176725-arduino-controlled-coolant-nozzles.html

 From this project, I have learned a lot about screen sets, brains, Arduino programming, Modbus, Inkscape and trigonometry.   At times I felt like my brain was going to explode.

 Here is a couple of videos showing how things work. Any questions can be left here, the CNC zone thread or on my Youtube channel. Have fun and be safe :)