Looking for some general guidance on packaging up Teensy's in a useful way. By that I mean, not a mess of wires in a wireless breadboard. We all know that won't do for a real project that needs to last in the real world.
I just got my electronic lead screw working on my lathe, using a Teensy 4.1 and an ILI9341, both from PJRC. I built a small interface board with 2n2222's and a 74xxx245 level translator/buffer. These three boards interact with a rotary encoder attached to my lathe spindle, and a 4 Nm NEMA stepper motor with closed loop driver, which is attached to the lathe lead screw. I have tested it out, and it cuts the threads that I have asked without issue. Pretty pleased with how it came out, especially since this was my very first Teensy project. Special thanks to @luni for his help and excellent EncoderTool. Yesterday I single point threaded a 40 TPI thread and a 16 TPI thread just by pressing on the soft panel display. I can also do metric threads, as well as many feed rates. At some point I will attach my DRO read heads to incorporate this information into my application. The interface hardware and software is already in place, I just need to tap into the read head cables. Yet another application of the amazing EncoderTool!
I'd like to have a USB wall wart power the Teensy box, via some sort of panel adapter. That way, should I need to update the program, I can simply plug in a micro B connector and it all works. However, I am open for any suggestions that are better. I am a bit leery about the longevity of micro B connectors, it seems, at least for me that the male cables wear out and become unreliable. Just recently had my Teensy be un-programmable, but it really was only flaky cable connections. Hope in the future Teensy's will come with better programming connectors. How do you do the power connections and the data?
Looking for advise on connectors that go from box to box, where Box #1 contains the Teensy, the interface board, and the display, and Box #2 contains the stepper motor driver and the stepper motor power supply. Can anyone recommend inexpensive circular connectors from 4-9 pins?
I'm vacillating between making a PCB board that contains the Teensy 4.1 board, the interface board and the display, and wiring things together the old hard way. Both have issues for me. If I knew how to make PCB's I'd go that way, but honestly don't even know how to get started. Previous looks into KiCAD have left me with not being able to get the models or footprints of the parts I needed. It's clearly my issue, as other people have been successful, but at least for me, using KiCAD has proven difficult. The paradigm seems difficult for me to grasp. On the other hand, wiring in a small box is no fun either. Based on past experience, one can have a lot of headaches with discrete terminals and wiring. There are a lot of connections that can go wrong.
If you have some guidance to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks all.
I just got my electronic lead screw working on my lathe, using a Teensy 4.1 and an ILI9341, both from PJRC. I built a small interface board with 2n2222's and a 74xxx245 level translator/buffer. These three boards interact with a rotary encoder attached to my lathe spindle, and a 4 Nm NEMA stepper motor with closed loop driver, which is attached to the lathe lead screw. I have tested it out, and it cuts the threads that I have asked without issue. Pretty pleased with how it came out, especially since this was my very first Teensy project. Special thanks to @luni for his help and excellent EncoderTool. Yesterday I single point threaded a 40 TPI thread and a 16 TPI thread just by pressing on the soft panel display. I can also do metric threads, as well as many feed rates. At some point I will attach my DRO read heads to incorporate this information into my application. The interface hardware and software is already in place, I just need to tap into the read head cables. Yet another application of the amazing EncoderTool!
I'd like to have a USB wall wart power the Teensy box, via some sort of panel adapter. That way, should I need to update the program, I can simply plug in a micro B connector and it all works. However, I am open for any suggestions that are better. I am a bit leery about the longevity of micro B connectors, it seems, at least for me that the male cables wear out and become unreliable. Just recently had my Teensy be un-programmable, but it really was only flaky cable connections. Hope in the future Teensy's will come with better programming connectors. How do you do the power connections and the data?
Looking for advise on connectors that go from box to box, where Box #1 contains the Teensy, the interface board, and the display, and Box #2 contains the stepper motor driver and the stepper motor power supply. Can anyone recommend inexpensive circular connectors from 4-9 pins?
I'm vacillating between making a PCB board that contains the Teensy 4.1 board, the interface board and the display, and wiring things together the old hard way. Both have issues for me. If I knew how to make PCB's I'd go that way, but honestly don't even know how to get started. Previous looks into KiCAD have left me with not being able to get the models or footprints of the parts I needed. It's clearly my issue, as other people have been successful, but at least for me, using KiCAD has proven difficult. The paradigm seems difficult for me to grasp. On the other hand, wiring in a small box is no fun either. Based on past experience, one can have a lot of headaches with discrete terminals and wiring. There are a lot of connections that can go wrong.
If you have some guidance to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks all.