Making An Overbuilt CNC Controller

In which I do the tedious part for a lot of projects... in one project!
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/ cranktowncity
outro music by a friend of mine, check him out!
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elevator music:
bensound.com

[@jordanbennett6461]

That cable management may be the sexiest thing I've ever seen. Very nice build. And the video edits are sick. Honestly like this channel more than linus lol. Wonder if This old Tony would like this build.

[@nobodynoone2500]

In BIOS; Turn off HT, HPET, and Freq Scaling In linux: Consider a low-latency kernel Then nice the program to raise its priority. Lemme know how far that knocks your jitter.

[@JohnDoe-rx3vn]

Un-nice tho, right?

[@andypughtube]

LinuxCNC _requires_ a realtime-patched kernel, so low-latency isn't relevant. (preempt-rt or RTAI or Xenomai)

[@_FFFFFF_]

You will get away with the standard kernel if you set the performance govener correcly and isolate the CPU from the scheduler (isolcpus) and only schedule the relevant tasks on it, move all the interrupts of -everything- else off the CPU which runs the task you need. I would probably leave HPET on though. I don't know why HPET would affect response guarantees though. You can't get scheduled off the CPU if you dont get scheduled.

[@JUNKYARDGTO]

I would install filters on the intake so you don't get metal and dust inside the computer. Great video I subscribed

[@cranktowncity]

The case has built in filters. it'll be interesting to see how quickly they get nasty!

[@JUNKYARDGTO]

@@cranktowncity I think those holes are to big in the back and it was dirty before you took it apart I think it's going to be caked inside.

[@ziocrielo6148]

@@cranktowncity 2 hours later....

[@bellathebus95]

I think that doesnt matter to much after using the grinder with the psu installed 😂

[@brandonatallian2128]

You're a genius man. Love the wide array of skills you have and the fact that you share them on your channel.

[@mofman1]

Pretty amazing cable management, impressive getting it all stuffed into that case.

[@youkofoxy]

In terms of improvement, a dust cover on the usb panel and maybe a filter would be great. And maybe some care on the temperature, as air flow seems to be restricted in some areas. P.S.: Linux has ways to set CPU frequency, it just requires to read a lot of documentation. On the cables, the management is beautiful, similar to those found in old tech. Unless taken apart of course, overall it is a pretty machine.

[@geektoolkit]

OMG that is a thing of beauty. I love the combination of tools and techniques you show....from connector ideas to the cricuit for labeling the plasma cut piece. In the end the project came out beautiful and super handy looking. The way you ran the power out as well...really well thought out and briliant. Thanks for making entertaining and informative videos!

[@CriminologistRWorst]

Crazy good on your wire set up! Looking forward to watching cool spin offs with this. Great job, man!

[@Leafyfpv]

the added graphics are appreciated... Thats a great way to get it all in one box, Props! i got a mess of arduino running grbl hooked up to some stepper drivers, in between teardown and rebuild with it.

[@ElectricBikeLaboratory]

The most unexpected genius on KZbin

[@lumotroph]

Such a fan of this work. Keep making it!

[@klausnielsen1537]

So sweet. Well done! Loved the video 😀

[@devrim-oguz]

It is a great idea to build it as a single module, but I think a box mounted on top of the PC would be a lot better 😂

[@justvb2]

That is some sweet sweet cable management!

[@mrcarlpaton]

Really cool brother! Some great inspiration for my own CNC in a PC project 👌

[@BuildSomethingAuto]

This things epic, well done! 👍. Good tip on that Cricut thing, those labels look fantastic.

[@DustanWebb]

That turned out nice and compact

[@wouldntyaliktono]

This channel is a great example of why we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. If I saw this guy on the street I'd think he was living under a bridge, when in reality he's mayor of Cranktown.

[@OfficialyMax]

i love how the intro looks like the room is slightly filled with smoke :')

[@robert5]

Humor and tech in one cool video. Liked and subbed...

[@wiremonkeyshop]

Sweet work!

[@everythingquads]

That is a very sweet build.

[@Adamladd]

Everything about this project is absolutely amazing

[@Adamladd]

Legit I have been obsessed it's like not Linus tech tips meets this old tony keep it up dude style on point

[@darmichar73]

I generally have about a 30% understanding of what you are talking about. Your ambition to say "Fuck it, I can build that" has me watching every video hoping I can learn something, anything.

[@Lozoot2]

I built a custom control box for my old ender 3 that used aviation connectors and I feel your pain; soldering a butt load of wires to tiny little terminals is awful. The end result is worth it though, especially if you use cable sleeving to separate the connector groups!

[@wildcodefox7313]

I love that your using that old Nzxt case, I have that exact one for my current build 🤣😆 amazing keep up the great work ! also that Ryzen mobo can turn off those power saving features in the bios menu so if that becomes a problem it's rather ez to fix ( hyperthreading on amd is often referred to as AMD SMT)

[@ClockwerkIndustries]

I need to send you some of my cable combs for the cable management lol, nice work man!

[@robwgeorge]

Now I want to build a themed garage network monitoring computer. Inspired!!1!

[@cranktowncity]

Dig it! I've just been using it today and damn, I should've gotten a garage computer ages ago

[@CircsC]

that is a very cute monitor and brings levity to the shop

[@the_runofff]

immediately addicted to your channel, so sick!

[@jamesbond-nt8us]

THIS GUY IS A GENUIS

looks very nice

[@ryans651]

Bought an old 1996 danford novamill with no controller and now I know what I'm going to do thanks a lot man

[@delucain]

That's awesome!

[@tskaggs84]

Amazing build and absolutely tops on the cable management! Definitely on my to do list as of now. My only change I might make will be to make the cable connectors on the back jacks (female connectors) so I don't end up with chips or schmoo shorting out the pins or accidentally bumping it into something and bending them. Other than that I can't believe how great your build turned out!

[@nicholaswouters1203]

That would be Aviation connectors as apposed to GX connectors.. they are great, but pricey as hell

[@tskaggs84]

@@nicholaswouters1203 for sure but I know my luck and it seems no matter how much I try to keep stuff out and away from angry pixie connectors it somehow finds it's way in lol

[@MakingStuff]

That thing turned out nice!

[@cranktowncity]

Thank you!

[@maxscott3349]

Always good to have a rely you can relay on

[@jaredharvey1511]

Your aviation connectors are likely to set fire the the steppers internally. They are the resistance in the tank circuit which is your stepper circuit. The resistance allows a resonance which causes the voltage internal to the stepper to get very high. AKA 48v drive probably has a 600+v internal voltage inside the stepper. Results in burning motor internals.

[@seancriggs]

Epic conglomerate of usefulness bro.

[@stevesloan6775]

That was awesome. New Subscriber...! Ive watched a few of your vids over the last few years(KZbin feed). But the video that got me was, the TIG 3d printer. I personally would be interested in seeing more on the TIG 3D printer. Possible upgrades could be Aluminium welding...HAHAHAH Tuning and R&D take heaps of time. : I Love the "I can do" attitude.... Very commendable. Gday from Australia.

[@rsz90182]

You are a smart dude to know how to do all of this. You can probably run a team of computer consultants and get paid big bucks.

[@CriminologistRWorst]

Bring back more videos like this one.... 😂😂😂😂 I know you're busy... This video is awesome... 💪👊

[@michaeleitel7186]

Nicely / professional made hw. Linuxcnc is a very good choice. Takes some time till you understand, but then it is very capable. I would propose to look for a Mesa card and do not try to optimize for parallel port. They are not cheapo but very worth the money. Plus you can have them with good insulation and you can go for 24v sensoric. Probably a better choice if you go plasma. And I think you are aware of the very nice plasma integration in lcnc that happened in the last years.. Gratulation from Switzerland!

[@edgeeffect]

That is a work of XXXXXXX art man! I hope you're proud... I would be! ... Barbie wants her monitor back!

[@cranktowncity]

well she can't have it back! Thanks man!

[@Pest789]

I'm sitting here imagining what a collab between you and Clough42 would look like. Enjoy my dinger.

[@andreaudio]

Awesome build! Only thing I suggest you considering changing is the regular screws electrical binding "posthingies"... Those are really BAD conductors and you can loose a lot of power trought them. You could swap them for copper or brass ones.

[@vonster22]

Just the kind of cnc hack controller i was looking for....I was looking at large electical enclosures that were costing 250 plus and other components.. I was thinking why couldnt I use one of my old gaming computers instead...And Bingo I found your video

[@alex4alexn]

when cable management is so sexy it hurts, beautiful build

[@rainman6272]

You're doing such cool stuff on your channel man! I really dig your "why the fuck not?" attitude.

[@justintupicruz6324]

I inspire to be as awesome as you one day.

[@KieranShort]

That was great

[@alex4alexn]

i see that front plate, you get thumbs up, easy as that, cheers

[@usarms149]

I wish i could give you ten thumbs up for the cable management alone..

[@MrSupaman777]

This rocks!

[@RGCbaseace]

Very interesting i ran the machine in the pic on a pi 3 but I switched to Mach 3 once I added the co2 laser and spindle

[@J..a..y]

Pretty Cool 😎

[@bitrage.]

Hair is on point, dealing with cnc/plc controllers.... on AMD it's called hypertransport, but I don't see how that would increase latency, best bet would be to turn of boosting and keep a static speed on all cores...

[@brucewilliams6292]

Hey, could you do a video on your Cricut ? Sounds like a neat piece of gear. Thanks!

[@stealthboost2805]

Now THAT is the type of person i wanna be later on in life. Nice insulation measures on the power supply 😂

[@Mtaalas]

And if the motherboard can't breathe, you're overheating every other component that needs to cool like VRM's and chipset etc.... So that shroud is no good unless you put some serious thought into how you'll move air throughout underneath it. :)

[@RkRk-xi7wi]

HOTGLUE 3D PRINTER.

[@synterr]

Definitively great idea!

[@maxhouseman3129]

A 3d printer is basically a CNC hot glue gun.

[@RkRk-xi7wi]

@@maxhouseman3129 why are you THAT guy? I own a 3d printer myself. I'm aware. But it goes in his style of tinkering, hotglue 3d printer is natural progression.

[@cranktowncity]

Hahaha oh no

[@watahyahknow]

been thinking on using one laptop , power , controller and drivers combo on multiple machines using a big usiversal plug to plug them intoo each machine same as the combo you made , only thing is that you need to set the steppermotors up so its actually transfers the movement 1 to 1 having spindles toothed belts or chains does chainge the distance traveled per step oh well that was before i tried my hand ad 3d designing stuff in the more know programs and saw that it was a verry steep learnig curve without any assistance from friends pointing out the obvious so i kindoff put everything on the shelve for now , no use for a cnc machine if you cannot make the file to run it hope you whont get signal gremlins with all that wire all over the place though the metal plate between the motherboard transformers and the stepperdrivers should help

[@fladoodel]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's hands are dirty 247

[@bakzpf]

Maker hero!

[@-vermin-]

That turned out sweet. Are you sure this isn't LTT? That's a very LTT pink monitor.

[@seabeepirate]

I was thinking earlier today that a single controller for all my CNC machines might save me time. Speak of the devil!

[@46_briansaldien27]

What kind of parallel port card that you are using in this CNC controller build ?

[@8gRaceTeam]

I second that question

[@user-ly6ft6pp8w]

Veree good

[@brandondone2888]

What a mum "Dinger" of a video!

[@jimi7170]

You sound like Johnny Bravo!

[@martingoddard8512]

Another excellent build! Well done. Can I ask what you always have around your neck? Looks like earbuds but do you use it as a mic? Your audio quality has always been good.

[@Mtaalas]

All that metal dust everywhere on your electronics.... nice.-.. that'll teach the damn electronics to behave.... ;D

[@Rulof_Fai.da.Te_]

Great video! I’d love to see how to program and set a custom cnc. The software section

[@findear7785]

Poi lo spieghi tu a noi, ve?

[@Rulof_Fai.da.Te_]

@@findear7785 ma magari ci capissi meglio!

[@odeball22]

Make yourself a comb next.

[@seanbrinlee4752]

I'm pretty upset that the algorithms that be took this long to suggest your channel. Good shit.

[@billnoname8093]

yeah even longer for me

[@vasyapupken]

hot glue is not the greatest insulator in hot places. surprisingly.

[@duluth65]

Would you by chance do a overview of what cameras ect your using. Software for effects and maybe just how you approach filming and editing. I think you would help to get others in the game!!

[@wulfboy_95]

If you're using a Ryzen with Linux, there's a good chance the processor will be stuck at P1 and P2 meaning it will be stuck on 100% performance the entire time. The patch for adding the driver to fix this was only merged earlier this year and Ubuntu has yet to release a kernel that supports this driver.

[@joesosnowski7568]

[Hammer:] "*WHACK*" [Me:] ***subscribe***

[@jitenmhatre6312]

Thanks

[@cranktowncity]

Holy shit, Thank you very much!

[@jeffpkamp]

I'd be curious to see how the air filters on your case do. Just sitting in my house, my PC fills with more dust than my vacuum cleaner on a weekly basis. Can't imagine what it would be like in the garage. But then again you do a lot more metal work than wood work, so maybe it won't be as bad.

[@MattJonesYT]

Have the fans exhaust air rather than push air in to reduce dust inside the pc

[@William_ar98]

@@MattJonesYT doesn't help, pulling fans still need air coming Into the pc case how else would it cool it?

[@jeffpkamp]

@@MattJonesYT I get that. Unfortunately there are more places for air to come into my case than just the filtered ports, and unlike the maker of these videos, I'm a lazy pile and don't take the time to fix it...

[@Dev_Everything]

This actually looks like noise city

[@TheRainHarvester]

Can you load settings in Linux cnc to swap all the mm/rev etc for different machines? The motor controllers are usually dip switched/dedicated for specific motors.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Ah the first movements of a cnc! Such a wonderful experience! Great job! I stuffed mine in an o2 generator chassis, "millennium falcon cnc" on my channel.

[@lairdnelson1861]

Your a mad genius. You remind me a lot of myself where are you from?

[@sto2779]

Nice build. Are you using MESA card? I plan on making like this with custom milled PC case with distro plates and water cooled CPU and GPU for working in any environment.

[@nicholaszimmer663]

Dud i have so much trouble soldering those aviation connectors. If i put enough heat in them the can slip out of the black plastic, and too little the solder wont hold. Takes me forever.

[@TurtleWaxed]

How about a fuse to protect your newly added wiring so you don't get a fire if something "goes wrong"?

[@empressofmadness]

man how does he do this

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

Now you need to water cool it

[@EpicHardware]

im impresed !

[@3kikass]

better put the wifi dongle on the outside the pc cage its like an farraday cage

[@angzarr9584]

draw 100 or wash your hands? this guy:

[@ASCENDANTGAMERSAGE]

Did you make sure to add your standoffs for your motherboard?

[@tonyhill8300]

Really use bit sensor usb motion controllers

[@user-ox9wg1jj9w]

Could you say please, what kind of PCI extensions board you used for this project?

[@ChrisBigBad]

Is the 5V from the PC power-supply? I'd be afraid to trip the PSU with shorts or even funny effects. My PSU is very picky, i.e. when getting 7V from +12V and -5V to run a fan slow, it instantly tripped. Does the box like being near to welding equipment?

[@cranktowncity]

Yeah it's all from the power supply, my fingers are crossed, but that is a concern. worst case scenario I just have to swap it for a dumber supply.

[@nobodynoone2500]

@@cranktowncity You can just add a 2nd power supply for the steppers jumpered to be always on, and switch it with the control stuff. That isolates the stepper noise from your pc.

[@ChrisBigBad]

@@cranktowncity Can CNCs be easily restarted? I was mainly thinking of 3D Printers, which are kind of a hassle when they crash in the middle of something.

[@cranktowncity]

@@ChrisBigBad Yeah linuxcnc has a "run from line" command, so if need be you can restart from a certain line of gcode

[@lost4468yt]

Huh why would hyper threading cause issues on Linux CNC? And also what power saving features?

[@nobodynoone2500]

HT means using one core to emulate two. As most linux cnc stuff is not optimized for multithreading, tuning for single-core performance is a good start. It nearly doubles performance per thread, at the cost of half as many.

[@lost4468yt]

@@nobodynoone2500 That's not really what HT is. HT essentially allows a core to do something else while another process might be waiting. E.g. what's currently being executed might be waiting for a value to return from memory, well if there's another task that can be done immediately it can be done while we're waiting for the value to return from memory. Normally it's limited to two threads/core, but there's plenty of processors (e.g. Xeon Phi) where it's four or more. Linux CNC might not be optimised for multi-threading, but disabling HT isn't likely to help. And it could easily make it worse, as HT still helps you with the OS and other functionality. It's not like HT was back in the Pentium 4 days, where disabling it could get you a performance boost in some things. It's certainly not going to double your performance? I don't know where you heard that, but it's just not how it works.

[@TheRainHarvester]

They make usb graphics controllers. But not accelerated for 3d graphics.

[@icequark1568]

same sticker on my box. GIVR

[@julias-shed]

Looks smart is it easy to swap configs on LinuxCNC? 😀

[@cranktowncity]

Thanks! and yeah, super easy!