Hi,
I have designed a new support for using inductive switches with the MPCNC PRIMO. The support was designed with the following requirements:
- The inductive switches will be used instead of the end stoppers (in future)
- … but mostly these switches will be used for auto-squaring (I am building a new controller unit that supports auto-squaring)
- I wanted to design a support/mount that can be used for start/end so that every truck needs only 1 switch (although the controller unit has 16 inputs). But I did not want to have too much switches installed.
Here is Version 1.0 of the Inductive Switch Support including a couple of parts. The mount is designed for 12mm inductive switches. In my case I am using NPN NO (normally open): LJ12 A3-4-Z/BX - 6V - 36V DC.
In addition to the printed parts I have used “rivet nuts” to get high quality threads within the parts - really a cool way to do, I can only recommend!
The rivet nuts will be implemented in the parts using a soldering iron. Heating it up you can melt-in the nut
and you will get a nice and strong connection with the thread and the 3D-part. In my parts I am using M5 rivet nuts.
Here a small “modell” to demonstrate how it should work at the end. The ALU-rail will be mounted between the “legs” (in my case the ALU-Profil-Frame 30x30) of the PRIMO.
How the parts will be implemented in the PRIMO construction?
This is the way/idea how it should be working:
The mount for the switch will be attached in the middle of the truck in a way that the switch will be placed under the truck. On a 15x15mm Aluminium “rail” a mount and a sliding carriage (adjustable in height and moving direction of the truck) will be installed with the possibility to use a screw (metal) for the inductive signal. On the Alu-rail you can install 2 mounts/sliding carriages for start/end signal using only 1 inductive switch per truck.
- sliding carriage has 1 nut for the “signal screw” and a slot to fix it at the rail mount (adjustable)
- rail mount has 2 nuts, 1 to fix the sliding carriage, 1 (bottom) to fix the mount with the Alu rail
- for my Alu-Profil Frame I have also created some holder to fix the Alu-rail at the 30x30 Frame at the ends
And so it looks in real life:
The parts are designed in a way that they are usable for both pipes (X-direction and Y-direction) even if the y-axis is mounted “over” the x-axis. The slider is long enough to support it.
The inductive switch mount can also be adjusted at the truck so it can be moved round about 1 cm back and forward. With a screw it can be fixed at the truck so that the switch doesn’t move during usage.
In this way it will be possible using a start and end signal (the Alu-rail is placed between the legs of the PRIMO)
Now I need to finish my controller unit and … 
In my opinion quite nice stuff! What do you think?
Ciao
DJ
PS: I have also designed a holder to attach the Alu-rail with a “normal” 25mm pipes for a standard MPCNC PRIMO.
