Flyinglow tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2008-03-06:/flyinglow//1 2012-01-22T00:19:21Z ...but never quite leaving the ground. Movable Type Open Source 4.1 Enabling cruise control on my 2009 Yaris tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2012:/flyinglow//1.185 2012-01-21T23:48:00Z 2012-01-22T00:19:21Z Added a $530 option to my Yaris for less than $50. So easy, just about anyone can do it! Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca (Standard disclaimer - despite my good looks and brains, I cannot make you do anything. You are responsible for your own actions including deciding whether or not you are capable of performing any DIY work on cars - yours or others. Attempting to do what I describe in this post will probably wreck something, so I will not be held responsible for any damage to you, your car or anything else I don't actually touch with my own fingers.)

Given that I'm practically at the end of my warranty, I took the plunge today and installed (enabled?) cruise control on my Yaris. For much less than it would cost to have Toyota install it. Now to be fair, I don't have the fancy dongle sticking out of the steering wheel, and I don't have all the options enabled - just On/Off and -/Set, but that is all that is really needed; +/Resume? just use the throttle to get up to the desired speed and press -/Set; Cancel? just tap the brake or clutch, or turn the cruise off.

Over at the Yaris Forum is a bunch of excellent articles that show what to do. I stumbled across them a couple years ago, but waited until the warranty had essentially run out before mucking with the electronics.

My car has the power option (power locks / windows), this means all the wiring harnesses are pre-installed and ready to go. The only real cost I had was the clutch switch. That was $35 plus taxes from my local dealership. I could have done without, but if the driver would press the clutch with the cruise engaged, the engine would rev up (hopefully limited by the computer) and would present a danger should the clutch be re-engaged at high RPMs. So that is where I will start, crawling under the dash, on my head to install the clutch switch.

It replaces the bolt, and like I said, all the harnesses are installed already, so I just had to cut some electrical tape to free the clutch switch harness and plug it in.

IMG00180.jpg


IMG00184.jpg
Next came installing the switch(es). I opted not to purchase the cruise control dongle as a) it is expensive, b) it involves removing the steering wheel (and dealing with the airbag) and c) it is not needed as you will see. The wiring to the steering wheel is in place, so all I had to do was splice into the right wires.

IMG00188.jpg

In the original article, the author uses multiple momentary, normally open, push button switches for the various functions. Since I need just On and Set, I opted for a dual throw, momentary toggle switch. I located my switch just below the turn signal switch as that is where there was room.

IMG00185.jpg
IMG00186.jpg

(I had to trim some plastic ribs to get the switch to mount flush)

IMG00190.jpg
IMG00191.jpg
Up turns the cruise on/off, down sets the speed (or reduces it by little bit if already engaged).

IMG00197.jpg
Yay! It works! Adding cruise to a manual transmission 2012 Yaris is a $530 upgrade. I did it for under $50. (BTW, I live in Canada, so that's 100km/h showing on the speedometer.)
]]> Eagle, PCB-GCode, Linux-CNC tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2012:/flyinglow//1.184 2012-01-08T03:34:28Z 2012-01-08T03:36:22Z Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca Initial pcb milling attemptThis is the results I got from the following pcb-gcode settings:

General Options (1st tab)
 Milling depth: -0.01
 Isolation
  Default: 0.001
  Maximum: 0.01
  Step size: 0.015

 Etching Tool Size: 0.02

Machine (2nd tab)
 Z Down: 0.007
 Feed Rates
  X Y: 2.0 in / min

Any comments on better settings would be appreciated.
]]> Version 2.1 upgrade in testing mode! tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2012:/flyinglow//1.183 2012-01-07T03:01:40Z 2012-01-07T03:36:23Z Version 2.1. Lots of small upgrades. Even a man-cave! Yikes! Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
Man cave

Since version 2.0, we have beefed up the Z-Axis some more.

Tool mount

The router/spinsaw mount was upgraded to make it stronger and adjustable (tilt angle). The bottom bolts are solid to the axis, there is a grove cut from the plywood to allow the board to flex, and powerful springs push the board out against the aluminum strip and are compressed back to the right angle by the bolts. The board had a hole cut out to fit the saw, complete with groves to line up with the tabs. A slit was cut in the board and threaded rod compresses the board against the saw to prevent slipping.

2A 200 step stepper motor

The stepper was replaced with a 2A unit (being driven at about 0.6-0.7A from 12V at the moment).

Pololu A4988 bus-board
The driver has been replaced with a Pololu A4988 on a custom bus-board. I added a small feature to the board. Between the A4988 and the 4pin stepper header is a 2 pin header. This is in series with one of the motor lines and breaks the circuit. Under normal operation, a 0.1" jumper closes this circuit and all is good. During setup, a small harness is connected instead that allows me to connect my 10A multimeter in series to precisely measure the current of the stepper. This is done at rest, with no inputs running. The unit is adjusted to about 0.6A or a little less. A note about initial setup - turn the pot full counter-clockwise before starting. I had it in the middle, and the current draw was so high it tripped the safety in the PC power supply and would shut down immediately upon powering up.

Here are the Eagle files - including a custom library for the Pololu driver:3 Channel Polulu motherboard.zip

Chokes 1Chokes 2Chokes 3

A whole bunch of chokes have been added to data lines because the electrical noise of the spinsaw rivals the acoustic noise! These have effectively eliminated the electrical noise and random stepping of the Z-axis. A better design for the breakout board was found on the CNC Build Log. It calls for an R/C filter and a logic trigger to filter out the noise. That might be in the works for a new and better breakout board. Feel free to modify the above Eagle files as appropriate.

Table leveling

The results are starting to look very promising! This is a job that mills a flat square space for working on. Eventually I plan on running it across the entire 24"x24" table. But from the burn marks, it looks like I will first have to purchase a better end-mill.

You can have the g-code that runs on EMC software. level-table.ngc By downloading this file, you assume full responsibility for whatever happens to you, your machine, and anything else you do in life.

Enjoy!

]]> Repairing Yorkville Amplifiers tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.182 2011-12-14T00:37:29Z 2011-12-14T00:50:28Z Who'd have thought cracked solder joints would be the cause of crackling inputs. Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca York Amp cover
Turns out the solder joints on the 1/4" inputs had cracked and the connectors where loose.
Cracked solder joints
It seems this is a common problem among Yorkville amps, as I have now just finished repairing a two more Yorkville amplifiers for this friend. These last two where a slightly different model, but the symptoms and problem were the same. Crackling, popping, dying inputs with fine cracks on the solder joints.

An hour of labour to disassemble, resolder, reassemble and test. Wish most fixes where this straight forward.
]]> CNC - Version 2.0 Complete tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.181 2011-11-14T02:26:41Z 2011-11-14T02:37:45Z Version 2.0 is complete. Major enhancements from version 1.0 are a new, bigger, stronger bridge and y-axis. These enable a larger more powerful spin saw to be used rather than a mini rotary tool.The electronics are also a slight... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca CNC Version 2.0
Version 2.0 is complete. Major enhancements from version 1.0 are a new, bigger, stronger bridge and y-axis. These enable a larger more powerful spin saw to be used rather than a mini rotary tool.

CNC Version 2.0 Electronics

The electronics are also a slight upgrade - home made stepper drivers using PIC16F716 chips drive the X and Y axis (Z is still driven by a driver from Sparkfun). The power supply for all 3 steppers is 12V from a PC power supply. A 24V 14A power supply is on its way for the next upgrade.

Spindle Power Prototype

Other upgrades in the works are homing switches and remote power for the spindle / spin saw / tool.

The CNC requires a bunch of aligning and also a better table / sacrifice board to make it cut square, but over all I'm impressed. Here's a clip of it running (taken by my friend who is responsible for all the good looking wood work - the hack jobs are mine).


]]> Y-Axis update tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.180 2011-10-19T13:15:26Z 2011-10-19T16:57:55Z The Y-Axis overhaul is starting to take shape. Last night we squared up the supports, attached the rails and started mounting the Z-axis cart.The supports are 2 x 3/4" plywood with a 3/4" plywood brace dado'ed in. After struggling to... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
The supports are 2 x 3/4" plywood with a 3/4" plywood brace dado'ed in. After struggling to square the bridge to the supports, we noticed the brace was not square and it was causing the bridge to warp when the bolts were tightened. The fix was easy enough - a bandsaw and some slow steady pressure took about 1/16" of material off and gave us a nice square and straight edge.

bandsaw.jpg

The rails are 1/8" x 1&1/2" aluminum strapping. Using the table saw we cut slots into the 2x3/4" thick mdf bridge. The saw blade was not quite wide enough so 2 or 3 passes were needed to get the strapping to fit. In the end the slot was ever so slightly too narrow and the strapping, while in, is not as straight/true as we would like. None the less, the cart runs very smoothly along the rails.

bridge.jpg

Borrowing an idea / technique from the table, we chose the lower rail as the 'square' one, and the top as a guide. The cart is pressed onto the "square" rail by a spring loaded bearing pushing against the guide rail.

springguide.jpg






]]> CNC update - Z-axis tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.179 2011-10-11T23:32:27Z 2011-10-11T23:47:18Z Quick update. The driver for my Z-Axis blew when I fed it a very dirty +24V. I decided to try and build my own chopper. The theory is quite simple - the current in the coils of stepper takes a... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
I took my PIC stepper software which had a NOP loop and an Interrupt handler and modified the NOP loop to monitor a voltage sense pin. The voltage sense pin is fed from a transistor logic inverter that is connected to a pair of 2ohm 3W resisters.

PIC Stepper Chopper
It kind of works. There's weird feedback from the Step (IRQ) pin back into the 555 test circuit, the current limiting doesn't quite seem to hold very well, and I'm trying to implement a feature where the current backs off when not stepping that doesn't seem to work very well. Not sure how much my time is worth given I could replace the driver for $15 or beef it up for $35.

Oh well. In the meantime I have made some progress on the physical construction. The cart has been attached to the Z-Axis. I made the stand offs from 1/2" steel pipe. The two bolts at the top allow for rotational adjustment should the tool not line up perfectly vertically.

Z-Axis cart


Adjustment bolts

Also added T-nuts to the actual tool mounting board so tools can be attached.

Mounting bolts

The cart will travel on 3 rails. All 3 will be 1/8" flat aluminum cut into an 8" by 1.5" by 40+" MDF board. 2 rails on the front for weight and one on the back to suck it in.
]]> Z-Axis version 3 tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.178 2011-09-04T03:09:31Z 2011-09-04T03:14:36Z Bigger and better! Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca

The stepper is a modest size, 12V 36ohms which draws 0.33A per coil, 0.66A total. This is much bigger than the stepper on the previous version. I have vertical movement of 6 inch / minute before overdriving / chopping. So hopefully I can bump that up.
]]> RV 12V Converter repair - redundant parts tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.177 2011-06-03T01:52:35Z 2011-06-03T02:10:44Z I love when engineers leave spare parts in devices for future repair. Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
Broken threaded 1/4" fuse holder.
That part is now on order.

We removed the unit and I brought it home. On my bench, I started by looking for any traces of the magic smoke that engineers carefully inject into delicate components. Not finding any, I decided to test the unit. I by passed the fuse holder and upon apply power heard a distinct clicking sound. Further investigation revealed a curious part common in switching power supplies - a double diode - common cathode. This one's part number(s) proved difficult to source 6N24 - any ideas?

6N24 - double diode, common cathode

Any way, I noted an interesting form of installation. Seems the engineer only needed a single diode, and so the part was soldered in with both an anode and the cathode on the + rail and the other anode on the negative rail (presumably to provide some back current protection). A quick check with the meter showed that the active half has internally shorted when the battery was misconnected - hence the clicking sound upon powering up. I removed the part, flipped it around to make use of the convenient spare diode, soldered it back in and powered it up.

No more clicking! 13.4V on the output as expected!

Yeah! No to wait for the replacement fuse holder to arrive. By the way - any idea why the manufacturer would have installed the fuse in line with the Neutral and not the Main / Hot?
]]> Dead bug construction tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.176 2011-05-29T21:13:06Z 2011-05-29T21:21:25Z Building new boards from scratch when I only needed the 2 boards I had started did not excite me. So I utilized a tried and true method of "Dead Bug Construction" to add the 4 resistors and 2 transistors to each board. Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
That is, until I tried using the signals from the parallel port. Since electrical engineering is not my profession, I'm not 100% sure why the signals didn't work, but my guess is the 3V from the parallel port was not strong enough for the PIC to register the logic Highs. So I had to some transistors to convert the 3V inputs to 5V for the PIC.

The problem was the boards were already etched and soldered. Building new boards from scratch when I only needed the 2 boards I had started did not excite me. So I utilized a tried and true method of "Dead Bug Construction" to add the 4 resistors and 2 transistors to each board. The results, while not pretty, do work.

Dead bug PIC driver

]]> Jetman coming to America! - Scratch that. tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.175 2011-05-06T15:06:45Z 2011-05-06T17:45:32Z As reported on CBC's website, Yves Rossy is planning to fly his jet powered backpack style wing over the Grand Canyon. That will make for some great photos, videos, etc. Here's wishing him good luck!Update (an hour later): While the... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca reported on CBC's website, Yves Rossy is planning to fly his jet powered backpack style wing over the Grand Canyon. That will make for some great photos, videos, etc. Here's wishing him good luck!

Update (an hour later): While the FAA gave him permission, Yves decided the time frame was too tight and canceled the flight, and he was not comfortable he would have time to train / practice flying in such a "challenging" space. Too bad. Looking forward to the next flight!
]]> CNC - Parallel port breakout board - with Lights! tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.174 2011-05-05T01:58:28Z 2011-05-05T02:40:30Z I need a clean way to break out the pins from the parallel port to the various stepper drivers, etc. I had a rats nest on a breadboard for a long time, and for almost as long of a time,... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
Parallel port breakout board

The LEDS are in 3 groups of 4 pins, they pass through the header to the LED / resister for status. Beside the big connector is 4 input pins for home signals, etc.

Parallel port breakout board - backside

This is the back side.

And for those interested, here is the LED_SIGNAL_V2.brd.

]]> CNC - Stepper testing harness tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.173 2011-04-30T03:51:21Z 2011-04-30T04:01:15Z Well apparently Dr. Pepper has caffeine. So, I'm up later than I want to be on a Friday night. I have had a circuit setup on a breadboard to run some steppers. Tonight I found a scrap of PCB that was big enough to transfer the loose wires to something more permanent. Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
Stepper test driver

The board is quite simple, a 555 sets up a step pulse (similar to what EMC will send via the parallel port) into RA2 on the PIC16F716 which is programmed to output a full step wave drive to 4 pins. The PIC is programmed to reverse when RA3 is high - I have not yet soldered in a switch to pull that line up, so for now it just drives forward.

This will be used when building assembling the CNC frame / guides while away from the computer to manually drive the various steppers. It is also a test bed for programming the PIC to drive the steppers, and future evenings will have me build a couple of PIC only stepper drivers (no 555, just step & dir input lines).
]]> Fixing things with spare parts - garage doors tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.172 2011-04-30T01:08:01Z 2011-04-30T01:18:29Z So my wife calls me at work - "The garage door won't stay closed". It goes down, hits the ground, keeps pushing for all its worth and then opens back up. Only, it doesn't open far enough to get the... Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
No problem I think. There's a little pretend garage door inside that travels along a track and at the ends of the track are adjustable sensors. When the little pretend door hits a sensor, the door stops moving. If the motor senses an obstacle before it reaches one of the ends, it reverses.

Most likely threaded rod that the little pretend door travels on popped out of alignment - this has happened to me before.

So, when I get home, I open it up and take a look. The little door seems fine, so I readjust the down sensor and things seem to be working. Then I notice some metal bits around the main gear shaft, and as I take a closer, I realize the gears that connect the main shaft to the pretend garage door are a bit further apart then they should be. That is probably why they slipped.

But why the gap?

Looking closer, I see that the bushing on the main shaft is almost completely worn away!

Garage door opener - broken

Well, that is certainly going to be a challenge to fix. Then I remembered a box of junk I have in the back of the garage. I find the box, and inside, sure enough is a cannibalized garage door opener, with a motor assembly whose bushing is not worn out!

Garage door opener - fixed

Yay! 1 hour later (and with some grease from a neighbour - thanks Mark!) the door opener is reassembled, adjusted and working again!

I love old fixable stuff!
]]> ICSP - a meta-CNC project finished! tag:www.flyinglow.ca,2011:/flyinglow//1.171 2011-03-29T03:03:05Z 2011-03-29T03:15:40Z Yeah, I can reclaim my breadboard (again)! I built an In Circuit Serial Programmer following instructions on line. It worked, however, my programmer was prototyped on a breadboard. I don't have many of those, and wanted to work on a different circuit. Here's how I did it! Alex Wiebe http://flyinglow.ca
The plan is for my CNC to use a couple of PICs (16F716's to be precise) for stepper drivers. This entails programming them. I built an In Circuit Serial Programmer following instructions on line. It worked, however, my programmer was prototyped on a breadboard. I don't have many of those, and wanted to work on a different circuit.

My CNC is not quite ready for PCB milling, so what to do!?!

A couple handy pages online led to the answer. Tonight I etched my first PCB in many, many years. In the past, this was a royal pain because:

  1. Creating the artwork was tedious.
  2. Laying the artwork on the blank board was tedious.
  3. Etching with harsh chemicals not fun.
  4. Artwork lifting off board is frustrating.
To handle the artwork, I have been working on my Eagle skills. Next challenge was getting the artwork on the board. That turns out to be not that hard. Print the artwork on magazine paper and iron it onto to board! Next, for etching, again household chemicals to the rescue!



  1. Equal parts H202 & vinegar
  2. 1 part salt to 9 parts above mixture.
  3. Mix, add board and etch.
  4. Add more salt if reaction slows down.
(I used lots of salt - my board took a few hours. FerricChloride is faster, but not stocked in my kitchen or medicine cabinet)

No more nasty chemicals or lifting traces - yeah!

Here is the end result:


ICSP board


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