Baseplate almost built up.....it's alive!!

Started out with a bit of a cleanup, as I could hardly find a clear area on the bench or desk to work on. Then removed the silly steel fabricated superstructure I had bodged up to support the ancient consule unit. Given its awkward position and not insubstantial weight and given that I'm recovering from buggering my back, I used the engine hoist. Job done. Nobody died and my back didn't suffer. This will make the enclosure design simpler - it was starting to piss me off.

Back to the baseplate:

Most stuff is now on there. Various I/O still to be figured out and things like the coolant pump are not connected up but it's looking about 80% complete and should be good enough to begin debugging.

I realised last night that the folded chassis for the Acorn will prevent me getting in to connect up eternal wiring to the terminal block at the bottom of the baseplate. That could be a bit tricky.

So time for some butchery. I have a manual nibbler tool which will allow me to chop off the bottom without making loads of swarf.

That's better:

So, wired up the mains side (3 MCBs), connected a temporary power cable, brought the all-in-one PC over to the bench and connected it up. Getting there...

Disconnected the various DC power connectors to the servo dries etc and powered up the Acorn. Checked out the DC voltages, then flashed up the Centroid software - it's alive again.

First cockup - the soft start relay seems to be connected up correctly. The timer module blinks as expect but no relay click. Fuck it - I've got a 110VAC coil relay, not the 24VDC one I thought I had or in fact need (I'm using 24V to drive it and don't have 110VAC anywhere). Bollocks - I'll need to order another one. It's a "Finder" brand part but luckily there's a supplier in Cheshire somewhere.

It needs to be a "6013-9024-0040", which means a "60 series" (11 pin circular pattern base), 24VDC coil, standard contact materials, lockable test button etc. It's £6.70 plus vat and delivery - which comes in at around £15 but the cheapest carriage is next day anyway - which will actually mean Thursday, as I've missed the cutoff for today. Bollocks. I can probably use the test button for now, to allow me to check out the servos etc. 

The monitor arm seems to be man enough to hold the AIO PC at its max weight adjustment. TFFT - I wasn't planning on modifying it. 

Having spotted the cockup on the soft start relay, I will now check out the VFD, servo and I/O wiring.