I seriously enjoy seeing all the thought you put into your builds. You joke about "overdoing" things at times, but you're just doing things to the best possible standard. Which is one of the biggest reasons I respect your work. Just sayin'.

A lot going on with this build, can't wait to see the hardware.

I really admire your work on this project. From my early career industrial controls engineer perspective, your panels look better than a lot of what I've seen people run in the field.

This reminds me of my first job at an elevator company right after I graduated from school. My primary task was to wire-up control boxes. Each elevator had its own unique features, so every control box had a distinct layout, although many of the features were quite common across them. I worked at that job for a little over a year. However, the company eventually relocated to a place that was not easily accessible for me, so I had to find a new job. They did offer to pay for my driving lessons, but even with a car, the new location was a 35-45 minute drive away, whereas it had been under 10 minutes by bike. Before I joined the company, I had also completed an internship there during my college days. Watching this video brought back some fond memories. Thanks!

This video made me remember a networking equipment conference I translated many years ago called "Are you a cable management fanatic?", but also real-time systems designer Bruce Powel Douglass' insistance on "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!" I envy Clough42. Playing with cool stuff, and taking the time to do things right.

Very impressive James. Tons of work and planning we don't get to see, but the proof is in the pudding.......nothing second rate here......top, top notch.......my own computer expertise is limited to: plug A into slot B and turn on, turn off.......the way you explain things and the logic and reasoning behind them makes all this understandable, albeit at a toddlers level. The way you do things and the way you present them are some of the reasons we watch. The work itself takes tons of time, and the filming and editing have to equal or exceed even that....BRAVO !!!!!!! Looking forward to follow ups on this and even more of you projects. Thanks for sharing w us. Don

In so many videos, I have no idea what you’re talking about …but I’m still mesmerized by your videos!

Thank you Serra for taking the time to make this video.

Great information. My installation is very similar to your system. Your tutorial saved me DAYS of work and frustration. Thank you.

I have a real appreciation for people with attention to detail but ur work is always next level and so well thought out. Im always learning something new and ur work inspires new ways of thinking, really appreciate the time u put into ur videos.

A CNC control box 101. I am again impressed how thoroughly you explain these complex subjects. Looking forward to see the final machine.

James, thank you SO MUCH for posting this. Seriously, the amount of extra work it takes to document an already large undertaking isn't something that most would do. I just bought a PM-30 today and had reached the conclusion of using clearpath so the timing of your video is wonderful! Thanks again man!

Thanks … for quite some time this is exactly what i was in need of. I am entering my second half of life and will open a small cnc shop and in the process of building of converting a mini lathe and mill then onto a knee mill … hopefully all by the end of 2023 i will have completed this … i decided long ago on the centroid controllers and. They just came out with a new one i already recieved the acorn that i will use on the lathe … i took Mechatronics and i am studying electronics on my own. In February i will be. Taking an EBA ( electronics Board Assembly ) class ( accelerated while working full time in a production cnc. Shop … I would like to express my gratitude for your approach as i am sure many others do to. It is helping me a great deal. Mainly in confidence. In the 90s i worked in an aero space company ( Nurad ) loved it . I served the better part of an. Apprenticeship as a machinist before that just died off in this country for the most part and as you know things changed so i did too .. well i am back at what i love thanks to people like yourself that share your talents selflessly to help others .. THANKS.

I can't believe you just dropped all this knowledge for free. Thanks so much for all your vids!

Awesome build! Always good when none of the "magic smoke" escapes!

James, I look forward to every one of your videos. This one didn’t disappoint. I’m anxious to see the machine that you’re going to control with this system! Thank you for sharing.

I just retrofitted a 2001 AXYZ industrial router with the Centroid Acorn controller and it is such a nice system!! Went with DMM servos and added the KP-3 touch probe which makes setup of complex jigs on the router so easy. Was giggling and grinning ear to ear first time it was up and running 😁 Can’t wait to see your finished product!! 😎

I switched to Acron about 2 years ago. Glad to see you following.

Impressive control panel design and build. Can't wait for the rest of the build.

Oh she’s going to be a smooth bit of kit with brains that well laid out 👍🏻

As always, you have been right on the mark with your builds, and this one is tops. You take the time to build it right the first time. Thank You for taking the time to take us along on your journey.

I'd give my eye teeth to have your skills and knowledge so I could build my own CNC milling machine.

Amazing job explaining the thought process. This will let anyone thinking of doing a similar project grasp many of the key considerations. Not implying it is complete, but everything in this video is important either safety or/and success. Great content!

You do know that the Clearpath IPC-5 is 75 volts. You are saying, "72 volts." Love you videos, all of your projects are neat and clean. Very good job on all the descriptions. Thank you.

This is very much 'a deep dive into the acorn' on several levels. Firstly the days of systems and product research, secondly the days of building, and thirdly the hours of preparation and practice to put on a seamless video show oozing with content. It is no wonder I have bookmarked this. At various points during the video I did my own due diligence. You seem to have constructed, broadly speaking, a serious piece of ability. Nice work indeed. On the other hand you have clearly moved from the 'I built a cnc router for $500' crowd. This is serious pricing in Oz dollars but traversing dead ends is not cheap either. At this point the question is 'Which follow-on do I see?'

Great build with all the juicy details! I purchased the ClearCore motion controller for one of my projects which works well, but at the expense of difficulty. The Acorn overall seems easier as a daily use case. Both have an initial learning curve.

Nice layout Clough, with good points on design considerations presented. You can further reduce interference by twisting the DC power lines coming from the PSUs and rerouting them between the large high current power supplies away from single ended signals (ie TTL, CMOS etc.). If that is unavoidable, the twisting helps reduce EMI. Crossing power and signals at right angles is best practice. The HT that comes back from relay coils and solenoids without snubbers can induce current into signal lines and affect WiFi signals. Diodes work fine as long as the breakdown voltage exceeds the reverse current (10 x Vcc) is a good start. All mains earth/grounds should go to one star point and ground one end of braided cables to avoid earth loops.

For future builds you might consider in your control box swinging panels....sort of like doors. You can then mount more components in a small box and keep the components separate more easily.. And you have access to everything without having to remove anything to gain access. Just a FYI. I have done it on machines with limited space for the control box. Works great and makes life much easier. Please don't hate me for telling you this after you finished your control box! Great video. Very thorough in your explanations.

A very well organized controller box. You have obviously put a great deal of thought in to the design.

REALLY appreciate the technical details; you are a super craftsman.

As a long time GRBL fan I am impressed by the Acorn system. As a professional programmer I am impressed by the interface and those drag and drop modules, really slick.

O man finally a good control box vid! This always seems like the bit that other builds on youtube just go, yep heres the box, now lets plug it in and run the machine with no explanation whatsoever. And its the meat and potatoes of cnc!!

James your videos are always surprising, and truly inspiring. I just cant get over the way your video content keeps on supporting my hobby/semi-professional endeavors! The cycle seems to go something like this: I will finally decide on buying a certain product (first was the Elegoo resin 3D printer, and second was the Centroid Acorn CNC controller!!!) to satisfy some need one the projects I am working on has. Give it a couple days, MAYBE a week or two, and I'll be darned if a notification for your newest "what done" tutorial doesn't show up on my phone, featuring, you guessed it! The device I just ordered! Small world? Sure, but let me just extend a sincere thank you either way. There would be so many wasted bottles of resin from failed prints on my machine if you wouldn't have made that Video, guiding me through my first prints! Now, on my CNC conversion, I get the pleasure of seeing you "overdo" the Acorn setup, and LONG before I even bench test mine!!! You're nothing short of a badass and I appreciate your extra detailed work, good sir!

Thank you have been looking for a list of components needed and finally found it with a good explanation of how to.

I wish I was 20 years younger so I could build equipment like this! I was stuck fixing old tube TVs and Radios.

Very interesting and well presented information here. Excellent use of limited space in that box and nice layout. Great video, thanks!

Beautiful job! Beyond professional. I wish I'd had those heat shrink labels for my studios. In my day, we used clear heat shrink over a typed paper label, which often crinkled. Hey you kids! Get off my lawn.

Absolutely brilliant trouble shooting and analysis. I’ve not seen a modern PC based logic analyzer used before. I’m used to the big old 1980’s $6000 HP units 😁

I've been running this same setup on my avid 4x8, except I didn't get the expansion board. It has been rock solid and runs really well.

Impressive! Sounds simple, but must have been hours and hours of research, planning, ordering,…. And building… well the last we have seen I the serie so far.

Very thankful for your videos! Thank you for all the attention and time you put into your work! Very inspiring!

Amazing build! Cheep source for electric boxes is estate / business sales. Just this morning I found like 5 in Melba on a pallet for 5 bucks. Boxes never wear out in my prior career I demoed out so many that were installed in the 50's factories that now I cringe thinking about the waste. Quick rattle can paint job and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference from a brand new one.

Super nice job! Thanks for the detailed explanations.

Shoot and here I thought I made a tidy control box for my CNC router. This is some next level stuff. Kicking myself for not knowing about that finger track back then, or DIN rails lol.

Nicely designed ... Beautifully tested ... Amazingly demonstrated .... Thanks for Sharing ... Stay Safe...

V nice wiring in your panel, you have convinced me to wait for clearpath servos to arrive here in NZ

Nice work, understand why you wanted to separate power from signals, hopefully you will not have inductive interference from the power onto your signal wires.

As working for a custom panel builder for 20 years ... I can say kudos, very thorough and tough thought. I`m presently working on research for my CNC build and also found that Acorn + Clearpath would be the way to go. Are you planing sharing the schematics of it all? Watch your videos for a little while, I know you have them :P Amazing work, can`t wait for part 2 on the CNC.

Really looking forward to seeing the whole system in operation all very nice kit.

Great job man!! after watching this i copied you and added another power supply for my Z motor brake.. Learned a lot and such a neat job with the wiring and well thought out layout. I have almost the same setup and even closer after adding that extra power supply. Thanks for sharing!Excited to see everything on your machine.

I completed a router build with Acorn/Clearpath, had a lot of trouble with EMI noise from the VFD affecting the step/dir signals to the servos. The Z axis control cable shared the longest common path with the spindle cable, and would throw a “step timing error” fault every time the spindle was started. Tried a lot of different things to mitigate the noise but the one thing that made the biggest difference was replacing the unshielded/untwisted Teknic cables with some cheap CAT5.

Quite the complex and professional build!

I enjoyed putting this in my eyes. Thank you.

Very concise. I liked the content and your delivery.

Very neat build. Wish I had picked a bigger box. Ran out of space and had to compromise. Works perfect but not as neat as I had hoped for.

I'd love to hear a comparison of Acorn and Mach3 and what you like and dislike and why. I currently have a small mill running on Mach3 and am pretty underwhelmed by it, (though I'm a bit spoiled running Fanuc and Brother controls at work) and would like to upgrade to something else in the future.

@Claugh42 late to that one, but thanks a lot... this explained a couple of things I was currently researching, as I have to re-do my CNC's controller ....

Really tidy control cabinet. Nice work.

Great build. You always do a first class job on everything that you do. Would love to see a schematic and a bill of materials with total cost

Great project. The panel turned out great.

Great demo! You make in seem as easy as, uh, XYZ.

It would be fantastic to have you do a comparison between Mach and Acorn/Centroid. I’m considering the same thing and there is little high quality discussion of the differences.

There probably isn't a need, but you can get shielded power cable to use for the 72V outputs inside the box.

I see you have the silencer for the relief air on the air vale’s inside the electrical box. I would advice you to connect a hose and let the air out on the outside. There can be some moist and oil coming from the compressor. It can make it really nasty inside the electrical box. I follow this build with big interest. Keep up the nice work, greetings from Sweden.

What a beautiful job!

Excellent work as always.

amazing channel

Awesome build James! It's been 15 years since I built and designed electronic controls. Lots of changes. Makes me want to delve back in to learning about the new possibilities...

Amazing control box!!

That little Bee computer is pretty cute. I recently got a Lenovo m910q for a project.

Awesome build

I noticed the hold-down vac option on your Acorn app - could be a nice feature in the future... Cool project sir.

A very nice control panel.

In a future video would it be possible for you to go over what you use for wire, wire sizing, connectors for making a control box like this? Also what vendors you tend to use to get this stuff? Also is the connector board you made available to buy?

First? I've learned a lot about things I didn't know existed for doing a project like this over the series. Only thung I might do is use a vlan to isolate it on the network side too since locally the network is handling a lot of hard real time info. Then i'd have tried to get the computer ro show up on both networks so I could use a remote desktop client to it to monitor from the other side of the room on a laptop

Excellent build Thanks for the video

I LIKE THE HOWEVER phrase😅

Awesome work

I note the brake on the Z axis to prevent it creeping down when servo is deactivated. What stops the Z axis creeping down when all power to machine is off, eg when it is not being used, or worse still if there was a power outage while machining.

Another great video!

this is gonna be one fancy router !

I've watched a lot of Clough42 videos, but had no idea that he spoke Latin so fluidly. Couldn't understand a word he was saying, but sounded nice nonetheless! ;)

A large Clough of expensive smoke? I'm in!

Another great video. I’ve got an Oak Board on the bench and the build is going great! ( not as good as yours though. Ha ha)I’m sure I’ll pick up plenty of tips from you as I always do! Cheers!

Good Job. Keep up the good work.

Nice work!

You've got great aesthetic in your control box. Btw - these servos are so silent - I'd love to test them in a future project. Best wishes!

Awesome stuff 👏

My only criticism is about a missed opportunity. It would have been awesome if you had connected party horns to the three air outputs, the kind that unrolls and honks when you blow it. 🥳 Still a very good and informative video.

Nice work 👍🏻

As long as the dc is ripple free anything less than 120vdc is considered extra low voltage and thus safe. (And won’t interfere on com’s lines)

Thanks!

Looking forward in tuning servo in dual axis.

"Of course I do have flyback diodes on all the coils and on the brake to absorb the inductive load so it doesn't kick back and destroy all the relays" *nods* Hmm--- yes, I understand those words.

ISO wire colors too!

Great video. Thank you.

Have you revealed what kind of CNC machine you are building? You talked about tool release, so I'm guessing it's either another mill (?) or since you already have 2 and 500ipm is maybe a little overkill, a router with an atc spindle? Definitely exciting though!

agreed...... 😀 - that was FUN

I absolutely hate finger duct. It's a fantastic product, and it really cleans a job up, my gripe is that I seem to break them constantly during assembly/disassembly. Lol

Nice build. I am surprised there is so little shielded cabling.