[grumbern]

I think it's because it was sent as a letter. I never had that kind of trouble with "propper" packages. Bought a brake plate from the states last week and picked it up this monday. Also bought from the UK this week and it arrived two days (!!!) later.
Makes me worry even more.
Andreas

[Oranator]

any updates?

Oranator

[grumbern]

Still nothing!

Maybe try something at USPS, I can't imagine anything I can do anymore. Checking the status about three times a day and it p***es me off every time
Andreas

[grumbern]

Guys, you won't believe it! Oran's package arrived today, containing the wiring harnesses!
That means I can start figuring out where everything belongs, draw a schematic and measure everything for a complete rebuild
Thanks Oran!

Andreas

P.S.: The package says customs departement of Hamburg. It went to Frankfurt by plane, I am only one hour away from Frankfurt and they send it to Hamburg (500km away) for  processing, just to send it back halfway through Germany, and nobody knows anything about it?! I don't care anymore, it's arrived...

[Adrian II]

Hallelujah! (HOW long have you been waiting?)

Let the wiring loom reverse engineering begin...

A.

[mattsz]

Alright, that's great news!

(Let's see now, refresh my popcorn, get comfortable... )

[grumbern]

Waiting since the 4th of April, when Oran send it on its way!

I'll see what I can do. One is definetly of a 58 Chief, the other one I have to figure out.
There's also some updates on the braider (electronics, stand, housing) that I will be able to send maybe tomorrow.
Andreas

[Otto_Ing]

Waiting since the 4th of April, when Oran send it on its way!

I'll see what I can do. One is definetly of a 58 Chief, the other one I have to figure out.
There's also some updates on the braider (electronics, stand, housing) that I will be able to send maybe tomorrow.
Andreas

My experience with US mail is that about 4-5 weeks is normal. In your case, you know - lot of wires - it may be suspicious, if oran would have packed a ticking clock to it...than... 

[grumbern]

Took me a little longer, but here are some updates on the braider.
The electrics are installed and working. From left to right you can see the contactor relais, the pwm-pbc that I made and the transformer, providing about 60V. The voltage is rectified and regulated by the pcb and the relais ensures that you have to switch on the machine again, once the power is gone, or emergency stop engaged:




The controll panel. It has two switches. The upper for mains, the lower for switching from cw to ccw rotation, the green button for turning on the machine and an emergency stop button, that shuts off all power to the contactor relais and transformer. If the power is switched on but relais not engaged, the red light is lit, with the machine turned on the green light is lit and red one off:




The turning speed is controlled by a foot pedal, that belongs to my TIG-welder. It has a switch and potentiometer, first one switching a relais on the pcb allowing current to flow to the motor, second one controlling the pulse width provided by the circuit and thus the speed of the motor:




As you can see, the braider has it's own "feet" by now, but it still lacks the full housing and of course the bobbins need to be finished.
So long,
Andreas

[grumbern]

Not much happened in this thread, but even more at my place. So here's a bit bigger update of the current state of the braider and what happened until now:

The machine now has a housing, electrics are done and the bobbins were in the making.

For the yarn guides I used 2.8mm stainless spokes, with an M3 tap at the end, also they are very rigid and durable. To give all of them the same bend, I made a small tool for that:








Electrics:




Marking the slides for drilling:




Pieces...




Roughly bent guides:




All spindles installed:




One bobbin carrier ready, yet 15 to go




For mounting the funnel on the top, I simply turned a conical recess in the tube and pushed the funnel over it, where it snapped. It is sitting so firmly that no more fixation was necessary:








Mounted to the machine:




All the yarn guides finished:




The bobbin carriers where made of a turned Aluminium pice with a stainless hollow axle pressed in. The bobbins are moving free on it and located by a spring. I hope to achieve a basic tension on the yarn, while the distance to the funnel changes during operation. If it really works, I do not know














And for the finish, a short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwTONLfLMSY&lc=z23pdlujhxqugpbusacdp43530a1vrg50xqodhxtmw5w03c010c


So long,
Andreas

[heloego]

 
Beautiful!

[High On Octane]

That came out very nice.  Can't wait to see it in action braiding some wires.

[mattsz]

Fantastic!  But can you please hurry?  I'm running out of popcorn...

[grumbern]

Yeeees it braids! It was a long way, but it works! The winding machine worked as well and the first braid is made. Now it's up for propper tuning and testing. I'll give you the details, of course!

Just some pictures for now:











So long,
Andreas

[mattsz]

You are a madman!  In a good way, of course...