FAQ CNC 200mm Coil Winding Machine

Answer: No, at the moment we only sell direct to our customers.
We are a small company based in the UK, but have shipped all around the world.

Answer: We supply a 24v DC power supply with the Machine that supplies power to the motors. This power supply has a wide working range voltage and can work with a Input Voltage：100-240V Input AC Frequency：50-60Hz
We supply a IEC power lead that is fitted with a UK lead, so you will need to either cut the plug off the lead and fit a plug to suit your AC wall socket or use an existing IEC lead that you may have already.
The controller board is powered with 5 volts from your computer via the connecting USB lead that is supplied with the Mini.
The controller is opto-isolated from the motor driver control lines for safety reasons.

Answer: Yes the machine is CE Certified and a copy of the Declaration Of Conformity can be found in the setup manual.

Answer: All the plates on our machines are made out of aluminium and treated with an oxidisation treatment, this is also known as hard anodising.

Answer: The coil winding market is a very small niche market and we build our different machines in small batches of usually 25 machines at a time. Because of the small quantities of custom plates and components that we get made, we struggle to get the price lower and our machines are very low cost compared to commercial machines out there that do not give the control options we offer with the free software we supply.

Also it is a bit of a strange market, some times we make a batch of 25 machines and they will sit on the shelf and slowly go out over 6-8 months and another time the batch can sell within 1-2 months.

So it is very difficult to predict how many machines we should build and stock and only being a small company we have other products that can sell a lot faster and we sometimes need to tie our money up in stock for those instead.

Answer: The main reason for the small noise in stepper motors is higher harmonic resonance that they are driven with. Stepper motors are driven by square wave current, which must contain a large number of higher harmonics, thus sometimes producing vibration and noise.

On the 200mm Coil Winder we use Closed Loop Motors.
With the Closed Loop motors also you will sometimes hear a slight squealing while standing still and this is due to the built in encoder always monitoring where the shaft is and correcting itself. You will notice if you try to turn the motors they will self correct back to the position they were in before and also you will hear the noise change when doing this.

Answer: Yes! 
This is now standard from version2.4 upwards of the software. Please check the link below for more information.
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/softwarechanges/

Answer: The software we supply free of charge with our machines and all future releases will remain free to download.

The latest software can be downloaded from our website
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/downloads/

Answer: The software has been written to run on a PC with Windows operating system. It will happily run on low spec systems and will work on windows XP and upto Windows 10.
Minimum Screen Resolution for the software is 1024 x 768 or larger.

We have also written a Beta version for the Raspberry pi. More information on this can be found on this link
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/uwp-software/

As with most CNC machines it is recommended that a dedicated PC is used with no other applications running that could affect the USB communications.
We also recommend that the dedicated PC is kept off the network to stop Windows Updates interfering with anything and also disable real-time anti-virus programs that could affect the PC.

Answer: The firmware is the code installed for the processor on the controller board.
The software communicates to the firmware via the USB lead that is connected between the computer and the controller box.
Commands are sent from the computer to the controller board and the firmware code will process those commands and control the motors and monitor sensors on your machine.

If you have just purchased a machine then it will have the latest firmware already installed on it and you will not have to worry about updating it.

If we release a new version of firmware to fix some bugs that are found or to suit a new release of the software then we will release it on the downloads page
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/downloads/

To update the firmware you will need to open up your controller box and use the JTAG programmer that would of been supplied with your machine.
The instructions for uploading the firmware can be found on the download page also.

Answer: When you install the software, it will also install a PDF file called CNC Design Coil Winder Software Manual ARM MKII Vx-x.pdf

This can also be download from our website along with other manuals
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/downloads/

Answer: If you have a plastic enclosure then this will be the ARM Controller MKI or the original Pic controller inside.
If it has the black aluminium enclosure then it would be the ARM Controller MKII

Each controller has it’s own software and firmware. You can check the downloads page for more details
http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/downloads/

To double check, you can open up your enclosure and check.

The ARM Controller MKII will look like the picture below

The ARM Controller MKI will look like the picture below

The old Pic Controller will look like the picture below

Answer: To check the shipping for your country and to see if any taxes apply, first add the Machine to the cart on the online shop.
https://ukcnc.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=52
Next go to View Cart and click on Estimate Shipping and Taxes. Enter your Country and apply the shipping. The total will be updated with the shipping and remove taxes where applicable.

Some Countries governments will charge an import charge when goods are purchased and  imported by the end customer. This is not us charging you but your government and usually the courier will collect it on behalf of your government when they deliver. 

Custom import duties or taxes payable are the responsibility of the customer and not included in your invoice.
So please check this before buying if outside Europe.

Answer:

Helical winding

Using the Automatic Winding tab of the software will create the typical helix/helical winding pattern, which can be good for a few layers but can be hard to maintain when your layers get too much.

To get a more tidy coil when doing a Helix coil and get a even layered coil there are a few things to consider.

• Tension needs to be correct along with speed. If the tension is not enough then the wire could jump and have kinks in it. If it is too much then it can cause the sides of the bobbin to flare out as the layers build up.
• Where the wire enters the bobbin this must not cause any kind of bump or kink as your first couple of layers need to be wound spot on for the others to follow in a uniformed way.
  One design method is a bottom wire guide hole, usually at a slant so you do not get a bulge at the beginning of the first winding.
  Also the sides of the bobbin need to be rigid enough to stop them moving outwards as the layers build up and using custom made holders either side of the bobbin can help stop this on weaker bobbins.
• The wire must fit the width of the bobbin based on the amount of turns for each layer, if not this will either cause build up on one side or wire on below layer may slip and allow a winding to drop between it.
  Allow for 10-15% for the coating on the wire when setting the diameter, better to measure with some accurate callipers.
• Make sure that you allow for the resolution of the machine. We have increased the resolution of the new 200mm Coil Winder MK5 to 0.0003125mm, so for example if you had 0.1mm wire then 0.1/0.0003125=320 which means it will fit within the machines resolution, but if your wire was 0.133mm the 0.133/0.0003125=425.6 which is not a whole number, but the software will calculate it for you and modify the wire size to 0.133125mm. I know this is only a small increase but worth noting.

This is why the more expensive commercial coil winding machines you see around are setup to do one coil in a production environment. The recipe for the particular coil gets set up by the manufacturer, along with the wire, bobbin spec and correct tension. Then the machine is used in production to just produce that one coil, over and over again.

Our machines are designed for R&D or small batch runs where you would need to experiment with the considerations listed above to get the winding pattern you require. But in our software we allow full control of each Axis down to degree level using scripts and our machines can be used to wind some very weird and wonderful coil designs.

Orthocyclic winding

The Orthocyclic winding pattern can be considered as parallel winding. The turn is wound in its location and immediately wire is shifted to the next location for the next turn within the fraction portion of the turn. This pattern goes on continuously for every turn wound and every layer. So the turns are straight or parallel to each other except the fraction of each turn when the wire is shifted to next turn position. On the next layer the turn is between the gap of the two turns of the bottom layer and this goes on for every layer. So the actual area required for two layer winding is less by the air gap between two turns. This pattern of winding will allow maximum copper feeling within given area of bobbin.

Below image is orthocyclic winding where the bobbin edge is stepped in to help with the starting shape.

Orthocyclic winding can produce perfect layers and and a very neat coil can be achieved.
The Scripting engine will allow you to build up the orthocyclic  pattern, but will take time to get your script created but will give a perfectly layered coil.

As you can see in the picture below each winding goes around to approx 330 degrees of the bobbin and then the other 30 degree of the turn brings it up to start the next winding (Cross Over).
Next time this winding comes around it would start at say 329 degrees and do the same thing. But as each winding is laid down the start point of the cross over would decrease. The value that it decreases will depend on the amount of turns per layer and also will change as the coil diameter gets larger.
A good reference to the maths is in the following PDF
https://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/02_PEARL_Arch/Vol_16/Sec_53/Philips_Tech_Review/PTechReview-23-1961_62-365.pdf

You could create an excel spreadsheet with formulas to do the calculations and then export the positions in CSV format for the Absolute Scripting Engine.

Please check the link below for more information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_winding_technology

Answer: Within the software under the Settings/Diagnostics tab you will find a backup button. Simply click on the button and it will launch file manager and ask you to save a Registry file with the name you require.

After saving the file you can then copy it to another machine and double click to install.

Now all your saved bobbins and settings should show up on the new machine when you have installed the software.

With the tensioners you have the main dial that sets the desired tension, then you have the back tension which is controlled by the front dial.

Once the main tension is set, the back tension dial needs to be adjusted so the arm is always below the red line marking on the tensioner.

If you change speed and it moves above the red line then adjust again.

The tension is set in grams and depending on the model of tensioner you have the dial 0-10 is a division of the tension range.

For example the MTCS tensioner has a tension range of 10-120 grams.
So on the main dial if you wanted to set the tension to 120g you would set it to 10. To set it to 10g you would set the main dial to 0 and each increment on the dial would be a division of this range.

In the software we also have a tension calculator where you can enter the wire size you are using and it will calculate the tension for you.

Degaussing treatment

If you stop using for a long time or the damping wheel shakes or inconsistent tension, you must perform degaussing treatment before starting up: first adjust the tension clockwise to the maximum value, and then immediately adjust the tension to the minimum counter clockwise to complete it.