Please do not purchase this machine unless you fully understand how to wind Guitar Pickups and what is involved.
We do not have time to teach people how pickups are wound and all the skill in the process needed.
After selling hundreds of these machines over the years, we know the machine does the job intended and with some customers buying multiple machines to add to their workshops, we know it is fit for purpose.

We now have a FAQ page for the Mini Coil Winder that can be found on this link

FAQ CNC Guitar Pickup Mini Coil Winding Machine

The Mini Coil Winder has been designed to mainly do Guitar Bobbins (Pickups) that use thin wire and we will be supplying it with a bobbin wheel mounted directly on the motor shaft.

It has multiple spacing of M4 threaded holes on the Bobbin Plate, to accommodate most Guitar Bobbins out there and also pockets for magnets.
We no longer supply the magnets, but for anyone wanting to fit their own, the pockets are 10mm diameter and 2mm deep.
The magnets are handy if re-winding a pickup that already has the slugs inserted.

It can be used for semi automatic winding of Guitar Bobbins by just using the bobbin motor and guiding the wire by hand or you can use the fully automated feeder arm that has a incremental resolution of 0.0125mm

The new MK5 machines will have the new ARM Controller MKIII installed in them and custom wiring looms that have plugs on them, this will save time on wiring as well as taking away the risk of wires coming loose with vibration over time.

Also another feature on the new MK5 is that they will have a built in Homing/Limit switch fitted as default. This is a must really for setting a repeatable starting point and a lot of existing customers have retro fitted there older machines with their own switches and found it really useful.

We have now we have incorporated a switch on the controller for updating future firmware releases for the processor when they get released.
Before it was fiddly to have to open up the controller and attach a separate programmer to do these updates, where as now you can use the existing USB port and flick a switch!

Also on the feeder arm we now have a PTFE sleeve for when people are doing Manual Winding. This can be replaced with cut sizes depending on what width you wish to guide your wire between. Please check the Software section further down for more information on this.

Specification

The Machine has a small footprint of 210mm x 210mm.

A combination of 6mm and 10mm tough aluminium plates that have oxidisation treatment applied make up a solid frame.

This stops any unwanted vibration or flex.

USB controlled using software written for Windows.

Power supply and all leads needed will also be supplied.

Please note that we dispatch with a UK mains plug on the lead. If outside the UK then you will need to cut this off and put a suitable plug onto the lead.

The controller box is mounted to the base and you simply plug in a 24 Volt DC adapter that is supplied with the machine and connect it to the USB port of the computer via the USB socket on the side of the controller box.

The reason we have gone for two stepper motors this time is because we have managed to design a unique way of driving the motors at high RPM. Typically Stepper motors are good for around 650-700 RPM but with the new control circuit we have designed the stepper max out at about 5000 RPM !!!

But do not get too excited as at those kind of speed the torque is very low, so we have limited the speed to 1500RPM

This is more than enough for winding Guitar Bobbins as many of the guys will tell you.

We recommend running the machine at 800 RPM

 

 

The side panel has two LED’s, the Green shows power and when switched into Manual mode the Red LED will light up.

As you can also see it uses high quality Hiwin style carriages for the feeder arm and also the revolving tailstock.

This allows the tailstock to be slid and secured against the bobbin without any flex or movement.

 

 

Extra Options

The Mini Coil Winder comes with felt pads that are used for applying tension to the wire, but if you want constant tension then using a tensioner such as the MTCS is an option.

 

Please see render image below, that shows the wire path for the tensioner when using it with the Mini.

 As you can see the felt pad can be swapped out for a pulley kit that we also can supply.
This comes with Porcelain pulley and custom made spacer.

 

 

Software

The Mini Coil Winder is controlled via the USB port of a PC running Windows, along with our custom software that is supplied FREE.

 

As you can see it has a dedicated database and GUI for Guitar Pickups but no reason why you could not wind small normal coils with it using the Standard bobbin page.

The resolution pitch of the Mini Coil Winder belt system is 0.0125mm resolution steps with a minimum pitch of 0.0250mm

The software will calculate the nearest layer count based on the pitch you choose so you can see how close you are to the original.

Playing with the software will probably make more sense than me trying to explain!

Also the software comes with a populate button that will load the built in database with a default set of common guitar pickup bobbins.

You can also save and remove your own custom bobbins.
Please note that this machine is not designed to be a commercial machine that can be ran in a production environment 24/7.
This is designed for prototyping and small batch runs and hence the low price.
Also this machine is still in development, so please expect software, firmware and hardware upgrades as we strive to improve it. While the software and firmware upgrades will remain free, any hardware changes will be an additional charge if you choose to upgrade your machine.
If you need a machine for larger wire sizes and more torque on the bobbin motor, then please feel free to contact us and we can quote on a custom made machine to suit your needs.

Above screenshot is of the Manual mode.

Here you can use the dial on the controller box and manually control the speed of the bobbin motor while guiding the wire by hand. This allows the machine to be used as a traditional winding machine.

But also you can now manually control the speed of both the bobbin motor and the feeder motor by using the Automated Coil Winding tab controls.

If using the Manual Controller from the Automated Coil Winding Tab then it is not recommended to run the machine full time with the manual speed controller. This is just to be used as a calibration tool, which will let you determine the best speed for winding the particular bobbin with wire you are using. Once you have found a speed that suits the bobbin and wire combination then you should switch to automatic mode for full winding.

Also on the feeder arm we now have a PTFE sleeve for when people are doing Manual Winding. This can be replaced with cut sizes depending on what width you wish to guide your wire between..

With the new software you can use features now that were only available on the 200mm Coil Winder.

This includes the Incremental Script Engine and the Absolute Scripting Engine that will allow you to build up a list of commands to do a combination of fancy windings.

Please feel free to download and take a look at the latest software from the Downloads page

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Also the Windows 10/IoT UWP Application

This UWP application is currently in BETA and as so is limited to only the automated winding for the time being.

But the beauty of this software is it can be deployed to a SBC Board running windows 10 Core such as the Raspberry pi, this completely removes the necessity of having a full computer rig to communicate with your coil winder.

All information regarding the UWP Application can be found here – http://www.ukcnc.net/index.php/uwp-software/

Coil Winder ARM Controller MKIII

 

We have developed a new controller board that uses a fast Arm Cortex M4 processor and brings many enhanced features to the machine.

All machines despatched from January 2023 onwards will be supplied with the new Arm Controller MKIII.

The new ARM Controller MKIII still has all the features of the original controller but with the following enhancement’s:

• Manual controller dial now built in on PCB.
• Outputs that can be switch 5 volts to control different peripherals.
• 8 Inputs with 3 of them dedicated for Limit/Homing and Emergency Stop.
• Higher speed pulse trains.
• Opto Isolated inputs can be switched to use 5/12 Volts.
• On board Flash memory that can be used to buffer upto 130000 commands. This allows for very small movements to be sent to the controller with no delay between them from the software’s new Absolute Scripting Engine and build up some fancy windings.
• Fram memory also on board for Flash memory optimization algorithm.
• Firmware upgrade now easier with a flick of a switch instead of separate JTAG programmer.

Examples

Here is a video showing manual and automatic mode.

And here is a video from one of our customers.

Here are some pictures of a wound pickup the machine done.

 

And some pickups wound by our customers: